It's probably my PTSD but my biggest fear is getting raided by SWAT in a "wrong house" mixup or for some other stupid reason. In such an instance I would likely kill one or more of them. I have a family in my house that could be injured by them in the process. I've always wanted a camera system that had remote encrypted storage so I could prove the truth in court.
If you live in a "no knock" state you are not nuts at all. I am from the UK and think the whole no knock thing is insane when everyone has easy access to guns (both legally and illegally). It is just asking for people to die.
It really is. It works most of the time for the same reason it works in war, you have the element of surprise. In a population of ordinary citizens you aren't likely to encounter much trouble kicking in doors at 2am. It works for criminals after all.
But things are a little different in the US because there are lots of keyed-up gun owning vets that spent most of their military service conducting urban warfare.
Put simply, you cannot just roll up on me like that. Just knock on the door politely and I'll come out and chat. Kick in my door like a home-invasion robbery and I'll follow my training without thought.
Yeah, unless you are a wanted criminal, there is no reason to assume the people breaking into your house are the police. I didn't even know they did that before reading the flashbang article a few weeks ago: https://www.propublica.org/article/flashbangs
Its for this reason I would seriously consider making my house 'no knock' safe if I were to build it from scratch. I worry about the conversation starting with "get down police!" rather than something more civil. And it seems you could design a house that would not easily be 'breached' which would mean any unplanned entry would take time and be noisy. Allowing you to start a dialog with the people trying to come in before anyone is in danger of being shot.
Just keep in mind that such a house's protection against easy breaches by police (who, in a no-knock scenario, will be equipped for a breach) also prevents easy breaches by ambulance or fire crews. What if you're only able to call for help but you are incapacitated prior to being able to unlock your fortress?
So I guess that means no claymores planted in the yard. Dang.
Seriously though, this is a real concern. How do you build a house that is raid proof but that can be accessed by the fire dept? Maybe we should push the context of the problem back a little bit and ask: how do we de-escalate the police state in the U.S.?
De-escalation is part of why I'd want that kind of camera system - the signs would serve a dual purpose, A) notifying and hopefully at least heavily clouding charges of "he had no legal right to record, we weren't in a public place, charge him with wiretapping" (I'm in Illinois which is an all-party-consent state) and B) putting police on notice that even if they aren't using body cameras (or they're prone to "malfunction") there will still be recordings.
Given the apparent change in officer behavior that accompanies body camera use, perhaps having explicitly noted video and audio surveillance disclosed in advance will serve a similar purpose.
The relevant part in those cites is "public places" - previously it was illegal to record police even standing on the sidewalk. Technically a news crew doing "man on the street" interviews would have been required to stop if an officer showed up.
The scenario we're covering here is for police inside your house, which I'm pretty sure wouldn't be considered public.
> you could design a house that would not easily be 'breached'
Most US homes have city and county building codes that regulate the number and height of windows, ostensibly for "fire rescue". Maybe you could evade this by buying a rural plot of land that is free of municipal code, but in that case you wouldn't need super security, just a long driveway with pressure sensors that alert you to anyone approaching.
boat windows are a good idea here. Typically they have a welded metal or aluminium frame and an inset of 6mm hardened glass. Some have a sandwich of several layers of lexan glued together. They come in all shapes and sizes, and can be custommade relatively cheaply. You can get ones that open from the inside. They have to be sturdy since at sea they need to be able to withstand a wave of several tons of water coming at them at full speed.
Because these films help hold the glass together,
a stronger barrier is created, slowing down
criminals to the point where they may choose
to flee for an easier target.
Sadly, there's often only a subtle difference between a violent criminal and a SWAT team member. The personality types are often quite similar.
Windows aren't really the problem. Windows are dangerous to be near for the raiding party. To raid proof a dwelling you need things that slow down entry, things that trip, bright lights or sounds that let a raiding party know they've lost the element of surprise, and some form of early warning before someone has reached a breach point such as a door.
Had HPD stack up on an apartment I used to live at while I was gone...knocked once, roommate came out, and he managed to talk them out of raiding us. They really wanted the apartment down from us, which had been the alleged source of a bunch of burglaries in our complex.
If the roommate had had headphones on (was a metalhead and a gamer), things could've gone differently. We would've at least been out a door.
EDIT:
Fun fact--if I remember correctly, the first (maybe only?) confirmed kill with a P90 was by HPD SWAT.
HPD and HCSD, there's a reason they call Harris County the "hangin' county". Someone at ACLU told me Harris County Sheriffs Dept. has more shooting deaths per violent arrest than any other police force in the country.
Edit: "stack up" heh, fellow major league door kicker?
You do not possess enough legal firepower, and probably don't have enough practice wih your equipment, to likely kill a member of a SWAT team and "hurt" yourself.
"In such an instance I would likely kill one or more of them"
You may want to consider how to react differently in such a situation. That's definitely a fight you can't win, and indeed would probably lead to causing your loved ones more pain than it's worth. It's probably best to comply with order in the heat of the moment and later fight it in court. The outcome will be much, much better, I promise.
Brother, my alarm went off in my house one night when I was in bed because of high winds outside. A door moved slightly in its jamb causing the sensor to trip. I was out the door with my gun and had circled and cleared the perimeter of the house before I knew what happened. My wife says I was screaming at the "intruders" to get out of my house the entire time. I do not remember this.
I mean no insult by saying this but you really just cannot understand what this is like unless you've lived it.
That sounds really scary. Have you considered keeping your gun outside the house? It seems like you could end up with a real tragedy on your hands if during the midst of a PTSD episode you mistook a loved one for an intruder.
I don't have diagnosed PTSD, nor did I serve. But I have a REM sleeping disorder, where I act out dreams.
This has had me bolting out of an apartment flashlight in hand, yelling at things not there, beating up a wall (ouch), hitting glass and freaking out significant others.
No sleeping meds worked (Lunesta/Ambien intensified waking hallucinations) but Klonopin, as its just helping to reduce anxiety and keep me asleep.
Its a benzo, but just throwing it out there sir. Good luck.
I don't know the details about the GP poster. But a lot of people didn't "volunteer" for as much service in Iraq or Afghanistan as they wound up doing.
Yes they initially volunteered but then "stop-loss" happened and they had to stay in the active military for far longer than they were originally told they would.
Also many people were serving in reserve units or the National Guard (aka "weekend warriors") and entire units wound up being sent to Iraq because we didn't have enough active duty soldiers.
There's a hard to use .mil website that has details.[1] E.g deaths just in "Operation Iraqi Freedom" (there are additional ME deaths not included):
Not only that. Many reservists were called up to active, and then sent back to reserve a day or so before their year or whatever of active would have qualified them for full active benefits. In other words, essentially a full year of their lives were stolen, but they didn't get the benefits that were supposed to compensate for that year.
I want no sympathy personally, and I really don't like the "hero" talk. Nobody I ever met in the infantry was oblivious to what they were getting themselves into. Especially not in the airborne. I mean really, they throw you out of airplanes with parachutes made by the lowest bidder. Everyone laughs about dying to cover the fear.
When you sign up they are very clear that the term of your enlistment is 8 years whether or not you serve 4 or 5 active. They can call you up anytime in that 8 years. It sucks but again it's not a violation of trust. Still being stop lossed to go back is hugely terrifying for guys ready to transition back to civilian life.
Some guys out there really need help. Fallujah and the Korengal were meat grinders. I haven't met a single guy who was boots on the ground there that isn't seriously messed up from it. We owe it to them to get the care they need but the VA is an absolute crime.
> I haven't met a single guy who was boots on the ground there that isn't seriously messed up from it.
War is hell.
I remember hearing about neighbors who came back from Vietnam in around 1970, and they also suffered PTSD (of course I don't think we had that acronym then). And I knew an Army NCO (recipient of the Silver Star) who served two tours in Vietnam. He slept with a loaded .45 under his pillow, probably "cocked and locked" as they say (at least hopefully it was "locked"). And it wasn't because he lived in a bad neighborhood.
Its a shame that we still haven't figured out how to get help to those who need it, how to help ease those guys off that razor's edge that they needed to maintain in order to come back alive.
> When you sign up they are very clear that the term of your enlistment is 8 years whether or not you serve 4 or 5 active.
I was in for six, well back in the previous century. I don't recall having that explained to me when I joined, but it probably was. I did however learn before getting out after my six that I was still subject to recall until the eight year clock ran out.
I think the fear is less "f*ck the police" here, and more "an unknown entity is breaking into my house", which is a pretty justifiable response. If he knew it was the police, I don't think the first reaction would be to shoot them.
He's clearly thought about it, he's just saying that due to (I assume) his military background and PTSD, the most likely outcome would be that he kills one of them.
It's very hard to not react in a particular way when it's what was ingrained as your method of survival in the field.
I'll second Scott's question about whether you've considered keeping your gun outside the house.
Since you know that you react like that and are hopefully doing what you can to change that even if the VA is a mess, it seems to me that the responsible thing to do is also to preemptively mitigate the impact of those reactions, since you already know that your decision-making in the heat of the moment is going to be somewhat hard-wired in a bad direction by past experience.
Hell, even just keeping the guns in a gun safe well away from the bedroom would make a big difference. You with a gun become a target, do anything you can to avoid being that target because dead men can't use the video evidence in court.
I keep the guns really far out of reach so as to require enough time to come to my senses. I've also been through a lot of therapy since then and I'm not nearly as bad off.
A woman and her children were locked in their house yesterday morning a few miles from me. Thugs kicked in her door early in the morning and robbed the house. Usually they kill/rape/beat the inhabitants. This is a real thing. Also, it's not like I live in a bad area. These are nice suburbs.
We have a problem in the area with home invasion robberies. Last week a woman was raped. A few months ago a family was executed. I'm not exaggerating. This is a thing out here. There is a task force focused on this type of crime but having met the group it's understaffed IMHO.
I just re-read this comment and I'm clearly nuts.