I am posting this due to another thread regarding equipment selection for training that brought up the concept of home defense. I am in no way an expert on civilian home defense (I don't even know what would make one qualified in this skill set anyway), so I have based this on my experience with defense of buildings in a military context.

I am not talking about defending your compound from marauding hordes of Chinese ATF Agent Zombies, but rather response to a "bump in the night", breaking glass, barking dog situation. There are of course circumstantial differences that will drive the individual in their response to a potential home invasion which will determine if the individual will be better off barricading themself, securing family members, or actively looking for invaders. I am interested in how different people envision themselves responding, the traning that supports this response, and the reasoning for their response method/equipment.

Here is my view-
When in my home I do not carry a firearm. This could be viewed as poor mindset I guess, but I don't. I usually have a loaded firearm within arm's reach or at least in the same room, but it is rarely attached to me unless I have just returned from the the outside world where I was carrying, before changing for exercise/shower/attention to the GF, etc. In the event of a suprise breach it will probably take me a few seconds to get a gun in hand. I will just have to hope the invader(s) will trip over my coffee table while I scramble for a weapon.

When I am sleeping I have the ubiquitous "pistol on the bed-stand" with a light attached as well as a hand-held light and my cell phone. The primary purpose of that pistol is to deal with something that has entered the room. It is the only firearm I will reasonably be able to bring to bear should the attacker be in extremely close proximity and allow me to fight with both hands and still deliver effective fire.

I keep a M4 clone in a "cruiser ready"/"condition 3"/"loaded but not made ready" state with the safety engaged. It's application is for anytime I have time/opportunity/need to grab it and charge it. It is kept in cond 3 for a few reasons, not the the least of which is impeding the immediate use of the weapon by someone that entered my bedroom.

I see an invasion worthy of immediate investigation. This is not to say that anyone else should do so, simply that in my general situation I reason that it would be better to do so than to barricade. The faster I respond to the invasion the more initiative and suprise are on my side. I want to make contact before the invader(s) have had time to orient themselves or gain deep placement inside the enclosure. Hopefully I will be able to catch them before thay have completed entry. This requires speed.

Due to my need for rapid action I will be limited to tools and equipment that I can hold or use while closing with the suspected breach point. Target identification and discrimination are critical to the success of home defense without endangering non-threatening individuals, so I will need to have a light, which are mounted on my go-to guns. I want to close with the breach point as quickly as tactically possible, so I will most likely not have the time to dress in anything more substantial than my bunny-slippers.

While I have armor available I think that speed of action is more important than protection level. Same with spare ammunition- I don't have anywhere in my boxers to retain a mag, so I will go with what is in my gun (another reason I like a Redi-Mag).

I have had a couple of times that I have responded to what seemed to be attempted break-ins as I have described and at no point did I think that I was doing the "wrong" thing (one was nothing, the other was a drunk guy that mistook my front door for his and kept trying to get his key to turn). I was able to quickly identify the location of the "breach" even when awaking from deep sleep and quickly move to that location.

When working alone you are exponentially more vulnerable than even working as a pair. Since you are more vulnerable from the rear I reckon that keeping your back to a know safe area while controlling deeper movement by the invader and minimizing frontal exposure to be the safest concept, while closing down the breach point as quickly as possible will resolve the incident the fastest. Situation and layout will play a large part in what concept will work better.

From the other thread I see that some are taking the time to put on armor and belts. While I decided against it, there may be merit in it, and I am curious as to how those items have worked in actual use, or how their absence would have made a difference.