My hearing has always been very sensitive to loud sounds/noises. In a home defense scenario that would involve the use of firearms, I fear that the pain/discomfort to my hearing might make me less than effective in defending my family.

So, that made me ponder if obtaining some Active Hearing Protection (such as this) might be a good idea?
Any thoughts and/or personal recommendations are welcome.

I've got the Peltor Tac 6 and those look quite similar. IF you have the time to don a good headset like these, they should enhance your hearing (turn up the volume) and also protect your hearing if you do need to discharge your weapon inside.

Better make sure the bad guy's lawyers don't find out about that. They'd have a field day claiming that you premeditated the shooting, as made obvious by your use of hearing protection. And also that said hearing protectors prevented you from accurately assessing the situation, therefore acting recklessly.

In an emergency situation with the "fight or flight" reflex going on full bore, I seriously doubt your body will allow you to be all that sensitive to loud noises.

"I fear that the pain/discomfort to my hearing might make me less than effective in defending my family."

Really?

Having been a firearms instructor and worked law enforcement / corrections there is a thing called auditory exclusion that kicks in during a use of force incident. When cops that have been in a shooting are asked about it, they usually refer to hearing 'pops' if anything at all. In short, don't worry about it.

Point one: Always use hearing protection when at the range or when shooting outside at targets to save your hearing. If you have a deadly force confrontation it will not be an issue and you don't need to worry about it then. If you have a situation where you have to grab a gun, DO NOT complicate the process with "extra" gear. A good flashlight will be much more valuable.

Point two: Get good instruction on firearm use, practice a lot too as shooting is a perishable skill. Most shootings also take place in the dark or low light conditions so get instruction on that and find a way to practice with just a flashlight too. Last, the choice to have and maybe use a firearm is very personal but also has a huge responsibility.

I'd second the "don't worry about it" mentality. No real scientific data to back me up, just observations that few troops use hearing protection. Like someone said though, if you have time to get on earmuffs, you have time to do something else (911, evacuate, lock the door, etc).

I'd worry more about the gun "exploding" when you shoot for the first time at night. If you've never done it, you'll be seeing lots of gasses venting that you don't see in normal day light shooting. Be prepared for that.

I understand auditory exclusion as reducing the awareness of the gunfire, but I haven't seen anything indicating that it mitigates the high-decible hearing damage caused by gunfire. Am I misinformed?

You are right - hearing damage is hearing damage. However we are, in this instance, talking about a brief exposure (a few shots maybe at worst a dozen or less). This should not have any long term or major impact. Long term exposure such as discharging a firearm repeatedly would likely produce hearing loss. I for example do have some measured loss of hearing and I attribute it to being dumb when younger and doing a lot of shooting without good hearing protection.

The question here was for the situation and I would never recommend or consider the impact of auditory exclusion as a substitute for proper hearing protection and suitable use. In the situation being considered, I feel going without hearing protection would be appropriate and wearing it in a household "confrontation" would not be advisable. Thanks for helping clear this up.

In a real situation, you don't even notice the noise. My wife is very, very sensitive to loud noises, but when one of the roosters turned aggressive and she was trying to catch it because she was worried that it could possibly hurt our toddler, out came the Mossberg and BLAM! Not a mention of the noise. Same thing used to happen to me in firefighting. Fires can be LOUD, especially if the garage it burning and stuff in cans is going "boom" - yet somehow, I never really was bothered by that.

What round are you using? According to one of the columnists in Combat Handguns (O.K., not hearing experts, but make of it what you will) a few exposures to a magnum, such as .357 indoors, will cause permanent hearing loss.

Remember though, if you're alive, you can always buy a hearing aid.

O.K., so I also agree that my hearing is a minor concern. But my amplified hearing protectors (while allowing me to hear reasonably well.. and clamping out gunfire..) seem to reduce my ability to localize the sounds. If (for instance on the range) I'm looking downrange and someone talks to me - I hear them fine but I don't immediately locate them. Perhaps this is an artifact of the microphone location on my hearing protection. But I'd feel at a disadvantage in a dark house if I were wearing them. I'd have a hard time telling exactly where the noise was coming from.

My wife prefers the 20ga - it's a bit easier for her to handle the kick. We try to avoid discharging the gun indoors, but we have done night firing to see the gas discharge "explosion"

You need to practice the whole possible "engagement" with intruders ... under low-light conditions in your home. Work through the whole scenario carefully. Many home owners go down to the shooting range in the daytime, then assume they are ready to defend their homes at night. It takes more than that.

other Pete

If you have a weapon mounted light, practice shooting with it mounted -- the gun handles differently. It also allows you to see if the light stays mounted under recoil. A friend of mine borrowed my light to see if he liked it. Third shot and the light went for the deck -- not good.

Ditto! And, uh, ditto. That was with #4 shot too that my light fell off. It's now more appropriately seated.

Anyway, it's always a great idea to check the placement/security of a gun-mounted light. Which is, itself, a topic of great debate, mainly, don't point a gun at something you don't intend to shoot, which you have to do by default if the light is ON the gun.