I agree with everything that Karl has said.
When we do live force on force exercises with airsoft,
and search as a single person, the searcher ALWAYS dies.
Too many blind areas where a bad guy can hide in plain sight.
You need a team of 2 in order to clear without this result.

If you are concerned about a break-in, here is what our SWAT Capt. suggests:
Keep your cell phone next to the bed.
When you hear a noise that worries you, call 911 immediately.
Tell them where you are in the house.
Have you and your wife get behind the bed on the other side from the door.

This all assumes that you don't have family members on the other side of
the house and in vulnerable locations. If you do, you have a big problem.
You have to make a choice about the amount of risk you a personally
willing to take.

As Karl stated, there is NO way you will learn what you need to learn
from a video. You need to not only get training on the techniques, but
you MUST get the experience of having someone out there in the dark
in a closed environment who can shoot back. The first timet that you
do this, even in training, your adrenaline will spike your heart up to
an unbelievable level. You need to experience the uncertainty enough
times so that if it happens for real, your heart rate won't go high,
keeping you from really being aware of your surroundings.

It's repeated, continuous training with force on force (meaning a guy
hidden in the dark who can shoot back) that will really prepare you
and help you to understand the risks of clearing a building as a single person.

Pieing the chart is only about entering safely and that's still risky.
The real problems come afterwords when you start into the room and
are faced with all of the blind spots.

Bruce Krell

-----Original Message-----
From: Combat-Handgun@yahoogroups.com [mailto:Combat-Handgun@yahoogroups.com]On
Behalf Of Karl Rehn
Sent: Wednesday, October 01, 2008 8:40 AM
To: Combat-Handgun@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [Combat-Handgun] House Clearing Techniques


re: videos

There are a couple of videos on the market that show some armed-citizen
tactics for building search. Clint Smith of Thunder Ranch has one video,
and there is one with Bill Wilson and Ken Hackathorn.
It's also covered in Gabe Suarez' book "Tactical Advantage".

However -- I have to wonder if you are asking the right question.

If you are in a building and you believe that there's a real intruder
that poses you serious harm, prowling around by yourself is the most
dangerous thing you can do.
If we're talking about home defense, a dog (or two or three), motion
activated lights, a baby monitor (to hear what's going on in the area
that an intruder is most likely to enter first) and cameras can provide
you information more safely than leaving a safe area just to go "hunting
for bad guys".

The #1 reason that an armed homeowner should leave a position of cover
(where a long gun can be used) and start moving around indoors is to
move to an unarmed family member or friend located somewhere else in the
building.
#2 reason to move is to get out of an area where there is a known threat
to get to a safer place (usually applies in public situations).

You can learn the concepts of how to "pie a corner" from a video or book
(sort of) but I haven't seen any book or video that covers the pros and
cons and applications of those techniques to realistic situations.
The only good source for that is in-person training, preferably that
includes force on force and not just live fire shoot house drills (where
the targets patiently stand there and wait for you, without attacking,
no matter how slow you go or how much noise and light you produce).

Karl





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