Home security is something that we all deal with at some point in time. So how is home security different for preppers? It’s really about what’s at stake. Those who prepare, understand the importance of their preps and know that those preps may be key to their families survival.
Community
Community is where your home defense plan starts, not at your doorstep, not at your curb or property line, your community. If you take the time and effort to forge strong ties in your community and neighborhood, you will have taken one of the most beneficial steps in protecting your home and family. Although this is one of the most beneficial steps, it is the most often neglected among the preparedness community.
The benefits of having a community behind you go far beyond just security. These benefits will quickly become apparent once things start coming apart. I’m not saying tell your neighbors about all of your emergency preparations but if you take the time to cultivate those relationships now you will have security in numbers later.
Avoidance
One of the first things to think about is how to avoid trouble altogether and one of the best ways to do that is to live away from areas that may become hot spots for unruly behavior. One of the best ways to do this is by not living within or on the edge of the city. If you work in the city, you may want to consider living deeper in the suburbs or in a smaller community near the city. Even doing this does not guarantee success but it will greatly reduce your chances of having civil unrest spill over into your neighborhood from within the city.
The main downside of living farther from where you work is having to commute. This comes with its own set of challenges, getting home in the event of a local or regional emergency or disaster. I wrote an article on how to mitigate this problem check it out here > How To Build A Real Get Home Bag – A Practical Guide
Deterrence
Even if you are able to avoid any major civil unrest, you may still have to deal with common criminals, gangs and small groups of opportunists looking for an easy score.
Neighbors
Your neighbors are the first layer of your “community” that you will need to rely on. These are the people you need to create mutual assistance agreements with, whether formal or informal it does not matter. It can be something as simple as having them keep an eye on your place while on vacation.
If you have good neighbors that have well developed situational awareness and observational skills, they will notice unusual and suspicious people, cars, and activities and be able to notify you or law enforcement or even better, intervene on your behalf.
One of the best ways to start down this path is to get involved in a neighborhood watch program or start one if none exists. Remember that the relationships you build with your neighbors and others in your community will have compounding benefits.
The Usual Suspects
The next step is to do the usual security things that help protect your home and family on a day to day basis. These include:
- Having good exterior lighting (LED motion floodlights are best) This is most important for ingress/egress points
- Make sure your doors and windows are locked
- Have a security system and use it, unlike most people that have one
- A Ring doorbell (with camera and intercom)
- A security camera system
- Have “Beware of Dog” signs and signs like “I Love My Dobermann”, even if you don’t have a dog or better yet get a dog.
Food For Thought – Security signs and cameras are great but remember the more you like you have something of value the more of a target you may become.
Landscaping
How you structure your landscaping, fences and other things in and around your home can have a profound effect on how criminals view your home as a possible target with the exception of civil unrest, aka rioting, during civil unrest all bets are off, a group of rioters could try to burn your house down, “just because”.
Every home is constructed differently and located in different types of neighborhoods and locations, making it difficult to structure a defensive plan that will work for everyone. So we’ll cover the basic defensive concepts; Deny, Channelize and Disrupt.
Whenever possible you want to Deny access to your property altogether. The best ways to accomplish this is with physical barriers like walls and fences. In nicer neighborhoods, you can get away with having brick or rock walls with nice gated entrances but for the rest of this really isn’t an option.
Most of us can install a tall privacy fence in our backyard and have a hedge made of thick tall bushes, this may not stop people from gaining entry to your home but it will do two things. It will Disrupt those who are determined to sneak in the back and will Channelize most people through to an area you can more easily keep an eye on.
Once you’ve done what you can to prevent access to your property you need to Deny and Disrupt access to your lower-level access points. This can be achieved by having thorny bushes under windows and access points for upper levels. By doing this you will Channelize people to your primary ingress/egress points.
A Quick Note – If you have any bushes near your main ingress/egress points make sure that they are well lit to ensure that you can see if someone is hiding in or behind them. Bushes near doorways can serve as a great location for criminals to ambush you while leaving or entering your home.
Fortification
No matter how much you try to deter criminal elements from your home if they are determined they will try to force their way in. If someone is determined enough they WILL get in, it’s just a matter of time and effort. It is like a safe, given enough time, the right tools and the will, anyone can get in. This is where the importance of having a good defensive plan which we will get into a little later, for now, we need to do what we can to keep them out.
Primary Ingress/Egress Doors
We’ll start with your main entrance doors. These doors need to be solid quality wood or steel doors. Once the doors are addressed next is the doors hardware. Starting with the locks, make sure to include a deadbolt. Doors without deadbolts are easily kicked in.
The locks you chose also make a difference, not all locks are created equally. Not that your common criminal can pick locks but it is a skill set that anyone can learn, so better to be safe than sorry.
Once you have a solid door structure to work with now it’s on to the weakest link, the door jamb. One way to improve or existing door jamb hardware is to replace the short screws with extra-long quality screws. Ideally, you would be better served by installing a door jamb reinforcement kit. These kits usually include reinforcement guards for the door jamb, locks, and hinges. Installing one of these kits will make it virtually impossible to kick in the door.
Windows and Patio Doors
Windows or any glass access point poses the most difficult challenge when fortifying your home. There are products that can be used to prevent someone from braking in the glass of windows and sliding glass doors. A company named ShatterGard makes a film that can be added to glass to prevent it from shattering and provides a degree of penetration resistance as well, making it the best option for everyday protection.
During an SHTF situation, you may want more protection which means boarding up your windows and glass doors. Although this is not the most ideal method it does offer the best level of protection.
If you foresee ever needing to do this, it’s best to plan ahead. For starters, you need to get plywood and precut it to the dimensions of the windows and doors you want to secure. If you mark each one to reference where it’s going to be placed it will make it even faster installing the boards when the time comes.
Then get the correct length and quantity of screws needed to secure the plywood over the openings and don’t forget to keep a cordless screwdriver or two charged and ready to go for when the time comes.
One advantage of preparing precut window and door coverings is that they can serve two purposes. If your windows or doors were ever to be damaged by a natural disaster like a wind storm, tornado or hurricane you will have the necessary supplies to seal your home up and keep the inside of your home protected from the elements.
Defense
As you can see thus far home security for preppers isn’t much different than any other home security approach. Where things start to change is in relation to defending your home, preps, and family. Under normal circumstances, in the event of a break-in or home invasion, you would gather your family and head to a “safe room” (usually a bedroom), call 911, and prepare to defend yourself.
Unfortunately, during SHTF you will most likely be on your own. Calling 911 for help may not even be possible and if you are able to call they may not be able to respond in time to help you, if at all.
This means that you must take a different approach to protect your home and family. One thing that criminals know is that when the social order brakes down and law enforcement are unable to do their job it’s a free for all. You just have to look at places where law enforcements abilities have been hindered or reduced. Often times looting and riots break out and no one is there to stop it.
I remember seeing the 1992 LA riots on TV and hearing the stories of business owners standing on top of their businesses with firearms defending them from people that were looting and burning many nearby businesses.
Another example of lawlessness due to the inability of law enforcement to do their jobs was the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, where looting and violence broke out during and after the hurricane.
Almost anytime law enforcement is hindered or restrained from doing their job, there are people waiting to take advantage of the situation.
Mindset
In a “Without Rule Of Law” or SHTF situation, you will be solely responsible for protecting yourself. So, it’s important that you come to an understanding, right now, of how far you are willing to go to protect your home and family if the time were to ever come.
Whether or not you are a religious person you still need to come to a conclusion on whether or not, you will be able to take a life to protect your family. You will need to look deep into your heart and soul and reflect on your moral and/or religious foundation.
Doing this will do two things for you. First, it will give you the justification to do what you must and second, it will help reduce the chances and/or the effects of post-traumatic stress. If you have even a hint of doubt about what you are doing is morally sound, you will open the door for a whole lot of problems later on.
Defensive Tools
You have done everything possible to keep people from gaining access to your home but the truth of the matter is, if someone is determined enough they will get in and the more obstacles they are willing to overcome to get inside your home, the more of a danger to you and your family they are likely to be once inside your home.
Now before we get too deep into this I would like to preface this discussion by saying that the defensive tools and equipment I will be discussing are aimed primarily towards a U.S. audience. Even so, you should check with your local and state authorities to ensure that you can possess and use the defensive tools that you have chosen to use.
When it comes to defensive tools there are two basic categories; Lethal and Non-Lethal. Both have their place in your defensive plan.
Non-Lethal Tools
For non-lethal tools, one of my top pics is bear spray. Why bear spray? The answer is distance. You want to keep as much distance from the threat as possible and bear sprays can have a range of over 30 feet making it a good option in the non-lethal category. Just remember to not use the bear spray from your bug out bag (where you should have some as well), you’ll want that if you need to bug out, that’s why I keep some separate for home defense.
On a side note, some say that bear spray is not as effective as pepper spray due to lower amounts of oleoresin capsicum (OC) this is true, but bear spray is meant to be a deterrent and for home defense, I want the person to leave, not thrash around screaming about the shit I just sprayed in their face. It sends a message to the intruder that they need to reverse coarse and leave, followed by a verbal warning that the next level of force you will employ will be deadly force.
Lethal Tools
Depending on the intruders intent and their willingness to engage in violence, you may not have the ability to employ non-lethal tool options and may have to go straight to the threat of deadly force. It is still best practice to use a lower level of force when possible, only you will be able to make that determination.
The best tools that we have available today are firearms. Firearms are a distance tool, they allow you to keep an intruder at a safe distance while still being able to affect a change in the intruder’s behavior.
There are many types of firearm available today, so which types are best for home defense? Pistols? Rifles? Shotguns? The answer is easy, whatever tool you have in your toolbox. They are all effective defensive tools but long-guns are easier to get and keep on target and are generally more effective at stopping threats quickly.
Restrictive States
If you live in a restrictive state or country a good option would be pump shotgun, something like a Mossberg 500 Youth model in 20ga. This is an option the whole family can utilize and is still can be very effective. Another option is a lever-action rifle in a mid-weight cartage like a 30-30. These are just a couple of ideas, depending on the restrictions in your area you may have better options or you maybe even have more restrictions, you have to work with what you got.
Free States
In less restrictive places, you will have better options when it comes to defensive firearms. Semi-auto pistols and rifles are much better options when dealing with multiple threats. I would strongly urge you to go with a rifle or shotgun as they are far more effective at stopping threats.
For the sake of reliability, I would recommend that you stay away from semi-auto shotguns as they can be finicky at times, that is unless you have the time to go to the range and put it threw its paces to ensure 100% reliability.
A note on rifles and overpenetration – Some people will say that rifle cartages will “over-penetrate” and go through walls and other barriers and because of this they are not a good choice for home defense. In reality all high velocity projectiles, rifle, pistol or shotgun, can and will over-penetrate, especially if you miss your target. Thus always be sure of your target and what’s behind it and beyond.
Tactics
Every SHTF scenario can and will be different depending on a number of factors including where you live and how it actually goes down. So the specific tactics that should be employed will vary too much to spell out. There is no way that someone can tell you that you need to do X, Y, and Z. All you can do is pursue training, practice often and run family drills to ensure everyone knows what to do if or when the time comes.
Training and Practice
For anyone to be proficient at something you need to know what you are doing and practice what you know. So what do you need to know?
- Proper firearm handling skills (Safety)
- Immediate action i.e. reloads, malfunction drills, etc.
- CQB and room clearing tactics
- How to work together with other defenders (Teamwork)
Firearms handling and shooting skills are important but tactics are just as important. There are two types of tactics training, the first and most common is the static square range type. The second is force-on-force and is far less common but offers a much faster learning curve. To be well rounded you should have some experience with both.
Training programs that I would personally recommend are Combat Focus Shooting, now called Intuitive Defensive Shooting by Rob Pincus, Combat Shooting and Tactics (CSAT) by Paul Howe and Tactical Response by James Yeager. I have personal experience with each of these training systems and feel they are all great programs.
Final Thoughts
During the process of preparing your home and family for an SHTF or grid-down scenario, there is one more thing you need to take into consideration, more than likely law and order will be re-established. This means that there is a good chance that you will be held accountable for your actions. You need to make sure that all of your actions are fully justifiable and that you take whatever steps necessary to ensure you stay out of legal trouble.