Home Defense and children?

[mbt2001]

It depends on the layout of the house. You can get really creative. Most important thing, in my opinion is to get the house lit up. Have some banks of switches that from 1 or 2 points in the house can light up the entire house, including outside lights. That way, it is easier to identify the "target" as friend or foe.

Part of being a parent is worrying about the kids. Do you really want them running off into the night when god knows what is happening?

Also, what kind of job do you have? If you are a human key and are at risk for kidnappings, you need to install a safe room and work with the company security people to ensure that you have certain protocols and habits that can maximize your safety. If the company security people can't or will not help you, fire them and get a new crew that is competent of the threats we face in the modern world.

Getting a dog isn't for everyone. I posted a thread on that subject... If you have the cash and are in an at risk type employment field, buy a professionally trained dog. They cost anywhere from $5K to $15K but it is money WELL spent. They can clear houses, id weapons, do a LOT of things that are extremely handy.

 

[docsleepy]

Unfortunately our 1st floor is on a very "open" floor plan and the wife would need to cross a large room to reach very noisy wooden stairs which are LONG and exposed, and then cross a visible balcony to reach the kids. The only other alternative would be to transit the entire house in order to reach a back stairway which would be an ideal place to be ambushed.

So I don't think it is a good idea for her to go walking about. No way to reach the kids without incredible risks if there is an assailant in the house. My wife needs TWO fingers to pull the trigger of a revolver....she is a weakling.

She barely knows how to use a firearm.
(Which would you prefer? Her defenseless, or holding shotgun behind locked door with alarm going off warning kids that she HAS it, and burglars that the natives are aroused? Me, I'd take the 2nd since it is my wife and the kids will have sense enough to stay away from the 1st floor! Say what you want, but some women just don't want a lot of training and if you want to stay married and keep their ALIVE, you have to make some compromises....we have 23 years of experience)


I don't have any special tactical or low light training. My "day job" isn't security and I'm never going to be a pro at that.

In the event of
a) alarm going off, both of us would probably just lock the doors to bedroom and have shotgun and pistol at the ready. (call 911 of course). We might go out a window. The kids are teens and could easily lock their doors and go out windows and down rope to ground. Far safer I think that me playing amateur policeman.
b) an "odd sound".....well then I don't know what exactly we'd do. In days past [pre Obama] I'd carefully walk around the house with a baseball bat or something. Now, post Obama and having made the gun store much more wealthy, I have additional choices. I'm not going to call the police for every odd sound. If the dog is barking, I might probably would. If the dog is no longer with us, I might set off the alarm prior to walking around with a firearm. If MY WIFE starts to walk around with a firearm, I want everyone to know it. Hence the idea for alarming the safe. The safe alarm would only be armed at night.

The flashlight idea is a good one; I've heard pro and con of separate flashlight for pistol. Shotgun would require light on shotgun of course.


I hear an incredible number of people beating the dead horse of "identify your target." This is indisputable obviously but let me ask you a question:

If your wife is home alone, and a huge male voice is screaming insanities from the other side of a locked bedroom door, having broken into the house and set off the alarms, and rather than retreating, begins to physically bash the door in, are you proposing that your tiny wife wait until the huge guy gets THROUGH the door? I think there is a point where one has identified that the person on the other side will likely kill you if they gain entry and if you have little maneuvering room, you have have to make a decision before you have been able to get a good enough view to identify them in a dim lineup. Right? In Florida, as I understand it, even the law acknowledges that you are justified in using lethal force in that situation, even without complete identification of the assailant. If the boys KNOW the wife has a shotgun, they are going to stay WELL CLEAR because they know what will happen next. (Perhaps the correct answer to this question is to move as far as you can to the other side of the bedroom, wait until the door flings open and be certain there are no OTHERS nearby? In any event, I want my boys to know to stand way way back when Momma has that shotgun!)

A woman was killed and her daughter almost killed next town down in the middle of the night a month ago by 4 teenagers who had murderous intent.

 

[Sav .250]

Even with a PLAN, you need to factor in the .....un-expected. Your kids have friends over, who tells them what? Situations such as that.

 

[docsleepy]

mbt2001: great idea on the lights. There is one particular set of lights that I perhaps should have wired into our bedroom. I might roll that together with another wiring project I have thought of and get THAT one done!

I really really like the dog, but the wife hates the collateral damage (carpets...). Better trained dog would probably be the answer and I could probably float that when we are more elderly.

My job isn't a target tho we were very active in political things in an earlier part of life and I really did have concerns then.

The kids are middle teenagers and the property is huge and they are easily able to disappear unless we are being attacked by a mob. A mob attack would not occur without warning and we would deal with that very differently. That is unlikely unless anarchy takes hold.

 

[docsleepy]

sav.250: great point....hadn't thought of that either. [THANKS for all the input, fellas! ] Kids usually aren't over unless I am home and I have lower concerns of mis-identified targets with me compared to wife.

All the more reason for us to simply lock doors and hole up until the cavalry arrives. I guess concievably we could put in a wireless camera in the great room and have a much better idea of what is going on outside our bedroom doors. Those aren't expensive. If we can flip on the lights there from our bedroom, we would have a much better grasp of whether the situation is serious.

 

[mbt2001]

docsleepy:

Regarding ID the target, in the hypothetical that you posted the target has been id'd. You are quite right there.

I would recommend the following:

1.) Bank of switches to light up the house to aid in target ID and act as a possible deterrent.
2.) Get an Alarm (which you have)
3.) Get a protection dog and / or build a safe room upstairs for the kids
4.) Get an intercom or some other way to communicate with your kids in the safe room.
5.) Take a revolver down to the gun smith and get it tweaked to lesson the trigger pull. (this is just a suggestion to make it easier for her to shoot a variety of weapons.)
6.) Get an alarm pad in the saferoom (mostly for the panic button)
7.) Camera system outside

**All cell phone will dial 911. Even if they are "deactivated". As long as they work they will dial 911. Something to keep in mind for the saferoom. Just make sure to have your address and phone numbers written down there IN CASE the kids are calling.

It seems that the kids and a game room or the like are upstairs and that you are down stairs. That should make it EASY to build a safe room, fortify a closet or something. If it is a fire, the radio's / intercom SHOULD allow you to tell them to get out or the like.

EDIT:

OK, well having teenage kids changes things... Still many of the above suggestions are still applicable.

Trained dogs are not as expensive as you think. It seems like a ton, but I am telling you, they come trained, they attack on command, there are commands for "guard" / "alert" / "track" and others. So, YOU are not in it by yourself. If someone comes in you can send the dog to the kids, find the kids after the bad guy leaves, put him at the stairs so he can alert you / deter an invader from getting up there and so forth.

EDIT AGAIN:

A human key is someone who can bypass security protocols by virtue of position. So, a bank manager (the prime example) or anyone with seniority in a company that has ready access to cash / infrastructure / communications / political would be someone who NEEDS to live a risk management lifestyle. Seriously, it is that kind of world these days.

 

[docsleepy]

mbt: wow, a host of good ideas.

 

[BURN]

flashlight in the hand......flashlight on the gun....use hte one in your hand to identify the noise without covering it witht a gun.....if its a bad guy drop the flashlight and use the one on the gun....plus verbal comands to identify are also good.....but if it is 3am and you are worried about letting the bad guy know where you are and want to keep it dark and quiet...just remember ...he knows that most likely you are in the bedroom sleeping....just sayin...

 

[Ester IX:XVI]

one thing that is fairly easy to do is install or have installed a light switch in your closet, under your bed, wherever, for the place of entrance.
Scenario: the alarm goes off, i get the gun, reach behind my night stand turn on the living room light and when i get to the bedroom door, the person, BG or my child, is in full light and I'm still in the dark

 

[Pyzon]

I understand you have a security system that when the gun safe is opened an audible alarm is activated. How probable is it that an intruder could:

1.) Breach your secured perimeter without activating an audible alarm (I guess I am assuming the perimeter is always secured).

2.) Find and open your safe without activating perimeter alarm, (or if safe is opened by a family member, how did they detect an intruder that the security system did not ?)

I don't mean to be criticizing your scenario as much as I'm trying to understand how the safe could be opened and that be the first sign of a problem.

In our house I hope the lights, locks and dogs keep somebody from being inside the house to begin with. Once that happens, it is hard to come up with a family plan that is simple enough to be remembered by everybody woken from deep sleep mode.

 

[9MMare]

I hear an incredible number of people beating the dead horse of "identify your target." This is indisputable obviously but let me ask you a question:

If your wife is home alone, and a huge male voice is screaming insanities from the other side of a locked bedroom door, having broken into the house and set off the alarms, and rather than retreating, begins to physically bash the door in, are you proposing that your tiny wife wait until the huge guy gets THROUGH the door?
-------------------------------------------------

b) an "odd sound".....well then I don't know what exactly we'd do. In days past [pre Obama] I'd carefully walk around the house with a baseball bat or something. Now, post Obama and having made the gun store much more wealthy, I have additional choices. I'm not going to call the police for every odd sound. If the dog is barking, I might probably would. If the dog is no longer with us, I might set off the alarm prior to walking around with a firearm. If MY WIFE starts to walk around with a firearm, I want everyone to know it. Hence the idea for alarming the safe. The safe alarm would only be armed at night.

"Identifying" someone does not have to be visual....verbal is just fine. I dont plan on entering the part of my house where an invader is if I dont have to...I will be shouting for them to say who they are. I have a 'safe room' (bedroom).

And I have a 'security' minded question, rather than political.....why are your actions different 'pre' and 'post' the election of President Obama? Have I missed some important security info or change in crime statistics? I hate to be uninformed and less safe...please help me out here.


All in all...it sounds like your entire family and neighbors are safer if your wife doesnt ever touch your firearms. (no sarcasm, just observation)

 

[docsleepy]

great ideas on the light switches and carrying flashlight/light on gun. You've convinced me to get one for one or more firearms! It may take me a bit more to get the light switches rewired.

Pyzon: I understand your confusion as to how anyone could POSSIBLY get past our alarm, but no alarm system is perfect and if there is a "bump" in the night and we no longer have a dog, I think just about anyone would be concerned that someone had defeated the alarm....and there's the rub. No one else in the house knows then, that you might be on the prowl with a weapon.

That was my concern, and possibly a way to secure the kids' rooms electronically, or speak to them or set off something in their rooms alone might work.

thanks

 

[9MMare]

I have something similar....a simple wireless switch in the hall next to my bedroom door. If I hit it, it turns on a lamp in the living room...and my house is also open floor plan...I can see entire kitchen/dining rm/living rm from that hall doorway.

And 2 dogs.

This reply was to Ester

 

[docsleepy]

WIRELESS SWITCH! great idea. I could do that very easily.
thanks!

If I put a peep hole in the bedroom door and the lighting ideas above, could see much of the house without needing camera. Cameras for the outside.

y'all are sharing great ideas.

 

[SSN Vet]

for my situation...

the key is to make sure that I arm myself and get to a specific location b4 the bad guy.

this puts me inbetween the wife and kiddies and the only access for the potential BG.

also give wife the freedom to get kiddies corralled into a remote corner spot where they are very well protected from overpenetrating bullets.

really want to get an alarm system next year....

our dog is just starting to develope some protective instincts.... but at this point, if the BG can manage to wake the dog up, he's likely to get either slobbered on, or to have a few tennis balls brought to him.