Clint Smith on not clearing your house

[churchmouse]

I'd clear my own house, but then I have a live-in house clearing partner with the skills to do it safely and effectively.

Me to. She posts up with her pistol and the cell phone. She has my 6...

 

[GIJEW]

I agree with the general message.

I'm not a delta swat operator, but I have been trained by the state of IN as well as the Army on the basics of room clearing and building assault, etc.

I know enough to know clearing a structure alone is stupid. You need at the least a 2 man team who are both trained and have practiced together before... even then 3 or 4 man team would be better.

Personally, I'm in an odd position with my home. Its an old structure with multiple additions over the years from multiple owners. As a result, the floor plan is funky. After mapping out my home, I feel there is really only one viable vector to be firing a weapon (and possibly receiving fire) that clears the living and sleeping areas, and offers reasonable assurance to my neighbors...

This lane is most definitely not inside my bedroom. It requires me to move 10 or 15 feet from my bedside , through a small adjoining guest room, to a concealed fighting position in the den, which affords me a view of most of the house, and all of the doors into the sleeping areas.

The only practical and responsible course of action for me is to move to a stronger position

I agree completely. There is a difference between moving to a defensible position--ideally a"choke point"--and trying to clear the house. Likewise, unless someone has remodeled and lined their bedroom wall with steel plate and installed a door like the one on their safe, there's nothing particularly safe and secure about hiding in a drywall box.

 

[stephen87]

Oh, just rack that shotgun and theyll run for their lives. Insert purple

Just walk out on the balcony and let off a warning shot.

Insert purple?

As for me, I agree. However, I have a small child and enough handguns and long guns that I can hold down two rooms at once. Especially since they share an adjoining wall and you cannot see in both rooms at the same time while walking up the stairs.

 

[The Bubba Effect]

[video=youtube;q0vLitHoRD4]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0vLitHoRD4[/video]

One man room clearing techniques with Clint Smith

 

[jblomenberg16]

I think a key take away from his commentary is that if you do think you'll need to clear your house (such as your kids are not in your immediate "safe" and "defensible" position) practice it to make sure you really know how you are going to move through it.


I've had 2 false alarms, both cases where our home alarm system was triggered during the night. One was from setting the motion sensor and it picked up one of our kids getting up for a drink in the middle of the night, and the other was from a side door blowing open that wasn't latched.

While I've had a basic room clearing course from some competent INGO trainers, I'm not a Seal Delta SWAT Operator, so haven't done it under significant stress before. I realized pretty quickly that all sound tactics, like slicing the pie, momentary used of a light, etc. went out the window on that first false alarm, and I found myself more or less running through the house, light blazing and gun at low ready towards the kids bedrooms after telling my wife to get on the phone with 911.

Practice is key in so many ways. While many of us "shoot" a lot, not many of us practice for the worst case scenario of having to actually defend our families from a home invasion.

 

[Spear Dane]

Please note he equates Marine Infantry with Army Special Forces. This is correct.

 

[OakRiver]

But I bought a pistol bayonet specifically for CQB. Now what in the hell am I going to use it for?

Now you can chop vegetables like an operator

 

[looney2ns]

[video=youtube_share;9efgLHgsBmM]http://youtu.be/9efgLHgsBmM[/video]

 

[Bigtanker]

I'd clear my own house, but then I have a live-in house clearing partner with the skills to do it safely and effectively.

Chez lives with you? Who wudda thunk?

 

[TheDude]

Please note he equates Marine Infantry with Army Special Forces. This is correct.

Sigh, okay.

 

[Dirtebiker]

Oh, just rack that shotgun and theyll run for their lives. Insert purple

Actually some truth to this.^^^

 

[Dirtebiker]

Please note he equates Marine Infantry with Army Special Forces. This is correct.

Not really. Just their room clearing techniques.

 

[88E30M50]

I disagree in part. Yes, if you hear glass breaking and a half dozen voices, definitely stay put and wait for the PD. However, most of the time I clear my house, it's because I heard a bump in the night, or I return home and a light is on and I can't remember if I left it on or not.

If I called the police every time I heard a noise, I would quickly become known as the village paranoid. If it's definitely a break-in, wait in place. But there are plenty of times clearing your house is a good idea.

This is my take as well. If I know that there is someone in the house, I'm not venturing out of the room unless it's to consolidate the family members. But, I hear things at times coming from downstairs and listen for any more sound for many minutes. If I here nothing more, I'll clear the house on those times that I'm 99.999% positive that there's nobody down there. Plus, I have cameras that help me figure out if it's the house ghost or an intruder that I heard. Like roscott says, I'm not calling the police for every squeak of the floor or bump in the night.

But, if I'm thinking that there's someone down there, I'm sure as hell not clearing them out myself. Not even if I'm wearing my tacticool tidy whiteys that night.

 

[Yojimbo229]

The man's a gem.
A brilliant, gravelly, damn fine lookin', gyrene gem.
The wisdom and delivery are A+. A TR trip is on the list of must-dos.

I've had to share this advice more than once to homeowners looking for a home defense gun. I can't help myself. I try to tell them to just send a few through the door ...or up in the air...or to just speak the universal language for "GTFO" by racking the ol' 12g....but those gems keep getting stuck in my throat and I can't spit them out.
I guess Mr.Biden got all the cool-advice-genes when they were being handed out. So I just tell them they should maybe stay put w/ the cell phone and hunker down oblique to the bedroom door.

This house clearing fantasy, boy. Accountants, soccer dads and plumbers are trained in it apparently.

 

[ChalupaCabras]

Well, yea...There are ridiculous number of vets floating around out there these days. The chance that your accountant or plumber has prior service and thus prior training is pretty high.

 

[ScouT6a]

Oh, just rack that shotgun and theyll run for their lives. Insert purple

I thought you were supposed to rack the slide on the shotgun ten minutes into your search and then again when you entered every room.

 

[output]

There is no way around it. I think this advise is about as good as it gets.

 

[Hornett]

I think you are supposed to rack the slide on a shotgun every 2 to 3 minutes.
That way the bad guy is bound to hear it sooner or later.

 

[Tomahawkman]

"grave yards are full of brave men who stood their ground and thought it was a good idea"

Awesome...

 

[churchmouse]

"grave yards are full of brave men who stood their ground and thought it was a good idea"

Awesome...

They are also full of idiots. More so than those who stood their ground I think.