From time to time I have people ask me about weapons for home defense. Below are some guidelines for selection, storage, or use.

My one overarching piece of advice for any weapon system or self-defense tool is to get trained, and get trained well. This goes for any person in your family who may access a weapon. This goes for everything from guns, to knives, to pepper-spray. Seek out training, get trained, practice, get more training, practice … repeat as forever.

Always, always, always, without exception, learn and follow your local and state laws.

Selecting Home Defense Weapons

I know a bit about firearms, and quite a bit more about knives. I am not going to tell you make an model of weapons I think are superior for home defense. There are plenty of sites out there for people to argue those merits. Instead I want to give you guidelines for selection so that you can make your own informed decisions.

• First consider what you are legally allowed to own. Yes, we’d all love a rocket launcher for home defense, but let’s be realistic. Are you legally allowed in your location to own a knife, gun, pepper spray, taser etc? If so, are there permit qualifications?
• What is your home environment like? Do you have children? Small hallways? Most modern firearms, particularly rifles will go straight through walls in your house. You don’t want to accidentally shoot a loved one. Machetes are great, but might be difficult to wield on that narrow staircase.  Pepper spray in an enclosed space is going to affect every person in the house – including you. Shotgun shot and safety slugs in handguns are supposed to reduce wall penetration – do you really want to risk your kids lives on “supposed to”? Consider the environment.
• Consider capacity. Under stress conditions, most people miss most shots with a handgun – even well-trained police officers. If you are going the route of a handgun or carbine, consider magazine capacity. I know a lot of people love revolvers for a lot of reasons (including the fact they seldom jam), but I would rather have 10-16 chances than 6. Police and civilian tasers are normally a one-shot and you’re done deal. I am not a big fan for civilian use. Handheld weapons, knives and baseball bats and such, never run out of bullets, but are only good close up.
• Consider effect. A lot of articles in gun magazines refer to “stopping power” of handguns. They are all full of crap. A few years back I sat in on a lecture given by an FBI consultant who had completed a study on firearms. The FBI’s firearms experts concluded that no handgun in the world with the power to be reliably lethal or knock down an opponent in one shot. Yes, it does happen sometimes. Many people are shot multiple times and survive. Even when a shot destroyed the heart, an opponent still had a number of seconds to press an attack. Knives are nice, but very seldom instantly lethal. If you carry a knife you should know how to use it to stop an attacker. Impact weapons like bats and sticks can be used to great effect but require a lot of room to wield.

Take each of these things into effect when choosing a weapons system. Realistically you should wind up with multiple choices for maximum flexibility.

Storage of Home Defense Weapons

Storage is a very important consideration for any weapon. On one hand, and weapon you own must be kept out of the wrong hands. Your local laws may dictate trigger locks or other safety mechanisms. You don’t want children, a home-invander, or drunk uncle Bob getting their hand on something that could hurt someone.

On the other hand, for a weapon to be effective, you need to have access to it when you need it.

Ideally, you would have access to your personal defense tools throughout your home. This might be too expensive or impractical. If permitted legally, and it’s practical – you might consider carrying your weapons on your person while at home and awake.

You should have a designated safe room in your home which, at least has a locked door and access to a phone. This is a good place to store a firearm in a safe and place other survival tools.

Learn how to use improvised weapons too, so that anything in your hands can be a tool for survival. We teach improvised weapons as do some other schools. Also learn empty hand defense, so it can be a bridge to get you to your weapons system.

Use of Home Defense Weapons

Specific uses are going to depend on the weapon, but here are some basic guidelines:

• Again learn and follow all applicable laws. The laws on self defense in the home can be a little difficult to understand. Consult a lawyer or take a self defense law class (offered sometimes by NRA instructors who are lawyers or police officers).
• Have a plan for your family and practice it. In a home invasion scenario – getting at least one person out of the house to get help is the best idea. Barring that plan to retreat to your safe room. Have code words practiced, yelling “Escape” means everybody leaves through the nearest exit and meets at a safe place. Yelling “safe room” means everybody runs for the safe room. You may decide ahead of time that in a home invasion, one adult who has training might act to block and attack the invaders – delaying them so others might get help. As a parent, it’s a sacrifice I would make. The point is to plan and practice.
• Seek the best cover possible. Put anything you can between you and an attacker. Hard objects are best, but barring that – knock over furniture in his path or throw things. You’re simply trying to delay and distract. If you plan on owning a firearm – learn how to shoot from all different positions in front of and behind cover. If you have a edged or impact weapon think of it as a shield. Make your attacker come through the weapon to get to you.
• As soon as possible, somebody needs to call 911. If  a household member is armed, inform the dispatcher that the homeowner is armed, with what and, if possible, where. Stay on the line.

May you never have to use this knowledge. I would rather you have it and not need it, than need it and not have it.

Carjacking is a relatively rare occurrence in Maine. However, you can learn to be safer in your car no matter where you are. Here are the most important steps you can take:

1. Safety always begins with awareness
   Know what’s around your car at all times, even when stopped at a light. Drivers distracted by speaking on the cellphone, eating, doing their makeup have proven to be more dangerous than drunken drivers. Be aware, even when stopped.
2. Keep your doors locked
   The only time your car doors should ever be unlocked is when you are getting in or out of or unloading the car. A lot of car jacking happens at stoplights. It’s much harder to pull someone out of a car that is locked than not. Leaving your car unlocked leaves it open for anyone to climb in, an assailent, a child, a burglar – keep it locked.
3. Leave space to escape
   A rule I always follow when stopping behind another car is to leave enough room that I could pull away if I had to – even if that means driving up on the sidewalk. If someone approaches your car with a weapon, your first instinct should be to drive off fast.
4. Understand the rule about second crime scene
   As a general rule, you should never let an assailant take you to a second crime scene. They are not taking you there with good intentions and, chances are, they want to remove your options for survival. If someone does happen to get into the car with you, get out and run if you can. If you can’t it’s recommended that you force the car to crash against a stationary object – hopefully at a speed that won’t kill or injure you severely.
5. Be careful about fake police officers
   This is a nightmare situation, but some criminals equip their cars with flashing lights to pull people over. This has mostly been done to target young women driving by themselves. Occasionally one of them will even dress as a police officer. We’re taught to comply with law enforcement, and disobeying the law can bring charges. Unmarked cars are more common on the turnpike, where it’s unlikely such criminals would be active for fear of being caught. So, if you’re being pulled over in the middle of nowhere:
   • Slow down and signal your intent to stop and try to pull over in a well-lit public area (may not always be an option).
   • Look at the car, if it has blue flashers on a top-mounted light-bar it is most likely a real police officer.
   • Tell the officer you don’t feel safe and ask to be escorted to the nearest police station.
   • Can you see the license plate in the mirror and is it a government plate?
   • If you don’t feel comfortable, keep your door locked and roll your window down just a crack to hand your license and registration over.
   • If anything makes you feel wrong, tell the officer that you aren’t comfortable and you’re going to call 911.
6. Always carry a charged cell-phone
   Even if you don’t have service, like if you haven’t paid your bill, all cell phones will dial 911. If you can’t afford cell service, as least carry a charged phone for 911 calls.

During several of my self defense seminars I’ve had students tell me that their first planned line of defense against violent crime was to summon the police by calling 911. One woman said that she would dial 911 on her cell phone and hold her finger over the send button while walking alone at night. Another said she would call home and talk to her husband while walking to her car because she felt reassured.

Let’s be clear – calling 911 during an emergency when possible is a great idea. The quicker you can summon help the better. However, when seconds count – the police are minutes away.

I don’t have statistics on police response time to 911 calls in Maine, but average EMS response time is 6-12 minutes. This figure varies significantly depending on location. In a violent attack or home invasion, it’s unlikely that an attacker is going to give you 6 minutes. In a report commissioned by the State of Maine to analyze the 911 system, it is stated that a delay of even 30 seconds in response time is life-threatening.

I used to mistakenly think that calling 911 automatically gave the police my location and, even if I was unable to speak, help would arrive.  Enhanced 911 has made this better for calls from home phones, but cell phones are another story. Call 911 from a cell phone and it’s likely you’ll need to be transferred. I experienced the first hand in Boston when I witnessed and accident and called 911 on my cell.  The State police answered the call and didn’t even know what city I was calling from. Then they transferred me and I got a busy signal.

Two women who worked for me were in a car accident in front of a State Police bunked in Massachusetts and called 911. It took 20 minutes for a trooper to walk out of the front door and help them. Larger cities like New York have had times when response was over 45 minutes.

The truth is that calling 911 should not be your primary line of defense. It’s too unreliable – you don’t know when help is going to arrive. If your house was burning down, you wouldn’t call 911 and then sit inside and wait for the fire department (I hope). You’d get out and then call 911.

You are the first line of defense for you and your loved ones. You need to be prepared. Get yourself some training.

Last night I attended a talk on information security given by a representative of a major endpoint security company. They make antivirus software for those who aren’t fluent in geek.

The presenter made an interesting point that I think is relevant to personal security and self defense. He showed an image of a house and talked about the three necessary components to preventing loss or mitigating risks for burglaries. The first component is prevention, this includes door locks, fences, and anything designed to keep a burglar out. The next component is detection and includes things like alarms which are designed to make us aware when a breach of our preventative measures has occurred. The final component is response and includes things like alarm monitoring that calls the police and owning a gun or a dog. Response is the ability to react when a breach has occurred and has been detected.

The presenter next asked which of the three components was most important. Most of us (including me) answered that prevention was most important. In surveys this is the consensus of 95% of people asked. The reality is that, according to insurance statistics, for mitigating loss to burglary – detection and response are far more important than prevention. While having good door locks and other preventative measures is  important, once they are bypassed – without detection and response a burglar is free to steal with impunity.

How can we relate this to self defense and personal protection?

1. Prevention: This is anything you do to keep yourself from being a target of criminals. This may include avoiding dangerous situations, locking your car and house doors, not flashing valuables or cash in public – etc. The issue is, that there is no such thing as 100% fail-proof prevention. You can do everything right, and even go overboard with security precautions and still become the target of crime.
2. Detection: Detection boils down to awareness. Clearly most people will be aware of an attack after it happens, but understanding pre-violence indicators and having situational and environmental awareness are keys to surviving violence. I sometimes tell students that I cannot teach them how to defend against a sniper rifle. If the attack isn’t perceived, there will be no response.
3. Response: What do you do when you detect a threat, or when attacked? This is where tools and training come in.

The truth of the matter is that all three layers of defense are incredibly important. Insurance companies are not going to tell you to forget about door locks and just get an alarm and a gun. Many schools of self defense focus solely on response, and this is fine. However, without awareness, response will be too late and infective.

Growing up in Maine, we never locked our doors  (car or home) until the day we were burglarized. Now I live in a relatively crime-free area or rural Maine, yet I own a sophisticated alarm system and lock all my doors. I know people who do not and want to believe that there is no need to do so. I know someone who chastises people for locking their doors.

Whether it’s a computer system, a high tech installation, or your home – the weakest link in any security system is the people.

You can own steel doors with super-secure deadbolts, but if you fail to lock them they are useless. You can have a firewall and antivirus software installed on your computer, but if you open that email attachment from uncle Fred, you can infect your system. Companies can install intrusion detection and prevention systems on their network, but allow their employees to walk out the door with a hard drive full of valuable secrets.

The things that make us more or less safe boil down to the decisions we make daily.

Security is always a trade-off. I know I could stay relatively secure if I moved into the woods and locked myself in a panic-room wearing a bulletproof vest. However, the trade-off in lifestyle is not one I’m willing to make. There is no system that is 100% safe. Looking at security measures and their trade-offs is a good way to analyze and figure ways to become safer from crime.

Having lived in the city for 20 years, locking my doors is second nature. It isn’t really an inconvenience or extra expense. Having an alarm is a minor expense and a slight inconvenience, but saves a little on homeowners insurance and gives me some peace of mind. Everything else I do, which is undisclosed for security purposes, is a result of choices of trade-offs I have made. Only you can decide which tradeoffs you’re willing to make.

As an example,  jogging alone at dusk through a sparsely populated park with lots of blind spots while wearing headphones is one way that people in major cities like to get mugged. Seriously -  this is an activity that that encourages a lot of crime. So what are some trade-offs that could make jogging safer? Jogging with a friend may not be convenient, but may be the safest alternative. Choose a well-lit area with more people – not as nice an experience maybe, but safer. Don’t wear headphones while jogging – allow yourself the senses you were given to avoid danger.

Think about what you are willing to trade in order to be more safe. For some people it’s emotionally difficult to hold the idea that there are people who see them merely as objects to get what they want. You might have to give up some psychological comfort. Unfortunately, this is the criminal mindset. You do not have to go from blissfully ignorant to completely paranoid – there is a nice medium where you can live a happy but safer life.

I am a big fan of unconventional training and, since awareness is the greater part of self-defense, here’s an unconventional drill you can do during the day:

I once read that the first thing a professional burglar does after breaking into a building is to look for escape routes. This would be pretty important should someone come in unexpectedly to foil their theft. Getting caught is the last thing a criminal wants.

Self defense is all about awareness and escape. Unlike the movies, self defense isn’t usually a toe to toe stand up fight. Your best bet to avoid getting hurt or into legal trouble is to escape danger.

To tune up your awareness, do the following drill throughout the day. Any time you enter a building or a room, make a quick mental note of the exits (windows, doors etc). Do this as fast as you can. Even if you have been somewhere numerous times, like in your home, still do it. Note if there are obstructions that would have to be cleared to use an escape.

This is a simple exercise which will begin to train your survival awareness.

Here’s a second drill for the car:

When stopped at a red light, always leave enough room between your car and the car in front that you could pull out in an emergency (even if pulling out puts you into oncoming traffic). Do not stop inches away from the bumper in front of you.

Think about what you would do if an armed attacker rushed your car, and tried to gain access. If you have kids or friends in the car, how does that change what you might do?

Both of these drills can be done in seconds, yet they start to build your situational and environmental awareness and make you a safer person.