Critique My Home Defense Setup: Bedroom

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eric.cartman

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Something strange happened few nights ago.
It made me want to have my pistol even closer at night... it used to sleep in the night stand drawer, now it's even closer. Let me explain...

My wife put an ironing board up against the wall in the bedroom. She put it in such a way, that it barely leaned against the wall; straight up; vertically. Sometime during the night SOMETHING caused it to fall over, hit the lamp on my wifes side of the bed, and eventually resulted in the lamp falling on my wifes face (no injuries thank God). That very moment my wife started screaming, and I was rudely awakened by the noise of stuff falling and her screams.

Needless to say, I couldn't fall asleep for nearly an hour after that, my heart was racing so fast. Also, strangely enough my first reaction was NOT to go for the gun, but rather the sheep and rationalist in me, wanted to investigate first, before resorting to deadly force, sort to speak :cool:

ANYWAY, I got to think, that IF it was someone in our bedroom, I possibly couldn't have gotten to the gun if I needed to. Hence my new setup (pics attached). IF it was someone already hurting her, I would have milliseconds to react.

Please tell me what do you guys think? Any of you have setup like that? Pros? Cons? BTW, I do sleep on the right side of bed. Always.

EDIT: You can see the corner of the night stand on the first picture. And yes, it is a Glock 19 :)
 

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Not bad. Do you have children? Might want to think about the security aspect of this setup with young ones. Do you have a dog? My wife and I have a couple of small dogs (Mini Pinchers).....there is no way that someone could even turn the front door knob without them going nuts and alarming the world. Anyway, glad your wife wasn't hurt. Good luck....
 
i deal with a lot of customers and their houses and the first thing i do is knock on the door... i ALWAYS know when they have a dog.

bottom line, best defence is a good offence. get a dog, they will attack first. i actually only sleep with a bat next to my bedroom door. i figure if someone is going to break in my 150lb newfinland will bark once or twice and he/she will know they picked the wrong house! trust me, this dogs got a deeeep bark, not to mention hes big and black. it kinda makes me laugh when i imagine someone breaking in when its pitch black and only seeing some big white teeth coming at them...

now in the event i hear a gunshot and hear my dog yelp, thats a different matter. digital safe only takes a second or two to get to and another second or two to open. not to mention the bedrooms are on the 2nd floor and the dog is on the first. i would have a position advantage as well i think.


dont get me wrong though, i do like your setup. its just my experiance that dogs are usually the first one to know when something is wrong.
 
first of all, you went with a handgun rather than a shotgun. Good choice. Long-guns are easy to snatch from around a corner. Second, you are wise to choose a glock. While I love the feel and nostagia of some other pistols, I choose to trade all of that for a pistol that will shoot until it is empty, with no problems, no external safeties, very little worry of jams, and high magazine capacity. My high road two cent. - we don't say cents in the south, just cent.
 
No, no kids yet. We're working on it though :)
This is a temporary solution. We live in an apartment building which forbids all pets. So no dog. Once the housing market clears up, we're thinking of getting a house and a German Sheppard :D or two :what:
I do have a shotgun, 12 ga. But... I feel OK with a handgun with 15 shots, plus a long gun is less maneuverable in my opinion... we do live in a small 1 bedroom.

BTW, both wife and I are well versed in gun safety, so a loaded Glock with one in the chamber is not a safety concern for us. WE DON'T MESS AROUND WITH GUNS. She has hers CCW gun, I have mine, and the Glock is a bit extra (she carries KelTec P32, I carry S&W 442).
 
I used to have a left hand IWB holster that I clipped to my bed frame, but it broke one day when I got startled and fell out of bed. :what: The hammer made a nice scrape across my back. :rolleyes:
 
Eric, the concept is good but you might want to consider replacing the Jury rigged holster and web belt with a Safepacker. When the Safepacker is open, its upper half can fit securely between the mattress and box spring while its lower half can contain your Glock. In addition to looking neater, the Safepacker retains the handgun without putting any drag on it the way that holster does. That way there's no need to fumble around in the dark to get your hand in just the right position for the draw.

Another advantage is that if you have guests you can leave the Safepacker in place while you put the gun elsewhere. It doesn't look like a holster or "gun thing."

For sleepy time use I'd add a weaponlight to that Glock. You probably have a good flashlight nearby but, as you've seen, it's hard to get to something on a nightstand. Of course there's no law that prohibits you from having both a flashlight and a weaponlight.
 
Grade: C- , I see you have no laser defense turrets, missile arrays or banks of trained killer wasp hives. Just minor oversights I know, but hey .. you knew had a feeling you forgot something, right ?
 
your setup looks like it will do the job nicely. i keep my smith .357 in a gunvault (as i have two small kids, and they have friends) at about the same location. i also reccomend a light. i keep mine (fenix l2d with 2aa's) taped to the barrel with just a single wrap of masking tape. that way i can grab and remove both gun and light with my right hand, then easily separate and use the light with my left. i prefer a non-mounted light.
 
eric.cartman
Your setup is fine for reaction once you are alerted. Now you need to put a bit of thought into getting alerted -before- someone is standing over your bed with a hammer or whatever.

Even if you can't install a full alarm system there are cheap "screamers" you can buy that will sense door (or window) movement and even IR beam noisemakers you could place in hallways and such.

The Swedge
Big Jammer Door Brace
SlideAway Alarm
WindowAlert
 
You might try this exercise, just to make sure:

Start position: in bed, sound asleep
Start signal: falling ironing board
Range conditions: dimly lit
Backstop: interior apartment walls
Targets: 2 unfriendly, 1 wife, several babies asleep behind backstop
Target locations: random
Scoring: +1 for each unfriendly, -10,000 for any other.

Any score zero or above is passing. :D

Really, I'm totally in favor of armed home defense. Just be positive you're awake!

Harpo
 
Thanks guys!

I just hope I'm not going over the top with the paranoia :uhoh:
I'm not sure if this is TOO MUCH.
My wife just smirked when she saw that, but I think she understands :confused:
 
You might try this exercise, just to make sure:

Start position: in bed, sound asleep
Start signal: falling ironing board
Range conditions: dimly lit
Backstop: interior apartment walls
Targets: 2 unfriendly, 1 wife, several babies asleep behind backstop
Target locations: random
Scoring: +1 for each unfriendly, -10,000 for any other.

Any score zero or above is passing.

Really, I'm totally in favor of armed home defense. Just be positive you're awake!

Harpo
Click to expand...

Harpo has the answer - practice the scenario.

It does not matter where you put the handgun, as long as you keep that consistent. Being withion reasonable reach is good.

If you don't train, you will not react as you have trained.

stay safe.

skidmark
 
i like it in general but... For me, this would be a disaster waiting to happen. I am a restless sleeper. Dont feel comfortable having a gun in arms reach when i can have conversations with my girlfriend while im sleeping and never even know. its a scary thought that i can sleep so deeply that my girl can smack me pretty hard while im talking in my sleep and i keep sleeping. Imagine the possibilities if i have a bad dream and could reach a firearm.
 
Not too bad

I've put a lot of thought into this myself, after I did in fact have an intruder enter my bedroom. He meant no harm, was retarded, and I knew him from the neighborhood, but none the less was quite a scary event.
Anyhow, I normally kept my bedroom pistol in its own drawer, inside my closet. In my haste to retrieve it in this situation, I had not opened the folding, sliding closet doors wide enough and it took me WAY to long to retrive it. Once my GF turned on the side table light, the situation clamed down because we realized who it was, but it wa beneficial becuase it was like a "safe" dry run testing my bedroom set up, which failed miserabley.

I tried a setup simillar to yours, a belt with a holster around the bedframe, but I never could make draw seem unakward. I invested in "Sure Set Universal Holster Mount" (google it if your interested), it was about $50, but let me install it have my holster in between my night table and the wall behind it. This a) keeps the gun as close as possible without being under my pillow b) keeps the gun out of plain sight, from any intruder/burglar, kids etc. and keeps my GF happy.
Addtinally, I use a Desantis Flight Deck Officer holster, which lets me put a small combination lock through trigger guard and holster, while not in the bedroom>just a little extra security. The only problem I face now is finding a similar lockabe holster that can satisfy a pistol with a tac light attached.
 
Not only do we have the same gun ........
We have the same rug...........................:)
Very good idea.............................................


~BEST~
Bill------------------->
 
Yeah looks great. Your room is a lot cleaner than mine:D

I would recommend a light though but I'm not sure if the 19 has a rail cause it's a compact? Mine is cocked and locked under my pillow.:cool:
 
IMHO, $0.02, try these

Intruder alarms are reliable, cheap, and plentiful. Don' gotta walk or feed 'em either. They are also a nice adjunct to the canine interceptors.
My G-30 is under the pillow as I sleep. It has a grip-activated laser on the front rail. I usually practice shooting the laser beam off of various items around the bedroom and outside the doorway before I curl up to sleep. Getting acquainted with what is there will come in handy when it is not there, or blocked by an intruder.
The spouse hates guns, but knows the shortest route into the closets.

A bit of a twist on a very cogent signature::
If you don't train, you will react as you have trained.
 
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