What home security measures have you planned for the economic collapse?
If conditions worsen to the point of breakdown in police services, just as during Katrina, we can expect general lawlessness to break out, posing enormous risk to anyone who has stored food, water, medicines, etc. The standard advice on DP has been "Get a gun!" but why not try to thwart home invasions in the first place? Some serious passive defense can be had for less than the cost of a gun and ammo (but get the gun anyway!).
I have long felt my three exterior doors represented a major weakness. A well-delivered kick would splinter the jamb and permit a sudden home invasion. I know because I've replaced doors that were broken in just this fashion. If situations deteriorate rapidly, I want to be ready to literally bar the doors against this possibility. Toward that end I've bought 12 heavy door bar loops and 48 four-inch by 3/8 lag screws for securing them. I will remove the interior door casings and mount the metal loops and some strong-back 2x4's at a minimum (two 2x4's nailed together in a T cross-section), one at mid-door and one lower. These bars will have their own locking mechanism so they can't be removed by knocking out a window and reaching inside. In a pinch a couple of screws in each would do the trick.
Windows would be more difficult to bar so I've adopted a different strategy for them: razor wire! I bought 165 feet of razor wire coil (1-foot coil spacing) on ebay for $109 plus shipping. This will stay in its box pending a time of definite need. Hopefully that will be never. However, should conditions worsen to the point of lawlessness, barriers can be hastily erected at house entry points. I plan to handle it and staple it in place using my heavy welding gloves.
I've just been researching feedlot panels and HESCO barriers.
The HESCO barrier was developed for military use as protection against small arms fire, grenades, and car bombs but has also seen application in architecture and flood control. It is much quicker than sandbags to deploy. It's a heavy welded wire enclosure that arrives collapsed flat and can be opened out to form large rectangular fabric-lined tubes that are then filled from the top with dirt, sand, gravel, or stones, preferably by a front-end loader. They have been named one of the top military technical innovations and have saved countless troop and civilian lives in Iraq and Afghanistan where they have been used abundantly. They are fairly costly however.
Enter feedlot panels. These are not costly. You can buy 16' x 4' panels of cattle barrier for under $20. These are made of very heavy welded and hot-dipped galvanized wire (more like rods!) strong enough to contain a frisky steer. Sheep or goat panels have closer grid spacing and are more costly but would still enable you to build a 4'x4'x4' HESCO barrier for about 50 bucks vs. several hundred from HESCO.
I must admit that building HESCO barriers was not my immediate interest. It was rather cutting the panels to fit windows throughout the house so they could be mounted when trouble brews. True the panels offer no visual barrier or protection against bullets but they should discourage thieves until yours is the only house in the neighborhood that hasn't been ransacked.
Here are some links to feedlot panels and HESCO barriers:
Feedlot barriers:
http://www.anthonysupplyco.com/agproducts/feedlotpanels.htm
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://img.photobucke...
HESCO barriers
http://www.strategypage.com/military_photos/hesco.aspx
http://www.hesco.com/US_CIVIL/home.html
http://www.hescobarriers.com/categories.asp?CatID=17
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hesco_bastion
http://northshorejournal.org/hesco-barriers-a-photo-primer
My Blog:
http://horizonscanblog.blogspot.com/
New Hampshire and Ecuador
Well, I have a chihuahua for a guard dog....
and a .380 pistol with hollow points that I'm pretty good with. If the chihuahua pisses me off, I'll shoot him and eat him.
Plan, not prepare
I've bought 2-3 weeks worth of canned food: vegggies, meat, fruit, SPAM. I also have aquamira, the water purifying chemical. More important thqn canned goods is the relationship I have with my neighbors. Talk to the people in your town. That will save you, nothing else will.
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"To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world."
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"To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world."
None at all
as there will be no need for any.
"Step away from those who would speak of anything but hope.
There is nothing but hope in this our world and this truth alone has won out."
The entire world police state has been built using the premise of your post, brother.
Unify
I think the entire world police state...
has been built on the backs of those who cannot do for themselves. That's why a police state has enforcers and slaves. Preparation is not an evil, nor a cause of angst, except for those that would see to it that as many as possible either belly up to the bar for the crumbs from the nanny state or starve from their own inability to provide for themselves. Hope is the fuel FOR preparation, not the reason to delay.
Assert Your Authority
Assert Your Authority
OK
My Blog:
http://horizonscanblog.blogspot.com/
New Hampshire and Ecuador
I think your focus is a little off.
Most local police will be federalized. That is, they will be under the direct authority of either the Military or FEMA. If there is any lawlessness - looters, etc. - the cops/military will arrest and detain them.
The thing to worry about - if the U.S. falls apart - is the camps that FEMA has in place. Unless you hide well, or leave the country, you may be sent to one of them. That's the plan in place, and an Executive Order (going back to the time of Reagan and REX 84) has made it law.
My advice to you, friend, is to get out of the U.S. mainland while you are still able to, and relocate to a less dangerous place. It's a chore, since you have to have enough money to do it, find a host country that will accept you (there are many), quit your job, and take your kids out of school, etc.
Staying put is to put yourself in harm's way, in my humble opinion.
I plan to move to Ecuador, not flee, just move.
However I need more money to make the move. My hope at this point is that worsening political/economic conditions will be great for my business and I can finally afford to load up and head out.
My business:
http://www.preparednessequipment.com/11501/index.html
My blog:
http://horizonscanblog.blogspot.com/
New Hampshire and Ecuador
I agree. I relocated last year
I live on an island in the western pacific these days. It's a U.S. territory, but the local government has autonomy to run things. We are off the radar in many way, but the DHS is still here, at the airport, checking things. But I feel a whole lot safer here than I would in the U.S.
Check out: Costa Rica, Vietnam, the Philippines, Cambodia, and Peru in addition to Ecuador. They are all fine places to live and they all welcome Americans. Check first, however.
Ha, ha!
Not looking for a place to live. I have an entomological project in mind. Living there will be coincidental.
New Hampshire and Ecuador
shouldnt you have sand bags set up?
To keep the bullets from getting to you. Maybe put them in the couch so you have something to duck under when the shooting starts. And no I am not being paranoid, for instance how many people have died from drive by shooting because bullets peirced the walls.
At least you can have the bags ready to fill.
Space permitting you could also order a dump truck load of sand so you can fill them at your leisure when you hear the artillery advancing ;-)
There are several online suppliers. Here is one I use a lot:
http://www.uline.com/BL_5565/?pricode=WK701
My Blog:
http://horizonscanblog.blogspot.com/
New Hampshire and Ecuador
I'm more worreid about NATO
I'm more worreid about NATO troops or the DHS kicking my door down to confiscate my steel.
"The price of Freedom is Eternal Vigilance"- Thomas Jefferson
There is no Left or Right -- there is only freedom or tyranny. Everything else is an illusion, an obfuscation to keep you confused and silent as the world burns around you." - Philip Brennan
"Invest only in things that you can stand in front of and pr
If you have...
made your home invader proof at it's weakest points, remember that the greatest danger other than the active invader is a patient man with a molotov coctail. Your roof is the weakest aspect of your home. Fire is not your friend. Metal roofs don't burn, but asphalt shingles and cedar shake do. Instead of the invader running in, you'll get caught running out. This applies for windows also.
You should, if you do not already, visit survivalblog.com for some excellent information concerning preparations for public unrest and survival tools, skills and mindset.
Assert Your Authority
Assert Your Authority
Thanks elrococco. I could spend a few weeks
mining golden advice out of Jim Rawles' survivalblog.com I'll make it a point to spend extra time there tonight looking for this particular topic.
My Blog:
http://horizonscanblog.blogspot.com/
New Hampshire and Ecuador
If you haven't read his "Patriots" novel...
it is a catalog of survival information. If only I had the time and $...
Assert Your Authority
Assert Your Authority
I read it
and am looking forward to his non-fiction survival prep book due out soon (Sept.?). You're right, lotta money, and he didn't even get into RBC shelters!
My Blog:
http://horizonscanblog.blogspot.com/
New Hampshire and Ecuador
guns...lots of guns.
ammo, too!
Build a
Build a moat!
http://www.ehow.com/how_2155747_dig-moat.html
Nails....
Secured in grass concealed boards under my windows.....and my wife like bells and chimes...I made sure every window has at least one on the inside...
Have you joined Ron Paul's Caucus?
The Republican Liberty Caucus
http://www.rlc.org/
Fellow Veterans, This Is A Call To Arms!
http://www.facebook.com/events/192677970828185/
February 20, 2012 - Veterans For Ron Paul March on D.C.!
Assuming I have no window by
Assuming I have no window by the door, a house with sturdy walls, a door that's too strong to kick a hole thru, in order to protect against defeating it by sledgehammering the doorknob, where is the best place to mount an extra, inside-only knob? Horizontally centered or next to the other knob?
http://www.fingerhut.com/ProductGroup.aspx?offergroupxid=653...
This site has saw-resistant roll bars:
http://www.goodbarsecurity.com/window-bars.html
Position it on the latch side,
then beef up your hinge side with some long hinge screws that sink into the frame of the house. Even better, add a couple more hinges, mortising carefully into both door panel and door jamb to match other hinges.
Of course if zombies are determined to break in, they will bring a battering ram and several helpers and defeat your best passive efforts. Then it will be time for active efforts. Have a stack of full magazines handy and aim for a pile of twitching bodies just inside the entrance. That way you can tie a rope around several at once and pull them out with a vehicle
My Blog:
http://horizonscanblog.blogspot.com/
New Hampshire and Ecuador
Doesn't matter.
You should have 3 horizontal bars barring the door from the inside... so the knob isn't going to matter.
~Live life to its fullest, with an open heart, open arms and most important... an open mind~
9mm, 12 guage and .223
Ron Paul is my President.
Ron Paul is my President.
GREAT thread!
I have a large pile of telephone poles I will roll down to block the driveway if needed. Then plywood the windows and bar the doors on the inside... if some jack-hole makes it past that it will be time for lead. But so much for the house, I will be sleeping in my chicken coop to protect my ladies!
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sdrawkcab gnihtyreve od deF eht & tnemrevog ehT
Those motion-sensor spotlights can be wired to audible
or inaudible alarms with or without any lights at all. I've got one wired out at the chicken coop that comes inside to a non-audible flashing light. The concept should work wherever.
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Great!
I've been thinking of various uses for motion sensors besides floodlights.
My Blog:
http://horizonscanblog.blogspot.com/
New Hampshire and Ecuador
I've done that before
at an old house w/ some roomates... we were getting some people coming at night to steal stuff, so we hooked up a motion sensor light to trip on a video cam, a loud radio (and the light). Also we put a board (plywood) with 100's of nail pounded through it and turned upside down partially buried in the gravel path for extra kick. Well it worked to a point. They came one Sunday am at about 3:00. I heard the radio go on... then heard them run about 3 blocks to get into their parked vehicle and speed away. I went back to sleep, and in the am was bummed to find they missed the nails and the camera didn't quite get a good shot. We knew who they were anyways, and never had to use the system again!_________________________________________
sdrawkcab gnihtyreve od deF eht & tnemrevog ehT
For some doors?
http://www.fingerhut.com/ProductGroup.aspx?offergroupxid=653...
How hard is this to kick in, assuming the door is too strong to put a hole through? What if they kick the side of the door with the hinge?
Will this work for me (no widnow by the door)?
But if they sledgehammer the doorknob...
If the house was built in the last 15-20 years, it's easier to
bust in the wall than the door. If somebody wants in, they're coming in.
My strategy is to not be home.
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