The circumstances that will obtain when it happens, whatever it may be, are not (likely) the immediate end of the world.  If I'm wrong about that, you won't need this column.

Many common sense preparations will serve you and your family whether we face an economic collapse that leads to supply chain failures, or a pandemic, or martial law.

One likelihood that many people seem to ignore is that when it happens, Government is very likely to impose travel restrictions, at least for a minimal time.  In the DC Metro area, my AO, you can trust any significant event will result in the immediate lockdown of the area.  Citizens will find merely getting home from work to be a serious challenge, likely to take many hours even for what is normally a modest trip.  Remember that everyone will be trying to get somewhere, at the same time.  Everyone will want to rush to the store for last minute supplies, just as they do when a snow storm is in the forecast.  Add to the chaos the fact that Government will shut down many typical routes.

For those who have a cabin in the hills or other hidey-spot out of the way, consider seriously if you will be able to move your family out there in the hours and days immediately following an event.  If not, you will probably be confined to your home.  For most folks, there is no cabin, and home in the suburbs or city will be home base.

Once the family is safe in your home, and you have decided that you'll be sheltering in place for a while, your first concern will be physical security.  If you are convinced that LEO will be coming to put you on a bus, you have an immediate set of tactical considerations to square away.

Even if you are not worried about Uncle Sam inviting you for an extended stay at Camp Nowhere, physical security is prudent.  Most of your neighbors are 3 days away from an empty pantry, and hungry people get aggressive.  Hardening your suburban home to protect your family is simply prudent, even if it never happens.

Your suburban or city home was never intended to withstand siege or attacks by hungry neighbors, marauding gangs, or LEO.  You probably have thin exterior walls, basic windows (and too many of them), hollow interior walls and doors, and a floor plan that is not conducive to repelling invaders while keeping your friendlies (family) out of fire zones.  But, you've got to work with what you've got...

First, forget much of the garbage written by Keyboard Commandoes who advise you to wire claymores and prepare for Armageddon.  Who wants the dog tripping the claymore hidden in the flower bed beside the front porch?  No need involving ATF or your HOA unnecessarily...

You need the ability to harden your doors, the primary points of entry for neighbors, baddies, and LEO.  The goal here is to increase the amount of time and energy required to open your door.  If you can slow down the entry team, you can be ready when they do make it over the threshold.  You can not make your doors impenetrable, so don't try.  Even if you could, the smart bad guy will just avoid the door and break out your double-pane windows.

Be creative, use basic materials.  Making your home safer does not mean you have to spend a fortune or ruin the aesthetics.

Windows are the next most vulnerable and likely point of attack.  Good old fashioned wooden shutters provide a modest level of hardening.  Make sure they work, make sure you can close them from inside, and lock them.  It is harder to make attractive security enhancements to windows.  Bars are an option, though keep in mind that they also restrict egress in case of a fire.  Having a set of bars in the basement or shed that you can install once the balloon goes up is an option.  Consider installing the bars inside the house, so they can be installed discreetly without exposing yourself.  A simple set of storm windows made from a modern plastic not only helps your energy efficiency, but adds a bit of security.

Remember not to go overboard hardening windows and doors.  You can not prevent LEO from getting in, if they are determined.  You can, at best, slow them down and make it difficult to shoot tear gas & pepper through the glass.  The average bad guy trying to break into your home will not want to remain exposed on your front porch for the time needed to get through your crossbar...afterall, he's vulnerable.

Knowing that your front door is the preferred entry point for those who mean you ill, do consider adding countermeasures to the front porch or landing.  Again, be creative.  If a bad guy, or team of bad guys is clustered on your front stoop, delayed because you added a most inconvenient and sturdy crossbar, they are exposed and vulnerable.

A simple mail slot at chest level turns into a firing port.  Remember that this works both ways, not the best solution if your door is very thin.

Of course, such off-label uses as described below are not going to pass your local codes, and are offered here for entertainment purposes only.  No one wants the kids flipping the wrong switch as daddy comes home from work, just for giggles...

If you look around your home and at your workbench, I am certain you can think of a few weekend projects with basic household items that will help persuade bad guys lingering on your porch to go away.

Consider an old propane grill reconfigured beneath the metal steps at your front door...Flip a switch, distribute a case of Hero Hotfoot!  Parts from an old gas furnace will accomplish the same task.  Do be careful not to set your house afire.

Do you have metal steps and/or handrails?  Any weekend house-husband can create many wonderful deterrents with an extra circuit breaker and a bit of thought.  It must be configured so that there is no circuit to ground, until completed by Johnny Bad Guy.  Flip a switch, and try to ignore the yelping.  Be creative, adapt to your particular circumstances.  A 115 volt house circuit wired to a set of steel window bars (that have been isolated from ground) will discourage any bad guy who reaches in and completes the circuit.  240 volts is mo bettah!

Fire is a terrifying and effective Bad Guy repellant.  Consider the horror that could result if a small copper tube were pointed where an uninvited guest would stand on your doorstep.  If the other end of the tube were connected to a car fuel pump and a small supply of gasoline, with the flip of a switch raw fuel spews all over.  All that would be needed is an ignition source, then...crispy critters!

Fire, acid, electricity...friends of the man trying to defend his home.

Remember that the goal is to slow and harass your enemy from entering, meanwhile leaving them exposed to serious defensive action.  Within your home be sure the family has a safe place to go that is more more resistant to bullets and flying shrapnel than drywall.  When you remodel, bolt a few pieces of 1/4 inch steel beneath the new drywall along the routes of movement for your family.

If you have a basement, use steel plates and concrete to create a safe place.  Do you have an attic?  Creating a route for a defender to safely and quickly reach the attic during an assault by Bad Guys can give you the high ground, especially if you have the forethought to pre-position firing ports or other countermeasures. 

Old fashioned sand bags have protected many a GI in a pinch.  You do not need to live with sandbags piled beneath the bay window.  Empty bags store away neatly, and a kids sandbox is never out of place in a back yard...

If you find your family besieged and outcomes look grim, do you have a discreet egress for your family, so they can skirt out of the danger zone while Bad Guys watch the doors and windows?  Be creative, you'll come up with a solution.

Remember that your enemies may not ultimately care if you live or die.  They may decide that owning your goodies is too costly, and spitefully just light a match.  If your home will burn, have a plan.  Yes, Citizen, people are petty, cruel and evil.  Count on it.

One of the most important factors in determining the outcome of a confrontation on your home ground is forewarning.  If you live in the woods, you have an advantage over the average suburbanite and city dweller.  Bad guys must often go out of their way to physically get to your home.  In the suburbs or city, most homes are fewer than 50 feet from the street.

You need eyes beyond your perimeter walls.

Today it is very inexpensive to use a few small cameras secured to the eaves of your home, and wired to a monitor or computer so you can watch your fence line or curb line.  Exterior lights with motion activated switches are cheap security.  Dogs are outstanding security, even if it is just a little yappy furball that barks at his own shadow. 

Be aware: If it is LEO coming into your home, they will kill your dog(s).  Count on it.  They will do it for tactical reasons, and they will do it for PsyOps reasons.

Do not dismiss old-fashioned perimeter security along your fence lines.  Thick brush with thorns will slow down an infiltration.  Glass shards along the top of your fence will surprise and annoy Bad Guys.  Fishing line set out as trip-wires along the base of your back deck steps will have an effect.

The most important consideration: If you find yourself in an environment that calls for any of the measures above, understand that you are in a fight for your life.

There are no rules.

Be rid of any moral considerations: You will live or die.  If you lose your wife and daughters will be at the mercy of bad men. 

If you lose, it is over.

All men die.  How we die, matters.  You can die on your feet, or you can die on your knees.

If you are to die...don't let it be free for the Bad Guys.

Sam
III

Excerpt: There comes a time when civility is no longer appropriate as the only option on the table.  Dare we not offend the sensibilities of Liberals, Socialists, and Communists in our midst who are ruining and destroying our republic?  Are we to cower and sheepishly genuflect when we are scolded for the tone or choice of our words in the face of ruin, poverty, tyranny, and death?!

Excerpt: You are a fool if you do not believe that elements of the Left would use force, if they could, to compel you to comply with many of their edicts.  In drafting healthcare reform, they use the threat of financial fines, felony conviction and prison if you refuse to buy health insurance! 

How is that not only a degree or two removed from a pistol to the head? We are undeniably heading toward the same tyrannies known to Russians, Germans, and the Chinese.  It starts with Liberalism, advances to Socialism, and ends with Fascism, Communism, or some other tyranny…and death.

Excerpt: We have a culture of people whose first response to a physical threat is to dial 911, or worse, a lawyer.  We have a nation of people who will dump hot coffee on themselves, then sue the restaurant – and win!  We have a nation of educators who suspend children for drawing a picture of a handgun or for bringing a Boy Scout knife-and-fork kit to show and tell! 

We have a nation of people so removed from the food chain that many would starve to death if the local supermarket closed.  We have a nation of people who cannot truly grasp the hardships faced by most of the people in the world every day, and as a result we have a nation of people who have lost fundamental common sense.

Excerpt: The Bill of Rights articulates the natural rights of man, rights that are not bestowed by government, but rights that are innately ours as human beings.  These rights may not be taken from us.  These rights were written in plain language so that no clever interpretation and manipulation of the intent was possible.  These rights may not be restricted, narrowed, or infringed.  Any attempt to do so is a violation of the relationship between Man and Creator. 

Every narrowing, restriction, infringement, and clever interpretation imposed upon us in the years since our Constitution was ratified is simply a violation of our natural rights.

We hold that every violation of the Constitution and Bill of Rights by those in Government is an act of Treason, as these violations are unjust, undermining the fundamental foundations of our republic, breaking the pact between citizen and government, and desecrating the relationship between Man and Creator.  Any man or woman who enforces these unconstitutional laws on behalf of government is a treasonous soul and an enemy of Liberty and humanity.

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