Thoughts on Home Defense

So, something has been weighing on my mind since last summer. Our next-door neighbor was burglarized. She was out of town on business, and her teenage son was staying with family for the weekend, so nobody was hurt, but still, it bothers me. They tried kicking in the front door, but managed to only dent the steel door. So they kicked in the side door to her garage. They were very particular thieves, and in no particular hurry. They carefully unhooked her flat screen TV, and her computer, and her son's Playstation 3. There was no cutting cords, no rifling through drawers, they left all her jewelry which was laying out in plain sight. They exited the house out the sliding door to the back yard and then around the side of the house, instead of through the garage where they came in. There were some strange things about this burglary. It appeared that there was possibly only one burglar who was not big enough to carry a 50" TV as there were drag marks in the carpet and in the grass outside. Taking the time to carefully unhook everything, even to the point of getting in her son's closet and boxing up the PS3. Anyway, the entire thing was very unnerving.

After this event, of course people in the neighborhood started talking. We found out that our neighbor across the street had been robbed as well in a similar fashion, through the side door. And there were others as well. There were descriptions of suspicious vehicles in the neighborhood, and suspicious people.

Our neighbors two doors down, Rodney and Elizabeth, had an incident which was even more unnerving than the break-ins. Someone rang their doorbell one morning, and when Rodney looked outside he could tell there was someone standing right up against the door. Well Rodney, you have to know Rodney. He's big, I'm guessing 6'3" 250? He's built like a football player. He's also an ex Marine. So he's big AND fearless. So Rodney opens the door, already stepping out toward the guy, and he has a .357 in his hand behind his back. He basically, with his body, shoved the guy back away from the door, and the guy backed away quickly mumbling something about the wrong house and split in a big hurry.

Two days later we hear about an older woman in the next housing addition who opened her door to have someone shove their way in and robbed her. They didn't hurt her, but still.

A few day later we hear that our neighbor John, who lives on the other side of Rodney, woke up to his dog barking in the house in the middle of the night. He just yelled at the dog, and then he heard his front door close. His brother-in-law had not locked the front door earlier, and apparently someone, had the cajones to walk into his house in the middle of the night, knowing, they were home. Two cars in the driveway and one in the street.

All has been quiet through the winter so far. Hopefully these crims have moved on to other housing additions, or they've been busted. We learned a lot about the thieves tactics. They most likely walk up, ring the bell, and wait. If there is no answer, according to one police officer, they turn their back to the door, and give it a good kick. If it doesn't open, they move on to the side or back door. Also, if the alarm goes off, they split, but they stay close enough to time the response, then go back and do it all over again as the alarm company will assume there is a malfunction and not dispatch the law. Then there is what happened to the older woman and Rodney, sort of, the old bum's rush home invasion.

A monitored home alarm is good, and home owners insurance can replace your stuff, but what stops a home invasion? Firepower, planning, practice, and training.

These guys have a lot of nerve. Our neighborhood is full of military families, lawmen, and good old fashioned law abiding gun owners. I'm a gun owner. Rodney has an arsenal and the military training to utilize it all. Across the street is a Concealed Carry Instructor, two doors the other way is the Chief of Military Police at the local military post. Also in the neighborhood are at least 3 police supervisors, a county sheriff and a state trooper.

So, I've been researching home defense. I stumbled onto a TV show one night called Personal Defense Television. as well as another one about home defense tactics. From what I've seen they seem to be full of sound advice. So, I've been looking at the layout of our home with an eye not toward interior decor and aesthetics, but defensibility. I've learned that you should devise a "safe room". Not like in the movie Panic Room, of course that would be great if you have the bucks to pull it off. But the standard Joe Plumber can't afford all that.

So they recommend arranging the furniture in a manner where you can safely take cover behind something like a bed. Now granted, in a gunfight, a mattress isn't going to stop much, but there is wood in the box spring, there are metal springs inside the mattress as well as a metal bed frame and maybe even wood head and foot boards. All of these can aid in deflecting any incoming shots. But hopefully it won't come to that.

They also recommend that you take into account the "kill zone" and what is behind your target. When you are in your safe room, in your safe place, what do you see? Are you looking straight down the hall at a window facing the street? If you miss the bad guy, chances are that shot is going down the hall, through the window and could hit an innocent neighbor. Is it facing a wall? Whats on the other side? Your child's room? A typical 9mm handgun round will penetrate 2 walls before losing enough energy to stop being effective .The last thing you want to do is hit an unintended target. So take this into consideration planning your safe room.

I once read a statistic that said the average in-home shoot-out is completed in 7 seconds or less and at a distance no greater than 7 yards. So, in the time it took you to read that sentence, it's all over. And the bad guy was less than 21 feet away. The typical 2-car garage is 20 feet wide.

But we really don't want it to come to that. So install steel frames and doors at all entry points to your home. Get an alarm system. Install a locking bar on sliding glass doors. Install a steel door and frame on your safe room. The longer you can keep them away from you the better. Give the good guys a chance to come to your rescue. But at the same time, don't be foolish, and count on them to save you. Remember that 7 seconds? There may come a time for you to act. Don't hesitate.

Take a gun safety course. There are any number of courses offered which will increase your ability to survive such an encounter. Practice, practice practice. Go to the local gun range, shoot targets, shoot two handed, shoot one handed, practice. I'm not saying become a psycho about it, but be prepared.