Fortress Home
There are some specific things to keep in mind to help you harden your target at home. Put a set of electronic hearing muffs next to each side of your bed. One for you and one for your partner. When the bump in the night comes, you both don your muffs and turn them on — then you both grab Mr. Gun and light. Now you can hear like your dog hears and if you need to go to gunfire, you can still hear and communicate with each other, the cops — or the bad guys. “Get out of my house” — and you can hear what happens next.
Also, put the biggest fire extinguisher you can afford next to your side of the bed. Chances are much higher you’ll need it more than a gun. You can fire-fight your way to a kid’s room or out of the house with a big fire extinguisher if needed. And it makes a pretty decent weapon too.
Stay in your room if you hear that bump. Don’t be a hero and “clear” your house. Chances are good you’ve never practiced such things and unless there are kids in another room you need to rescue — stay where you are. Make the thugs come to you. Lock your bedroom door at night. Bad guys would need to get into the house, and past your locked door. Lock your kid’s room door too if you can. Install a cheap intercom system (they plug right into your power outlets, using house wiring) and put one in the kid’s room. Tell them to stay put behind their locked doors if you hear anything (you can keep a key to their rooms on a neck chain if you need to).
Practice what it would be like to wake, put on your muffs, find your gun and light, tell kids what to do, quiet the barking dog, find the outside lights (you do have perimeter lights, right?) — before you really need to do it. Then when it happens, you’re simply going through familiar motions. It lends confidence and allows you to concentrate on the threat, rather than fumbling trying to figure out what to do — because you never practiced!
But don’t leave your room unless you have to! Yell the police are en-route, tell the “sounds” they need to leave “right now” and you’re armed and will defend yourself. Turn on the house lights and the outside lights. Buy a simple wireless remote from Home Depot and keep the switch in your room, with a light in the living room plugged into the receiver. Keep your car remote next to your bed and hit the red panic button (it’s amazing how far they will transmit).
The classic idea of you walking down your hallway, well-armed, alert, able to see clearly and suddenly a bad guy appears at the end of the hall is the stuff of fairytales. It just isn’t going to happen like that. The best laid plans turn into an instant quagmire the moment the enemy is engaged — because they don’t play fair. Practice beforehand and cheat as much as possible. The bad guys do.
Every cop I know (and most armed citizens) wish they could have been in the room in San Bernardino when that husband/wife terrorist team arrived. Some pundits make fun of taking on rifles using a concealed handgun, but I say, “Just give me the chance if needed, and I would.” And so would you. And many times — we’d win.
But concentrate on your own home and family first. Just be smart about it, is all.
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