How is your home defended?

[Spookey]

Dear All,

With crime constantly on the rise and the number of violent home invasions at the fore front...I am wondering what measures you currently utilize to defend your home as a safe haven.

Firearms, alarms, dogs, and other physical safety and security measures. Which do you use? What is your methodology, what are you preparing to defend against, and what steps have you taken to secure your personal refuge?

TAEKWON!
SpooKeY

 

[clfsean]

4 dogs...
.45 ACP...
911 on speed dial...

... Bad attitude for invading my space...

 

[evenflow1121]

I have a burglar alarm, I have a dog but I dont expect the dog to do much.

 

[Spookey]

Dear Guys,

Thank you for getting things started. I hope to be joined by many more posters!

Since you guys have started the ball rolling I will jump in the mix! There are a few things I use to base my judgement on. Here are those factors and what I have implemented to assist!

A head start is of the greatest importance...(this allows you crucial time to defend the perimeter.)

-All windows should be secured with vedge bars to prevent rapid entry. This will also require the window to be broken in order to gain entry thus giving an audible signal of the intruders presence.

-All doors should have re-enforced door knobs (ie crash plates) and extended dead bolts (4" which will protrude into the studs that frame the door). Also, it is preferable to have either a metal or solid hardwood door at all exterior entrances. Again this will slow the entry process.

Have a designated safe room in the house...it is much easier to defend one predetermined area. Also, this will limit the odds of "friendly fire".

-All occupants of the home should know the desiganted safe room which should be easily accessible from all other rooms of the home. Routes should be predetermined and drills should be practiced frequently (just like fire drills).

Have designated responsibilities in the safe room.

-Know who is responsible for dialing 911 and talking to the authorities

-Where available, designate a secondary defender (spouse or other capable family member). If you must engage the threat outside the safe room in order to maintain distance between the threat and your family, determine code words to notify the secondary defender not to shoot (if and when) the threat is neutralized and you choose to re-enter the safe room.

Preping the Safe Room...

-Have a cell phone (fully charged and with a good signal) in a desiganted spot in the safe room

-When utilizing a "secondary defender" make certain that any firearm is clean, loaded, and in it's designated location

-Make certain family members know where to be (out of the line of fire between a secondary defender and the doorway) and that the secondary defender has a good line of site on the rooms entrance

Exterior Cover and Concealment (outside the safe room)

-What areas will allow you the best line of site on the point of attempted entry (these should be pre-determined). This area should offer cover when possible and enough concealment to launch your defensive measures (ambush) should the need arise.

These are a few steps that I believe will assist in the probablility of surviving an attempted home invasion. The measures you take to prevent they entry will ultimately dictate the over all ability of your training to be benificial!

I believe in the use of firearms as a means of home defense. Also, I believe that things such as long gun vs hand gun vs shotgun (and the caliber issues) are completely secondary to creating a means to utilize a firearm to your advantage based on location, angle of attack (defense), and the mere ability to obtain said firearm prior to the engagement!

TAEKWON!
SpooKeY

 

[MA-Caver]

I ended up grinning after reading all this ... I used to be for a very brief time a professional thief. Almost got my head blown off and that caused me to repent forever! I'm not going to poke holes in your spiel here, they're all good advice ... from my stand-point of experience.
Having a dawg, yes of course that is a great deterrent... if you got a dog that will do something like defend it's (pack's) territory. Make sure that the animal is well trained so it doesn't mistake a family member trying to come into the house late late at night and they forgot their keys, and they don't want to wake anyone up, stupid I know but it has happened. The animal should know each family (and close trusted friend's) scent well so attack is not on it's mind. This means feeding and playing with the animal is needed by all who would come in contact with it. A dog that has a good loud and deep barking voice will give the impression that there's something in the house that will mess the intuder up badly should twain ever meet.
One fella I know was allergic to dogs, sooo, in his own security system (he's independently wealthy btw) he had motion sensors that not only triggered lights but a recording of not one but TWO dogs barking their heads off. Dunno if he's ever had it go off (for real).
Weaponry; also a good choice but the type of firearm and ammunition should be taken in careful consideration. Unless you've built your house to prevent a bullet from traveling through the walls then a weak type of bullet or one that fragments after hitting a solid object would be the safest. All family members should be alerted and know that they need to eat carpet to prevent any type of mishap. But awakening the family might alert the intruder wouldn't it... not a bad thing because the intuder might skee-daddle while the house lights come on. You have to let the intruder know that you see him, a great white shark will not attack if you let it know you see it. Giving out a loud verbal warning will alert the intruder that you're not to be messed with, it also helps you out in court too should you have to incapacitate the intruder. Having witnesses (think tape recording) to the fact that you warned the intruder that they will be shot if they don't vacate helps I would think. LEO's reading this, what do you think?

Dear Guys,

Thank you for getting things started. I hope to be joined by many more posters!

Since you guys have started the ball rolling I will jump in the mix! There are a few things I use to base my judgement on. Here are those factors and what I have implemented to assist!

A head start is of the greatest importance...(this allows you crucial time to defend the perimeter.)

-All windows should be secured with vedge bars to prevent rapid entry. This will also require the window to be broken in order to gain entry thus giving an audible signal of the intruders presence.

Definitely secure windows with a bar that prevents ease of opening. However they should not impede rapid removal in case of a fire. Something to think about. Want to keep undesirables out sure, but not to keep anyone else in.
"Audible signal of intruders presence"... heh that made me giggle. Here's why. Without hearing aids I might as well be stone deaf. When I'm in deep sleep I am stone deaf. I don't sleep with my hearing aid on (drains the battery ya know?) so this option just-don't-quite-fit :wink1:

-All doors should have re-enforced door knobs (ie crash plates) and extended dead bolts (4" which will protrude into the studs that frame the door). Also, it is preferable to have either a metal or solid hardwood door at all exterior entrances. Again this will slow the entry process.

Definitely another good idea, if the individual home-owner can afford it. Yes, of course the age old question of how much is one's safety worth? Obviously one cannot put a suitable price-tag on one's life and family's safety. But many people do the best they can. A good stout dead bolt in a solid door is an adequate deterrent. Unless the intruder is a skilled lock picker it will turn away for in favor of easier prey. Chains on the door also makes it harder.
Basically the more "rough" the neighborhood the more tough the security of the home. Those living in L.A. Miami, New Yawk and other large cities know this.

Have a designated safe room in the house...it is much easier to defend one predetermined area. Also, this will limit the odds of "friendly fire".
-All occupants of the home should know the desiganted safe room which should be easily accessible from all other rooms of the home. Routes should be predetermined and drills should be practiced frequently (just like fire drills).
Have designated responsibilities in the safe room.
-Know who is responsible for dialing 911 and talking to the authorities
-Where available, designate a secondary defender (spouse or other capable family member). If you must engage the threat outside the safe room in order to maintain distance between the threat and your family, determine code words to notify the secondary defender not to shoot (if and when) the threat is neutralized and you choose to re-enter the safe room.
Preping the Safe Room...
-Have a cell phone (fully charged and with a good signal) in a desiganted spot in the safe room
-When utilizing a "secondary defender" make certain that any firearm is clean, loaded, and in it's designated location
-Make certain family members know where to be (out of the line of fire between a secondary defender and the doorway) and that the secondary defender has a good line of site on the rooms entrance

A safe room in the house is good. Can everyone get to it? Much more importantly... can everyone get OUT of it should there be something wrong or the intruder is insane enough to try and force themselves to the safe-room's occupants? If that's the case then something is terribly wrong here and definitely lethal force will be required. Elsewhere on MT a thread had talked about the repercussions of such acts.

Line of fire? As long as it's defensive, sure this spot as good as another. If it turns out to be a firefight (two shooters) then everywhere is the line of fire isn't it? Thus my earlier statement of eating carpet, and having another way OUT of the safe room should the need arise.

I live in an apartment complex and thus don't really have any place that could be determined as a safe-room. Also I do not own a firearm and thus a large hunting knife, my Martial skills and warrior thinking (when called upon) are my only means of defense. Of these I am confident enough to face down an intruder if that ever happens and God help the intruder.

Exterior Cover and Concealment (outside the safe room)

-What areas will allow you the best line of site on the point of attempted entry (these should be pre-determined). This area should offer cover when possible and enough concealment to launch your defensive measures (ambush) should the need arise.

These are a few steps that I believe will assist in the probablility of surviving an attempted home invasion. The measures you take to prevent they entry will ultimately dictate the over all ability of your training to be benificial!

I believe in the use of firearms as a means of home defense. Also, I believe that things such as long gun vs hand gun vs shotgun (and the caliber issues) are completely secondary to creating a means to utilize a firearm to your advantage based on location, angle of attack (defense), and the mere ability to obtain said firearm prior to the engagement!

TAEKWON!
SpooKeY

Well I don't know where you live but it seems that such precautions are seemingly necessary. Kinda sad when you think about it... I mean one of Rockwell's 4 freedoms can't seem to apply here, for you I mean ... "Freedom from fear". ( I don't mean that in a critique either).
Thieves usually try to find easy targets, they try to find places where resistance is nil to slim at best. They also research (a good thief does anyway) the neighborhoods they want to "work" in to find the houses/residences that would yield the best haul. They'll watch and try to see as much as they can to know if the payoff will be worth the risk. They'll feint breaking into a place to make sure they won't have any problems when they go for real. These of course are the actions of a true professional. A casual thief or occasional one will be more stupid and daring in the risk factor.
Also statistics show a large number (I forget the number ) of B & E's occur in the day time hours. Everyone is away at work/school/etc.
You have to give your intruder a damn good reason to break in while you're home. Anyone who is willing to do that is of a different caliber than the average thief and subsquently a far more dangerous individual. They either have rape, kidnapping or murder on their minds, I can't think of any other reason why someone would run the extreme risk to their lives by overtly (or even stealthly) breaking in to a dwelling while the occupants are still present than those three.

 

[sgtmac_46]

As an LEO I can say most emphatically that anyone who breaks in to my house while I am present, will die in whatever room I find them. I don't care if they are 17 year old meth heads or 70 year old meth heads. My lair is sacrosanct.

That said, there are numerous good points brought up in above posts. I'd like to expound on a thread talking about rounds over penetrating walls and striking inintended targets and such. I've been pounding this in to peoples heads for several years. Women (and men) who decide they need a firearm for self-defense invariably decide to get a pistol, because it's small and seems easy to handle. The truth is that a pistol is a difficult weapon to learn to use effectively. I always steer people with little firearm experience toward the classic home defender, the shotgun. The shotgun is capable of using multiple types of loads. Further, a shotgun loaded with #4 or #6 shot is more than capable of causing terminal wound balistics on a human body and even the largest ranges found inside a house. The wound ballistics are typically greater and cause faster incapacitation than most pistol ballistics. Using that same smaller shot pattern, most sheet rock can stop the rounds from passing through.

 

[KenpoTex]

I live in a 1-bdrm apartment on the second floor of the building.
Front door: Deadbolt and one of those hotel-door latches.
Sliding door: always locked unless I'm inside and awake
Bedroom window: locked (kind of a non-issue since only spiderman could climb the smooth brick wall).

Weapons:
.45 on desk by front door (out of sight)
9mm on nightstand
12-gauge behind bedroom door
knives, impact weapons, etc. in various places.

A really bad attitude toward anyone stupid enough to break into my home.

 

[rmcpeek]

This is something I don't sit and contemplate or worry about. IF it happens, and you have weapons in the home, unless that weapon is basically under your pillow, how are you going to get to it? If you have kids in your home, you certainly don't want to have a loaded weapon around easy to access.

Myself, I know what I'm capable of doing to someone with my bare hands if confronted or my home was invaded. The outcome will not be pleasant for the intruder.

We keep the home locked up tight at night. My German Shepherd hears and sees anything and everything while we sleep and lets me know real quick if anything is out of the ordinary. If anyone were to break in here, they'd better pray I get to them before the dog does. Although, this person would be leaving in a meat wagon either way.

9mm S&W & 12 gauge shotgun (locked up, I've got kids) so not much use unless there's time to get to them and unlock em.

 

[Jerry]

4 dogs...
.45 ACP...
911 on speed dial...

... Bad attitude for invading my space...

Make mine a .40 and I'm right there with you

 

[BrandiJo]

a big scary dog, and a dad who has way to many guns

 

[Bammx2]

with a stick.

God forbid if you're allowed anything good to defend yourself here in th uk......
ack.

 

[elder999]

I pretty much live in a wilderness area, or, more formally, an "urban wilderness interface" in Forest Service jargon. This means that my most likely home invader is a black bear.

It also means , barring happenstance, that my wife and I can count on a minimum response time of 45 minutes for law enforcement, and 20-30 minutes for local volunteer emergency medical and fire.

Cell phones don't work-except for satellite-though we do have radios and scanners, they're mostly for forest fires.

We're both EMT's, or former EMT's, so we've got medical covered, somwhat.

If it's a prison escapee that breaks in instead of a bear though,it's all the same:we're pretty much on our own.

We have a variety of weapons-including a variety of firearms, with the principle home defense being our pump-action shotguns. We also have an alarm system, motion and alarm activated lighting, a lot of fence, two mutts and one great big dog-he's a fila brasiliero-they basically eat intruders, and do a damn good job of keeping bears away from the house, and out of our orchard-which only means we see them once or twice a year at the house, instead of repeatedly.

Back east, I had two occasions to repel human break ins with a shotgun; both times, all I had to do was rack the slide and say "Get out of my house or I will shoot you!" and they left.Quickly. Conclusion? Shoot anyone that doesn't run at that sound-they're obviously nuts, or have truly bad intentions These days, they're not likely to get any verbal warning from me, just that ker-chuck sound.

 

[KenpoTex]

a big scary dog, and a dad who has way to many guns

Not Possible

 

[Simon Curran]

A lousy temper when woken prematurely and a few sticks lying around, plus the kitchen knife magnet hangs right outside my bedroom door...

 

[SwedishChef]

with a stick.

God forbid if you're allowed anything good to defend yourself here in th uk......
ack.

Well with a good filipino MA background a stick might be all you need. A gun would still be better though.

 

[rutherford]

The only time I lock my door is when I'm leaving for at least a week.

This is quite a change for me, since I grew up in a high-crime neighborhood and once had to physically repelled a home invader who was climbing in through a window left open on a hot summer night.

I sleep a lot better now.

 

[Kamaria Annina]

Well, we always lock our doors. We keep a porch light on, and we a motion detector light as well. We have two rottweilers, and they always bark whenever someone is here. Naturally, they are just protecting dogs, and all they do is bark, they would never bite unless someone was actually trying to do us harm. (Plus they're in their cages) But, none the less, I think it would give someone a good scare.

 

[shesulsa]

The number one thing for us is LOCKING OUR WINDOWS AND DOORS. Dowels in the double-paned windows (which also have storm windows in place), sliding glass door and front door has a security screen door.

Someone will HAVE to break to enter if they do, lending me the ability to use anything at my disposal.

 

[searcher]

I used small brads(nails) to tack the windows shut and dead bolt the doors.

I have no handguns, but prefer the use of my shotgun with hot loads.

We have a dog that barks when anyone comes onto the property.

If they decidee that after all of these things they still want to steal something, they just need to knock and I will let them have what they want. If they decide to get violent then so be it, I will then decide what to do. I hope.

 

[Eldritch Knight]

Well, on a college student's budget, I don't tend to have much to defend, let alone many implements with which to defend it. However, being as combat-minded as I am, I do what I can. For now, that's an escrima stick near my doorway and a bokuto within arm's reach of my bed.