A very prepared family. Definitely a good idea to have drills, but I see some flaws in your "a problem arises plan". What you said, however detailed, lacked clarity so I'm assuming the worst.txbroker wrote:My daughter is to hide in her closet until the shooting stops. My wife is to stay one room behind me as I clear the house. We own a business that is on site so we know we may be a target someday. We run drills every month.
It's chivalrous of you to keep your wife out of immediate contact, but as she's a trained handler, from a tactics standpoint it makes more sense to be able to point guns in two directions over one; she should be right behind you as you go through each door. That gives her the ability to fire where you are not facing, turning a situation where she would be avenging you against a BG stepping over your body into one where she would be protecting you from a BG about to blindside you. She should still use you as cover as much as possible; I'm guessing you're the larger of the pair
Regarding your daughter, whose age you did not mention; she should take a cordless or mobile phone into that closet, call 911 and report a breakin and shots fired, and should not leave the closet until you or a police officer says a pre-arranged code phrase. That phrase or another could be told to the dispatcher to relay to officers. If she is of a competent age to handle a weapon I would give her a bedside pistol, knife or baseball bat, and if someone approaches her closet door without first having said that phrase (or identifying themselves as police/EMS) she is to use that weapon. If she's surprised by a BG in her room before she makes it to the closet she is to scream as loud as she can whilst going for any weapon available.
If your daughter is not of a competent age to handle firearms the guns should all be in quick-access lockboxes or within your reach. The ammo and mags are harmless if your daughter is old enough to have been taught to hide in the closet when she hears shots, and so should be immediately ready. You didn't mention security so I have to assume the guns are simply concealed and not secured.
Boxes of handgun/rifle ammo are little more than throwing weapons. If you're planning to have to use the ammo it must be in a mag, ready to go. You may not have the time and/or physical ability to load an empty mag in a defense situation. Yes it's expensive, but you seem to have invested heavily in home defense firearms already; if you plan on needing the entire arsenal it must be instantly useable. For shotgun shells of course this doesn't apply; just empty the box and start stuffing.
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As far as my home defense plan, I only have myself to worry about, in an 800sqft apartment with 5 rooms, most of which are open to each other. I keep my Ruger P95 9mm loaded with Federal 124gr HS either on my bedside table or next to my pillow, with an extra mag of Federals on the bedside table and two mags of FMJ in the living room. I am looking at a Mossberg Persuader 12G as heavy artillery but currently the 9mm is my primary weapon.
I have no dog, but there are keyless devices on every door so a breakin will make a LOT of noise, either 3/4" plate glass patio doors shattering, the front door being ripped out of the frame (it cannot simply be kicked in; it's steel-boxed and the keyless device is hard to describe, but it's a metal plate that fits into a shackle bolted into the door frame and is rated to withstand a police battering ram) or the window in my bedroom being shattered (and the lower half of that window is covered by a bush making it VERY difficult to enter that way).
I leave a lamp on in the living room at all times (I often get home after dark especially during the winter) so I do not keep a defense flashlight handy; might be a good idea though. For me a weaponlight would be ideal as nobody and nothing else is supposed to be in my apartment, so drawing down on anything that moves after dark is tactically sound.