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Home Defense
1 August 2007I have studied Home Defense Strategies and tried the various options. In light of the horrible events in Chesire I would like to pass on my experiences.
For me there are 3 phases.
1) Early warning,
2) Deterrence,
3) Active defense.
To me it really comes down to the question of Dogs, and or Electronics and or Guns.
Dogs: A good guard dog should be an early warning system, a deterrent and an active participant in the defense of the home. You can’t sneak up on a dog, you can sneak on me especially at night.
Selection of the breed is important, we own a Lab, while he is good with our kids, he is not really useful for home defense. He is too friendly, and while he does know if someone is coming he generally chooses not to inform us. The exception is if I am traveling, then he does assume some of the alpha dog role and bark.
For early warning just about any yippy dog will do, small ones included and a good bark is a deterrent. For active participant in the defense a bigger breed such as a German Shepard is ultimate. I have read nationally recognized experts recommending the Doberman and Pit Bulls should be avoided. I will not entertain posts on how if raised gently the dober or pit can be as gentle as lambs.
A story: A good friend of mine’s mother was out driving one Sunday with her daughter through the New Jersey Barrens, a car pulled up, passed and cut them off, forcing them to stop. A man jumped out ran back to their car and started to open the driver’s door. The mother and daughter screamed, at which point the German Shepard sleeping in the back seat on the floor sprang in to action and smashed against the back door window snarling and trying desperately to get at the man. The man fled. The mother quipped, “I guess all that dog food was worth it.”.
My wife also tells stories how her family German Shepard pulled her out of the local swimming hole by her bathing suit, concerned she might be drowning.
Downside: Dogs are expensive. Vet bills and boarding. On our recent vacation the dog cost more to board than us.
If a dog is not for you, then electronics can be your early warning system.
Electronics: I have had burglar alarms. The rate of false alarms can be high, especially as the system ages and switches in the windows, doors start to shift. Also most police departments will not take calls from alarms directly requiring a third party monitoring system to call the house first to verify trouble. This costs money.
Story: I had a motion detect system. The system called the monitoring service than the police department deployed. False alarm, a balloon had risen from the heat of the sun into the motion detection range and set it off. Also I swear to God that cat knew were the sensors were and would jump up to set them off. The alarm company did set them high to avoid feline detection however the cat was smarter and higher.
Bottom line, electronics are tough with pets. You’ll need some time to work the bugs out, and the police departments treat the calls less seriously. And if your alarm goes off, you are already in trouble.
Electronics are good for giving you an indication if your home is secure upon arrival. Preventing you from entering a house with criminals already inside or that has been breached.
But if you don’t want a dog and don’t have pets, electronics can work. I would look hard at the newer motion detection systems. But these only work once your home has been breached. I’d really prefer to know about a potential problem before the front door is knocked down.
Motion detection outdoor floods are good and cheap.
Guns: You could and there have been books writen on this topic of home defense with guns. Many opinions and many options. The long gun (shotgun) vs pistol debate rages on and will probably forever. I can not do this topic justice in this format. But I can say this, get training both in the law and handling of firearms. You must absolutely lock and secure your guns, no question about it. Simplicity is best, while we all appreciate the fine workmanship of a semi-automatic pistol, in a stressful situtation it might not be a great choice for the average user, whereas a revolver works with all ammo is simple to operate and you can check quickly and safely if it is loaded. Did you know not all ammo’s with work with all semi-automatic pistols? I have read that you should have run at least a 1,000 rounds through a semi-automatic pistol before you can declare the bullet/pistol combination reliable enough for self defense. Most of us won’t take that kind of time. Also we are talking about the better quality semi-automatic pistols and ammo to get a 1,000 rounds of reliablility.
Also did you know the 357 mag will cause hearing damage if fired in-doors? And that the bullet will go through mulitple walls/houses?
More to it than you realize, get help. Get training on the exact weapon you choose if you go this way.
A gun only works once the home has been breached and it goes under the category of active defense.
A good starting point are these authors, these are nationally known experts on gun defense. Ayoob is a retired Chicago Police Officier and Cooper is a legend.
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