Molon_labe wrote:Hey Skiprr..how long does it take for your adrenaline to kick in when you get woken up in the middle of the night by the dreaded "bump in the dark"?
About three-tenths of a second. But that doesn't mean I'm fully awake...as in aware and oriented. OODA Loop: Observe, Orient, Decide, Act. If you're visiting me as an overnight houseguest and happen to drop and shatter that big glass bowl of chips and two longnecks right in front of my open bedroom door as you're sneaking back upstairs, you definitely don't want me to jump to the Act stage on three-tenths of a second of adrenaline and bypass the cognitive Orient and Decide steps.I'm not advocating your firearm be unloaded and locked in the closet in the safe. Just not in immediate reach of your sleeping position as you lie in bed. You don't want your cell phone ringing in the middle of the night and you lunge for your Samsung phone only to find yourself holding your SIG. Involuntary things happen when we're asleep. Farnam tells a story of man who was awakend by the sound of a gunshot. He came instantly awake, sat bolt upright in the bed, had his firearm in hand, and was scanning urgently for threats. Then he noticed some smoke wafting from the barrel of his gun, and a bullet entry hole in an interior wall of the bedroom.
The point is, in your home, and especially if others live with you, you don't want a gun in your hand involuntarily or within tenths of a second of your eyelids snapping open from being jarred awake. It's too easy to act before you cognitively decide to act.
The VCA smashing the plate-glass window will have to clear some glass before he steps through, then he'll have to (observe, orient) figure out the lay of the land before he proceeds through the dark to your bedroom. The idea is that the extra second it takes you to get out of bed won't significantly compromise a defense, but it will help prevent you from launching rounds where you don't want them to go.
To keep it from seeming as if this is a thread hijack
, I mentioned before that persons with disabilities might need to seek alternatives to the jump-out-of-bed mode. One of those alternatives might be to have an autoloading pistol within nighttime reach and with a charged magazine inserted, but no round in the chamber. Or even a charged magazine next to the unloaded gun.Closer to me on the nightstand than my home defense pistol is a flashlight. A little bigger than one I'd carry, this one is a 120-lumen xenon-bulb job. More than adequate to temporarily blind an attacker to mess up his night vision, and a force-multiplier in that regard. I've shot with an LED flashlight in strobe mode, and that's just too cool. I haven't seen one yet that will strobe with as bright a beam as I'd like, but one may already exist...if not, they'll no doubt be coming soon.
Point is, at home and at night, I think a tactical flashlight should be married to whatever defensive firearm I'm using. On a 12-gauge, even an autoloader, I think the light needs to be attached. On a pistol, I'm more comfortable with a separate light in my off-hand.
I have a spinal cord injury and cannot move faster than the speed of a snail on a hot sidewalk,I either have my sidearm in arm reach or on me i cannot run or dive for it.but when i go to bed at night it's hard to change positions without touching steel.I carry when i check mail etc. if i get attacked by a big mean dog etc. i can't flee or fight due to some paralysis,i even have wondered what i perceive as a serious threat a physically fit person may not view the same way.by the way thanks to this thread instead of showering with my rubber ducky i'm bagging my G17