Has your family discussed separate responses for threatening situations, medical emergencies, severe weather, fire, and other major disruptions?

Do family members understand their responsibilities, backup responsibilities, communication expectations, and how children or other dependents will be supported?

Has your household reviewed ordinary security layers such as visibility, exterior lighting, doors, windows, access control, alarms, cameras, and maintenance?

Does your family consistently follow agreed practices for visitors, deliveries, keys, doors, vehicles, and reporting unusual activity?

Can responsible family members recognize a developing threat, seek help, create distance, and avoid unnecessarily moving toward danger?

Has the household discussed a general response to unlawful entry, an attack on a family member, or a dangerous event affecting the home or property?

If defensive tools are present, are they lawful, responsibly stored, protected from unauthorized access, maintained, and used only by appropriately trained people?

Do responsible adults understand that defensive actions require sound judgment, restraint, legally justifying circumstances, and preparation for the medical and legal aftermath?

Can the household distinguish when to evacuate from when to shelter in place during an active threat, severe weather, fire, hazardous condition, or official emergency order?

Can the family receive reliable alerts, account for separated members, support dependents and pets, and sustain essential needs during a realistic disruption?

Are suitable first-aid supplies available and are responsible family members trained in first aid, CPR, AED use, or bleeding control appropriate to their roles?

Are medications, emergency medical information, accessibility needs, and medical equipment reviewed, protected, and kept reasonably current?

Does the family have general plans for travel, vehicle emergencies, communication failures, missed check-ins, and reunification away from home?

Does the household protect personal information and coordinate appropriate emergency contacts with schools, workplaces, caregivers, or trusted support persons?

Does your family understand that shelter-in-place actions must change according to the specific danger?

Can responsible family members receive verified emergency alerts when power, cellular service, or internet access is disrupted?

Does the household understand that an evacuation order, emergency instruction, or immediate change in conditions may override the original plan?

Do plans account for children, older adults, people with disabilities, medical or power-dependent needs, visitors, and pets?

Active threat: Do adults understand that moving through or toward a dangerous area may increase exposure and that the safest available protective action can change as conditions change?

Active threat: Has the family discussed how to recognize an appropriate place of temporary protection without recording or sharing its location publicly?

Active threat: Can household members receive or relay urgent information without unnecessarily revealing their location or drawing attention to themselves?

Active threat: Does the plan address accountability when family members are in different rooms, buildings, schools, workplaces, or public locations?

Active threat: Do family members understand that they should follow lawful instructions from responding authorities and avoid interfering with emergency operations?

Active threat: Has the household discussed how the need for escape, temporary sheltering, emergency medical aid, or another protective action may change during the event?

Weather or hazardous event: Has the household identified which local hazards may require sheltering, evacuation, or either action depending on official instructions?

Weather or hazardous event: Have appropriate sheltering areas been considered for severe wind, tornadoes, hurricanes, lightning, extreme temperatures, or other locally relevant conditions?

Weather or hazardous event: Does the family understand that an indoor location suitable for severe wind may not be suitable for fire, flooding, or contaminated outdoor air?

Weather or hazardous event: Are water, food, medications, lighting, communications, sanitation, backup power, and other essential needs available for a realistic sheltering period?

Weather or hazardous event: Does the plan address ventilation, utilities, structural conditions, and when qualified emergency, building, medical, or hazardous-material guidance is needed?

Has the household reviewed or practiced both an active-threat sheltering discussion and a weather or hazardous-event sheltering discussion within the past year?

Have the adults in your household discussed that the purpose of defensive force is to stop an immediate unlawful threat and reach safety—not to punish or retaliate?

Do the adults understand that non-deadly force and deadly force are treated differently under the law?

Do responsible family members understand that self-defense and defense-of-others laws vary by jurisdiction and can change?

Can the adults distinguish between a purpose-designed defensive tool, an ordinary object deliberately selected as an improvised tool, and an object used reactively during an altercation?

Do they understand that an ordinary object may be treated as a weapon based on how it is displayed or used?

Are purpose-designed defensive tools lawfully possessed, responsibly stored, and protected from unauthorized access?

Has every person authorized to use a defensive tool received appropriate hands-on instruction for that specific tool?

Do the adults understand that any force used should be necessary and proportionate to the immediate threat?

Do they understand that protecting a relative or close friend still requires legally justifying circumstances?

Have they considered the danger of intervening before they understand who the aggressor is and what is occurring?

Do they understand that force must stop when the threat no longer requires it?

Does the family have a general post-incident plan that prioritizes safety, emergency contact, and needed medical care?

Do responsible adults understand the risks of publicly posting or casually discussing the details of a defensive incident?

Has the household identified a qualified local attorney or evaluated a self-defense legal-support option before an emergency?

If a legal-support program is being considered, has the family compared its current terms, exclusions, household coverage, covered defensive methods, criminal and civil support, geographic limits, and state availability?