I am about to move into a new apartment and I have a question about the location of my bedroom. One bedroom is almost directly at the top of the stairs facing down them, and the other is directly across from it, so you have to do a 180 turn to enter it once you reach the top of the stairs. My question is, from a strategical standpoint, which would be the better position in your opinion to have to defend from someone coming up the stairs? BTW, there is no upstairs entrance from the outside.
Location of Bedroom
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i think that it might be better to defend from the first room facing the stairs. but i think that if you were woken up at night by someone coming up the stairs or through the front door that room 2 would give you more time to react.
just my 2 cents
just my 2 cents
MisterMike
Member
First of all, let me note that if you're a halfway normal American living in a halfway normal neighborhood, the question of which bedroom location offers the greatest strategic advantage in a gunfight should not be at the top of the criteria that will determine where you spend your sleeping hours.
I'd prefer to take the bedroom that offers me the first glimmers of sunrise, accompanied by the twitter of songbirds to awaken me in the morning. I'd opt for the bedroom with a bit more floorspace or a bit better lighting. If one has better access to a bathroom, that would also affect my choice. Lines of fire and areas of strategic concealment really wouldn't be the most important drivers behind my choice.
But maybe your life is different than mine, dictating an omnipresent need to plan for firefights. Assuming that is the case, I would urge you to opt for the bedroom at the top of the staircase. It is a basic tenet of combat strategy to always seek the high ground. The first bedroom at least gives you the opportunity to engage the marauders at a level higher than theirs. From what it sounds like, in order to engage them from the second bedroom you would have to wait until they were practically on top of you and you would be engaging them on the same level, having foresaken the advantage of the higher vantage point.
I'd prefer to take the bedroom that offers me the first glimmers of sunrise, accompanied by the twitter of songbirds to awaken me in the morning. I'd opt for the bedroom with a bit more floorspace or a bit better lighting. If one has better access to a bathroom, that would also affect my choice. Lines of fire and areas of strategic concealment really wouldn't be the most important drivers behind my choice.
But maybe your life is different than mine, dictating an omnipresent need to plan for firefights. Assuming that is the case, I would urge you to opt for the bedroom at the top of the staircase. It is a basic tenet of combat strategy to always seek the high ground. The first bedroom at least gives you the opportunity to engage the marauders at a level higher than theirs. From what it sounds like, in order to engage them from the second bedroom you would have to wait until they were practically on top of you and you would be engaging them on the same level, having foresaken the advantage of the higher vantage point.
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coloradokevin
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MisterMike said:
^ I'll start with what he said.
...and I'll add on that you will probably be fine defending yourself from either room. The door to the room is the so-called "fatal funnel", and you can guard the door from inside of the room. Moreover, clearing a house by yourself is a very risky proposition even for a professional, let alone a resident who was awakened to an intruder in the middle of the night. The only advantage you would have is knowing the lay of the building better than most people.
Whether you choose to hunt down a bad guy, or simply defend the room, is entirely your own business, and is a topic for another thread. But, suffice it to say, it is a risky idea.
But assuming your talk was just of defending the room, your best bet would probably be to defend yourself from the inside of the bedroom, remembering that you can take advantage of an ambush and target the bad guy as they come through the door.
But, as MisterMike already said, there are probably a lot more important reasons for picking a bedroom unless you live in a war zone.
Hungry Seagull
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I opt for room at top of stairs as a defense point. You can blast the entire stairway from that one and no one will mind.
I specifically recall a house with THREE bedrooms at top of VERY steep staircase and atop a very steep hill. The two to either side would be for children I think and the daddy would be in the middle with the wife. Should bad guy be blasted back down the stairs, he would have about a 25 feet fall through the front door and another 8 feet down to the hill below the porch and continue to tumble down the rocks and grass another bunch of yards to be carved up by the german shepard.
I never did like those stairs because they were just steep enough to make standing up on any of those stairs without holding onto rail will pull you off via gravity.
Now for the birds and sunshine, You can simulate that on a timed DVD player to a loaded sunrise DVD onto your HDTV if so choose. It helps. But these days it's the roar of desperate wage earners racing the big time clock at thier workplace trying to stave off bankrupcy or unemployment for tardiness one more week
Clearing house for intruder? Nah. Just hang tight, he will get up there eventually. Just have something down at bottom to trip the stairs so that when a human breaks the beam a very bright light will turn on and illumuniate that entire staircase and wake you up while destroying night vision of bad guy.
Just make sure YOU turn off big beam before raiding ice box at night.
The only problem is that of stealth. Anyone getting inside your first floor while you snooze upstairs without detecting is a problem to be solved.
I specifically recall a house with THREE bedrooms at top of VERY steep staircase and atop a very steep hill. The two to either side would be for children I think and the daddy would be in the middle with the wife. Should bad guy be blasted back down the stairs, he would have about a 25 feet fall through the front door and another 8 feet down to the hill below the porch and continue to tumble down the rocks and grass another bunch of yards to be carved up by the german shepard.
I never did like those stairs because they were just steep enough to make standing up on any of those stairs without holding onto rail will pull you off via gravity.
Now for the birds and sunshine, You can simulate that on a timed DVD player to a loaded sunrise DVD onto your HDTV if so choose. It helps. But these days it's the roar of desperate wage earners racing the big time clock at thier workplace trying to stave off bankrupcy or unemployment for tardiness one more week
Clearing house for intruder? Nah. Just hang tight, he will get up there eventually. Just have something down at bottom to trip the stairs so that when a human breaks the beam a very bright light will turn on and illumuniate that entire staircase and wake you up while destroying night vision of bad guy.
Just make sure YOU turn off big beam before raiding ice box at night.
The only problem is that of stealth. Anyone getting inside your first floor while you snooze upstairs without detecting is a problem to be solved.
How many people are in your household? Will you be shooting into the other one? If you do have people/kids sleeping in the other bedroom, you need to take that into consideration. If I had kids, I'd probably want to shoot down the stairs and not across a hallway into other bedroom.
No others? Do you sleep with the door open or closed? If open, then I'd want the advantage of a "turn" from the stairwell so there is more time to line-up BGs coming-up and turning before they entered the doorframe.
If you have a electrical outlet in the hallway, plugging a nitelite into it will help you backlight any BGs coming thru the door without harming your night vision.
No others? Do you sleep with the door open or closed? If open, then I'd want the advantage of a "turn" from the stairwell so there is more time to line-up BGs coming-up and turning before they entered the doorframe.
If you have a electrical outlet in the hallway, plugging a nitelite into it will help you backlight any BGs coming thru the door without harming your night vision.
WardenWolf
member
Given that other people have given non-helpful and off topic answers, I will give you what you are looking for:
The room farther from the stairs, that you have to make the 180 degree turn to, is the safer room. Here is why:
If a bad guy is in the house, and you come out of your room and are in the room facing the stairs, you do not necessarily know if he's still downstairs or in the room directly across from you. There are 2 directions you have to cover in order to ensure your safety. A bad guy can also fire up the stairs directly into the room, although the odds of hitting anything are slim.
If, however, you are in the room 180 degrees from the stairs, you only have to worry about 1 direction. You can clear "end to end" instead of having to cover 2 directions from the moment you step out your door, and a bad guy coming up the stairs will not be able to see you at the door until he gets at or near the top. Tactically, the door not facing the stairs is the safer location. It provides better concealment and limits fields of engagement. You no longer worry about "left or right". You worry about one arc, and one arc only.
The room farther from the stairs, that you have to make the 180 degree turn to, is the safer room. Here is why:
If a bad guy is in the house, and you come out of your room and are in the room facing the stairs, you do not necessarily know if he's still downstairs or in the room directly across from you. There are 2 directions you have to cover in order to ensure your safety. A bad guy can also fire up the stairs directly into the room, although the odds of hitting anything are slim.
If, however, you are in the room 180 degrees from the stairs, you only have to worry about 1 direction. You can clear "end to end" instead of having to cover 2 directions from the moment you step out your door, and a bad guy coming up the stairs will not be able to see you at the door until he gets at or near the top. Tactically, the door not facing the stairs is the safer location. It provides better concealment and limits fields of engagement. You no longer worry about "left or right". You worry about one arc, and one arc only.
kd7nqb
Member
I know the set up your talking about in the house I am thinking of directly at the top of the stairs there was a bathroom with a mirror which gave some pluses and minuses as well, but pick the bedroom you like better and then design your plan around it.
YammyMonkey
Member
If you have kids I would put them in the room requiring the 180. If you have to go get them you’ll have the stairwell in sight & in front of you as you move to the kid(s). If no kids then I’d go with the one requiring the 180. More time & while you can’t see down the stairs the badguy(s) have 2 potential angles to deal with & their attention will likely be focused on the most obvious target instead of your room.
memphisjim
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seems like if you fire from room 2 out the door
you are firing though a neighbors wall
you are firing though a neighbors wall
SomeDude
Member
Do this test. Run from your front door to your bedroom. I have a 4 bedroom house and it takes four seconds to get from the front door to the back of my house where my bedroom is. If the bad guy's main mission is to harm me then I'm pretty much screwed. When I realized this it was somewhat disconserting.
What you can do (and what I do) is at least once a week I run my little drill where I start in bed, jump up, unlock the gun (small kids in house), and cover the hallway. That takes me about 15 seconds under unstressed conditions. A long time.
What you can do (and what I do) is at least once a week I run my little drill where I start in bed, jump up, unlock the gun (small kids in house), and cover the hallway. That takes me about 15 seconds under unstressed conditions. A long time.
memphisjim
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some dude
your tag handle quote thing is hilarious
your tag handle quote thing is hilarious
SomeDude
Member
I'm glad someone noticed....
MisterMike
Member
CWL said:
Thanks for raising this point. When I posted my initial, admittedly somewhat smartass reply, I assumed that the OP was alone in the home. The safety of others in the home should always be your paramount concern.
I live alone, although in the near future there might be a wife joining me. I also use HP rounds for self defense, so they won't penetrate walls as much, but I'm still extremely careful about what's behind my target, especially in an apartment complex.
Hungry Seagull
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SomeDude has it right +1 for his post.
We pulled a drill on me and wife once and it was about the 12th second that wife had shot me dead while I was fumbling with the key to the lawyer locks on the weapons.
Now we have the response time to about 6 seconds or a tad less. With a handgun on belt anywhere on the property, maybe 2 at the most.
The bad guy still needs to get from either hatch (Front or back door) aboard the house and hunt and that will take a minimum of 9 second running or... 12 walking. Running will only get him dead while short of breath.
Another thing to consider is what physical condition is the bad guy going to be in when he finally gets to the top of the stairs. Are those stairs easy for all or is the bad guy gonna be a little faint and perhaps slow on the targeting?
In fact, why bother with time? Toss a chair into the badguy at the top of the stairs and while he falls, you have extra time to get things done.
Saying "Here catch" to a BG with a large object will knock the man's mental state off and get you inside the "Boyd Loop" of decision making and ahead of the game to run him out of options by the time he does recover from little surprises.
Dont forget 911.
We pulled a drill on me and wife once and it was about the 12th second that wife had shot me dead while I was fumbling with the key to the lawyer locks on the weapons.
Now we have the response time to about 6 seconds or a tad less. With a handgun on belt anywhere on the property, maybe 2 at the most.
The bad guy still needs to get from either hatch (Front or back door) aboard the house and hunt and that will take a minimum of 9 second running or... 12 walking. Running will only get him dead while short of breath.
Another thing to consider is what physical condition is the bad guy going to be in when he finally gets to the top of the stairs. Are those stairs easy for all or is the bad guy gonna be a little faint and perhaps slow on the targeting?
In fact, why bother with time? Toss a chair into the badguy at the top of the stairs and while he falls, you have extra time to get things done.
Saying "Here catch" to a BG with a large object will knock the man's mental state off and get you inside the "Boyd Loop" of decision making and ahead of the game to run him out of options by the time he does recover from little surprises.
Dont forget 911.
Brian Williams
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memphisjim, Just remember the bill of rights is a prohibition on the government from denying you the right to speak about what ever you want, It has nothing to do with private citizens and what we can or cannot do to stop what you want to say.
Sunray
Member
The interior walls made out of dry wall? That's concealment, not cover. I'd be prone in the doorway to the bedroom at the top of the stairs.
"...you are firing though a neighbors wall..." Most new apartment buildings are big blocks of reinforced concrete to eliminate fires in one unit from burning the whole building down. Takes a lot of firearm to penetrate reinforced concrete. No handgun or shotgun round will do it. Doors and windows, of course, aren't.
"...you are firing though a neighbors wall..." Most new apartment buildings are big blocks of reinforced concrete to eliminate fires in one unit from burning the whole building down. Takes a lot of firearm to penetrate reinforced concrete. No handgun or shotgun round will do it. Doors and windows, of course, aren't.
Fred Fuller
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EVERY member of THR agrees to abide by the code of conduct that is linked at the top right hand corner of every page under Forum Rules when they sign up. It says (and the bolding is mine):
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4.) Spamming, trolling, flaming, and personal attacks are prohibited. You can disagree with other members, even vehemently, but it must be done in a well-mannered form. Attack the argument, not the arguer.
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We have learned from bitter experience that discussions of abortion, religion and sexual orientation often degenerate into less-than-polite arguments or claims that "my God is better than your God". For this reason, we do not discuss such subjects on THR, and any threads dealing primarily with these subjects will be closed or deleted immediately. Threads which deal with other subjects, but which mention abortion, religion or sexual orientation as a side issue, may be allowed to continue, but will be closely scrutinized, and closed or deleted if they "cross the line".
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Deltaboy1984
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Use either room and get a 12 pump gun!
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