What’s a Home-Defense Gun Without a Home-Defense Plan?

Will you be ready when you hear something go “bump” in the night?

All right, so you like to shoot. You’ve got a gun. And you keep it somewhere in your house because someday you may need to defend your loved ones when something goes “bump” in the night. But do you truly know what you’re doing?

We all know owning a gun is a tremendous responsibility and one mistake can literally have deadly consequences. Owning a firearm for home defense is great, but you owe it to yourself, and more importantly to your loved ones, to know how to use it. Just as importantly, you need to know when not to use it.

The Course: Armed Home Defense

I’ve taken several firearms training classes and most recently I.C.E.’s Armed Home Defense class. This class, developed and taught by Rob Pincus, will absolutely provide you with a phenomenal level of information about how to defend your home and your loved ones.

As a student, there are some things you should know up front. First, this isn’t a “Zombie Apocalypse/Collapse of Society” fantasy type of class. Yes, you will shoot at least a couple of hundred rounds, but the majority of your day will be spent in the classroom. Expect to cover a lot of material, and in many cases, it’ll be material you won’t find in any other shooting class. Things like:

• Your home’s construction and how to harden various points of entry;
• The difference between storing and staging a weapon;
• Selecting the best place to position your loved ones in the event of an invasion; and
• Ways to diminish the likelihood of an accidental shooting.

The class provides plenty of food for thought, but one of the greatest takeaways is that you’ll need to “do your homework”—e.g., apply the lessons learned once you get home.

The Instructor: Rob Pincus

The Armed Home Defense course, and Pincus as an instructor, will humble you. And that’s a good thing. If you don’t walk away from this course with a sense of urgency to assess and address both your and your home’s weaknesses, you’ve clearly messed something up. Pincus is a no-nonsense instructor. He shares his knowledge freely and at an incredible rate. He also expects to you question his methods and delve deeper the moment you’re not sure of something. If you don’t, he’ll have moved on to the next subject matter.

That said, one of the most encouraging things about this class was not once did I hear the words “because I’m the expert” or any variation of “because I said so.” Anytime a question was asked, Pincus provided answers and, most importantly, a rationale for the answer he provided. Everything had a reason behind it. If your instructors can’t provide context beyond “because I’m the instructor and I said so,” you should be concerned.

The Takeaways:

The Armed Home Defense course culminates with a series of shooting and movement drills, and ultimately individual simulations. Every student must apply the skills taught throughout the day. What is amazing is that even on a range, in a controlled environment, your stress level and heart rate will quickly skyrocket during a simulated home invasion. I can’t fathom the level of stress involved in a real-life encounter. And while I pray that day never comes, I feel far more prepared now than I did prior to this course. I truly believe I.C.E.’s Armed Home Defense course is one of the most valuable ways you can spend your time and money.

There’s something to the effect of 100 million gun owners in America, and one of the most common reasons Americans buy a firearm is to protect their homes and their loved ones. If you’re one of these gun owners, do yourself a favor and seek out quality training such as this. Please, under any circumstances, don’t leave your home defense plans to luck. Because as Pincus points out, while luck does count, we cannot count on luck. Especially when our most valuable assets, our loved ones, are in the mix.

Interested in taking an I.C.E. Armed Home Defense course? Click here to learn more.

The Audio Book:

Sometimes, circumstances mean we just can’t get away from work and home obligations to take a self-defense course right now (much as we’d like to). For just such a circumstance, Rob Pincus has prepared an audio book that you’ll find tremendously helpful. Listen in your car as you commute, on headphones at your desk, or any time you’ve got a few minutes to learn something new about how to defend yourself and your family. Click here to learn more.