Training with your current nightstand weapon(s).

My first choice and the one kept handiest is a 12 gauge pump gun loaded with 00 buck. I've been familiar with pump guns since my youth and try to take classes once in a while to stay fresh. Option two, available but not top of the list for a few reasons, is an AR. Way down on the list is my CCW, a 1911. While I do regularly take some class or another, I still default to the 12 gauge.

As far as strategy, my bedroom door is right next to the door leading upstairs where my kids rooms are. All I have to do is stay in place and make sure nobody gets upstairs. Even in my own home, I'm not going looking for bumps in the night by choice.

I do have kids, so securing guns is an issue. Anything but the shotgun is stored completely unloaded. The 12 gauge is kept with the tube stuffed but the chamber empty, but my kids are unable to get to it. Kinda hard to describe, but it's tucked between my bed and dresser where it has to be lifted straight up to be removed. Neither of my kids are tall enough to do so. When they were even smaller and we lived in a different house, I simply kept it on a wall rack that they couldn't reach even with a step stool. In another couple years my son will be taller and I may have to re-think storage for the shotgun again.

I guess with a rifle, shotgun and handgun, I'm set if I'm ever invaded by ninjas, but until then I'll just stick with the shotgun and a basic plan. It's unlikely I'll ever have to deal with a home invasion, but looking at a locked gun cabinet and no plan is kinda like trying to buckle your seatbelt while crashing your car.

Glock TLR1 with a mag in nothing in the chamber. Stand alone flashlight as well.

J Frame on one side and a Glock 23 on the other. Im better with the J frame but my go to is the 20 ga BPS shotgun.

Currently, my EDC is also my bump-in-the night gun.

Because I do not believe that simply putting firearms on a high shelf is adequate to protect little ones, my EDC always goes into a lockbox secured to a bedroom closet shelf when it comes off my body. If there are no children in the house, the door stays open, with the key in the lock.

If there are children in the house, the lockbox door is closed and locked. The key to the lockbox, together with a key to my bedroom, are on a chain that I hang around my neck when I go to bed.

The gun never comes out of the holster during these transfers.

I keep active hearing protection, a couple of flashlights, a spare magazine and a mag carrier right next to the lockbox. The EDC has night sights, but no mounted flashlights or lasers. Cell phones are always in my room at night.

The level of alertness and dexterity required to get out of bed, walk to the lockbox, put the key in the lock, open the door, and to get the EDC out of the holster helps ensure that I'm awake enough to evaluate the situation, be sure that a threat exists, and actually use the gun if absolutely necessary.

For bump-in-the-night duty, training and practice at night is very important. Get some training on how to search, identify and evaluate targets, and actually fire in the dark with handheld and gun-mounted flashlights.

Practice proper techniques dry, in the dark, in your house, with those you live with. Also, finding places where you can practice firing in the dark is very worthwhile!

I did this and some significant things became clear:

1) Two people working together can clear the bedroom wing of my house without too much risk.
2) It takes a team of three or more to safely clear my house beyond the bedroom wing. A team of two or a person acting alone simply can't do this.
3) It became clear where I should install cover. A stack of bankers' boxes full of papers and a full-length mirror on a wall (hiding a piece of steel plate) could be added VERY easily and would be pretty effective against pistol rounds!
4) My bedroom wing is too compact to effectively use a shotgun or regular rifle. A bull pup carbine may be short enough, however.
5) Shooting at night is really fun!
6) Ammo that is designed specifically for self-defense often has flash inhibitors in the powder. This is a big improvement over ammo that does not. Test your self-defense ammo at night to see the difference.
7) Practice with various flashlights and flashlight techniques to see which work best in your situation.
8) Like everything else in this sport, repetition using proper technique makes all the difference!

You can't just imagine what you would do...you have to actually get up and do it.

+1 lazyfuerza

I have a Rossi .357 snub shooting 38 critical defense rounds. I also have a pair of electronic ear muffs next to the .357 that I slip on. The Wife has a Rossi snub .38 loaded with critical defense rounds, as well as electronic ear muffs. I have a 12gauge Smith 3000, unloaded, under the bed. Rounds for shotgun are in a cuff on the buttstock (Steel shot BB). I have plenty of shotgun and handgun rounds on both side of the bed. I have flashlights close to the weapons.

I have a door bar for the Master Bedroom, so it would give me a little time. I imagine that I would wake up to someone kicking that door, grab my .38 and cover the door while the wife gets set up. Once she is set up, she covers me getting set up and loading the shotgun. Revolvers are less maintenance for Home Defense. I keep the shotgun unloaded for reliability reasons. A plastic shell can and will deform, causing a jam in a pump or other tube-fed weapon. Personally I would love to get one of those over-under jobs with the 18" barrel and under barrel flashlight mount.

I shoot with revolvers regularly. I also shoot semi-auto's. I train with semi-auto's, but have trained with and carry revolvers as well. Personally, I do not think that the weapons training is as important as having gone over the basics of cover, fire and movement, fire and reloading, and having ear protection.

My basic plan is to have both of us and the dog behind the mattress, be shooting over the mattress at the door area if the perp gains entry, and wait for the police. someday in the near future I plan on getting a surveillance package installed, so I would have outdoor and indoor intelligence...

P.S. I have a mixed mind about locking guns away. I certainly have lock boxes. My duty weapon goes in the lock box, as well as the wife's piece (she has a separate lockbox). I leave my house gun in the night stand. We do not have children. All of that being said, I have read plenty of articles about kids needing and using a weapon in defense in hearth and home, and the sadder ones of children that did not have one. I know that there is a legal liability parents need to consider, but there is also a moral imperative that seems to go the other way.

the Edc is the bump in the night gun. Cept I got 3 - all the same.