I must admit to not understanding why people think this is a "total surprise" and "you must comply because obviously you are in no position to deal with this". It’s a HOME INVASION. Meaning it happens AT HOME. The one dang place you actually have a say so on how it is defended.
The only surprise should be the time of the event which makes it a shock to the system and a crisis, but not a total surprise. Your home invasion contingency planes should go into action. I’m sure the Pentagon has plan for defending us against an attack from Canada should they ever get tired of freezing and decided that their manifest destiny is to have the "Fajitas for Two" at Casa Ole in the warm sunshine of the Gulf Coast. Would that be a shock? Yes, in the extreme. But would it be a REAL surprise? It better not be or someone in the Pentagon needs to be busted down to buck private.
You have a flood plan, a natural disaster plan, a fire escape plan… You’ve got your insurance card in your wallet for accidents. You practice Evac plans and fire drills at school and in your business. You have alternate routs to get to work and home should there be bad traffic. Why are disaster plans for home invasions and burglaries so different?
It’s not like this takes rocket science? Does it? Unless I mistaken, you can learn how to use a gun, retain it, protect yourself, and defend your property and self with out breaking the bank? If you are REALLY tiny, elderly, or disabled you will not be able to learn a bunch of the physical stuff, but you can still learn some stuff to make you less of an attractive target?
I guess if you start by thinking that, "when the police arrive they WILL be drawing chalk outlines and it’s up to YOU to decide whose they will be," you will realize there is no happy ending to this type of brutality. Hopefully incidents like this get people to take the rose colored glasses off and start planning.
*WARNING* Artful segue *WARNING*
The Petit's didn't have a "panic button" in the house, unfortunately. I saw on the news, a couple of days later, that local sales of panic buttons had sky-rocketed. Yep, right there in "liberal" Connecticutt.
It’s a start, but if you will permit me a bit of morbid pondering… Does anyone have any stats on attendance at gun ranges or defensive classes? If a whole bunch of anti’s went out and bought firearms, I’d bet there is just a bunch of new Glock and S&W paper weights chambered in Magick Talisman with new homes.