If we can expect to educate our children to escape on their own when the smoke detector goes off, it's not a stretch to expand that to a home invasion.

And you don't have to wait for gunshots. Maybe set up some emergency keyword. Regardless of where they are in the house, if you say it, they immediately try to exit and run to the neighbor's house or whatever plan you already have set up.

Especially with these take-hostages-type home invasions, the last thing you want is a hostage-taker having leverage over you with one of your kids or a spouse.

Actually, as Strong points out, it's conceivable that you may be put in the position of having to choose--the bad guy has your kid but you still have the chance to escape. He orders you to come to him or else he'll hurt your child. Do you obey, in an attempt to keep the child safe, or do you flee and call police? Instinctually, you probably want to stay, which is exactly how the bad guy exerts control over you. This tactic has been used many times. Remember that incredibly rare but brutally shocking home invasion in Conneticut ? One guy can psychologically control a whole family even though he couldn't physically control everyone if they all decided to bolt or fight back at once. (As a side note: I'm not even sure the two guys who did that crime even had guns.)