Defending your home.

[Scythe13]

Hello Everyone.

This is something that's become a subject of great consideration recently.

Well, I've got a couple of pennies, and this is a small 2 pence worth of them.

During some conversation with BP about various posts and phrasing, he reminded me of something that I'd considered a while ago. as a way to defend a BOL. I remembered a thread (MNM, I think it was yours mate) and it got me thinking of ways of guarding our home that I still have to set into place and some that I've already done.

Right, time for the fun.

Doors, handles, windows and the tops of fences.
This is where our lovely friend Gillette comes in handy. Those old fashioned razor blades are very easy to screw into a position that allows only a tiny bit of the blade to protrude above the top of the fence, or under the door handle. Why use razors? Because they're damn sharp, hurt like a beast, and are cheap and readily available. Rusty ones still cut well, but the added tetanus potential cannot be ignored. Turns out you can coat them pretty well with poisons too...so I've heard.

Metal bars for windows...although pretty good at stopping people entering, it is going to make your home feel like a prison. Not a fan of that. Better to board up the windows from the outside with drilled iron sheets, to make it look like it's been left derelict. At the least it will buy time. Sheets can be easily 'acquired' from places...that may be using them for their expected purposes haha. A derelict house will be suspected of being empty. With this, you might also want to consider a big felt set of curtains for each window. The drilled iron will mean you can open the windows to let in air, but you want to keep light in so that people do suspect the home is empty. Thus the curtains.

The same sheet iron thing for the front door and the back. The only difference would be that you could fix hinges internally, so that you have a pretty quick route out of the home. Accessible from the inside alone.


Roof work.

This is something hugely underestimated, because....who robs you through your own roof? Santa is the only person that comes in through the roof. Turns out, that's a lie...there is no Santa. But accessing a home through a roof is pretty simple. 1 screw driver, a hammer, and a ladder and you're in. To protect against this...you can't do much. Best thing to do is rig a system so that you can buy time or ruin their entry.

First up, chain link fencing and chicken wire. Use this as a barrier once the looters get through your tiles. Which is almost inevitable. You can make it harder for someone to enter by making the tiles slippy and hard to manoeuvre on. Grease, anti-vandalism paint, and the alike will do that. Again, you might want to check places you can place more razor blades.

It is pretty simple to make your loft into a bit of an obstacle course for anyone entering. A loft conversion and board would also help with security. But, one of the main things is to have a way to secure your loft hatch from inside the home. One major problem with loft hatches is that they are attached from inside the loft, e.g. lifting bits of wood, or a hinge. The trick here is to get screws that are unable to be unscrewed once in place, or to change from a simple hatch. One other thought is to adapt the hatch with a securing system like padlocks attached on the home side of the door.

One of the ways to get to your house is going to be through your garden. Trip wires at ankle height or neck height, can work a treat. Better than that, why not place a couple of trip wires close together, to catch a person's lead foot, and then their stumbling foot? Better still would be the addition of another wire to catch their forward hand to stop them smashing into the floor! You could even place a wire at shoulder height to help break their fall by catching their falling body just above their shoulders. Just be careful how many wires you have. More wires gives more chance of being caught.

Other garden security systems worth considering. Lights! Okay, they won't chop a head off, but they'll not only freak out whoever is coming your way, but you'll also be able to make a cleaner shot at them ;-) I mean a camera shot, of course haha. Speaking of Cameras, CCTV is cheap enough and easy enough to set up. Well worth getting. Motion detectors can be used to get the cameras to start recording or to alert you of movement.

I know this is only a short post for me, as opposed to the usual 5 page essay, but I thought I'd leave off a lot of things, not for legal reasons, but for reasons of allowing conversation and other ideas to emerge. I don't think people want to hear about shotgun shells on a nail, sat on a piece of wood, buried under ground with just the top of the shell above ground level, covered with a small stone, would make awesome land mines. Works with normal bullets too. Also, you can use them under doormats too.

[Highlander]

As far as the roof is concerned, those of us living in Scotland have an advantage, because our roofs are built differently to those in England..[ honestly ]

Our roofs are designed to take heavy snow, so the roof is made up just like a shed roof, i.e. its not just batterns and tiles its a solid wooden roof onto which the tiles are placed

So anyone wanting to access a Scottish house through the roof, will want a good saw

[Midnitemo]

The more snippets i hear about Scotland the more it appeals to me...i could get a transfer with my job but partner would hate the weather.

[Highlander]

(30 September 2013, 17:46)Midnitemo Wrote: The more snippets i hear about Scotland the more it appeals to me...i could get a transfer with my job but partner would hate the weather.

We have great weather, if you forget the midges and the rain

[Midnitemo]

i like the weather personally, the wet and the cold is right up my street and for some strange reason the midges don't bite me , but her indoors is a hothouse flower.

[River Song]

I could never move to Scotland.

They fry their food - everything incl Mars Bars

[I-K-E]

we'd both move up to Scotland if we had the chance

[Scythe13]

(30 September 2013, 17:43)Highlander Wrote: As far as the roof is concerned, those of us living in Scotland have an advantage, because our roofs are built differently to those in England..[ honestly ]

Our roofs are designed to take heavy snow, so the roof is made up just like a shed roof, i.e. its not just batterns and tiles its a solid wooden roof onto which the tiles are placed

I was talking to a friend about extending out whole house out another 5 meters. Turns out our roofs need to be able to bear 4 tonnes worth of snow. How much are you carrying up there HL?

[CharlesHarris]

I moved "outside the Moderate Damage Radius" to the country, because I believe that it's key to live in an area that is the least populated as possible. I'm may be in the minority on this, but a viable exit and relocation plan is just as important as a defense plan.

It is a fairytale notion to think that when “it” happens, you can just lay low and hide out until the danger passes and civilization returns to normal. Having to defend your soft sided, flammable asphalt shingled roofed home while “bugging in” is a real possibility. It is not viable to think that because a house looks “empty,” looters or gangs would pass it by. An “empty” house is an invitation to look for stuff to loot.

How do you defend your soft walled castle from those who may come to take what you have while you hide out, waiting for the situation to stabilize? If your plan is to hide out and go "grey" while waiting to see what happens, that goes against every rule of modern and old school warfare, I wish you good luck. Living in a “hide” or a cave in the boondocks is one thing, but in a non-fire proof , non-bullet resistant structure, not elevated higher than surrounding structures.

Just throwing up barbed wire and a sign outside of your castle warning of “Death to Looters” is not a viable defence strategy unless you are prepared to forcefully back it up. But you REALLY don’t want to have to defend your castle. If you must do so, then it better be both fire and bulletproof. Unless order is completely gone forever, you will be in big legal trouble if you take any drastic defense measures. When it becomes dangerous it’s probably better to leave discreetly rather than defend, the sad reality.

Start with a minimum threat, the neighbor kids are trying to help their families by searching abandoned homes for food and "stuff". You aren’t going to meet them with violence when they start breaking in your back door. You yell at them and shoo them off. Soon their parents come back to “make nice”and ask if you will join their neighborhood defense force. So what's your next move?

1) Presume that "bad guys" will eventually discover your presence, and quickly evaluate whether you are a “soft” or “hard” target and adjust their wants and strategy accordingly.... You better have a plan.

2) Anything you do to alter the intentions of others may be scrutinized by law enforcement in an unhelpful way.... be clever.... but, don't help them to misunderstand you.

3) A fixed plan is a mistake..... be flexible, and clever.

4) “Bugging in” may get you trapped or killed.... so have a good plan to leave and several places to go.

5) Bugging out may put you out into an unknown environment, take you away from resources and also get you killed.... so have a good plan to stay, as long as it is safe to do so. Know your “triggers” to leave.

6) When your trigger trips, leave now. Incorporate Primary, Alternate, Contingency and Emergency (PACE) in your evac plans. Or else when the world turns to shit you have no idea what to do next.

Unless you are at flashpoint ground zero, it takes time for the situation to develop and for authorities to generate a response capable of meeting the expanding threat. On big events, this takes days. You are legally limited to what your options could be for each zone.

Do what you can legally early in the game. Fuel up your vehicles. Buy groceries, batteries, medical supplies and bottled water. Stock up on ammo. Withdraw lots of cash from the bank. As events escalate, you do want to go out driving about to the grocery store, the hospital or the bank. Listen to the news, plot areas being ravaged, look for where new outbreaks of violence are occurring. Plot several alternative escape routes away from the area. Have several fall back positions. Gather important documents and copy them. Connect hoses your outside spigots if fires are burning nearby.

Understand the difference between discouraging looters vs "repelling pirates.” A spot light and a shotgun will discourage lightly armed groups of looters, even from a stick-framed house defense. After all of the soft targets have been cleaned out and heavily armed groups have been established the game changes. A soft-walled home cannot be defended. Living in a typical wooden frame house with one layer of brick veneer and aluminum siding your ability to survive a drive-by at 0200 in the morning with a couple of AK toters is marginal. Then, what if its three vehicles with 4 guns per vehicle, and the bad guys have dismounted and surrounded your house? Defence of a built up structure has not changed in thousands of years. When do you leave? Before “Zone 3” transitions to “Zone 4” is a really good idea!

Zone 1 area- civilized, low crime, normal daily living experience, law and order.

Zone 2 area- civilized, high crime, normal daily living, law and order, bad neighborhood in an urban area.

Zone 3 area- still civilized, next to no police presence, if you go there you will be robbed or kidnapped.

Zone 4 area- heavy police and some military presence, most violence directed at those forces, still dangerous to move on the
streets if you aren’t protected by ruling gangs or protection detail.

Zone 5- heavy military presence. bombing and killings occur daily.

Zone 6- total lawlessness, no military or police presence, neighborhoods ruled by gangs.

Society won’t go from Zone 1 (civilized) to Zone 6 (lawlessness) in a week. The power grid can be down for a month or more before the doomsayer scenarios start to play out as long as people feel there is still an intact authority of governance.

Looting and increased criminal activity don’t make a war zone, but you can be violated or killed in either.

[CharlesHarris]

Wooden frame buildings and single cinder block walls offer little protection from 5.56-mm rounds.

The following common barriers in urban areas stop a 5.56-mm round fired at less than 50 meters:

One thickness of well-packed sandbags.

A 2-inch concrete wall (nonreinforced).

A 55-gallon drum filled with water or sand.

A small ammunition can filled with sand.

A cinder block filled with sand (block will probably shatter).

A plate glass windowpane at a 45-degree angle (glass fragments may be thrown behind the glass).

A brick veneer.

A car body (5.56-mm rounds penetrate but may not always exit).

Although most structural materials repel single 5.56-mm rounds, continued and concentrated firing can breach typical urban structures. The best method for breaching a masonry wall is by firing short bursts (three to five rounds) in a U-shaped pattern. The distance from the gunner to the wall should be minimized for best results—ranges as close as 25 meters are relatively safe from ricochet. Ballistic eye protection, protective vest, and helmet should be worn.

Ball ammunition and armor-piercing rounds produce almost the same results, but armor-piercing rounds are more likely to fly back at the shooter. The 5.56-mm round can be used to create either a loophole (about 7 inches in diameter) or a breach hole (large enough for a man to enter). When used against reinforced concrete, 5.56-mm rounds cannot cut the reinforcing bars.

Barriers that offer protection against 5.56-mm rounds are also effective against 7.62-mm rounds with some exceptions. The 7.62-mm round can penetrate a windowpane at a 45-degree obliquity, a hollow cinder block, or both sides of a car body. It can also easily penetrate wooden frame buildings. Continued, concentrated gun fire can breach most typical urban walls except for thick reinforced concrete structures or dense natural stone walls. Internal walls, partitions, plaster, floors, ceilings, common office furniture, home appliances, and bedding can be easily penetrated by both 7.62-mm rounds