The fact that you’re reading this article suggest you probably have some firearms stockpiled with a bit of ammunition available for them. Good for you but let’s hit on some points. First, firearms are the last line of defense. I realize they are cool and fun but truthfully we need to look to the first steps of our defense plan before we jump to them.
Some people simply don’t like guns, are uncomfortable with them, and just simply don’t know how to use them. As an instructor, I’m here to tell you if this is you it’s ok. You can still do a lot for your personal security without arming yourself.
Our home is our castle and this is one of the big reasons I’m not a fan of bugging out unless you absolutely have to I.e. you’re going to die if you stay in place guaranteed. Obviously if money is no object we would just build a new house with security as the first part of the plan. Part of the house would be below grade with a hidden escape tunnel, the entire building would be concrete with reinforced doors and bullet proof windows.
Most of us do not have the funds for this and even if we did, we may not be wiling to spend that much on them. A house like this would cost most the fortune you have saved up. However, when purchasing a home we can look for upgraded features, like stone and brick veneer instead of vinyl. It’s not bullet proof but it will stop a bullet a hell of a lot better than vinyl siding.
A home that backs up to a hill gives way to vulnerabilities by providing attackers the high ground and vantage points, but provides more protection for tornadoes, storms and hurricanes. Everything is a balance; I’m a very security minded person but I’m going to be hit by bad storms and tornadoes multiple times a year. I might be the victim of one robbery in my life and most of us will not ever see a home invasion. So which threat is the priority? The one that is immediate, deadly and more often. So I prioritize storm protection over protection from 2 legged animals.
Some of features work for both such as storm shutters. If used with discipline every day when you go to sleep or when you leave your home, they can provide substantial protection. The same holds true with upgrading doors and windows with security film and higher quality security doors. But more on this in a minute.
If you have already bought your house and you can no longer take these things into consideration, we can still build a defensive plan that comes into play long before the guns. The secret here is much like the old joke of the bear; where you’re not trying to outrun the bear just the buddy you went hiking with. That’s true in home defense in making your house less appealing than your neighbors for an attack. There are some simple common sense solutions that people have either never put any thought into or are simply too lazy to get it done. If you’re on a limited budget start here.
- Upgrade deadbolt striker plates with security plates and 3.5 inch screws and 3.5 inch screws into the hinges. Security plates allow more screws; some are 3-4 feet long and screw in several places along the door.
- Upgrade to quality locks. Go to your local locksmith and ask what they recommend but the Kwikset locks that came from the builder are garbage. Schlage should be the bottom end of what you are looking to upgrade to.
- Install interior door barriers. These come in many designs but are small plates and latches that allow you to lock the door with a physical barricade from the interior making it incredibly difficult to force the door open.
- Install security film on all windows (even on the second floor). This used to be incredibly expensive but now an entire house can be done for a few hundred dollars. This extremely effective thin film installs on your windows holding the windows together when broken thus substantially increasing the time it takes to break through them.
- Get an alarm with signs. You get 100% of the deterrent benefit of the alarm with the signs in the front yard and stickers on the window. But get an alarm and camera system combined together to monitor whether you’re home or away.
- Install motion detector LED flood lights on all exterior corners. Most houses in the US only put them on a few so you may have to run a wire. But these are affordable and can be done yourself in an afternoon.
- Cut the string release on your garage door. These are easy to snag with a coat hanger from the outside unlocking your garage door. You do not need that stupid string release on there anyways but certainly not with a handle. Cut the handle off but leave the string just long enough you can reach it since it’s there for emergency egress in a fire.
- Install window locking bars on all sliding windows. This forces an intruder to break the window rather than shim the lock with a soda can.
- Lastly, lock your doors even when you’re home. We installed our garage door deadbolt with a pin code so the kids would keep it locked and it worked. Our doors are always locked whether we are home or not and the routine doesn’t change. Our yard is picked up and kept trimmed with no garden tools laying around for someone to use to gain access. Keep the hedges trimmed back and get rid of blind spots by installing yard lights.
These are all simple to do and relatively easy for the average DIYer. Even paying a handyman to do this wouldn’t cost more than a few hundred but this entire list minus the security camera can be done for less than $1000 over a weekend or two.
As you continue down this path you will ultimately have more money and time to add to your home security. If you’re in a house you don’t plan on leaving anytime within the near future we can take these things a step further.
- We mentioned security cameras earlier but it’s important to realize that like anything, you get what you pay for to a limit. A $500 system is fine to get started but eventually you will want a bit more. If you have the cash look at systems that give you the ability to talk to someone at the front door, rotate the camera on your drive, listen to all conversations on your property (provided its legal to do so). I use a basic security system similar to what is linked above with added security cameras like doorbell cameras and pan tilt zoom (PTZ) cameras.
- I prefer hard wired systems since they are much harder to infiltrate and are far more reliable. The front door should have two cameras; a scene camera watching the entire area and a face camera with two way talking capabilities. These are incredibly important when dealing with law enforcement interactions if you value your right to privacy. The vehicle avenue of approach to your property (driveway) should have a camera that is able to zoom and rotate to observe the area.
- Beyond that a camera that is able to view all the corners of your home covers the basics. Think like a criminal where would you hide? Every camera should be able to listen and record provided you’re legally allowed to do so.
- Paying for a monitoring service on your alarm or camera system is an unnecessary monthly expense. Remember you get the deterrent benefit with the signs so the alarm is only there for someone coming in to your house. It gives you an alert to be able to respond or to tell you if you need to call the police if you are not home. Unless you are a high profile target, it is an unnecessary monthly expense to pay a company to monitor it for you when you yourself will receive text alerts, phone calls or app notifications.
- Next you can look at bars on the windows. We all have the image in our head of the less than reputable parts of town having iron bars on all the windows and we naturally have some hesitation here to screw up any aesthetic appeal of our home. However, there are many modern designs using scroll work or other designs to make it blend in to the home. Keep in mind these are more to set your home up for civil unrest and riots rather than protection during peaceful times if you live in reasonably safe areas. So if you can’t get your spouse on board with bars on the windows hurricane and security shutters work well too. More expensive and they have to be activated to provide protection since they do nothing when they are open.
- Security roll up shutters look like mini garage doors and can be extremely beneficial for areas that are difficult to secure in other fashions. A large glass patio door, picture window or other vulnerable point can be upgraded with roll down doors/shutters for a reasonable price that provide a substantial increase in security.
- Upgrading your exterior doors with security doors is the next logical step. These are steel doors like you would see in an industrial building but they are designed to be aesthetically pleasing in a residential setting. Obviously we run into issues here with trying to do all of our doors. We aren’t going to get rid of the glass French door for the back patio, nor the beautiful iron or wood front door. However, we can upgrade the garage doors and, depending on the size of the house, any other exterior doors that are constructed of a more basic design.
- Living in the US, a substantial number of houses are equipped with a garage or carport. Carports lack any real security so your best option is to install a motion light and camera and hope for the best. You can upgrade them with roll up shutters but the cost is prohibitive to the point it’s likely cheaper to enclose it and make a permanent garage.
- Garage doors can be upgraded to a commercial style roll up door. These provide far more security than a panel type garage door and they even come in high security models. The cost of the upgrade is affordable at the time of this printing they can be purchased for DIY install for around $1000 or upgraded by a professional for $2000 not including the motor controls.
The goal in doing this is to avoid a situation where you have to use a firearm in self defense. Is it expensive to do this? Sure but whats the cost of a home intruder getting in? What’s the cost of shooting a home intruder and defending yourself in a civil and criminal case? A few thousand dollars to upgrade your security is a minor expense in the grand theme of avoiding a dangerous encounter.
Keep in mind if you live in an area that is not known for their self defense freedom you may have a responsibility to retreat from your home prior to defending it. As backwards as most of us find this check your laws especially if you live in a more liberal area. This isn’t to dig on anyone that is a democrat but it is a simple reality that democrat policies and laws on self defense and defense of your home error on the side of preserving the offenders life while conservative laws and policies error on the side of individual liberty. Meaning the right to protect yourself and your property versus the right of the offender to not be shot.
The bottom line here is that the first step in planning is to do the boring work of upgrading your home and providing more security on the front end. Guns & self defense are the last priority and our focus should be on preventing the attack first, stopping or slowing the attack second, and defending the attack as a final solution.
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