I started a long thread on "what is your favorite home defense gun" on the revolver forum.

Lots of good responses.

There were several home security defense responses that were about non-firearm defense steps -- particularly steps to discourage anyone from even choosing your house for a crime in the first place.'

Those resonated with me.

One common response was they kept a large dog with sharp teeth.

Good thought, but when I ran it by our 4 cats they nixed that idea.

Then there were discussion of alarms.

My question on that subject is "do you have your alarm monitored remotely, or is it just to notify you of a breakin (and not call the police automatically).

On the issue of home security lights I had a couple questions:

1. What do people do for security out-door lighting?

2. I have considered putting motion switches on some interior light circuits. Seems like when a BG breaks in, if a bright light comes on the second he sets foot in the entry, he might just turn around and leave. If not, at least it would be easier to see what you were doing if you had to defend yourself.

Same idea for a few other places in the house -- putting motion lights in the halls, and perhaps the kitchen and family room.

Only my wife and I live here, so we wouldn't have to worry about kids wondering around at night and waking you up with lights popping on.

Any other ideas related to the concept of getting a BG to do the house next door instead or leave before doing anything at all?

Dave

How about a drunk mother in-law!!!!!!!!!!

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Rimfires Makes me "Insane"

Considering lighting:
You always want to be behind the light source.

I recently helped a friend set up lighting for his new house.
When he's approaching the house it is lit up with the lights shining on it.
Once inside those lights go off and the lights ON the the house illuminate the yard.

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In dog years I'm dead.

We have remote and it works quite good.

Regarding the lighting we stay a little bit old school and always leave some kind of light inside the house on during the night.

I'm more worried about an outside speaker, so neighbors will be warned too.

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Jorge

Lighting is the cheapest most effective deterrent there is and I'm always surprised so many people neglect this. I'm one of the few people on my street who turns outdoor lighting on every night (front and back doors along with garage, all of which together pretty much cover my whole lot with lighting) and I occassionally get neighbors complaining to me about how their garage was broken into the other night or they scared some kid away from their car last week and I think to myself, "Yeah, you're the genius with a completely dark house/lot every night, go figure".

I don't like motion-detecting lighting as, like the OP says, the idea is to discourage anyone from even choosing your house for a crime in the first place, not lure them onto the property and hope your "surprise lighting" scares them off. I want any potential prowlers passing by my house looking for an easier target right off the bat. With as cheap as modern CFL/LED lighting is nowadays, there's no reason not to keep lights on all night.

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SWHF #448

My standing half-joke has always been, "The best burglar alarm in the world, is the sound of a burglar screaming."

Por encourager les autres.

Biggest problem is, most criminals of the burglary/home-invasion viral strain are dumb as a box of rocks. Subtle doesn't work, & they are hard to scare. Even when not stoned out of their gourds.