Home Defense–December 12, 2026

The course teaches home defense as a complete household protection system, not simply as a firearms problem. The main topics are:

• Understanding the threat: the difference between burglary, occupied burglary, and home invasion; what national crime data tell us about when and how these events occur; and why preparation should be based on evidence rather than fear or myths.
• Layered home security: how to deter, delay, and detect an intrusion using lighting, locks, reinforced doors, windows, alarms, cameras, and other practical measures that create more time and options.
• Household planning: identifying who must be protected, where family members should go, how they should communicate, how to account for children or vulnerable people, and how to balance emergency access with secure firearm storage.
• Decision-making during an incident: recognizing what is actually happening, distinguishing facts from assumptions, accounting for family members, using distance and barriers, communicating clearly, calling 911, and continuously reassessing changing circumstances.
• Scenario-based judgment: working through realistic situations such as an unknown person at the front door and a nighttime disturbance inside the home, with emphasis on avoiding premature or unnecessary action.
• Maryland legal and ethical principles: when defensive force may be justified, why unlawful entry does not automatically justify deadly force, the importance of imminence and reasonableness, and the principle that force must stop when the threat stops.
• Medical preparedness: recognizing that anyone may be injured during a defensive event, preparing basic trauma supplies, and understanding the importance of bleeding-control skills and hands-on training.
• What happens afterward: dealing with 911, responding police officers, medical care, scene preservation, and the confusion and stress that can continue after the immediate threat has ended.
• Personal action planning: conducting a home-security audit and leaving the course with specific steps to improve household readiness over the next 30 days.

The central message tying all of these topics together is:

Home defense is a system. Prevent what you can, recognize danger early, create time and options, protect innocent life, use force only when necessary, reassess continuously, and prepare for what happens next.

The course is taught by Francis Duffy. He is a certified firearms instructor who is also a Ranger-qualified Green Beret veteran. He is a member of the Maryland Shall Issue Board of Directors.