Several Lessons Learned from the Warrior Poet Society Video

I came across this video yesterday over at the Warrior Poet Society You Tube channel and it is an excellent overview of a situation that could have easily turned tragic in so many ways.  Here are several take-aways from the video:

• Add Narcan to your medical preps even if you think you will never have need to use it.
• Never assume that because you live in a very rural place or you live in a very nice neighborhood that "nothing bad will ever happen here".
• When you leave kids at home by themselves, whether in the country or in the city, insist that they stay locked inside the house until you return.  In this situation, John was a good distance away but within yelling distance of his son so one would think the kid would be safe in such a situation but this could have turned tragic nevertheless.
• The part where John's young son was outside talking to the crackhead was terrifying.  Kids are generally kind to everyone and feel "grown up" when an adult asks them for help.  Unfortunately adults asking kids to "help them find their lost puppy" and similar requests have led to many children being kidnapped and even killed.
• This is a good reminder to have an emergency plan with your kids for how they handle strangers.  First, there should be a locked door between the kid and the stranger, kids should have options for places to hide within their homes, and they should know to call a parent or 911 in such an emergent situation.  Depending on the age and responsibility level of a kid at home alone, you may or may not allow them to have access to firearms to protect themselves.  Instead of yelling for his dad, John's son may have done better to run towards where his dad was (putting distance between the kid and an adult stranger is always a good idea).
• It wasn't clear in the video where the crackhead was staying (he was camping 'out in the woods' somewhere) but daily perimeter checks/walking the property line may have alerted John that someone was staying on his property.  You want to run squatters off your property immediately and not let them get comfortable there.
• I don't know where John lives but it seems very rural.  Unless the crackhead was living in a home nearby and got kicked out of the house, the idea that an addict would hike several miles out in the woods to camp seems highly improbable (addicts like to stay near people so they can beg for money, steal stuff to sell for drug money, and they never like to be far from their drug dealers).
• What are the odds that a random crackhead would show up in a very rural area at the house of a lauded special ops soldier?  Could be a coincidence but my Spidey senses would have been buzzing.
• It seems like John has good perimeter surveillance (cameras, etc) but lacks layers of perimeter security.  
• John has a dog (one of the best breeds for security IMHO) but not a solid way to utilize the dog for security.  If he lives on acres of unfenced rural property, just letting the dog roam is a good way to get it shot by a neighbor.  Having a fence around the home and yard keeps the dog in a secure area yet allows the dog to patrol the entire area around the house, creating a good layer of perimeter security).
• John said he didn't want to carry a concealed pistol all the time.  I think that if you are going to carry, carry, if you're not, then don't.  Deciding to sometimes carry a pistol on occasion to protect yourself is like deciding to sometimes wear a seatbelt in your car and hope you will be wearing it on the day you get in a car crash.  At least he had a shotgun with him but I find open-carried pistols easier to deal with than hauling a shotgun everywhere.
• John decided to scoop up the ODing crackhead and race him to the hospital.  On the one hand, John was armed and knows how to protect himself, on the other hand, it sounds like he left his family at home when he took the guy to the hospital...how does he know the crackhead's friends aren't nearby and waiting to roll in when the wife and kids are home alone?
• Overall, it's good this story had a happy ending.  I can totally see why both John and his wife are still shook up over this incident (the security guy having a major security breach is both unexpected and scary), and this is yet another opportunity to use someone else's experience to allow you to create your own plan for what you would do if a similar situation happened at your home.