BearArms
Member
Hi Folks! This is my first post on THR, I’ve been lurking and learning for several weeks now. This is by far my favorite firearm related website. After reading the thread about “forgetting to flip the safety off”, I thought I would relate my own experience with surviving a home invasion. It was the night of the Centennial Park Olympic Bombings, Atlanta, GA 1996. I remember it rather vividly. I was a 22 yr old college student sharing a large house on Confederate Ave, near the Atlanta Zoo. It was a pretty bad neighborhood by all accounts. My girlfriend and I had just returned back from visiting our folks in Alabama and my car was filled with nice things we had brought back. We were dressed up and I wanted to change before moving everything into the house. Since I was going to be right back, I left my P229 in the glove box of the car, locked it all up and went inside to change. I was in just my underwear heading to the laundry room when I saw two black guys pressed up against the wall, trying to stay out of sight. When they realized I saw them, one began to approach with “something” in his hand, to this day I don’t know what it was. This is where it gets interesting.
I jumped backwards and fled down the dark hallway to the bedroom, where my girlfriend was. I don’t believe I will ever move that fast again. The flight instinct was so incredibly powerful. I was totally panicked and scared, just a sack of skin stuffed with fear. My girlfriend said she knew exactly what had happened without me saying a word and got behind the bed and dialed 911. I had slammed the ancient bedroom door so forcefully, that it jammed in the frame. There was a fumbling with the knob, then a shove or a kick. Total, absolute fear. At this point my mind was a mess and I felt totally helpless.
And then the most incredible feeling of “calm” (I don’t know how else to describe it) came over me when I realized there was another handgun in the room, my P232 was in her purse, which she had carried in with her. I hadn’t even gotten the gun in my hand yet, but The Panic left me. I proceeded to “slow down” and take care of business. I retrieved the gun, announced I was armed, and then for some reason fired out of the open window of the house into the ground. I didn’t think about what I was doing, I just wanted them to know I wasn’t bluffing. They fled, the cops were there in maybe 3 minutes, everything was good (we were minus a bicycle). Cops said I should have fired through the door. Not sure why I didn’t. In our young, naïve haste to unpack the car, we had left the front door unlocked. The two men simply followed us in, probably wanting the keys to the car. The cops said a neighbor lady had reported two men trying to enter her residence 15 minutes prior and that’s why they were able to respond so fast, they were already in route.
So many lessons to be learned from this (for me):
Don’t leave your gun in the car
It took me a minute to calm down enough to realize I had a second gun
I didn’t freeze when I saw them, I moved faster than ever
Once I realized I had a manner to defend myself, a calm, businesslike instinct took over, I was not all shaky until afterwards
Lock your doors, it only took 2 seconds of carelessness to put our lives a jeopardy
Entering and exiting our homes can make us vulnerable
Thanks for reading, any and all comments will be read and pondered over.
BearArms
I jumped backwards and fled down the dark hallway to the bedroom, where my girlfriend was. I don’t believe I will ever move that fast again. The flight instinct was so incredibly powerful. I was totally panicked and scared, just a sack of skin stuffed with fear. My girlfriend said she knew exactly what had happened without me saying a word and got behind the bed and dialed 911. I had slammed the ancient bedroom door so forcefully, that it jammed in the frame. There was a fumbling with the knob, then a shove or a kick. Total, absolute fear. At this point my mind was a mess and I felt totally helpless.
And then the most incredible feeling of “calm” (I don’t know how else to describe it) came over me when I realized there was another handgun in the room, my P232 was in her purse, which she had carried in with her. I hadn’t even gotten the gun in my hand yet, but The Panic left me. I proceeded to “slow down” and take care of business. I retrieved the gun, announced I was armed, and then for some reason fired out of the open window of the house into the ground. I didn’t think about what I was doing, I just wanted them to know I wasn’t bluffing. They fled, the cops were there in maybe 3 minutes, everything was good (we were minus a bicycle). Cops said I should have fired through the door. Not sure why I didn’t. In our young, naïve haste to unpack the car, we had left the front door unlocked. The two men simply followed us in, probably wanting the keys to the car. The cops said a neighbor lady had reported two men trying to enter her residence 15 minutes prior and that’s why they were able to respond so fast, they were already in route.
So many lessons to be learned from this (for me):
Don’t leave your gun in the car
It took me a minute to calm down enough to realize I had a second gun
I didn’t freeze when I saw them, I moved faster than ever
Once I realized I had a manner to defend myself, a calm, businesslike instinct took over, I was not all shaky until afterwards
Lock your doors, it only took 2 seconds of carelessness to put our lives a jeopardy
Entering and exiting our homes can make us vulnerable
Thanks for reading, any and all comments will be read and pondered over.
BearArms
Fight to keep it available.
