Thanks in advance.
ampu
There are lots of good suggestions here.
I’ve decided first, that I need a plan that:
1. Thinks ahead to eliminate many vulnerabilities
2. Includes both floors
3. Doesn’t depend on just me, since I travel at times
4. Includes firepower in the event of an actual break-in.
Keep the suggestions coming. I appreciate them.
The first thing to do is look objectively at your situation.
1) Is a local crime analysis available for your area? It is a big help if your local paper publishes one. Just a quick look will tell you if there are lots of burglaries, car thefts, vandalism, or other crime in your neighborhood. This is a good way to calculate risk, and from what direction.
2) If crimes are minor, and peripheral to your home, surveillance cameras and motion sensitive lights are a good start. Such crimes are often local juveniles, who are easy to dissuade.
3) If the main crime is burglary, then your defense should be burglary oriented. That is, an occupied looking house is a lot safer, because burglars will usually avoid it. Your local police will also give much advise on burglar-proofing your home.
If the problem is violent crimes and home invasion, then you need to consider much more serious and expensive measures. Metal instead of wood doors are helpful, as well as things like double paned windows, security shutters, or even bars. The purpose is not to stop them completely, but to slow them down enough for you to respond.
You have to assume murderous intent with a home invader or invaders, so do not rely on a dog. Many home invaders are incoherent with drugs and alcohol as well.
This means a gun and a cell phone are essential. But as you pointed out, a gun is probably not going to be handy in your day to day life. So start by putting a big canister of pepper spray next to your door.
If you answer the door to an incoherent and violent person, a blast of pepper spray in the face may be just the thing. The same if they try to push their way in. It is just so you can close and secure the door. Then cell phone and gun time. Shout warnings to everyone else in the house, and be ready for them to come through a window or back door at any moment.
As soon as you call 911, you have defeated most of what an armed home invasion gang can do. So your emphasis is to protect yourself and your family until they arrive. Optimally, they will run off. However, a maniac does not care about the police, and if armed, may be resistant to even bullets, so if you shoot him, insure he is dead.
From that point, your biggest risk is being confused with the home invader by the police, so have a care.
It sounds like there is a much higher than average chance of a home invasion in your neighborhood and you should prepare. First, get an alarm system. It may be an annoyance if it goes off accidentally, but it will wake you up and give you a chance to arm yourself. It will probably also make a person who breaks in flee.
Second, get several guns, all exactly the same and place them at strategic location in the house. A double action revolver in 38 special is a good choice.
I would suggest one in the bedroom, one in the kitchen and maybe one in the laundry room, and crazy as it may seem, one in the bathroom (preferably a stainless steel model). The point is to identify all the most likely entry points, where you would retreat to, and where the gun is.
Third, practice with the gun at a range. Take a gun safety and tactics coarse. If your state allows it, get a carry permit and NEVER LEAVE HOME WITHOUT YOUR GUN. You most vulnerable point is between the car and your back door.
Yes, a gun in each room, preferably behind cover and easily accessible as you retreat throughout the house, if necessary. Remember that drywall doesn’t stop bullets.
Same gun would be preferable but, boring as you practice, practice, practice. BOTH of you!!
So get a gun that your wife is comfortable with and that she would enjoy shooting often.
Here’s my set up:
The easiest access into my home (third story apartment) is through the front door. I keep it locked with a small door stop with a very loud electronic alarm under the bottom of the door when I’m home. Even if an intruder breeches the locks, he will have a really hard time getting the door open enough to enter, all the while the alarm is shrieking away.
The front door leads to a short hallway. Two ordinary kitchen chairs, placed side-by-side can block the hallway. If there’s time, they can quickly be put in place with the seats facing towards the door and a short wooden dowel slipped through the bottom stretchers. The dowel requires that both chairs have to moved simultaneously, meaning the intruder will have to use both hands, while leaning forward. Try it and you will see how vulnerable to attack someone in that position is.
If the sonofabitch manages to get through all that then he is a dead man. My normal home defense firearms are a 1911 pistol, a 357 revolver and a 20 gauge shottie loaded with #3 buck. The firearms are kept ‘handy’ at all times when I’m home.
Take a look around your home and consider what steps can be taken to thwart or slow down an invader to give you enough time to respond properly. There are usually plenty of small things that can be done in that regard.
Of course, the last line of defense is deadly force. Proper equipment and training is the key in that area.
Here’s what your list of preparation priorities should be, IMHO:
1. Prepare your home and make plans to keep unwanted people out. It is very difficult for people to make a quick entry followed by harming you and yours (or just taking off with your worldly goods) if getting into your home is difficult or next to impossible. Keeping them out also avoids a lot of legal and moral dilemmas and headaches. So, best to keep them out in the first place. There are many options on how to do this; you should easily be able to find pointers here and elsewhere on the web.
2. As an extension of #1, do not “lower your shields” for someone you do not know. This means don’t open the door for a stranger at night, don’t even crack the door to ask someone what they want. Have a camera and intercom system installed or do it yourself; they’re under $100 now. If someone comes to your house at night and claims they need help, there’s almost nothing you’re going to be able to do for them that will not make your own situation worse. If someone claims that they need medical assistance, call 911 and have them send an ambulance to your address - along with the police. If someone claims their car has broken down and they want to use your phone to call someone, ask them to give you the number over the intercom and offer to call for you. DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES OPEN THAT DOOR.
3. Realize that that plan, like any plan, can fail. Prepare and plan for what happens in the unlikely event that someone *does* get inside your house. This means firearms will need to be obtained, training will need to be had, and planning and training will need to continue. Also, realize that you will need to seek out a lawyer ahead of time and have his number handy in case someone forces you to shoot them by invading your home - this will save you a lot of time in the long run.
I’m sure others will have additional or different ideas.
Swords are nice. You can have one in a decorative mount in the hallway, and visitors will only see a nice decoration, and won't notice that it is functionally sharp high-carbon steel
Having a handgun quickly accessible in your home office and in your bedroom is also prudent. You want one to be in a place you can run to while retreating from an intruder, rather than where you would be unable to get it in an emergency. It's good to have more than one gun, and have them in more than one place
Handguns placed strategically throughout the house. Do a walk through and identify your areas on cover in each room and, in the alternative, concealment. Learn the difference between the two. If you believe someone has entered, do not go looking for him/them, let them come to you as you will then have the advantage. Don’t go tip-toeing around peeking around corners ... that is the movies. Aim for center mass. The list goes on and on ... I was taught by an excellent ex-special-forces guy 20 years ago when I bought my first firearm for self defense. You may have a similar good guy at your local gun range. ;-)
Oh, I forgot ... American Bulldogs are heavy sleepers, mine snores like a freight train. The breeder in Brownsville that I bought her from had several in the house and he shared with me that most folks who keep American Bulldogs also keep a small breed like a rat terrier. The little one will wake up the AB when a noise is detected. We have a rat terrier/maltese mix that provides the wake-up service.
Even if it’s fake, but a domed security camera with a flashing LED that can be seen at night. Put it in an obvious spot that no one would miss.
You might think about a safe room if you have a family. This would be an interior room with a steel door (as above) and a deadbolt lock. No exterior windows. In it you will have a cellphone and a firearm. You will train your family to retreat there and call 911 - stay put until the officers are onsite. Anyone forcing their way through that door may be presumed to mean you violence and should be engaged immediately with as much firepower as you can bring to bear. They will, incidentally, be nicely framed up for the shot.
The key to not being simply overwhelmed before you can avail yourselves of this option is what tacticians term situational awareness. That involves the ability to observe a potential threat and decide on a course of action before it comes within combat range. In short, you keep the initiative and the likelihood of there even being a confrontation is diminished. Once you are in reaction mode the threat has the initiative and he has likely already thought his own courses of action out. Avoid this at all costs.
The dog is a good idea. He/she isn't an entire solution but his/her mere presence will tend to dissuade all but the extremely violent and crazy. If it comes to a confrontation, do not count on the dog do all your fighting for you. Three assailants, one dog - you do the math.
There aren't any options quite as useful as firearms in this particular arena, both for the fact that they negate a differential in physical strength and the fact that an assailant is likely to have one. Mere possession is not enough - you must be trained enough to be able to employ it properly in the high-adrenaline environment that such situations offer. And you must be determined to follow through with it - if you aren't, don't bother. Walk through possible invasion scenarios in your head so you won't have to wing it on the spot.
It is generally not good advice for a homeowner, even an armed one, to attempt to clear his property alone. Professionals do this in teams for a reason. Stay put and let the pros do their thing.
I would never recommend anything from a movie as good policy except perhaps for Tuco's advice in The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly, and that is simply this - "If you have to shoot, shoot. Don't talk."
Option 1: Carry a gun with you at all times at home (those who carry in public usually do this.) Holstered pistol is advised.
Option 2: Stash a gun everywhere you spend much time. By bed, by computer, by TV, in shop, etc.
Have more than one. I have one beside me right now, and another in my nightstand. (Even if I didn't have two .45s, I'd have my M1 Carbine beside my computer table, as I once did.) They don't have to be expensive, or even handguns. Patriot Arms makes an inexpensive Carbine in 9mm and .40 S&W. A "serious social purposes" shotgun can be had for well under $200. (Maverick by Mossberg if you want to go Made In USA, but there are others as well, for example Turkish manufactured Charles Daley for $170 at cdnnsports.com)
Bad thing about two stories, is that if you are on the upper story, your options are decreased. You can't retreat out a window if you'd want to. You've probably only got one way out, but also one point to defend. The shotgun would work well for that.
Kids in the house? education and responsibilities are a must.
Puppies are good for giving you a precious few seconds to arm yourself. Dont expect more than that from even the baddest dogs, although they may stop the bg, dont count on it.
Upper bedroom is equipped for a small invasion force repellant, downstairs is my achilles heel as well, but a couple of well placed pistols [outta reach from toddlers] including the carry pieces are within one rooms reach, thats where the puppies come in.
Communication with the household beforehand in preparation, like a fire drill, seems to go along way to reacting in a suprise.
in a perfect world I'll get the shotgun over the mantle for a quick burst as well, but mental prep to do the nessesary action is key for me.../ramble...
Thanks to everyone who offered suggestions. I made a list and
starting to work on it.
attack cats are great.
put a nice light in front of your door. put a good dead bolt on your door, the ones that can only be locked and unlocked from your side of the door. Dont talk to people through your door, if you cant see them through your peep hole(they are blocking it, or they arnt in your view) grab your shotgun and cock it, that will scare them. dont have it 2 steps away, the home invader will kick in your door as soon as you open it a crack and you will have a gun/knife in your face. i recommend a shotgun under your bed loaded, and a handgun in your dresser next to your bed. and if you really want to, move to a better neighborhood.