Rubber tubing, gas, saw, gloves, cuffs, razor wire, hatchet, Gladys, and my mitts ...

1.  Carry on your person at home!

2.  Install Security Screen Doors front and back and make the family keep them locked.

3.  Big Dog.

4.  Install the clear coating stuff to your windows.  It prevents bad guys from getting through your windows.  They can break the winows, but the glass breaks and stays together.  Awesome stuff.  So awesome that I can't remember the name...

Bed Holster

There have been a few reasonable answers here thankfully.

I'm not an expert but I keep a German Shephard as an alarm, and have my G19 or G17 on me all the time. My German Shephard is an excellent alarm. Nothing gets near the house without him going nuts.

My response plan does not involve me sweeping the house. My family will all gather in one room with phone and light/weapon. There is a strongpoint I will hold on the upstairs level while we wait for the police.

Alone, I would be exposed to way too many angles to safely clear my home. That is why I have chosen a strong point to hold until relieved. It takes police about 45 minutes to get out to my house, but my whole ridge is on the same channel with radios that are on 24/7.  There would be a good number of well armed mountain men and one federal agent on my property in short order. They can count on my support in the same way.

There are more improvements on the way in the near future. Motion lights are going up this spring along with a few dead bolts. I want my wife to be trained better with regards to her responsibilities. I have body armor for her to put on while I am retrieving my weapon and taking up a defensive position. The idea is to give her protection and our daughter. She could act as cover for the little one. I think she would be more than up to that task. She will be armed with commo stuff and a surefire, as she isn't real confident operating a firearm.

It's good to have a plan to succeed.

Quoted: In my neck of the woods Home invasion is a big, big  Crime  that is trendy right now. I dont want  loaded guns in every room becuase of children. I have some pepper gas with velcro by the front door. We also Have a hard wired alarm system too. Anything else or tips to stop,deter, survive a home invasion.

move...

Well, usually I case the place for a day or so (unobtrusively) and if it's rural, put on the phoney SWAT gear, otherwise I use the fake FBI badge, get in the door, and... oh, THAT kind of preperations.

Three words:  Motion.  Activated.  Flamethrowers.

Quoted: Three words:  Motion.  Activated.  Flamethrowers.

I see your motion activated flamethrowers and raise you a belt-fed shotgun built on a 1919 platform.

Quoted: Quoted: Three words:  Motion.  Activated.  Flamethrowers. I see your motion activated flamethrowers and raise you a belt-fed shotgun built on a 1919 platform.

While a belt fed shotgun WOULD be wicked awesome, I figure motion activated flamethrowers would be more of an "I don't have to get out of bed, I'll just sweep up the ashes in the morning" sort of solution.

I dont live in a bad area but I do take steps to prevent home invasions or at least steps to slow down an intruder to give me time to react accordingly. I have a home alarm with decals on EVERY window and door as well as a Brinks sign in the yard by the from steps. i have a minimum of two types of locks on the entry doors as well as wedges we place under the door when we retire to bed. I have in place two baby gates , one at the hall entrance and one at the bedroom entrance. They are there for three reasons. First and formost to keep mt cats outa my bedroom ( im allergic and like to not sleep in cat fur ) , second to keep my dogs in the bedroom at night so they dont tear the liveing hell outa stuff, and thrid the gates act as a obstical for anyone trying to navigate my house at night in the dark. I feel they would give me a few extra seconds when and if a situation did arrise. Next in line are my dogs. A 90 pound female black lab, mean as hell when it comes to strange men, and a light weight 60 pound black lag/ Boxer mix.... Hes ( Jack ) a light sleeper and the larger lab cheyenne is a heavy sleeper but both do answer bumps in the night with vengence.

 

I also make sure all my outside lights work properly as well as my motion sensing light on my garage. I keep a loaded XD-9sc under my pillow with an extra mag and G2 light, and my M4gery in the closet not more than 2 feet from my bed side locked and loaded with an extra mag.... to me these are normal preperations any family man should take to keep his home and family safe.

Quoted:  The key thing to avoiding home invasion it to not sell cocaine.

 

That's a big +1  
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Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Three words:  Motion.  Activated.  Flamethrowers. I see your motion activated flamethrowers and raise you a belt-fed shotgun built on a 1919 platform. While a belt fed shotgun WOULD be wicked awesome, I figure motion activated flamethrowers would be more of an "I don't have to get out of bed, I'll just sweep up the ashes in the morning" sort of solution.

True.

How much would you pay for a belt fed semi-automatic shotgun?

Quoted:  The key thing to avoiding home invasion it to not sell cocaine.

 




So is not filling your back room with unopened high priced electronics gear by participating in credit card fraud groups and using an ISP with workers that I happen to know.

Quoted: How much would you pay for a belt fed semi-automatic shotgun?

Dunno, but I know already I can't afford it.  

Quoted: You need to have a gun and ammo ready to go, find a way to keep the kids from getting them both together. You DO NOT WANT someone in your house and your guns being locked up where they are usless.

The small digital safes can be had for $35.00 or so, from Harbor Freight, and such. They are pretty sturdy / hard to break into, yet you can get you gun in hand and ready in 5 seconds.  Put a few throught out the house.

Quoted: How much would you pay for a belt fed semi-automatic shotgun?

Uh,nothing. I'll take a tube or magazine fed shotgun, though.

I have a small handgun safe on top of my big safe. It is really more of a lockbox than a safe. It is made of lightweight sheet metal, like a file cabinet. It has a 3 digit combo. I can leave 2 digits preset, and keep loaded handguns readily available. They are higher than my kids can reach, and the combo lock keeps curious hands off, while allowing almost instant access. In addition to other common sense practices, like locking the doors, This setup gives me peace of mind when balancing safety with speed of use. BTW the pepper spray at the door is a good idea. If nothing else it is a diversionary tool.

Quoted: Quoted: Three words:  Motion.  Activated.  Flamethrowers. I see your motion activated flamethrowers and raise you a belt-fed shotgun built on a 1919 platform.

and im all in with an external mote with nile crockadiles, a high wall with razor wire at the top, behind that wall a no mans land between the first wall and the second wall with cavebears, t-rexes and king cobras, second wall topped with more razor wire, inner cortyard filled with trained attack baboons and high tower with muder holes for my 50s and slots for the boiling oil..

never mind the dog, never mind the baboons, never mind the crocks, beware the cavebears and the cobras and the t-rexes are a bitch...

i live on a street that has had the record for home invasions in san antonio thus far.  that said, ive done a lot of research on this topic.


some things i have done to better protect myself and family:

1: added large steel doors.  most home invaders are either let in or kick in the door.  make the door kickproof and it aint happening.  one thing i found that i did when i had a wooden door was cut the head off a bolt after screwing it into the frame when the door is mounted on the hinges, and drilling two small holes in the door for the bolts to fit into when you close the door. makes it virtually kickproof

2:  motion sensing lights.  turn on when somebody approaches from the outside

3: bought a cheapo $30 security video camera on ebay, and wired it into my TV so i could just turn on the tv and check whos at the door before opening late at night, or even have it on PIP if im watching TV. a lot of home invasions rely on the homeowner opening the door to see who is outside.

4: installed a security alarm with a panic button so the kids and wife could use if im not at home and somebody comes in.  it also has a loud door chime if the door is opened.

5:  bars on the windows.  already had them but they help against window entry.

6: making sure any door that has a  window next to it has a key lock, so they cant just break a tiny window, stick their hand in, and turn the deadbolt.



ive had my home broken into before, have come home to people inside my house before, and have had to get up and see which crackhead is knocking at the door at 2am numerous times.  security at this point is part of my life.

not everybody that has their home invaded is involved with drugs, and to all the smartasses that say to move, not everyone has that option.  i fought tooth and nail to buy my own house, its a really nice house but just so happens to be in a pretty shitty area.  the neighborhood itself is halfway decent, but the two main streets lining it are the worst in town.    either way its MY house, and im proud of it.  sometimes running isnt always the answer.

Quoted: For you guys that have big man-eating dogs, i think that you might be a little optimistic.  The way that a dog behaves when his master is home is totally different than how he'll behave when he's alone and confronted by two male animals (BG) that each have 50 lbs on him and are moving confidently through your house.  Unless he is cornered then he will likely retreat.

Not an attack dog, but an alert dog. My dog will alert me to your presence before you get within 100 yards of my house. If you come by car, 500 yards.

Quoted: The goal is to delay entry, so anything you can do to slow them down will help. A heavy screen door is a start, along with a steel door and jam. The longer they take to get in, the more time you have to break out the heavy artillery.

Yep. Get a good screen door. Put thorny bushes under 1st floor windows.

I am sorry I missed this thread back when it was fresh but I have been trying to get a new website started that will address this....

www.home-invasion.com

I have started working on a few threads there that show my personal oppinions and experiences but I am always looking for additions or more oppinions...

I won't repost it all here so check out my link...