Basic Security for the home....

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Well, after my postings on 'Imminant Danger' I thought I'd provoke another round of 'troll sniping' and other attacks on my basic outlook on life and preparation...LOL! Seriously, another attack of realization that I thought I'd share with the crew. Basing my idea on the premise that there could be some widespread problems in conjunction with the Y2K, along with my 'darkening down' of the living quarters in my home, I have also thought that the "hardening" of one room, (ostensibly the same room the lights would be on in)would be prudent. In doing this I have acquired a gross of sandbags, and will have them filled before the end of the year. If worse comes to worse, it will only be a matter of moving the matress off the frame and onto the floor, and lining the walls with a 1-2 layer of bags approxamately 3-4 feet in height. Now to all you non-prep kids, or you 'troll snipers', Just realize that the average home is about as bulletproof as a cardboard box, unless you are fortunate enuff to live in a brick home. I realize this from an accidental discharge of a 12ga in my home with a 'OO' buckshot round that went through 4 walls and was only stopped by the chimney, (thankfully no-one injured!) All of those glamourous cop shows showing the good guy hiding behind sheetrock and the bullet only making a small hole is a fantasy. If things go down, and go down bad, I prefer to have a relatively hardened area for my family to sleep in, or to retreat to in the chance encounter with a hostile individual. laugh all you want, but realize, bullets really do sting, and I'd rather be safe than sorry. Besides, God willing, come next spring, I'll be using those sandbags to build a new volleyball court....

-- Billy-Boy (Rakkasn@Yahoo.com), September 07, 1999

Answers

I'd suggest you leave the shotgun behind when you make your vollyball court. You don't want a net that the ball can fly through. Or a pole that is 1 ft shorter than the other. Or a ball that looks like a frisbee.

Because I have a basement, I decided, so far, not to use bags. However, it is a good idea if you need the protection. I'd be more concerned about fire and then having to run from the house or burn. Almost sounds like Waco. I wonder if they had sandbags?

-- enough is (enough@enough.com), September 07, 1999.


Dude I suggest you take a gun safety class and learn HOW TO HANDLE A LOADED WEAPON! Good God man you come on here and post that a 12 gauge went off in your house accidentally? Guns don't go off accidentally they go off because SOMEONE didn't have respect for a loaded weapon! You sound like a poster child for gun control!

Bullets don't sting they hurt like HELL and KILL!

-- Bees sting (learnRESPECT@loaded weapon.idiot), September 07, 1999.


Gun go off when fumble fingered know it all dolt like yourself make assumptions on things, as to the accidental discharge, I have a faulty saftey on a no longer owned mossberg to blame, as well as myself, but hey it happens, and equipment failures are not without some blame as well, as I should not have relied on the safety.

-- Billy-Boy (Rakkasn@Yahoo.com), September 07, 1999.

Very brave of you to admit to the "accidental discharge of your shotgun. My uncle had a civil war musket go off as he was trying to restore the gun. As he said, whoda thunk it was still loaded after all those years. Well it put a miniball clear thru my aunts refrigerator and she got a new frige out of the deal for her silence. I only heard about it years later.

Rule 1 Always point the muzzel in a safe direction.

Rule 2 The gun is loaded...I don't care how many times you checked it it's still loaded.

Rule 3 Never trust the safety and always keep the muzzel pointed in a safe direction. (See Rule 1)

Here's where the problem comes in. What direction is safe when it will go thru 4 walls?

Up when your on the top floor and down when your on the bottom. All other directions have a potential hazard.

If I lived in the city the sandbag idea is a good one to stop stray bullets and will be useful in a brief firefight but if "they want to burn you out they won't be to useful.

-- LM (latemarch@usa.net), September 07, 1999.


Billy, you might want to take a look at this forum:

OPEN FORUM-securing your home

This thread discusses proofing your home from bullets.

defencive architecture-- for Spook - Vlad 9/03/99 (0)

-- Chris (%$^&^@pond.com), September 07, 1999.



It would be a good idea to check out the capacity of your floor to support the added weight of the sandbags.

-- Tom Carey (tomcarey@mindspring.com), September 08, 1999.

As has been pointed out repeatedly in various "self-defense" discussions: you simply cannot defend a fixed position for any significant length of time against a determined force of equal or greater size. Plan accordingly.

-- Mac (sneak@lurk.hid), September 08, 1999.

I came -this- ::holding fingertips about 1mm apart:: close to becoming a security consultant and did more research on the subject that any one human probably should for fear of neural overload. SO I'll throw out a bunch of crap for your amusement...

Rule number one, no matter how well you plan your defense strategy, you had damn well better plan your exit strategy equally or more thoroughly. No fixed position can be defended indefinitely no matter how well entrenched it is. A smaller force would take longer to drive the entrenched force out than a larger one, but either way a fixed D position will eventually give in under a concerted and sustained assault.

So plan several egress routes and use the planning. For example, if your home has a crawlspace, place a few hatches into it in strategically important locales (bedroom closets are good) and teach everyone that might need to know, how to head out quickly without attracting attention. More than one exit form the crawlspace would be smart, and these should all be openable from within. (I'd have only one openable from outside but kept secured for normal access, and the others I'd hide/camoflague so as to make them relatively undetectable.)

From there I leave the rest to your imagination, but I'd not suggest you have any fewer than one egress per room if it's possible, esp. for rooms that can be cut off from any egress via normal means. (Windowless interior rooms, for example. Case in point: I have a hatch in one bathroom, which is in the dead center of my house. It opens directly into the crawlspace below. From there I can selectively exit the area from most any direction without being spotted while being able to track assailants easily.)

Now, let's discuss the whole idea of rendering a room bullet- resistant. Yes it's possible, and yes it can cost you a fortune if you go high-tech. Sandbags will work nicely if you can spare the space they'll need, have the structural integrity to bear the weight, and don't mind the mess. (All sandbags leak to at least some degree.) Sandbags will not, however, prevent an assailant from lighting your house on fire and picking you off as you flee. Also, sandbagged walls don't mean squat if assailants can get above or below you, so if you have a crawlspace or are above first-floor height, it's not going to help all that much. So, plan your exit strategy VERY well for hardened rooms and make sure you have as many possibilities covered as can be reasonably achieved.

If you want to go high-tech, check out http://www.botach.com/ballistica.htm as they carry some of Ballistica's product line of bullet-stopping "glass" panels for windows, etc. These folks make the windows used in prison controll booths, etc. so they know what they're doing. It'll cost you a mint to make a window into a bullet-stopper but at least you won't be a snipe-target. They also carry fire-through panels that you can shoot out through in one direction but can't get shot through from the other.

Still, if you harden a room, spend at least as long designing your exit strategies as you did designing the room to take enemy fire. A bullet-proof room that you can't escape from often makes a nice coffin for cremation.

I have more info than the forum will probably tolerate on home defense, so if you want to chat, feel free to drop me a note via the working E-mail address. :-)

That guy who knows when anyone enters his yard, no matter what direction they come from...

-- OddOne (mocklamer_1999@yahoo.com), September 08, 1999.


Any low rent stone castles with moats on the market?

-- Randolph (dinosaur@williams-net.com), September 08, 1999.

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