Our home is our castle, our last redoubt. It’s where we tend to let our guard down a bit, where we suspend situational awareness if we hope to get any sleep. It is also where our loved ones may still be: small children, our spouse, perhaps an aged parent? If we ever have to defend our home, it’s a fight we can’t afford to lose. You must stack as many odds in your favor as possible.
This is a gun-oriented forum so it is understandable that discussions on any type of defense tend to begin and end with the right gun shooting the right ammunition. Proper mindset, judgment and tactics determine the outcome of any confrontation more so than whatever firearm you would rely on. The gunfight that can be avoided is preferable to the one you have to win at all cost.
On Long Island NY, where I live, there are recurring home invasions and victims tend to fall into predictable categories. The most common invasion involves the low-level drug dealer, suspected of having drugs and cash in his home or stash house. Of interest, these often involve college-age individuals and other family members are put at risk through that person’s criminal activities. Owners of lucrative cash businesses who may keep cash at home, the elderly, because they tend to be trusting, soft targets who can more easily be conned into admitting a stranger to their home, and the random citizen who may present himself as a target of opportunity. If you read about the tragic home invasion suffered by the Petit family in Connecticut, in 2007, you’ll do everything in your power to discourage a home invasion at your home.
Home invasions are statistically rare crimes. There are approximately one million forcible entries into occupied dwellings each year, including run-of-the-mill burglaries. In sixty-five percent of such crimes, the homeowner and intruder know each other in some way, all the more reason to select your friends carefully and to be more secretive regarding your possessions and travel plans.
Home invasion usually describes the violent door explosion with one or more intruders present and are perhaps the most difficult to defend against as there’s usually no warning. Home invaders may also try to talk or bluster their way into your home by posing as a law enforcement officer, municipal inspector, utility worker, contractor, bill collector, etc. This type of home invasion is called a push-in robbery: they get you to open the door, then strong-arm their way in or perhaps menace you with a weapon. A favorite ploy of the imposter is to claim he is investigating a reported natural gas leak. We tend to want to cooperate, even if our house is all electric.
We’ll assume for the moment that you’ve developed your mindset and you’re capable of employing deadly force when appropriate. It then boils down to judgment and tactics. Tactics includes physical preparation such as hardening your home against easy intrusion. Even having a dog tends to discourage intruders. Dogs usually sound a warning and some of them are not to be messed with.
Lock manufacturers like to boast of how strong their products are. A $40.00 deadbolt lock is just as good as a $250.00 high-tech wonder because it’s the doorjamb that’s going to absorb the force of an attack and fail, not the lock. Lock manufacturers won’t tell you that. That’s why I’m telling you. Replacing the one-inch striker plate screws with two-inch #8 screws, which are usually long enough to reach the framing, insures that the door is more likely to withstand the first kick or shoulder thrust. Also, remove the interior trim on the lock side of the door, then drill two pilot holes through the width of the jamb and screw in three-inch flat head screws above and below the lock mortise. Reattach the trim. This makes the jamb much less likely to splinter along the grain. You should also remove one screw per hinge on the jamb side and replace it with a two-inch screw. These minor modifications will far better withstand assault and buy you the time you need to arm yourself. All entrances should be reinforced as the invasion you anticipate at the front door may occur at the side or rear doors. Even with a metal clad door, the doorjamb, usually made of soft pine, one half to five eighths inches thick, remains the Achilles heel of an entranceway. In a home invasion, having a few seconds to arm yourself and move family members to safety is a critical tactic that will probably determine the outcome.
One tactic I use is to never let a potential adversary know I’m armed. My home and automobiles are devoid of any signs or decals promising an armed response upon any provocation or membership in any gun-oriented organization. Hardened criminals quickly learn to strike hard, quick and with overwhelming force if they think you’re armed. The point is, by tipping your hand, so to speak, you may unwittingly cause a confrontation in which it is far more difficult to win. You may witness this tactic on reality-based police shows: on hot “no-knock” entries, police hit the door like a freight train, sweep in, gaining control of the premises and everyone in it in a matter of seconds. You should also notice that many doors give way on the very first strike of the battering ram while others sometimes require repeated hits. The tougher your door is, the more time you have.
The North Shore, of Long Island, NY, particularly the western end, nicknamed the Gold Coast, contains some of the priciest real estate in America and some of the wealthiest titans of finance and industry. Even the hired help tends to have a yearly income in six figures. After dark, especially on Saturday night when women are more likely to be wearing their better jewelry, enterprising criminals have been known to position their car at any one of several north-bound exits off the Long Island Expressway, (long Island’s east-west main artery) wait for a pricey car to exit and head north, then follow that car on the chance it’s headed to a residence in the rolling, wooded terrain that is the Gold Coast. As the victims exit their car in the driveway or garage, two or more thugs wearing masks (these homes tend to have video surveillance systems) and brandishing weapons, suddenly appear from nowhere, take control of their victims and get them inside their home. What follows is wholesale theft, victims being forced to open safes, visit ATM’s, sometimes sexual assault, gratuitous beatings, torture, arson, etc. Anyplace that smells of financial success, such as country and yacht clubs or pricey restaurants serve as viable scouting points for robbers seeking a victim. By chance, am I describing your lifestyle?
Situational awareness, what the late Jeff Cooper called Condition Yellow, requires that we be aware of our surroundings at all times, even while driving. As you draw closer to home and residential streets, traffic is thinning, and you should then be more aware of a car that seems to be going where you’re going. Certain you’ve grown a tail? Call the police. Avoid a confrontation. You can’t prove someone was following you and that person’s lawyers will then transform the encounter into a road-rage situation, which is extremely difficult to defend against. Your suspicions would never justify a pre-emptive strike of any kind.
If you have a home security system wired to a central station, you should have a distress disarming code besides your normal code. The distress code disarms the system but alerts central station that you are acting under duress. They will then notify local law enforcement. Even the invaders understand that the security system must be disarmed and will likely force you to do it. Many security companies provide panic buttons at the entranceways. Do you and your spouse even remember the alternate distress code?
In conclusion, it was my objective to encourage you to take a more comprehensive, proactive approach to make your home a less inviting target. Harden your perimeter, don’t advertise the presence of valuables and be sure that everyone in the household is cautious with anyone showing up at your door, especially at odd hours or if they seek entry on some pretext. The newer security systems allow you to remotely see and question someone at your door without unlocking it.
Remember, the only people you must admit to your home or who may break down your front door in the absence of an emergency are genuine law enforcement officers armed with either a search or arrest warrant.
This is a gun-oriented forum so it is understandable that discussions on any type of defense tend to begin and end with the right gun shooting the right ammunition. Proper mindset, judgment and tactics determine the outcome of any confrontation more so than whatever firearm you would rely on. The gunfight that can be avoided is preferable to the one you have to win at all cost.
On Long Island NY, where I live, there are recurring home invasions and victims tend to fall into predictable categories. The most common invasion involves the low-level drug dealer, suspected of having drugs and cash in his home or stash house. Of interest, these often involve college-age individuals and other family members are put at risk through that person’s criminal activities. Owners of lucrative cash businesses who may keep cash at home, the elderly, because they tend to be trusting, soft targets who can more easily be conned into admitting a stranger to their home, and the random citizen who may present himself as a target of opportunity. If you read about the tragic home invasion suffered by the Petit family in Connecticut, in 2007, you’ll do everything in your power to discourage a home invasion at your home.
Home invasions are statistically rare crimes. There are approximately one million forcible entries into occupied dwellings each year, including run-of-the-mill burglaries. In sixty-five percent of such crimes, the homeowner and intruder know each other in some way, all the more reason to select your friends carefully and to be more secretive regarding your possessions and travel plans.
Home invasion usually describes the violent door explosion with one or more intruders present and are perhaps the most difficult to defend against as there’s usually no warning. Home invaders may also try to talk or bluster their way into your home by posing as a law enforcement officer, municipal inspector, utility worker, contractor, bill collector, etc. This type of home invasion is called a push-in robbery: they get you to open the door, then strong-arm their way in or perhaps menace you with a weapon. A favorite ploy of the imposter is to claim he is investigating a reported natural gas leak. We tend to want to cooperate, even if our house is all electric.
We’ll assume for the moment that you’ve developed your mindset and you’re capable of employing deadly force when appropriate. It then boils down to judgment and tactics. Tactics includes physical preparation such as hardening your home against easy intrusion. Even having a dog tends to discourage intruders. Dogs usually sound a warning and some of them are not to be messed with.
Lock manufacturers like to boast of how strong their products are. A $40.00 deadbolt lock is just as good as a $250.00 high-tech wonder because it’s the doorjamb that’s going to absorb the force of an attack and fail, not the lock. Lock manufacturers won’t tell you that. That’s why I’m telling you. Replacing the one-inch striker plate screws with two-inch #8 screws, which are usually long enough to reach the framing, insures that the door is more likely to withstand the first kick or shoulder thrust. Also, remove the interior trim on the lock side of the door, then drill two pilot holes through the width of the jamb and screw in three-inch flat head screws above and below the lock mortise. Reattach the trim. This makes the jamb much less likely to splinter along the grain. You should also remove one screw per hinge on the jamb side and replace it with a two-inch screw. These minor modifications will far better withstand assault and buy you the time you need to arm yourself. All entrances should be reinforced as the invasion you anticipate at the front door may occur at the side or rear doors. Even with a metal clad door, the doorjamb, usually made of soft pine, one half to five eighths inches thick, remains the Achilles heel of an entranceway. In a home invasion, having a few seconds to arm yourself and move family members to safety is a critical tactic that will probably determine the outcome.
One tactic I use is to never let a potential adversary know I’m armed. My home and automobiles are devoid of any signs or decals promising an armed response upon any provocation or membership in any gun-oriented organization. Hardened criminals quickly learn to strike hard, quick and with overwhelming force if they think you’re armed. The point is, by tipping your hand, so to speak, you may unwittingly cause a confrontation in which it is far more difficult to win. You may witness this tactic on reality-based police shows: on hot “no-knock” entries, police hit the door like a freight train, sweep in, gaining control of the premises and everyone in it in a matter of seconds. You should also notice that many doors give way on the very first strike of the battering ram while others sometimes require repeated hits. The tougher your door is, the more time you have.
The North Shore, of Long Island, NY, particularly the western end, nicknamed the Gold Coast, contains some of the priciest real estate in America and some of the wealthiest titans of finance and industry. Even the hired help tends to have a yearly income in six figures. After dark, especially on Saturday night when women are more likely to be wearing their better jewelry, enterprising criminals have been known to position their car at any one of several north-bound exits off the Long Island Expressway, (long Island’s east-west main artery) wait for a pricey car to exit and head north, then follow that car on the chance it’s headed to a residence in the rolling, wooded terrain that is the Gold Coast. As the victims exit their car in the driveway or garage, two or more thugs wearing masks (these homes tend to have video surveillance systems) and brandishing weapons, suddenly appear from nowhere, take control of their victims and get them inside their home. What follows is wholesale theft, victims being forced to open safes, visit ATM’s, sometimes sexual assault, gratuitous beatings, torture, arson, etc. Anyplace that smells of financial success, such as country and yacht clubs or pricey restaurants serve as viable scouting points for robbers seeking a victim. By chance, am I describing your lifestyle?
Situational awareness, what the late Jeff Cooper called Condition Yellow, requires that we be aware of our surroundings at all times, even while driving. As you draw closer to home and residential streets, traffic is thinning, and you should then be more aware of a car that seems to be going where you’re going. Certain you’ve grown a tail? Call the police. Avoid a confrontation. You can’t prove someone was following you and that person’s lawyers will then transform the encounter into a road-rage situation, which is extremely difficult to defend against. Your suspicions would never justify a pre-emptive strike of any kind.
If you have a home security system wired to a central station, you should have a distress disarming code besides your normal code. The distress code disarms the system but alerts central station that you are acting under duress. They will then notify local law enforcement. Even the invaders understand that the security system must be disarmed and will likely force you to do it. Many security companies provide panic buttons at the entranceways. Do you and your spouse even remember the alternate distress code?
In conclusion, it was my objective to encourage you to take a more comprehensive, proactive approach to make your home a less inviting target. Harden your perimeter, don’t advertise the presence of valuables and be sure that everyone in the household is cautious with anyone showing up at your door, especially at odd hours or if they seek entry on some pretext. The newer security systems allow you to remotely see and question someone at your door without unlocking it.
Remember, the only people you must admit to your home or who may break down your front door in the absence of an emergency are genuine law enforcement officers armed with either a search or arrest warrant.
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