Advice on home defense

[chris in va]

I have a split level house. I have a bedroom downstairs, adjacent to a living room with a sliding door. My roommate has the other downstairs bedroom next to the back door.

Now here's my dilemma. Her daughter has a room upstairs, with it's own sliding door out to the back deck which has no stairs leading down. She is pretty much impossible to wake up and no amount of noise/yelling will do that.

HD weapons include a Mossberg 12ga/Knoxx stock, Sig 220 and other assorted rifles and handguns in the safe.

The HD class I took advised to shore yourself up in one room and call 911. But with everyone scattered in the house, that is pretty much impossible.

Ideas?

 

[JLStorm]

how is your roomate and her child your problem? Shouldnt your home defense be YOUR home defense? Unless you are a parent or guardian I dont believe it should be your responsibility, especially in this age of law suits.

 

[BADUNAME13]

3 Questions:

-Do you feel responsable for their safety.
-Is your roomate capable/willing to arm/defend herself?
-Is her Daughter?

I would recomend everyone having access to weapons (With training) with weapon mounted lights.

Alarms on the widows...

Renforced doors

solar powered spotlights/floodlights outside

Cell phones in rooms.

Go over possible scinarios. "You and you stay in your rooms and don't shoot unless someone is breaking down the door. I will check the house. If I say _______ someone is MAKING me tell you everything is OK. If I say _______ everything's OK."

A alarm in the girls room that ether of you can trigger may work...

 

[chris in va]

Nomad, to answer your questions...

Yes
Sometimes
Out of the question

I guess you could say they're more than roommates. I've known them for 10 years, her daughter sees me somewhat as a 'stepdad'.

My main concern is the fact she sleeps like a log and is in another part of the house.

 

[Robert Hairless]

Settle down, chris, and do some clear, hard thinking. You don't even give the age of your roommate's daughter. It makes a difference. You also don't give your gender and age or your roommate's gender and age. They make a difference too.

What I would do if I were you is to begin by drawing a detailed floor plan of the house.

Then I would talk privately with your roommate. That conversation is not the time for a good, friendly family exchange with the children or others present. It is a summit meeting between the heads of two allied countries.

Explain your general concerns briefly and clearly, without going into elaborate detail. If he or she doesn't seem to be concerned, I would not argue. Because I am a kind person I might at most suggest that he or she might want to take a good course to raise his or her consciousness, and then I would let it go.

From then on I would set about hardening my part of the house and train my children about what to do in case of a home invasion or home emergency. I would exclude the roommate and the roommate's children from those plans. The roommate has an absolute right not to agree with you. But don't let the roommate become an obstacle to your safety or your children's. The roommate doesn't have that right either.

If it turns out that the roommate does agree with you in the initial conversation, use the detailed floor plan to discuss potential problems such as the one you raise. There will be others. The two of you together might identify them and work out ways to resolve the problems. Perhaps you might enlist the help of people with more skills to do it.

I doubt that you'll get much useful specific advice from asking questions on the Internet, because none of us here could know the specifics of the problems you're trying to address. I could be wrong.

 

[clt46910]

Make the daughter's room the hardened room that you all retreat too. That way you do not worry about waking her and getting her to a safe place, she is already there.

Just make sure she understands she can not lock the door to her room or you have a way to get in quickly(close key to the door or such).

Personally, I feel responsible for anyone that lives or is under my roof. I would hate to live with the fact I sit safe in my room while my roommates was raped or killed because I felt I did not have a legal responsibility for them. I do feel I have a moral responsibility for people that are under my roof.

 

[VacuumJockey]

The above members cover it better that I ever could. But these links may prove useful to you:

The home invasion prevention page.

And

Animal's safe room page.

 

[glockman19]

If you do create a code word for "Friendly's". My wife and I have a code word so we don't accidently shoot each other. when a visitor stays over, her mother brother friends other relatives we give them a code word so incase they set off the alarm they don't Accidentally get shot.

 

[Charshooter]

Do you live in a crime ridden area? If not, use a door bar upstairs and the daughter should be fine. I think it best to just have one gun out and that one used by someone who is not going to have it taken away. Since you are the man of the house, have a nightstand pistol or revolver and lock it each day. This is the responsible way to take care of yourself and family, even if you are not married.

 

[Vermonter]

Get a large dog

 

[p2000sk]

Another poster had a signature that said you should get a bear. Way tougher than a dog, no disrespect intended to a dog.

 

[Damien45]

So the daugher's room has a deck that is not easily accessible from the outside? If so, I would consider looking into a good solid security door before the hall to the stairs. Something that can be shut/locked to help secure her.

All the other suggestions are great so far. It's a situation I would not personally want myself. Good luck.

I am under the impression that my roommate's girlfriend is not going to like it when I bring my gun home. If it comes down to it, I'll move.

 

[Christianninja]

Is there a reliable locking door going out from the daugher's room to the elevated decks? The lack of stairs means nothing, any reasonably fit person could jump/climb onto it to get in. I've done it before.

If she sleeps that heavy, and it's just a sliding glass door or something, someone could easily come in from behind, hop up there, break into her room, and then many things no one wants to think about.

Worse yet if you hardened the room without tending to the door opening on the deck. The safe room would be keeping you out.