Most people think they will always be safe and never have to worry about riots, looting or civil unrest. However, most people also figured that the US would always be solvent, as opposed to becoming the biggest debtor nation in the history of the world. With the greatest number of people ever now receiving government assistance, what will happen when the government can no longer cut those checks.
Equally as bad, what will happen when the checks people receive lose their purchasing power due to hyperinflation? We are living in times unlike any other in history, where generations of Americans have grown up totally financially dependent upon the government, and the government is broke. History has taught us that when people lose hope, they take to the streets, and desperate people do desperate things.
Now Is The Time To Plan Home Defense
It takes very little planning now to enact some steps that can literally save your life if/when riots and looting strike your area. Contrary to popular opinion, you don’t necessarily needs guns to protect yourself, your home and your loved ones from rioters or looters. Not if you are smart. The key is to “harden your house” to make is a less attractive target and also a more difficult place to loot. You won’t have to brandish a firearm if looters never choose your house. The time to take these steps is now, when there is no emergency.
The first thing to do is to employ passive measures to make your house less of a target. Just as the overwhelming majority of home invasions happen through the front door, your front door communicates a lot to would-be looters. If your outer door is the kind with decorative steel instead of a large pane of glass, it looks much less inviting. So your first step of “house hardening” should be to look at replacing your front door. In addition, the installation of “The Door Club” is a $40 investment that will make your door nearly impossible to kick in, and it will take less than an hour to install. This way, when you are home and the door club is in place, anyone wanting to come in your front door will be stopped, or at the very least delayed greatly, even if they have a battering ram that the police use.
Safety Is Beautiful
Once your front door is secured, both by looking secure with a steel outer door, and by being very secure with a Door Club, turn your attention to your front windows. It is NOT necessary to install burglar bars, which most people find less than attractive. A great way to keep people from coming in your windows is by planting rose bushes! Anyone who has picked roses knows from painful experience that a bush full of sharp thorns is NOT an obstacle that you will take lightly. Planting rose bushes is a very modest investment – they can be purchased for under ten dollars each and they grow and grow. Anyone starting to go through your roses to get to your window will soon stop.
A More Fiendish Deterrent
While you are waiting for your roses to grow, or if there is an emergency before you have time to plant them, boards like 2 x 4’s with nails sticking up will do the same thing. They can be either fastened to the window sill to let those approaching know what they are in for, or they can be placed on the ground under the windows with a half-inch of dirt concealing them, so that looters will discover them the hard way.
Your Final Line of Defense
If you have followed the steps above, your home is hardened and is much less likely to be burglarized or looted. However, there is always the chance that an unwelcome guest could get inside and threaten the safety of you and your family. If you don’t have a firearm and some training, there is a simple non-lethal way to protect yourself. Mace or pepper spray is a great way to persuade someone to leave you alone. If you are going to be using it indoors, consider a gel type instead of a spray type, so that the entire room is not fogged with the noxious spray.
Another option is a $4 can of wasp spray. Wasp spray will shoot a stream 20 feet or more, which is a better distance to engage any enemy than up close. If you had several cans, it could possibly be employed from an upstairs window against a small group of troublemakers outside your house. As with lethal force, you must think long and hard about under what circumstances you would employ these weapons, as well as considering any legal ramifications. Attacking someone, even in self-defense, is a serious matter.
There are many other ways to keep yourself, your family and your home safe during times of civil unrest or disasters, whether natural or manmade. For the specific plans about being prepared, you can go to a ‘nuts and bolts’ regular guy Prepper YouTube channel at
http://www.youtube.com/survive2day.