Prioritization for Home Defense

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Kleanbore

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Our Moderator Emeritus Fred Fuller had as his sig line, "Mindset, Skillset, Toolset, in that order".

That's commonly used in motivational discussions and other things.

When I would see it here in ST&T, I took it to mean that the choice of firearm ranked a lot lower in importance than other things in defensive tactics and strategy.

That's certainly true in the subject of home defense. People will discuss the relative merits of shotguns vs rifles, suppressors, weapon mounted lights, 9MM vs .45, and so on until the cows come home. Not to denigrate the importance of any of those things, those are really not the highest priority subjects when it comes to home defense.

I remember a piece on the subject from decades ago, written, as I recall, by the late gun writer Henry M, Stebbins. There was an illustration of a worried man in his pajamas withdrawing a pistol from the drawer of a bedside table at night. It may have been in Guns Magazine.

How many of our threads are about "bedside" guns? My grandfather kept a loaded .32 Smith and Wesson Regulation Police revolver next to the bed. When it became mine, do did I.

I later concluded that something more potent than a .32 S&W Long would be desirable. Still talking tool-set here.

The new S&W Model 39 stayed in the bedroom, too. That's something that people really should think about--a lot. When might an entry occur, and where might we be at the time?

I submit that, when it comes to a firearm for home defense, whether it will be accessible to the defender in extremely short order wherever the he or she might happen to be in the event of a sudden forced entry is a lot more important than what kind of gun it is.

One of Stebbins' other articles was about a couple of people who kept a High Standard .22 rimfire revolver for home defense. Not the best, they admitted, but they could use it, and until they could afford another gun....

Beyond firearms, the proper "toolset" for home defense includes a lot of things. Good locks and windows, lighting indoors and out, security cameras, an intercom, river gravel and/or thorny bushes under the windows....

All of this is important, but it is still in that tertiary priority level.

How will we use it all? We have to have a plan, known to everyone in the house. We have to refrain from opening the door to strangers. We have to keep entry portals and the garage doors locked. We have to know better than to walk around the house looking for whomever we think may have come in uninvited. Or outside, for that matter.

Back to the best firearm for home defense: It is the one that is never fired in the house or yard, intentionally or not, at a home invader or at anyone else, or at anything else.

Just having a firearm cannot protect us from home invaders, even if we are proficient with it.

One other thing: the odds of a home invasion my be very low. But you do not want to experience one.
 
Two other things come to mind:
  • Try to minimize the likelihood that knowledge of valuables in the home will become known to others. In the last five or so years, there have been at least three home invasions in our general area in which the invaders had learned of the existence of valuable in the house.
  • Do not advertise your absence from home , or planned absence. Neighbors of ours came home from vacation to find almost everything of value gone. They has posted their vacation exploits on FaceBook. I had warned them about that in advance, and the police mentioned it to them afterward. Then the same people did it again, with the same result.
 
Be very careful when hiring lawn maintenance workers, painters, house cleaners, roofers etc. Many burglaries and home invasions are done by persons hired by the home owner or by buds of the employees.
We ty to be.

Also consider doing things like helping bring the new fridge into the kitchen...

One cannot be careful about who they are, but one can hide from view things that might bring by their drinking buddies.
 
It is easier to buy a magic stopping power ladden weapon than spend the time and money training. Also, training and competition can make you look bad and violate your Dunning-Kruger world view of your warrior skills.

Fred's statement is quite similar to that of many folks, like John Holschen, Tom Givens, Karl Rehn, etc.
 
It is easier to buy a magic stopping power ladden weapon than spend the time and money training.
Yes, but it is easy to buy an intercom, cameras, some lights, some river gravel--and to keep the doors locked.

But buying the gun with the lights and lasers on it, and keeping it in the bedroom, must offer a higher sense of security, albeit false.

Also, training and competition can make you look bad and violate your Dunning-Kruger world view of your warrior skills.
Yep.

Not doing so helps with that, but it keeps one unprepared and rather naive--3 shots in 3 second at 3 yards, and so on.
 
Not really home defense, per se, but back when I decided to get my carry permit, I broke down and finally got my first cell phone first. I had been resisting and resisting but I reasoned it was more important to be able to call the cops right away, either immediately after the unthinkable or, preferably, instead of.
 
btw,next to the "bedside gun" needs to be THE BEST flashlight that is kept hot & ready to go.

You must know and identify any and all possible things/people that you cover or think to cover with that muzzle.

I like this post !!
 
I have several handguns tucked away and ready for use in different locations through my house. I sure as heck don't want to have a threat emerge between me and my only ready-to-use firearm.
 
Not selling it but: SimpliSafe Alarm Systems. $400 on average for a wireless, cellular operated system and $24 a month for a monitored program. Key pad in the bed room with a panic button, even has safe words, police dispatch, an ear splitting siren, motion detectors, breaking glass detectors, entry sensors on the doors. We put it in about 5 years ago.

I still keep a loaded 9mm in the nightstand drawer also.
 
I have several handguns tucked away and ready for use in different locations through my house. I sure as heck don't want to have a threat emerge between me and my only ready-to-use firearm.

Leaving firearms stashed around the house could be a very bad idea. Unless you round them up and put them in the safe whenever you are away, they could be vulnerable to discovery - and of course theft - by someone who breaks in. You can't hide anything well enough to keep kids from finding it; you can't do so for thieves either.

Carrying on your person at all times is a much better option. Nothing left lying around for unauthorized hands AND you can't have some thug appear between you and your stashed piece.

Something to think about.
 
Leaving firearms stashed around the house could be a very bad idea. Unless you round them up and put them in the safe whenever you are away, they could be vulnerable to discovery - and of course theft - by someone who breaks in. You can't hide anything well enough to keep kids from finding it; you can't do so for thieves either.

Carrying on your person at all times is a much better option. Nothing left lying around for unauthorized hands AND you can't have some thug appear between you and your stashed piece.
Some of us don't have kids coming over who could find our weapons ... and some of us are concerned mainly with those attempting to get in when we are actually at home. But thank you nonetheless for stating the obvious.
 
It is easier to buy a magic stopping power ladden weapon than spend the time and money training. Also, training and competition can make you look bad and violate your Dunning-Kruger world view of your warrior skills.

Fred's statement is quite similar to that of many folks, like John Holschen, Tom Givens, Karl Rehn, etc.

I have to laugh at comments that always go back to training and competition for everything about protection. Do not care much about someone's views of Warrior Skills, who you know, IDPA champs etc. Just not real life. Having been in the Electronics Security Industry for over 4 decades I can tell you that your first line of defense is in fact a good Home Security System. This may come as a complete surprise to you, but not everyone will be signing up for IDPA and Firearm training class's to protect their home or family. The visions of some of the thousands of folks that I protected with home alarms is comical thinking of them at a training range. Just not Real Life in anyway.
Yes, spend the money in a good Alarm system for defense.
And of course to be informed. Is your house on a corner?, Across from Constructions Workers, adequate lighting, guns in the house, travel often, work during the day, safes in the house and on and on.
I have been in way too many houses after the Fact. Invest first in a Home Security System, and then you can tell Grandma to join a IDPA if that is your belief.
My house has full perimeter security, interior security, CCTV, and intercom and of course lighting around the house. I have a gun safe hooked up to the main alarm that is on security 24/7 regardless if the rest of the system is armed or not armed. I am very careful about screening anyone that comes into my house. I keep the Bushes well trimmed.
Most burglaries happen during the day. No alarm and guns in the house? One of the biggest dangers in coming home and someone already in the house. And now they have of YOUR GUN. Probably the one you left home because it was too big and heavy to carry.
Get informed and spend the money on good home Security.
 
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Lighting, cameras. All junk that won't stop a home invasion, just helps document things so you can upload YouTube vids in 1080 of the robbery. Make sure and put a "this home protected by (insert security co)" on your door that way perp can Google how to defeat your systems.

A fight to win mindset beats security cams and lights in a home invasion. So does a good dog. Honestly an 8 foot game fence and a gate is probably as good as it gets. Also, pistol is a bad choice for a bedside weapon. Rifle, shotgun. Pistol is for protection off castle grounds or convenience. No person in their right mind would choose a pistol over rifle/shotgun in a home invasion, so why choose a pistol for hd at all?
 
Lighting, cameras. All junk that won't stop a home invasion, just helps document things so you can upload YouTube vids in 1080 of the robbery. Make sure and put a "this home protected by (insert security co)" on your door that way perp can Google how to defeat your systems.

A fight to win mindset beats security cams and lights in a home invasion. So does a good dog. Honestly an 8 foot game fence and a gate is probably as good as it gets. Also, pistol is a bad choice for a bedside weapon. Rifle, shotgun. Pistol is for protection off castle grounds or convenience. No person in their right mind would choose a pistol over rifle/shotgun in a home invasion, so why choose a pistol for hd at all?

Having been in the industry for decades I got a good chuckle out of your comment.Thanks for posting.
 
We have run a basic cellular ADT system for years with no complaints. It has door/motions for when the house is unoccupied and doors only at night.

Out of whole threat matrix, bear intrusion (we live in the bruin dense foothills) is probably the highest probability, so my bedside gun is more focused on that that Johnny Methhead.
 
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It's funny you should post this, because mindset is something I actually used to stress while I was in the navy.

It's a given that in any given profession, knowledge and training is essential. As a "nuke" in the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program, I can say with certainty that this was definitely true.

However, when I would train a NUB (Non Useful Body, a term frowned upon nowadays for people who are not yet qualified in rate) or student, I would often ask them the first time they stood watch under instruction with me:

What is the difference between a good watchstander and an adequate watchstander?

I'd listen to their thoughts on this, and most of the time they'd come up with some "standard" answers, such as knowing the procedures, where to find things, being alert, etc. All of which are true. Then I'd give them my opinion on the matter like this:


When you take the watch, you need to put yourself in the proper mindset. The proper mindset focuses you on the fact that whatever you WERE doing before you took the watch, you are now ON WATCH and IN TUNE with your watchstation. This is how I do it, and why:

- When the logs are signed over to me and I take the seat, I will take a look at what reactor coolant pumps are running and run through my mind how I would shift the RCPs to fast speed. I will run through exactly each switch manipulation in my mind, what indications I would look at to verify plant response, what reports I expect to hear from the Electrical Operator, and what announcements I would make throughout the entire process. Then I'd repeat it in my mind and imagine the first RCP failed to shift to fast speed and go through how to continue the shift. Then I'd do it from the beginning again, only this time the first pump shifts but the second fails. I'd do this for a failure to shift on each pump, because the required actions are significantly different for each failure.

- At that point, I've shifted my perspective to an operator who is now on watch and focused on how to maximize propulsion should problems occur if "Torpedo Evasion" is announced and we need maximum propulsion RIGHT NOW.

- Equipment doesn't typically break "all by itself" out of the blue. The vast majority of the time, problems happen because someone is doing something they shouldn't. We don't typically lose flow in Reactor Plant Fresh Water because a pump "just quits". We lose it because a mechanic is shifting the daily valve line up and operates a valve out of sequence. We lose it because the system is in a reduced status and an electrician is tagging out something electrical and opens the wrong breaker by mistake. Which means that the vast majority of problems/casualties can actually be predicted PROVIDED YOU'RE PAYING ATTENTION TO, AND UNDERSTAND, WHAT'S GOING ON IN THE PLANT. When you're on the midwatch and the order goes out to shift RPFW line-up, that's when you're most likely to lose RPFW flow. If you realize this, and ask yourself "what would happen if this occurs and what action will I be required to take?" you will already know what to do when it happens and you will be far more likely to take the correct actions in a timely fashion.

THAT is the difference between a "good watchstander" and an "adequate watchstander". A good watchstander is PROACTIVE. An adequate watchstander is REACTIVE.
 
Yes, but it is easy to buy an intercom, cameras, some lights, some river gravel--and to keep the doors locked.

I live in an apartment so as far as River Rocks and intercoms and doorbells, it kind of is what it is.

I do however have a brace on my door that would make it almost impossible to get the door open without literally kicking it off the hinges.

We also specifically rented a second floor apartment. I hear continual reports of people on the first floor who wake up with people looking in their windows and it's amazing to me how many of them leave their windows open all night long.

If somebody comes in my windows they were targeting me in the first place.

We also specifically looked for a complex that didn't have balconies because I watched a guy go up the side of my apartment building climbing the balconies and into my apartment one day in less than a minute.

In that case he was doing it as a favor for me because I locked my keys in the apartment but I certainly kept it in mind when we moved out of our house and into our current apartment

I don't understand the reason for using river rocks unless it's for the noise factor.
 
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Some of us don't have kids coming over who could find our weapons ... and some of us are concerned mainly with those attempting to get in when we are actually at home. But thank you nonetheless for stating the obvious.

I read an article by Kathy Jackson (Cornered Cat) several years ago. In it she talked about this dichotomy among gun owners in which their home is so unsecure that they have to have guns scattered all around it so they can be ready to repel boarders at all times

And yet

The same home is secure enough to leave unsecured Firearms all over it without any concern for them being stolen.

I find that generally speaking the same people call me paranoid because I carry at home
 
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Lighting, cameras. All junk that won't stop a home invasion, just helps document things
Lighting can certainly serve to dissuade potential invaders, and cameras can help you indentfy where they are and whether they pose a real threat.

A fight to win mindset beats security cams and lights in a home invasion.
You have to see 'em to fight 'em, and you had better iidntify the target before firing.

Also, pistol is a bad choice for a bedside weapon.
A "bedside weapon" will help if and only if the defender is in or near the bed.

Rifle, shotgun.
I don't want to carry one around the house all the time.

No person in their right mind would choose a pistol over rifle/shotgun in a home invasion, so why choose a pistol for hd at all?
Access.
 
Lighting can certainly serve to dissuade potential invaders, and cameras can help you indentfy where they are and whether they pose a real threat.

If you are in the country as I am then lights just give a perp a nice silhouette.

Having been in the industry for decades I got a good chuckle out of your comment.Thanks for posting.

The guy selling car alarms laughs at my claims too. Everyone rushes to stop the car thief when they hear my car alarm kind of like laying awake at night watching this security cameras like a loss prevention officer will ensure I am not invaded in my home.

Cameras make me secure the way a paper hamburger wrapper fills my belly.
 
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