With Home Invasions more on the rise....

Knife/Gun combo

 

Brass Knukles, Knife, Gun combo

 

Has anybody seen "The Deadliest Warrior"? They had that ballistic knife that the Russian Spetsnaz carry. It's a standard knife that can shoot the blade out like a projectile weapon. I don't love that it a one shot deal but it would be very unexpected.

 

Nope, sorry but I'm just not into knives, unless its to gut and skin something I've killed!!

 

Get organized and prepare for war <> just seeing someone suspicious and calling the cops. That's one part of it. The rest involves arming your entire neighborhood.

 

I LOVE that show!

I'm going to guess that in many jurisdictions, a ballistic knife is at least difficult to come by, and probably illegal. But yes, that would be an extremely effective weapon in trained hands. (One note: I've heard that the ballistic knife has a significant kick, though the Spetsnaz operative certainly held it well.) I live in the People's Republic of New York, meaning that anything more lethal than a set of toenail clippers requires a 4 month licensing process and a note from your mother.

Re: home invasions, a dog or well-advertised alarm system is going to deter pretty much any would-be burglar. However, I think the two are somewhat mutually exclusive. A good alarm system should have motion sensors inside, which any good sized dog will probably set off.

Personally, I'm a strong advocate of a firearm as a last line of defense. My friend Nick asked me why, when I have an alarm system that will deter 99% of would-be burglars. I said "it's not the 99% the alarm will scare off that I'm worried about; it's the 1% that it won't." Unfortunately, as previously mentioned, I live in the PRNY, and my wife is a Democrat, so the dozen or so attempts I've made to talk her into getting a handgun have fallen flat. Despite being a well-educated woman (law degree), she resorts to 4th grade logic whenever we have the discussion: "Guns are bad!" is pretty much what every argument boils down to. I'll stop here before I editorialize further.

Alarms, however, require maintenance, and that should not be neglected. Replace batteries once per year in the remote units. They tell you the batteries are good for much longer, but believe me, you don't want the battery to run out. Here's why. We had one particular night that was easily the worst night we've ever spent in our house. We went out to dinner, and came home to find the alarm had gone off, though there were absolutely no signs of break-in. Meanwhile, my wife's keys and phone went missing, and could not be located. Her mind jumped to "oh my God, someone stole them and is tried to break in!" My mind jumped to "you dummy, you lost your keys and phone for roughly the 18th time since we've been married and something set the alarm off, like the cat." We argued the merits of her master criminal vs. my collection of coincidences for awhile, then went to bed.

At midnight, the alarm went off again. Someone asked me later "were you scared?" I said, "no, not at all...I was terrified. There's a difference." I hurried my wife and kid into the bathroom, armed with nothing more than a 4 D-cell Mag Light (the same kind the police use), which I intended to use as a club. And yes, I revisited the handgun discussion after this...no dice. While I'm sure their response time was splendid, it felt like an hour before the police came, checked around, and found no sign of an intruder. The alarm goes off AGAIN at 2 am. Rinse, lather, repeat. No intruder, no nothing. We check into a hotel for the night, thinking that something must be wrong with the alarm. Turned out that the battery in the motion sensor in the dining room was starting to go.

Oh, and we found her keys and phone at the restaurant.

The alarm should also have full house coverage. Ask yourself, "if I was a invader, is there any possible route I could take to disable the alarm, go upstairs and murder the family in their sleep"? Motion sensors on the ground floor with the doors alarmed, and window contacts for any readily accessible 2nd floor windows are the way to go. And for God's sake, make sure that the thing is armed every night before bed and every time you leave the house. That's the #1 failure with an alarm system.

 

In Nevada the law heavily regulates concealed weapons, but if you had a gun on your hip (no jacket) or even something big like sword, it's not prohibited. It's also more liberal here in terms of what weapons you may have in your home.

As for your flashlight, I don't use one of those big ones that can be a club. I think those are far too likely to be turned against you. I like the small ones like the Surefire defender. Those things are blindingly bright and blind people are generally easier to evade or subdue.

I've advocated the use of a small flashlight for years to a friend of mine who is a martial arts master (8th degree TKD), rated as a marksman with a handgun and a former police trainer in edged weapons defense. In other words, he has about as much training in self-defense as anybody you'd hope to meet. He felt that a flashlight was possibly effective b/c he knew that your optical nerves are the only ones directly wired to the pain sensors in your brain (or words to that effect). I only knew that people reacted quickly to pain there. But he became a believer when he went down to Pure (that nightclub in Vegas owned by Shaq and a bunch of other stars) and watched the bouncers use small flashlights to remove troublemakers.

He said that he was amazed how quickly people who were clearly in fight mode (aggressive, belligerent or actually in fights) and/or drunk had the fight taken out of them when they were blinded and in pain. He watched bouncers easily escort people out who were suddenly much more concerned with keeping their eyes covered than with attacking anyone. He talked to the bouncers and they said that there was almost never an incident once they used there flashlights. Most people immediately covered their eyes and turned away. They were sometimes panicked about not being able to see but were then asking for help rather than attacking. One time a guy was covering his eyes with one hand and swinging wildly with the other but that guy was easily tackled, taken to the ground and subdued.

I don't think any weapon is perfect for every situation but I do find that a small, defense rated light is effective for most home defense applications. It's non-lethal (and therefore not a danger to your family) but yet can be effective for some one looking to attack the intruder or to provide an opportunity to escape. I only mention it b/c a good flashlight might be a suitable compromise that you and your wife could be happy with.

BTW here is a testimonial from the Surefire website: (And I'm not affiliated with this company in any way. The main flashlight I use is actually a knock-off of theirs).

Combat Light Serves Honorably at Home, Too
While in Iraq and Afghanistan, I learned to trust my M951 WeaponLight on my M4 for a multitude of tasks—from spotting wild dogs at 300 yards to searching vehicles to simply lighting the way to my post at night. It was such a great light that I missed it once back home, so I got one, with the P61 ultra high-output lamp, for my home-defense AR15.

I live in a pretty rough area, and there have been multiple robberies, burglaries, assaults, and even murders nearby. Over the past three years, there have been four such attempts on my home, once by two armed men. On each occasion, I was able to pull out my AR15 and dazzle the intruders with the attached M951 WeaponLight, stopping the intruders dead in their tracks each time. It never ceases to amaze me how an intense light will stun people and render them completely helpless. Thanks to my SureFire M951, I've never had to fire my weapon, leaving the dirty work to the police.

The quality of SureFire is unsurpassed, and that statement is not limited to flashlight manufacturers. I have gone on to purchase many more SureFire lights, and I will undoubtedly give my business to SureFire in the future.

Alan F.
Lexington, KY

http://www.surefire.com/maxexp/main/co_disp/displ/sesent/00/keyrf5/99/strfnbr/6

The link above is full of experiences like this.

 

A 9MM Browning Hi-Power with a BIG clip. Enough rounds to compensate for being groggy if awoken suddenly.

However - and this is a HUGE caveat - if you're not familiar with firearms, or not willing to spend a good bit of time learning firearm safety AND becoming expert with your weapon, don't bother.

You'll likely hurt yourself or a loved one, or have the weapon taken from you and used on you and your loved ones.

But I do feel that if we were a more well-armed, well-trained populace as a whole violent crime would decrease dramatically.

I do know this: if any person or persons decided to target my house for a home invasion, I might or might not survive the firefight - but it's certain that they wouldn't.

And I can think of far worse ways to go out.

 

That's what most people do when they hear a noise at night b/c unless you live in a war zone it's usually nothing. That's why I think people get a false sense of confidence that they're safe when they own a gun. (That's not even considering all the stats that say the gun is taken away from the home owner more than half the time and that gun owner is far more likely to shoot an innocent person rather than he is to ever shoot a burglar).

I do the same thing at my house. I have assorted weapons I could bring to bear scattered around my room, but I never grab them in the middle of the night. The only thing I ever grab is my flashlight (even that's not 100%). I'm a firm believer that the most effective weapon is one that is actually with you when you need it.

BTW I'm glad everyone was safe at your in-laws.