Top 5 Tips for Protecting Yourself at Home

Self-Defense
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What are your top 5 suggestions for protecting yourself at home?

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  1. Maintain situational awareness: Know what is going on in your neighborhood and area. Stay in contact with your neighbors.

  2. Have a plan: Plan for home invasion, fire and critical medical events.

  3. Perimeter check: Secure your doors and windows. Turn on exterior lights at night. Keep vehicles locked.

  4. Know the whereabouts of your family members.

  5. Stay sober, mindful of others, rested and humble.

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  1. Foremost, establish you home in a safe area. Alternately if your home is already established ensure the area around your home stays safe. Keep alley ways clear and be a part of community pride and improvement activities.

  2. Clear the perimeter. Ensure there are no places to hide, park in or approach from unseen. Early detection is best and motion activated lights and sensors are everywhere these days.

  3. Get a decent security system, use it and boldly advertise that you use it. Technology is cheap and easy to use now days (contact sensors, motion sensors, and cameras can all be had wirelessly and if you can peel the paper off of two sided tape you can set them up).

  4. Have an emergency plan and practice it with EVERYONE that lives in the house

  5. Train and stay proficient with your chosen defense tools and skills.

Bonus answer
Don’t spend your time at the range if your foundation is infested with termites. You may come back from the range with great shooting skills only to find there is no home left to defend.

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  1. Situational Awareness, alert of your surroundings.
  2. Always check the outter perimeter of your house.
  3. Definitely make sure your cell phones are charge.
  4. Check all your firearms make sure they are loaded and ready to go.
  5. Lock all doors and if someone knocks make sure you know who it is before opening the door. Make sure your alarm system is in working order and charged.
  6. And most of all pray, Protect your wife and children, you know your wife is your right arm, if anything happens to her all home cooked meals go out the window, you then may have to live in a dirty house. So make sure nothing happens to her. LOL :joy: To all that smack I was talking and she’s sitting right next to me as I’m writing.
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  1. Research thoroughly to live in the safest yet financially feasible location (bought a house a few years ago. There were beautiful houses in areas not as good. Better to choose a not as great looking house for the location.) I understand not everyone has this as an option, but I think this is number one. My wife and I made financial/ life decisions to make moving to a safe place a feasible option.

  2. I highly recommend doorbell cams. They’re pricy, but it’s an effective tool for recording, and I believe they are becoming a huge deterrent (though there will always be those who are overly motivated or too… lacking in cognitive ability to be stopped by it).

  3. Security system. There are affordable options these days with Google and Nest
    Nest has a thing with BRINKs we’re you can get service for $20 a month, BUT these systems without the service will still keep you notified if the alarm goes off and set off an alarm which perps won’t like.

  4. Lock your doors and make sure there is no easy way into your house.

  5. Have a firearm and flashlight safely stored (depends on your situation) where you can access it quickly.

Bonus tips: have a dog and put up beware of dog sign, keep a vehicle parked in the drive

Also, keep a double barrel shotgun nearby so you can walk out front shoot it in the air two times to scare all the bad people away (don’t actually do this…).

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  1. Structural integrity: The door frame (front and back) MUST have screws that go all the way through the support structure. Better if there is a steel plate or angle iron on both sides of the door and the screws for the hinges and the hole for the door lock should penetrate them.

  2. Windows: Drill a hole through your lovely new windows so that you can put a 1/4" bolt through it to block the window from being forced open. Any knucklehead with a thin knife or straight bar can unlock a window twist lock.

3: Pre-Deplyment: Have some readily available tools located in different parts of the house. If you are on the pot alone in the house and the door gets kicked in, what do you do?

  1. Camera’s : They are nice after the fact for a home invasion but in most cases the attackers arrive quickly and break in quickly. That said they do help after the fact.

  2. Animals: Dog’s/Cat’s what ever. They know when $h!t is not normal and they will tell you. The other end is the dog that just silently waits and rips the throat out of whoever comes in un-welcome.

It’s not always practical to carry at home but it is rarely impractical to have defensive tools available within 4 - 5 steps from anywhere you happen to be in the house.

For instance: My eldest son came to me after his girlfriend had gone to the bathroom for a shower.

Him: “Dad why is there a 357 Magnum under the towels in the bathroom?”
Me: “Would you prefer it on top of the towels? I can make that happen.”
Him: “No. Why is it there?”
Me “You come into my house and you put your pistol on top of the fridge. We go out back and are yucking it up having a good time. You are on the pot and you here the door get kicked in. Ya get the point?”
Him: Yep got it, need to save for ANOTHER gun.

Cheers,

Craig6

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LOL good one brother Craig

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I knew someone would read all the way to #6 LOL

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I never really thought the porcelain god and having a firearm on hand! We have 3 bathrooms…I need more guns!!! You guys have great humor! I wonder if the eskimo from TX has thought this thru as he is the glock dude???

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  1. Secure doors w/deadbolts.
  2. Dog.
  3. Excellent exterior lighting.
  4. A firearm you practice with frequently.
  5. A plan if fit does hit the shan.
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#5 I know what you meant. LOL :sweat_smile: