Monday, June 19, 2006

Household Vulnerability

Here’s something to ponder. Have you ever broken into your own home? If so, were you surprised how easy it was? Learning how easy it was, aren’t you glad that you believe in self-defense and keep a gun in the house?

Bill and I spent part of the weekend fixing a door to our condo. You see, a little while ago, Bill locked himself out of the house after I had left for work. If you’ve ever wondered why he’s called Yosemite Sam, well wonder no more. He simply kicked the door in and it gave him little trouble. Granted, only a door knob lock was on and not the dead bolt, but the dead bolt wouldn’t have been that much more difficult to kick open.

Of course, the door frame was broke all to hell including the jamb with the lock faces, the molding alongside the door frame and bits and pieces. Hmmm…. Neither of us are carpenters, but we pulled off the molding, cut out the broken jamb, cut a new piece of hardwood to fit, planed it, mortised places for the lock faces, and then screwed it all together. We still have to nail up the molding and then paint, but it’s stronger now than it was a few days ago.

The lesson here is that it’s too easy to break into a house. We may call a modern house our castle, but in reality a modern house is not fortified. It has glass windows and it doesn’t have armed retainers manning the walls. You get the idea.

That leads us to two related lessons:

When not at home, lock your guns and ammunition into something that would at least slow down a burglar. I don’t want to “donate” my guns to the illegal market and a safe or a very secure cabinet is a good idea and the law in certain states.

When home, keep a gun loaded and under your control. A home invasion can happen in the length of time it takes for someone to kick a door a few times. A quiet break in can happen anytime and your first clue that an unwanted quest is present might be a confrontation. In either case, you won’t have time to get to a locked up gun and its ammunition.

Given the reality of home invasions and burglaries and the impossibility of truly burglar-proofing your house, what other good choices are there?

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