A Houston father defended the lives of his wife and child this morning around 5:00 AM when three home invaders kicked in his front door. The man grabbed a gun of his own and opened fired in defense of his family:

Precinct 3 Deputy Constables said the man’s wife and child were asleep in another room. The father was in the living room on the couch when three men busted in.

The dad grabbed his gun and started shooting, and the suspects reportedly fired back as they headed back outside. There were no reports of injuries, but the home invaders got away in a dark blue vehicle.

There is no word yet on why the home invaders targeted the family, and so we don’t know if this was a targeted attack by some acquaintance of the homeowner (it isn’t uncommon for home invaders to be “friends of friends” or cohorts of service personnel who cased the place for criminal allies), or if the attack was truly a random event where the criminals picked their target on a whim… which happens.

Heck, some criminals are sophisticated enough to use social your own pictures on social media to case your home, so it might not be the best idea to post pictures of your valuables (personal firearms, desirable electronics, jewelry, etc.) to Facebook or other social media sites.

Hopefully police will be able to develop evidence that leads to the arrest of these armed criminals, so that the family can return to some semblance of normalcy. Unfortunately, home invasions cause a great deal of psychological trauma in many people because their most personal and safest space has been compromised. Hopefully, the father’s quick and effective repelling of the attack will prevent the sort of long-term anxiety that might otherwise have occurred.

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I do hope that with a small child in the home that the father accessed the weapon from a fast-opening gun safe, and didn’t have a firearm simply lying on a nearby shelf. There are far too many stories of improperly stored firearms being found by children or amateur “smash and grab” burglars who lack the skills, tools, and time to crack even a simple safe.

It never ceases to amaze me that people think that they can really safely hide a handgun where a child or criminal won’t find them. The “clever” furniture and picture frames that merely hide guns are all studied and well-known by professional thieves, while even amateurs know where people tend to hide firearms (on high shelves in closets, under beds, in dressers, etc).

Internet gun video star SOOTCH00 discovered that the hard way after a burglary at his home last year which left the criminal armed and easily could have resulted in the criminal ambushing him with his own handgun if he’d gotten home minutes earlier.

Be smart out there, folks, and get either a biometric or code-operated safe to hold your firearms.

It’s important to be able to access your firearms quickly in the even of a possible home invasion, but even more important to keep them away from unauthorized users, whether they are amateur burglars, or your children and their peers.