Re: Home Invasions


----Well, first off, I have a dog outside, quite a little noisemaker he is, too. I doubt anyone would be able to approach the house without my notice during waking hours.
Yup my neighbor has three big dogs. He thought they would scare off burglars. Burgled the house at 9am in broad daylight without a bit a trouble.
---I thought we were talking home invasions,

Home invaders are far worse than burglars.

----No ***? The guys that burgled your buddies house was B&E, not home invasion as we were discussing, right?


not B&E's.The dogs are an
early warning system when you're at home.

I like dogs; but they are dogs. That means they are a dumb animal. Too much reliance on a dumb animal is dumb.

----Yet, people have been relying on dogs for millenia. People are dumb.

Dogs are much less of a problem than people think. His will bark at
racoons, possums, cats etc. Not a reliable warning device.
----Mine has a different bark for cats and delivery trucks and such. When someone approaches the house, he has a way more urgent bark.
Almost panicky.

Sure the dog does.

---Is this sarcasm? If it is, I'm guessing you don't own a dog....

He may panic at some other disturbance too.

---OK, Derb you may advise everyone to ignore what almost every home defense expert I've ever read or heard has advised. Hey, everybody, guard dogs are useless, according to Cannon! Jesus H Christ.


Second, I keep the doors locked when we go
to bed, they'd have to make some noise breaching the doors.
Not enough. If you read the article I posted they came in with an alarm ringing. Noise breaching doors may or not wake you up.
---I'm a light sleeper. Between the dog and the door noise, I'd wake up.

Until one day when you are really really tired from hard work. Particularly hard work that you are not used to.

----At my stage of life, I work smart, not hard....


I also posted about
a friend of mine that was having a hard time waking up when he could hear voices in his house which obviously did not belong there. His alarm was ringing also.

Third, I
keep a loaded .20 riot shotgun handy.
Cumbersome for a house; but better than an empty hand.
----Better than shooting a round through the wall and shooting someone in another bedroom.

If that is your fear, use frangible ammunition in a pistol

----I like the hit probability of the riot gun better.


The riot gun has a pistol grip and short barrel. 6
shot magnum shells have a great pattern.

Not bad at all. Like I said it beats an empty hand; but still a bit cumbersome.

---It may also serve as a club as a last resort.


"While limited in range, the multiple projectiles typically used in a shotgun shell provide increased hit probability unmatched by other small arms:

from:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combat_shotgun

I wonder if I could get it fitted with a bayonet, like the trench guns of WW1? Did you know they were so lethal, the German's complained they should be banned from warfare?

In fact, after further research, I may go for the mossburg model 500 HS410,

Home Security model

The model 500 HS410, or "Home Security" model, is only available in ..410, and is specifically designed for defensive use. It comes with a youth sized stock,

(get it in wood and cut off the stock to make a pistol grip-SM)

a vertical foregrip with, in some versions, a built in laser sight, and a special muzzle brake and spreader choke on an 18.5 inch (47 cm) bead sight barrel. The .410, while by far the least powerful common shotgun chambering, still generates energy in excess of a .357 Magnum, and the spreader choke produces wider patterns, as well as less chance of wall penetration, in the short ranges to be expected in a defensive situation. This model is targeted at the novice user, who needs a simple, easy to use yet effective defensive weapon, and is packaged with an introductory video covering use and safety.[1]

At a recent gunshow they had .000 shells for a .410....

Place it where you
have to be standing up when you take it out.
---No, I don't keep it under the bed.

The reason for this is so you are awake when you pick it up. Tip from John Farnham.

----Mine's two steps away.

Fourth, they would probably choose
my neighbor's houses to invade, as, like most hispanics, they have turned their homes into Mediterranean palaces, my home is non-descript in comparison.
Dont count on it.
---The odds are the richer looking houses without a dog will be targeted.

The odds maybe; but my neighbor house is a very small one, with three large dogs, compared to a lot of them in this subivision and they hit him.

---Something made his house look vulnerable, then.

Fourth, I've lived in a major metropolitan area most of
my life, and I've never been robbed at gunpoint. That might change as I get older and seem more vulnerable, but that's the facts. Nonetheless, I carry a CWP as well.
Get an alarm system and have it monitored.
---I thought you said your buddies house was breached even with an alarm?

It was the alarm that woke him up. Same thing with one of the houses that was featured in the article. Did not stop them.

----Probably won't stop them, but they'll probably only take the easy stuff to grab and haul ass before the cops get there.

They are getting bolder.
If your alarm is monitored, it alerts the police.

---And, the false alarms will start adding up....

If that setup is too
expensive you can rig an alarm.

----Anyone breaking in will assume you have a line to the cops anyway....

.