Looking for a General Statistic

[evergrey]

Thanks, this is useful stuff!

And I love training with LEOs, by the way... so much useful information you get to glean, and so many reality checks, too!

Like no man, no, do not try to run up and kick the gun out of the guy's hand, what are you thinking?? Heh.

[Groinstrike]

How have I missed this? Great idea, and a solid way to look ahead LP.

For starters, I can only speak to where I'm from. Of all the Use of Force incidents last year where I work (again, your mileage will vary) we had one, let me say that again ONE documented UoF where multiple attackers were involved on a cop. That's not saying that there weren't times where officer presence or a pointed weapon didn't change the outcome, but at the end of the day our guys only dealt with multiple attackers on one occasion.

Now, from a non-LEO side (ie. victims we go to see), I'll have to pull the stats for mob action (3+ attackers) and see what it tells us. Off the top of my head, most of those that occurred that I had a hand in investigating occurred at a house party or bar parking lot. Rarely at someone's home who was minding their own business.

That takes us to the realm of home invasion. When the offender just decides to come into your home unwelcome and hurt you or your family and take your stuff. We have a lot of these, some stemming from domestic issues (pretty common) but far more seem to be generated off the drug related incidents.

So, I will NEVER way never, but if you stay out of bars, don't do the wild house party thing, and refuse to sell drugs regularly out of your home, you're going to drastically reduce the likelihood that you're a victim of a home invasion or mob action. What I would do, LP is check the local statistic of where you're calling home and find out how may mob actions and home invasions you've had in your jurisdiction in the last few years. Police departments have to keep these numbers. Again, keep in mind that often there are contributing factors behind many of these numbers. The whole concept of the flash mob might be slowly changing this assumption; however, we'll have to see how the numbers work out over time.

Now, let's look at the one percent of the time your home will be randomly selected for a home invasion. One of two things is the case, either: a) the invader has a personal beef with you (not so random but you get the idea), or b) it's a money run for narcotics.

For starters, my first line of defense is rather simple. A locked door and well lit exterior. Most times random thugs will look for simple. Unlocked is simple, locked is harder. It's an amazing deterrent.

Not to mention when people start kicking in your door it: a) gives you plenty of warning, and b) rises (in IL at least) to a reason to use deadly force against the invader.

Now we get to the meat and potatoes of what we're talking about. LP, you're absolutely right, a team of SWAT trained ninja's aren't going to raid your home. It's either a disgruntled friend (term used loosely), or a strung out junkie looking for cash and pawn-able goods. Either is not bringing back up. One to two is the norm. Again, I'll never say never, but let's play the percentages.

The firearm you pick should be one you're comfortable with and has adequate ability to let you put rounds on target in the dark. For that reason, whatever you go with and a shot gun is a great option), I highly recommend a light of some sort. I don't run a gun without one any more. Most of these things happen at night, that means most of your lights are out, you need to be able to identify a target. A weapon mounted light lets you do that and keep both hands on your weapon. This is a bonus for obvious reasons.

Good stuff Tallgeese, I have been super on edge the last 24 hours do to being on lockdown at school due to some nutjob threatening the wrath of god upon school children at our building. There will be a thread posted on this shortly.