Dear Mr. Rawles:
I am intrigued by the fact that almost all the responses to the recent post on surviving a home invasion robbery [1] focused on material issues such as doors or the proper firearms for home defense. All of these were intelligent, well-reasoned — but off target.
Napoleon said, “The moral is to the physical as three to one.” Susan and Mike had the most important survival factor: courage. As soon as Susan realized what was happening, she decided to fight, rather than submit and hope for the best. She ran for Mike and attempted to close the bedroom door. In the process she was shot through the chest. Her husband was also shot, but grappled the intruders, giving her time to call 911. Then she picked up the .22 and returned to the fight.
Susan fired warning shots because she was afraid of hitting Mike. One man turned and ran toward her. She retreated into the bedroom, found he was waiting to ambush her if she came back the same way, and used a second door to approach him from behind. She shot him twice in the back. These may have been the two rounds that decided the encounter.
Susan ran out of ammunition. She and Mike were both shot again, and at this point they gave the intruder what he wanted. With his partner dying in the driveway, he took their money and keys and fled.
We could pick apart the details of Susan and Mike’s preparation (or lack thereof), their tactics and so on. Susan herself has learned important lessons from her experience. One that she fails to emphasize is that she and Mike did not panic. They did not simply lie down when shot. They fought on. She, at least, was thinking clearly when she turned the tables on the attacker that was positioned by the refrigerator. – Randy in Maine