If possible, I would never approach a building from the perpetrator's only course of exit.
If there is a window, peek first and locate the perp and see if he is unarmed.
If he's unarmed, shine the light in a window opposite from the door......if there is a window.
When he runs out, break out the wrist rocket with some round salt pellets.........this will make him run faster when applied to the middle of the back.
Corporal punishment for the win.
Fire a few shots from a gun that go safely wide while yelling "I will slit your throat and drink your blood".
Start up vehicle and careen around as if hunting him down......he will surely hear it.
He will never return.
Remember, you are in alaska where gunshots are largely ignored.
This is all rather silly and utterly unrealistic.
You shoot when you have to. You can't hesitate, or you very well may die. You don't bluff or bluster. No warning shots. You don't shoot to wound. You don't play games. Defending one's life is as serious as it gets. When seconds count, the cops are at least minutes away. Oh, and Colmbo, if you ever have to use a firearm to challenge a criminal again, safety off before your encounter them. Fine motor skills go to hell when the adrenalin is flowing. The only functions you want to have remaining to do is develop your sight picture and pull the trigger. And when you shoot, you continue to shoot until the bad guy is down and not moving.
I've had a few encounters where a firearm was needed to end trouble. Only once, when I was 12 (1965), did I have to discharge a weapon in the process of self defense. Now, nearly 50 years later, I still feel bad that circumstances forced me to do what I did. In that case, I was dealing with three older teenagers (the ring leader was 17) wanting to take my Crosman Model 99 .22 cal pellet rifle from me, on our own property. I refused to hand it over. My 8 year-old brother was with me, and he was very frightened. The oldest one threatened to take it and kick my butt. I figured I was going to get a beating if I didn't hand it over, and a sure fire whoopin' by dad if I did.. Choices... I aimed it at him and told him to leave. He laughed and asked, "Whadda ya goin' to do, shoot me?"
I made my choice.... I shot him in the thigh. Low power (450 fps). It hurt, a lot. He fell onto his backside and stared at his leg, the pellet no doubt having broken the skin. He looked at me. I cycled the lever and pulled the hammer back to max power (700 fps). I aimed at his face. "You better leave now", I told him. His friends pulled him to his feet, and they left. Out of sight, they yelled some insults. I fully expected a visit from the police. Didn't get one, though. I told my father what happened. He didn't get angry... "I guess you did what you had to do", he said. He told me not to venture away from the vicinity of the house with the Crosman. I didn't. Thereafter, I did my shooting behind the garage and not in our woods.
Not long after, walking home from school, I ran into Warren again, this time with just one friend. He ran his mouth. "You ain't got no gun now, do you?" "No", I replied, "but you know I'll go home and get it. Leave me alone, Warren." I turned and walked away. He ran his mouth some more as I left, but I ignored him and continued on my way.
The next year, my dad bought me a Marlin model 10, single shot bolt action .22 rifle. That, we shot in the garage or old barn on the corner of the property. Earned some money using it to shoot crows for the local farmer's bounty. I would sling it across my back, shove a box of 50 cartridges in my pocket and ride up the road to the farms, right past the school. No one looked at me twice. These days, there would be a SWAT team dispatched and helicopters circling.... How times have changed. Today, society is completely paranoid.
About a year and a half after this incident, Warren was drafted. He ended up in Vietnam. He returned with an severe alcohol habit, and literally drank himself into oblivion. In the late 1980s, at a backyard party, drunk to a near stupor, he dived into the shallow end of an in-ground pool and broke his neck. Paralyzed from the neck down, he died a couple of years later. A tragic figure, Warren was an example of how to do just about everything wrong.
In short, shooting someone is traumatic, for the shooter and the other guy. It's something you want to avoid if at all possible. You may be fully justified, but that will not change the fact of what happened. You hurt or killed someone, and that will follow you in your dreams forever. You learn to live with it, but you'll never be comfortable with it.
