I'm not leaving my 'castle'
Someone entering my castle without permission isn't there to help me...
Just to be clear, my instructor didn't say that you couldn't use deadly force, even shooting thru the door if need be. He just said that the best course of action is to remove yourself from the scene, call 911 on your cell and let the professionals handle it. If that is not possible, find a room with one access (bathroom is likely best) and hole up in it with your favorite defense weapon and cell phone. Do not in any case go looking around the house trying to find the culprit. That almost guarantees that you will be injured or killed by the intruder. Let him (them) come to you and then you are prepared to shoot at the only spot that they will be coming into, the doorway.
Folks can say all they want about "blowing the perp away", but in reality, one has to live with the fact of taking a human life for the rest of his life. IF you can do that without after thought, then by all means open up on the invader with your 5000 round per minute gatling gun, 12 ga. shotgun loaded with 00 buck, or whatever you have to protect yourself and clean up the blood and gore later.
By the way, 7 1/2 shot is plenty deadly for home protection from 15-20 feet away, it is just like solid lead but doesn't keep going thru walls into neighbors house like buckshot will. When I had 3 mongrel dogs break into my property and went on rampage killing anything they could catch, #8 shot from my Mossberg took them out from up to 40 feet away like they were shot with a cannon. They would be really nasty at 15 feet on a human body.
I think someone earlier mentioned the 21 foot rule when confronting someone with an edged weapon (knife) and according to my research, that rule only applies to someone with a holstered gun. If you have your weapon in hand, which you should have, you have plenty of time to put 2 or more rounds dead center before the perp can reach you. I would treat anyone with any weapon the same way whether it be knife, baseball bat, crowbar etc. and have my weapon in hand and pointed at them.
If they had a gun, then I think, shoot first is the only way to handle that situation. The old cop show standby where the cop puts down their gun because the perp has a hostage is total BS also. NO ONE in their right mind is going to give up their weapon to an armed assailant and hope to live. My reply is to place deadly aim at the perp and tell him to do what he wants, after he shoots the hostage, he is a dead man so what is his choice but to surrender. If the opportunity presents itself, one bullet between the eyes of the perp stops all muscle reaction also.
Same thing applies to a perp getting in your car and saying drive. DONT do it, hastily remove yourself from the car is the only way to have a chance to survive. Driving to a remote location pretty much assures that you will be killed. If you are in a busy parking lot, they aren't going to risk shooting in most cases and if the do, chances are that they will miss.
