Pax:
Well, I answered most (not all) of your questions in my first post on this thread (#10 above), but I’ll go ahead and answer them again:
Me, as stated above “my bedroom is on the second (top) floor”. Everyone sleeps on the same floor.
…or may be moving around up there?
Well, I’m going to be moving some, to get from the bed to the shotgun to one of two pre-planned defensive positions, but I’m not going to be moving much. The kids, awaken like me by the dog and/or alarm, are hopefully going to be moving from their rooms to get behind me in our safe room. The flashlight pointed at the hall ceiling will allow me to positively ID the kids. The only thing above me will be the attic, and as stated above, it “requires a ladder to access”; there are no built in or pull down stair to the attic. I don’t plan on going downstairs and have the muzzle pointed at the upstairs, if that is what you are asking.
What kind of a backstop does your ceiling provide?
Not one that will stop the “buckshot I’m loaded with.” But since it is unlikely someone will sneak a ladder upstairs to be in the attic while I’m pointing the muzzle at it, the likely concern is people outside the house. And, as stated above “…missed shots that leave the house will have to go through an interior wall, the ceiling and the roof first, likely hitting joists on the way. I’m assuming…will be slowed down enough to be non- or less-lethal to anyone outside the house.”
Do you have family members who may be on the other side of the wall, if you plan to light up a wall rather than the unidentified intruder?
Yes, but I don’t plan on flashing the light at anything but the ceiling. Also, if I fail to get the kids behind me and am forced to fire, I plan to do so from a kneeling position, aiming up at the target’s chest (as stated above.) I’ve worked out the angles from our pre-planned defensive positions and know “any missed shots that go into the next room will be at ceiling level, above anyone’s head.”
Are you sure that when you are awakened from a sound sleep that you will not just reflexively point the light at the source of the sound that woke you up?
No. But to point the light/shotgun at anything I will have to get out of bed, take 3 steps to the closet, reach in and push the buttons on the lock, take it from the rack, and point it. Before I can fire I have to cycle the slide. I am assuming, but do not know, if I’m awake enough to do that I will be awake enough to safely handle the shotgun. (I have a second flashlight by the bed if awaken by something without a threat potential.)
How much training have you done to provide yourself with that assurance?
No training. As stated above we practice, both planned and when awaken by false alarms (the dog barks in the middle of the night almost every week, I think to show he is on the job. If he goes back to his bed of his own accord so do all of us.) We all have been performing satisfactorily in the dry-runs lately, although the kids or the wife do not always wake up.
Pax, in short I think you questions are good ones. I don’t pretend I know all the answers nor that I have thought of and prepared for every possibility. But I do think I’ve insured we will not have the kind of tragedy like the one that started this thread, and the flashlight on the shotgun is part of that insurance.
