Ed Ames
Member
I've been reading some threads here, specifically the "The perfect home self defense weapon?" thread but a few others as well, and a thought struck me... people put a lot of thought into home defense weapons... how much do they put into making the home defendable? Or setting their home up to be less likely to need defending? What really got me thinking about this was someone mentioning a full auto shotgun... now, I don't know about you, but personally I wouldn't want ANY shotgun fired in my house... I like my plaster, I like the artworks I have hanging on my walls, I paid good money for my wood floors... I just don't see risking them except as an absolute last resort.
So anyway, it seems as though for the price of a decent tactical 1911 and a few days at the range a person could make some serious security improvements in the average home...video intercoms, a "strong" foyer with high qualitiy self-locking doors inside and out, alarm service for a year or two... push the perimeter out towards the street and make the house harder for invaders, burglers, and so on to just stroll through once they are inside.
Personally, I have a locking gate across my driveway and a wall around my yard (so anyone in my yard is already B&E), and automatic lights that will shine on anyone approaching the house. Some inside doors are stronger than normal (they aren't hollow core doors) and have fingerprint locks which are a bit inconvenient (it takes 5 seconds or more to go through those doors) but they lock automatically and you can't lose the keys. I have video surveillance of a few areas. That's not a complete list but shows some of the seemingly unusual defensive features of my place.
That said, the house itself isn't all that good for defense... the floor plan is very open, there are lots of outside doors... the perimeter is pushed towards the street because the house itself isn't very strong.
What do the guys 'n gals on this forum do about that? Wish you did but haven't gotten around to or don't have the money for? Think is a good idea? How do you evaluate a place you live, or are considering living, to decide whether it is basically secure? And how do you actually make security improvements...do the work yourself so you know the quality and don't have to worry about people casing your house as they work on it, or hire someone to do the work for you?
I'm interested to hear everyone's opinions, and the question is only partially idle... I've been seriously thinking about how to improve the basic security of the place, whether it is removing one of the guns from a safe and rigging some sort of quick-access mount for it, reenforcing some of the walls to form "safe cover" areas, or installing automatic gates and an intercom box near the street so the UPS guy can buzz me when he has a package instead of just dropping it over my gate and driving off. I'm especially interested in setting up a secure inner room as a gun room/panic room.... not sure how I'll do that. I also want to set up more cameras, especially facing up and down the street in front of my house to catch license plate numbers of people cruising past.
So, what thinks The High Road crowd?
So anyway, it seems as though for the price of a decent tactical 1911 and a few days at the range a person could make some serious security improvements in the average home...video intercoms, a "strong" foyer with high qualitiy self-locking doors inside and out, alarm service for a year or two... push the perimeter out towards the street and make the house harder for invaders, burglers, and so on to just stroll through once they are inside.
Personally, I have a locking gate across my driveway and a wall around my yard (so anyone in my yard is already B&E), and automatic lights that will shine on anyone approaching the house. Some inside doors are stronger than normal (they aren't hollow core doors) and have fingerprint locks which are a bit inconvenient (it takes 5 seconds or more to go through those doors) but they lock automatically and you can't lose the keys. I have video surveillance of a few areas. That's not a complete list but shows some of the seemingly unusual defensive features of my place.
That said, the house itself isn't all that good for defense... the floor plan is very open, there are lots of outside doors... the perimeter is pushed towards the street because the house itself isn't very strong.
What do the guys 'n gals on this forum do about that? Wish you did but haven't gotten around to or don't have the money for? Think is a good idea? How do you evaluate a place you live, or are considering living, to decide whether it is basically secure? And how do you actually make security improvements...do the work yourself so you know the quality and don't have to worry about people casing your house as they work on it, or hire someone to do the work for you?
I'm interested to hear everyone's opinions, and the question is only partially idle... I've been seriously thinking about how to improve the basic security of the place, whether it is removing one of the guns from a safe and rigging some sort of quick-access mount for it, reenforcing some of the walls to form "safe cover" areas, or installing automatic gates and an intercom box near the street so the UPS guy can buzz me when he has a package instead of just dropping it over my gate and driving off. I'm especially interested in setting up a secure inner room as a gun room/panic room.... not sure how I'll do that. I also want to set up more cameras, especially facing up and down the street in front of my house to catch license plate numbers of people cruising past.
So, what thinks The High Road crowd?