A sound home defense strategy involves taking precautions at 3 distinct levels
You never want your home and family to be threatened.
Unfortunately, part of living in a society involves dealing with its less savory members and protecting yourself if they try to take what you've earned.
FBI estimates suggest there were 1,117,696 burglaries in the United States in 2019. That number was down 9.5% from 2018 and a decrease of 29.6% from 2015.
The overall decrease in burglaries is good, but it doesn't mean your house is safe from crime.
Digging a bit deeper into the numbers, we can see that 55.7% of burglaries in 2019 involved forcible entry, and the victims of these offenses incurred about $3 billion in property losses.
You should never let your guard down because property crime can occur at any time.
You need to have a plan in place to prevent criminals from targeting your home and address them if they do infiltrate the premises.
There are three distinct layers your home defense strategy should cover. Here's a look at each of them.
The exterior of your home
The first thing to do when protecting your home is to secure its exterior. The less inviting the house looks to intruders, the easier it is to deter criminals.
One tip is to make your home look like it has multiple levels of protection, even if it doesn't.
This step could involve putting up “Beware of Dog” or security company signs in your yard. You could even leave dog toys near your front porch to act as a deterrent.
Motion-activated lights or cameras are also good deterrents that can scare an invader off before they have the opportunity to take anything.
Think about it from a burglar's point of view: If you were approaching a potential home to victimize and saw signs in the yard indicating the homeowner has a dog and security system, you might move on and find an easier target.
Making yourself a more challenging victim is a massive step toward protecting yourself.
It's also advisable to make the home as tough as possible to enter.
A wide-open front yard without anything to hide behind can make a stealthy entrance nearly impossible. Keeping your windows clear of anything a thief could climb on can also help.
At the same time, obstacles near windows, especially items that are impossible to stand on, like thorny bushes, can make entering your home far more difficult for the intruder.
As far as your windows go, you should harden them with locks that aren't easy to break, and you might even consider installing a security system that can detect when glass is broken.
These choices often come down to your budget.
You should also look at hardening your doors, which can involve high-quality locks, accessories that prevent the door from opening from the outside, and reinforcing the locking plate and door frame.
Some locking plates are attached to the door frame using finishing screws.
A burglar can kick or pry the door open quite easily in those situations, but a quick reinforcement with longer screws makes it far more challenging to infiltrate.
Your home's interior
After you've done everything you can to make the exterior of your home discouraging to criminals, it's time to make some improvements inside.
The first step here is coming up with places to store your defense weapons.
Every home is different, so you'll need to look at your layout when coming up with a plan. The good news is that you know your home's layout well, and most intruders will not, so you have the advantage.
It's often a good idea to keep your primary self-defense weapon in your bedroom since that's where you'd likely be during a nighttime break-in.
However, it might make sense to have a few different storage sites around the home because you never know when a burglary might occur.
After deciding where you'll keep your firearms, there are all kinds of ways you can make the interior of your home a challenging target.
Have a look at what's available before making a decision.
You're the final layer of defense
You've done your best to make the exterior and interior of your home as challenging to infiltrate as possible.
However, these methods aren't foolproof. If a thief is genuinely motivated to get into your home for some reason, there's still a chance they'll do so.
If that happens, you may have to be ready for conflict so you can protect yourself and your family.
It all starts with buying suitable firearms and learning how to use them.
Taking a couple of gun training courses will ensure you know what you're doing and have the confidence to use your weapon in a tense situation.
Familiarize yourself with the various types of firearms for home defense and how to use them.
Taking a couple of gun training courses will ensure you know what you're doing and have the confidence to use your weapon in a tense situation.
Whether you choose a handgun, rifle, or shotgun, considering the pros and cons of each gun allows you to make an informed decision.
Finally, you should have a plan for where in the home you'll address any threats, a location in the house your family members will head if there's an intruder, and a route for getting out of the house safely.
Keeping your home safe is an ongoing commitment.
Your plans can and should evolve until you have a procedure that you're entirely comfortable using in a home defense situation.
Buying firearms and ammo
Once you determine that your home defense plan requires a gun or two, the next step is figuring out where to purchase them and the ammunition they need.
The good news is that licensed online dealers make the process far simpler by putting all the options at your fingertips.
Ammunition Depot is an online firearms dealer that believes in every American's right and responsibility to defend themselves.
We aim to provide our customers with industry-best service, so they can keep their families and homes safe from intruders.
Visit our online store for a look at the guns for sale and ammo for sale we currently have in stock.
