Has anyone besides me thought of your homes defensive perimeter. I have a nifty fancy alarm system that works wonders when the juice is on, but prob won't do me much good when things are down.

So today I got some mortar in which to embed glass shards around the tops of my fence (cost $3.00). Also got some personal defense alarms, the ones that operate on batteries and shriek at 120 db when the pins pulled, for about $4.50 each from radio shack (on sale now). These will be connected to milspec trip wires (www.hi-vel.com) inside the perimeter to notify me of trespassers who need refills on their lead levels. Also, got some solar powered motion detector lights from Home Depot for $69 dollars each, allowing me to clearly see the gang bangers I might have to shoot in self defense as they attempt to kill me.

Working with a diagram of the house to establish free fire zones and a safe zone/emergency plan for the wife and baby.

Anyone else have any good home defense ideas?

PS-Happy new years to all! To all you criminal types out there, you'd best pass my house and keep moving.

-- Jim Smith (cyberax@ix.netcom.com), December 05, 1999

Answers

If things go deep south You might want to have a spool of barbed wire handy. Lay it out in a tanglefoot pattern *inside* of your fence line, hidden from the street. You'd also want to sandbag a fighting position or two inside of your home, double stacked for protection against .308 and the like. Kevlar helmets can still be bought cheap...PROTECT YOUR HEAD!

Meanwhile, happy holidays. Enjoy the good things in life whilst you can.

-- Choirboy (choirboy@hellzchoir.edu), December 05, 1999.

I'm kind of along the lines of destroying as many as possible once inside perimeter without having to poke my face out too often....so I'll sound nuts but... shotshell set in a short length of pipe in which it rests on a slightly filed off nail....stick in the ground at points...especially if there is a spot where they have to jump from to enter the perimeter.

punji stakes...wonderfu; invention!

I wanted to install heavy wooden window covers with gun holes in them...you know...like the cowboy forts...just a slit big enough for a rifle barrel in the shape of a 't'..

A couple of high intensity flares will solve most peoples night vision...especially if they got the goggles...keep your eyes closed and pop one off...road flares work great and if you have some packets of powder or flammable stuff in their path...just toss it in and start the cookin...

A bow or crossbow is nice...very quiet...make em wonder where their buddies went...

-- Satanta (satanta@zdnetmail.com), December 05, 1999.

It still amazes me just how effective (and cheap) a few "NO TRESPASSING" signs and a barking dog on the porch work.

-- Roger (pecosrogX@earthlink.net), December 05, 1999.

JIM:

Was just getting ready to start a thread entitled: "How to prevent post-y2k acute lead poisoning" when I saw your post. So here goes.

1) STAY INSIDE YOUR HOUSE during whatever you understand to be the 'critical period,' i.e., when the P-people (predators) will be out to "do their Y2K preps." The length of that period will depend on your locale (city, suburb, rural, boondocks,) the climate, how bad things get, how fast things get bad, and how long they stay bad.

2) The reason for that advice is that most of the Ps really don't want to get involved with firefights, a la Rambo. They just want your prep items (your water, food, fuel, shelter, lighting equipment, tools, medicines, communication systems, and weapons.) They will consist of ex-pollies and ex-"Y2K--whazzat?" types. There will be only a small percentage of 'the profesional soldier' type, or 'the militia' type, or the kind of guy who posted on one of our websites 2 years ago (anonymously of course): "Who needs your stinking preps? -- all I need is the address of the nearest Mormon and a clip full of ammo."

3. So your basic strategy should be to let the enemy come to you -- not you search out the enemy. There are several advantages to the first strategy:

a) You stay warm and dry, well-fed, and can make use of latrine facilities conveniently.

b) You spell each other on guard duty and thus get well-needed rest.

c) But most important: you make yourself almost invisible as a target. How do the Ps know EXACTLY WHERE in the house you are at any given moment? Not knowing, they would have to empty clip after clip in broadsides against the entire four walls of your house, and then would not be sure of what they hit.

d) Finally, if they decide to break and enter -- either because they have falsely assumed everyone inside has been neutralized, or because they have become desperate -- waiting outside in the cold, tired & hungry, and patience at an end -- if they do enter, YOU WILL KNOW EXACTLY WHERE THE ENTRY POINTS ARE (the first floor windows or the doors.) They should be 'sitting ducks' for your point-blank responses, behind furniture or corners.

A plus is if the whole operation occurs at night. You then have the major advantage of knowing the layout of each room in the dark -- it will be new territory for the Ps.

SPECIAL SITUATIONS

1) You have your bathroom facilities OUTSIDE your house (outhouse.) BIG mistake!! Make sure you have enough water INSIDE the house to flush your commodes, especially of brown water (Forget about yellow water -- it will smell, but not like brown water.)

2) You have your water supply OUTSIDE your house. BIG mistake!! Make sure you have enough water INSIDE the house to tide you over the 'critical period.' Buy 55-gallon 'open head' -- not 'tight head' -- steel drums (used food grade), or plastic drums, find a place in the house for them, and fill them with potable water NOW.

3) You have your fuel supply OUTSIDE your house. BIG mistake!! Make sure you get a couple weeks' worth at least -- a month's worth is better -- of fuel stored INSIDE the house. Safest is a 1/2-cord of wood, next 1/2-ton of coal, next propane tanks (don't know the quantity -- not using it,) kerosene (don't know the quantity -- not using it.)

4) You have your farm animals OUTSIDE your house. BIG mistake!! What can you do about that? This is a hard one (unless you live in Switzerland. When I lived there it was no problem for the farmers, especially the mountain people -- their homes were built as the second floor over the ground floor animal quarters -- kept the house warmer and the animals warmer in the tough winters.)

I haven't got a good answer for this one. If you go out to feed them, or protect them, you may never complete the job.

5. But here's the toughest 'special situation' of all: a relatively-DGI neighbor of yours comes to the front gate and yells over the fence to come on out and over to his place to help him with whatever (a sick child, a broken generator, wood that needs chopping.)

DO NOT GO OUT. Tell him to come on inside. Watch his hands. Watch for weapons. Have one of your people's weapons trained on him. When he comes inside listen to his story. If it sounds legit, tell him to first send one of his little kids over for babysitting -- tell him your family will mind the kid while you go over to tend to the problem at the neighbor's homestead. This will help him maintain 'a sense of reason' in case he has other things in mind in calling you over.

6. Alternate version of above situation. It's nighttime, and someone arrives at your front gate in the dark, too far away to make out who it is, and too windy to even make out what he's asking for. He identifies himself as so-and-so, one of your neighbors, but you can't tell for sure. BAD scene!!

You should have taken certain precautions PRIOR to Y2K, specifically making sure your close neighbors all have CB Walkie-Talkies, nicad battery-driven, so they can communicate with you ahead of time, before they even get near your front gate. That will give you time to authenticate who it is. It helps to do pre-Y2K drills with your neighbors, each using CBs, to get the hang of all this, and to help you recognize your neighbors' speech patterns and voice timbres in on-the-air comm. (I'm buying up cheap CBs to hand out to my neighbors who feel they can't afford them, or don't need them.)

A FEW LOOSE ENDS:

1. If you are stuck with some of your vital assets positioned outside your house you may be able to convert them into an advantage -- by using them as BAIT. Just let everyone in the neighborhood know where they are, make sure you have a clear line of fire to their location, and keep a weapon trained on the areas (and night vision scopes focussed on them at night.)

2. If your fuel tanks are not only outside but ABOVE GROUND they will be quite visible. Thus they are also quite vulnerable to 'road rage': -- if the Ps suspect they are bait (as described above,) they may simply plug holes in them, and even set them on fire or explode them with gunfire. It may be too late to do it, here in December, but burying them below grade or surrounding them with concrete blocks with their cores filled with rebarred concrete would go a long way to protect them from this kind of threat.

3. Similarly if you've got solar panels to use to pump your well water or to drive other equipment, and you have them PERMANENTLY MOUNTED outside (on the ground, or on the roof) -- BIG mistake!!! They will be almost assuredly an irresistable target for 'road rage.'

Solution? Mount the arrays on a frame equipped with with large rubber casters, and long pluggable/unpluggable cables -- as I have done -- then keep them indoors during the 'critical period.' Make sure to charge your batteries up using them BEFORE Y2K. Then use them sparingly or not at all until the 'critical period' is over. A bullet hole in a solar panel is the end of its practical use (except for a certain type of solar cell -- if interested in those call your local solar energy dealer. I don't know the availability or longevity of that kind. May be OK, may not. Don't know.)

BOTTOMLINE:

It's nice to have night vision scopes and laser beam sighting on all your weapons (as I do), but even better is not to need to use them -- by just waiting for the P-people to step inside your front (or back) door or break in through a window. Even nicer is to have neighbors you can 100% trust (We don't), and to be far enough off the beaten path to discourage marauders from foreign parts (We do.)

May God bless us that we never have to use our weapons for defense against any Two-Leggeds,

Bill

P.S. I suppose at this late date there will still be some righteously indignant flamers posting back and quoting the MISTRANSLATED "Thou shalt not kill." The Hebrew in Exodus 20:13 is "Thou shalt not murder ('ratsach'.") and the Greek in Acts 10:13 is "Thou shalt not murder ('phoneuo'.") Does this make a diffence? Check with me in mid-March, 2000 -- if I'm still around. B.

-- William J. Schenker, MD (wjs@linkfast.net), December 06, 1999.

One more 'loose end':

When you walk around your house at night DO NOT LET YOUR BODY SILHOUETTE IN FRONT OF ILLUMINATION OF ANY KIND. If you've got lights in the room you're occupying or passing thru, make sure to crawl past the window below the window sill level. As a matter of fact ANY room with lights on is a target the Ps will readily sit out and wait for. This also goes for windows with shades.

Best solution: we don't plan on using AREA lights, just TASK lights. These latter are low-power, narrow field, LED lights. But even these could light your way to oblivion if they can be seen through a window. A word to the wise.

Bill

-- William J. Schenker, MD (wjs@linkfast.net), December 06, 1999.

Bill,...Wow!! Great response, and I'm printing it. Thanks for taking the time to post it. I don't know if we will be as prepared as you in this aspect, but will absorb the wisdom and do our best.

-- Mumsie (shezdremn@aol.com), December 06, 1999.

Check out http://www.gatewayelex.com/gadgets.htm for a $9.95 ground motion sensor kit. Requires some soldering (Very minor) Works great!! up to 2 mi. on twisted pair phone wire. takes about 1 hr. to build. I orderd 1 the first time and 7 the second time. shipping was 4 to 5 days @ $4.95. MINE IS SET TO DETECT A VEHICLE burried 1 ft. at the edge of the dirt road. the furthest installed sensor is 1.25 miles. sensitivity is adjustable, wash boards, or gravel in the road improve the length of the signal. Add a 2.99 radioshack pezio buzzer in parallel w/ the led to wake you if desired. USE TWISTED PAIR WIRE

-- Brent (lopro@aol.com), December 06, 1999.

Television shows everyone, cops, crooks, soldiers, shooting, from inside a building, through the windows.

Combat manuals I've been reading dismiss this as a bad idea. Hostiles expect you to be there.

The books I've been studying suggest constructing "loopholes," i.e., firing ports in the exterior walls, possibly in combinatiion with sandbagged firing positions.

Any of you combat types out there have any hot tips on how to construct these?

-- Not Whistlin' Dixie (not_whistlin_dixie@yahoo.com), December 06, 1999.

I hope most people reading this thread will not get lost in some _Omega Man_ vision of hordes of attacking muties in the night. If you're going to think about boobytraps, think twice or three times, then think again. I have horrors of someone, their wife, children, neighbors or dog getting into forgotten/misplaced/unknown infernal devices. In short, the booby you trap might be you, even if someone else (a cop checking out a report of suspicious activity in your neighborhood for example) falls victim.

As far as defensive firearms are concerned, there is no such thing as a free fire zone. You are responsible for every round you fire, and should never fire at an unknown target, shadows, noises etc. Apparently a quick review of the essential rules of gunhandling are in order:

RULE 1: Treat every gun as if it were always loaded.

RULE 2: Never point the muzzle at anything you do are not prepared to destroy.

RULE 3: Keep your finger off the trigger until your sights are on target and you are ready to fire. (Violating this one causes the majority of firearms "accidents.")

RULE 4: Be sure of your target AND what lies behind it.

These rules apply in _ALL_ repeat _ALL_ situations. Period. If they are not second nature to you, you need to spend some time carrying and using a firearm around someone to whom they ARE second nature, and who will reward derelictions of attention on your part appropriately. (That's called training. If you need it, get it.) Also, if you lack the self confidence to pull security or approach things that go bump in the night without undue trepidation, leave that job to someone else. And be honest with yourself.

Good thinking on the inexpensive pull-pin alarms for improvised intruder detection- set them up in a container of some sort (a clean empty can on its side for example) to help waterproof them. The solar powered IR activated area lights are another good idea. Some models can be coupled with an electronic noisemaker as well. Set up properly, they will give good warning and area illumination without lighting up anything you don't want seen. They will also help blind anyone facing toward them, another advantage. But they might possibly draw fire if there are actually ill-intentioned nasties in the night, so keep that in mind when positioning them.

No matter what the situation, you're still responsible for everything you do. Strewing the neighborhood with dangerous inventions and firing randomly or fearfully into the night will certainly cause you more trouble than it prevents. A good dog or dogs are likely the best security idea, coupled with some well thought out barriers and warning devices and a necessary amount of alertness on your part. That will vary according to the situation, but I have trouble conceiving any situation so bad that it justifies mantrapping or random gunfire.

-- Lee (lplapin@hotmail.com), December 08, 1999.

"No matter what the situation, you're still responsible for everything you do."

Well said.

Sincerely, Stan Faryna

-- Stan Faryna (faryna@groupmail.com), December 11, 1999.