Get Ready To Defend Your Family
Looting becomes a problem in almost any crisis situation.
It starts with unattended store fronts. As the crisis
fails to abate, the looting moves on to the attended store
fronts.
In time, they will move on to private resources, whether
they are guarded or not.
Some people, of course, are violent and opportunistic at
the core. They won’t feel inclined to wait as long as the
rest before they see your preps as theirs for the taking.
That doesn’t only apply to home preps. It applies to
bug-out bags, and it also applies to preps kept in bug-out
locations.
Remember how in the last newsletter we talked about
homicide increasing by 23% in Houston, Texas, when victims
from Hurricane Katrina had to seek shelter there?
What if your bug-out location is within the evacuation
zone? What if you are stuck in a shelter with your bug-out
bag? You must be prepared to defend yourself and your
family.
* Minimizing entry points
We will do it if we have to, but let’s face it: no one
wants to have to defend their family. That is why we take
measures to ensure that we don’t wind up needing to.
We start by not publicizing the availability of food and
supplies. We don’t tell everyone that we are preppers. We
don’t hang anything visibly from our bug-out bags unless
we absolutely have to.
We don’t place our survival gardens in such a way that
they are easily seen and accessed from major roads, if we
don’t absolutely have to.
But we can also go one step further: We can minimize the
entry points to our home.
That is not to say that you can’t have several exits from
your property, but be aware that the more entry and exit
points you have, the more difficult your property is to
protect.
Most wooden fences can easily be climbed or breached by
driving a vehicle into them. If you are going to put up
only a moderately tall wall, make it one that crashes a
car.
Why? Because people who are after your supplies, rather
than to hurt you per se, are likely to bring something,
like a car, for transport of stolen goods.
They need to get that vehicle as close to your building as
possible to get in, grab, and get out. If you force them
to approach on foot, you are at an advantage.
Tall walls and fences have to keep out both cars and
prying eyes and, to some extent, people. Trees will also
keep out cars and prying eyes, but only if they are thick
enough.
The highly ambitious, or the slightly medieval, may go as
far as to dig a moat!
* Early warning systems
Once you are aware of your entry points, you may feel
inclined to arrange an early warning system. That is to
say, make sure to have some way of knowing that you have
intruders coming.
This might range from geese, the guard dog of the bird
kingdom, to advanced alarms and cameras.
A word on dogs: A dog doesn’t need to be big or aggressive
to use as an advance warning system. You simply need any
alert dog that barks at motion.
There are a great number of dogs who do this, in all
manner of sizes, ranging from small toy terriers to big
Weimaraners.
Look for breeds known to bark a lot, in the categories of
dogs that fit your other requirements.
Remember, however, that in urban and suburban areas, your
neighbors, and even local regulations, may very well
frown upon loud geese and dogs.
As for guard dogs, that is to say dogs trained to attack,
there are some survivalists who train their own. But it’s
not a practice for beginners.
Getting a guard dog starts with choosing between genetic
lineages very carefully. Choosing a pup from parents who
are protective but insecure, for example, can be downright
dangerous.
Then there is the training, which must be done right so
that the dog remains safe for you and your family to be
around. Not to mention that there are legal aspects to
consider.
* Securing doors and windows
Sad to say, but most homes have terrible security. Most
home owners could be robbed blind in five minutes. Their
doors can be kicked in and their windows broken and
opened.
Changing the hardware does help some, though, and
installing iron bars does too. If the latter is not an
option, consider how you might go about securing your
doors and windows in an emergency.
Do you have tools and supplies? Are they nearby?
* Weapons
If someone gets into the house, you are going to need a
weapon. Many things can be made into weapons, from crow
bars to kitchen knives, but generally speaking…
…you never want to engage an attacker in that kind of
close combat.
Whatever your feelings are about firearms, they keep you
at a safe distance from your attacker, which significantly
increase your chances of survival.
What firearm you choose is up to you and your local
legislators. Learn how to use your weapon well and how to
store it safely.
* Self defense
Learning, and maintaining, some simple but effective
self-defense skills is a very good idea.
You don’t ever want to get into close combat with an
assailant, but if you are jumped, you have little choice.
* Secure locations and escape routes
Lastly, sometimes the best thing you can do to defend
yourself and your family is to hide or to flee. Consider
your home. If someone is downstairs, how do you flee from
upstairs?
If you cannot flee, is there somewhere safe that you can
lock yourself and your family, with supplies, and wait out
the threat?
The hero is the one who saves his family, not the one who
most readily fights another human being.
Stay safe!
Victor
https://survivalventure.com