Fortress America: Good locks to high-tech electronics - How to secure your home

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Following is an article I am reposting from:
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0BQY/is_1_47/ai_67717287

Fortress America
Guns Magazine, Jan, 2001 by Massad Ayoob

From good old-fashioned locks to high-tech electronic countermeasures, there's much more to real home security than just knowing how to use a firearm.

Violent crime is trending downward in this country. That's the kind of news that builds false confidence, One is reminded of the rural cop who once asked firearms trainer John Farnam, "How often do you think people get killed around here, anyway?" Farnam's reply was not only memorable, but classic: "Same as anywhere. Just once."

Home invasion is the forcible entry of an occupied home by presumably violent and usually armed criminals. In some statutes, it is described as "violent and tumultuous entry." Given that occupants are present, the criminal justice system sees it as a much more serious crime than burglary, which occurs in an unoccupied place and is a crime against property rather than life and limb.

The laws of reason and prudence dictate that those intruders who would confront the lawful residents in such a situation would do so in a violent manner. This is why, when intruders force their way into an occupied dwelling, a situation has been set in motion that can quickly rise to the level of justifiable homicide in self-defense or lawful defense of others.

Hard Targets

Some people who haven't read the fine print think the law allows them to shoot anyone trying to enter their home without permission. This is not the case. As a rule, the law still demands some action to have taken place to cause the armed defender to reasonably perceive immediate physical danger before pulling a trigger is authorized.

As any bodyguard (or "executive protection specialist") can tell you, the best fight is the one that's prevented. Shooting it out with the intruder is a last-ditch option, an act of grave desperation that should be avoided if reasonably possible.

Every gun owner concerned with home security should practice what those executive protection specialists call "target denial," a series of strategies that thwart the intruders before they ever come close enough to physically harm you or your family.

The first line of physical defense of your home should be solid doors in solid frames with good locks. While deadbolt locks are superior to spring-bolt locks, you want one of each on every major door. The spring-bolt lock can be "loided," or opened with a piece of celluloid like a driver's license, a trick that won't work on a locked deadbolt.

However, if a member of the family has been chased to the door, he or she may not have time for the necessary manual turning of the deadbolt that locks the door behind them. The spring-bolt lock activates automatically as the door slams shut, buying them time to then turn the deadbolt and "double-lock" the portal.

Barred windows are in vogue in some neighborhoods. If you choose them, make sure they quickly release from the inside. Statistics show us far more people burn to death in home fires than are murdered by home invaders. You don't want to restrict your own exit potential; you just want to prohibit unauthorized entry from anyone on the outside.

Let There Be Light

Some home defense hardware should come from the gun shop, but some can come from the electronics store. Two of the most useful defensive items are intercoms and remote switches.

Intercoms let you communicate with family members in other rooms. They also allow you to project your voice into other rooms in the house without giving your own position away. Intercoms can, if budget and family privacy views allow, offer the option of listening to what's going on in any room in the house.

Remote switches for interior or exterior lights can be activated from a radio console, which should be kept near the door of the "safe room." (The safe room is the room the family understands will be the gathering point for all members if security is breached by intruders.) These switches allow you to control light in any room in the house. You can keep yourselves in the invisible darkness, while lighting up the intruders and denying them much of the concealment they want.

Imagine that you are the intruder. You are two rooms into the house when the lights start going on and off around you. A disembodied voice booms, "Intruders! Do not move! Police are coming! If you enter the sleeping quarters you will be shot!" The technology required for this level of home security is surprisingly affordable.

Coming Through Not!

An extremely common form of home invasion is the "push-in" robbery. In this scenario, one criminal shows up at your door pretending to have legitimate business, to be lost or seeking emergency assistance. As soon as a member of your family opens the door to see what he wants, he shoulders his way through, often accompanied by multiple armed companions. The person at the door is commonly the first to be brutalized in this type of assault.

With the affordability of modern technology, there is no longer an excuse to open the door to someone you don't recognize. Go beyond the minimum-recommended peephole and get a closed circuit video camera. This allows you to not only hear, but also see the person at the door. Even the cheapest intercom lets you talk with a visitor without opening the portal.

Avoiding The 3 a.m. Cat Detector

You want good locks and good alarms. The locksmithing industry polices itself pretty well, but it's still a good idea to get recommendations from the crime prevention bureau of your local police or sheriff's department.

Alarms are another story. That industry is filled with wannabe amateurs who sell the cheapest alarms they can get.

The best way to find a reputable alarm service is to go to the police department and ask for referrals. Police dispatch and the Patrol Division know who the fly-by-night alarm salesmen are, and who installs alarms so poorly that they give false alarms every time there's a thunderstorm. The litmus test question to ask the officer: "What service installed your alarms?"

Closing The Loopholes

There are other services readily available from almost every local police department. You can request what is called a "security survey." A trained officer will be sent to your home to help you make sure you've got the best possible defenses against felonious intrusion.

The officer will make recommendations for closing any neglected elements that could be exploited by a burglar. In addition, this officer will usually be happy to answer questions about burglary patterns and home invasions in your neighborhood and community.

One more thing the cops offer at no charge: When you're going to be gone for a day or more, you can call the police department to request a "premises check" This may require a one-time visit to the department to fill out a form providing information including how many doors and other access points your home may have, who has keys to your house and is authorized entrance to the premises and surroundings (such as neighbors, housekeepers, gardeners, etc.).

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When The Spaghetti Hits The Fan

For daily storage you want your guns where you can reach them and unauthorized people can't. "Unauthorized people" include your guests, your kids' friends and perhaps your own children if they're not yet at a level of responsibility and competence to have access to lethal weapons.

If you choose the gunlock or lock-box route, make sure that you and other authorized family members can get the gun loose and into firing condition quickly and smoothly. One police supervisor in California has responded to the aftermath of numerous home invasions. When off-duty, he wears his department-issue Glock in an off-duty Aker hip holster, leaving it on his person until he goes to bed, at which time he places the loaded gun at bedside.

"Home invasions happen too fast," he says. "I'm not going to take a chance that I can't reach a gun at a storage point in time to defend my family."

"House-clearing" scenarios, in which you grab a gun and a flashlight and go looking for bad guys, are all but suicidal. This is a microcosm of what a soldier calls a MOUT environment. That means Military Operation, Urban Terrain -- house-to-house combat.

As a rule in MOUT environments with conventional small arms, it takes a force of up to nine times the size of the defending force to dislodge the latter, and it will be accomplished only with a very high casualty rate. Whoever goes to ground and stays still gets the enviable position of being the defender; whoever is mobile and aggressive becomes the cannon fodder.

When you start moving, you'll be detected if the invader is at all alert. He gets behind cover and shoots you the second you appear at the door. The advantages are hugely on his side.

This is why professionals use the strategy of marshaling their families into a safe room and ensconcing there, taking the defensive position and forcing intruders to become the moving target. Now it is the intruder who will be enfiladed -- trapped in a free-fire zone, like a hall or staircase, where there is no cover and no concealment to protect him from the guns of the threatened family members if he approaches them and puts them in reasonable and prudent fear for their lives.

Don't Remember The Alamo

Even if you have a buffalo rifle to back up your six-shooter, this isn't the Battle of Adobe Walls. The blue-clad reinforcements are only a phone call away. You want to have a cell phone when you're out and about anyway -- it is to the armed citizen what the police radio is to the patrol officer -- and at night you want it resting next to your regular phone. That way, if you get one of the proliferating breed of smart burglars who cut the phone lines before they make entry (among other things, they know this disables a lot of alarm systems) you have an immediate line of unassailable communication available to call in the cavalry.

When you or another family member makes contact with the dispatcher, give your address and repeat it. Make this your plan because A) "dedicated 911," which is supposed to flash your address on the dispatcher's screen, doesn't always work; B) you may be calling from an unfamiliar place that doesn't have dedicated 911; and C) cell phones don't register a location on a dedicated 911 board.

Don't say, "I want to report a burglary." It sounds "after the fact" and in some jurisdictions is not a high priority call. Say instead, "I think there are intruders in my home!" This is the kind of high priority call that will scramble the local gendarmes like fighter pilots at a SAC base.

You or another family member should stay on the line. This puts you in almost direct communication with responding officers through the dispatcher.

The burglars sound like they're leaving? Tell the dispatcher: "I think they're exiting the back door, which would put them on the west side of the house on Ninth Avenue." This is the kind of immediately delivered information that can make the difference between the offenders escaping, or their being caught in the rapidly closing capture net of the converging police units.

Have a key to the house on a stick of Cyalume, the chemical light-sticks you can buy any time of year at a camping shop or hardware store. This combination gives you the ability to readily deliver a house key to responding officers, even if you have to drop it from a second story window. In addition to the house key, draw a floorplan of the house, reduce it on a copier, and have it laminated and attach it to the light-stick with the key.

Don't Shoot The Good Guys

Never take a gun and go looking for the bad guys after you've called the police! This sets the stage for a mistaken identity shooting.

Scenario One: The first responding officer is reconnoitering your house, looking through a window, fearing "man with a gun" call. Through the window, he sees you with your firearm -- "Man with a gun!" He shouts a command, you reflexively turn toward him, and he fires. You're dead.

Scenario Two: Because a home invasion is a high priority call, all available personnel are mobilized, and the first responding officer is in plainclothes or perhaps even in a scummy-looking "undercover" disguise. You see him fiddling with the back door, a pistol in his hand. You shout a challenge, he turns instinctively toward you with his gun turning with him, and you fire. You've killed a cop.

Stay in the safe room, on the line. If you hear sounds of entry, tell the dispatcher, and the dispatcher will tell you if it's a cop or not. Put down your gun and step away from it before coming into sight of the officers. At moments like this, follow the Holiday Inn rule: "The best surprise is no surprise."

The Arming of Fortress America

The choice of home defense guns is a topic involved enough to warrant books, not just articles. The short form is: Tailor the tool to the predictable task and the preidentified users.

Make sure the handgun's grip is small enough in circumference, and the long gun's stock short enough in length, that the smallest of the people authorized to use it can handle it comfortably and competently. A large man can easily adapt to a small handgun or a short-stocked rifle or shotgun, but a petite female is severely handicapped by a gun that is too big. Make sure the power level is such that any of those you've authorized to use the gun can handle its recoil in rapid fire with the home defense loads you've chosen.

The handgun is "infantry;" it allows you to go mobile, shepherding other family members from their bedrooms to the safe room. It leaves a hand free to work a flashlight, light switches, the remote light console, the intercom and the phone. You can go to the door with it discreetly concealed, or step outside to cautiously investigate a suspicious sound, without "frightening the horses."

The long gun is "artillery," not just because of its power but because it is used from a fixed location and directed into an already-plotted zone of fire. If the family is in the safe room and the intruders are kicking down that door, the carbine, rifle or shotgun comes into its own. A person who can only afford one gun will find the handgun much more versatile than the long gun.

Which guns? One ill-advised gun owner I knew kept an HK9l, a splendid .308 semiautomatic rifle, as a home defense gun. He lived in a trailer park. A classic example of a fine gun in the wrong environment.

Friends of ours who live on a sprawling Texas ranch keep short AR- 15 .223 auto rifles and Les Baer custom .45 autos loaded with hardball for home defense. This choice makes eminent good sense for their environment.

My wife Dorothy and I live in the city. The guns we'll reach for are high capacity 9mm pistols with +P+ hollowpoints and a 12 gauge autoloading shotgun, which make eminently good sense for our environment. No one set of tools is perfect for every task.

Defense against home invasion isn't just about guns. A spectrum approach of defensive architecture, hardened perimeter, redundant communications, and above all, a planned family response to such an emergency are absolutely critical.

Don't let anyone tell you that firearms have no place in home defense. They are the final line in the sand that prevents crippling injury, rape, torture and murder at the hands of some of this nation's most wanton criminals.

COPYRIGHT 2001 Publishers' Development Corporation
COPYRIGHT 2000 Gale Group