But Graywolf, How can a .22 be the best home defense weapon?

To defend your home, you need to be able to stop an attacker. In order to stop him, you need to hit him or to make him want to leave. We’ve been told for years that you need to have a big gun with a big bullet that can pierce through armor in order to defend your home. Who are you defending yourself against, Spetnaz? Let’s get real for a minute.

So I hear some of you saying:

But I’ve been told for years that you need to get a big gun with lots of stopping power and big bullets. One shot one kill. Armor. Mass and velocity. Lots of other buzzwords and statistics that sound pretty convincing

In some situations: yes. In most situations, no.

No, no, no. You need at least a 12-gauge shotgun or a .223. A .308 would even be better. You aren’t carrying a .22 with you over in Afghanistan right now, are you? Have you turned into one of those liberal anti-gun activists now?

Kiss my ass

Yeah, I have an M-16 and a 92FS on me but I’m not here trying to defend myself against a thug trying to break into my home. When I’m home I’m in the same boat as you.

The Army uses .50cal, .308. .556, 9mm, .45 and whatever else because they are the best against different targets with different defensive and offensive capabilities in different environments. I highly doubt the Taliban is gonna come in and steal your collection of Playboys.  What you need to do is stop listening to everybody’s posturing and listen to what makes sense.

So let’s break this down military-style with a pseudo-Operations Order, or OPORD. I’m not gonna draft the whole thing up as an official-looking one because quite frankly, I don’t have the time and you don’t need it. There are plenty of FM’s and websites that will tell you how to do a proper OPORD.

Basically, a miltary OPORD has five major sections:

1. Situation
2. Mission
3. Execution
4. Service and Support
5. Command and Signal

1. Situation

Situation normally breaks down into three sections:

• Enemy
• Friendly
• Attachments/Detachments

Enemy

The enemy in this case is most likely going to be a robber, murderer or a rapist. If you’re looking to defend yourself against anything else then this isn’t the article for you. Go back to your fantasy world because you’re trying to prep for a scenario that is highly unlikely.

Should you prepare yourself for a home invasion by an attacker with armor or a group of marauders hell-bent on taking your supplies in a SHTF or TEOTWAWKI scenario?

I believe you should. The problem that I see with most preppers, even advanced preppers, is that they focus primarily on the worst-case scenario at the expense of the most likely scenario. All you need to do is a quick Risk Assessment to know that your focus is out of whack.

The truth is that you are more likely to face an enemy in your home who isn’t all that prepared and isn’t all that well-trained. Whether they’ll be armed will depend highly on where you live. Your most likely assailant could either be an unarmed punk or a group of gangbangers. Plan accordingly.

So, in almost all cases, your enemy won’t have body armor.

Will a weapon that stops someone with body armor work against someone without? Yes, but strangely enough, not as well in some cases. A bullet that enters the body and expends all of its energy inside, without exiting, can actually be more effective at killing someone, especially if the round expands or the shock wave does enough damage to disrupt vital organs inside. A bullet that just goes in and out at full speed and takes all the energy with it doesn’t do any more damage than just poking a hole through someone the size of a pencil.

It’s absolutely true that a .22 won’t likely expand very far and won’t have a large shockwave to disrupt organs, but that’s not the only goal of shooting at someone.

Your enemy most likely won’t be well-trained in combat tactics.

Ok, I don’t have statistics to give you on this one but it probably wouldn’t be that difficult to research. Let me know what you find out. I’d say that most likely, the guy who breaks into your home has either little or no military experience and if they do, they probably aren’t very good at CQB.

What does this mean to you? Thugs who break into homes are usually expecting to find sheeple at home who will capitulate or will be easily subdued, especially if you live in a city with strict gun control laws. They don’t want to get killed so they’ll usually run off peeing themselves if rounds start flying. They probably won’t even know what caliber weapon you have anyway. All they know is they bit off more than they could chew and they gotta pop smoke.

Friendly

This is where gotta do your own self assessment. Sun Tzu said:

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