Surrounded by 20 Thugs and No Gun…

You’re security conscious and have a CCW. You can’t carry at work and come home unarmed. Arriving home you find yourself surrounded by 20 to 30 “youths” from the local community center playing dice in your back alley.  The precious little flowers.

You ask them to leave and they begin assaulting you, throwing rocks at you and poking you with sticks. What do you do? How will the cliffhanger end? Read the story here:

http://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2016/03/09/st-paul-assault-gun/

Seriously though. In my home state of Minnesota, this NEVER EVER happened like 30 years ago.

Perimeter Home Defense For The Urban Prepper & Survivalist

This post is a response to the excellent post over at Thoughtfullyprepping about perimeter defense.

“Does that mean I’ve largely written off urban dwellers?
Realistically? Yep, you’re toast.”

This is true if you face a large mob in complete chaos. Thoughtfullyprepping is correct. In the country, you can use distance to create a “barrier” between you and your attackers. Open ground is the best. Open ground is an odd sounding “barrier” but it works.

If you’re a great rifle shot and those attacking you aren’t, you have a chance to keep them at bay. Many shooters aiming at you from 150 meters could get you, but you’re much better off than being taken on up close by superior numbers.

This assumes you’re a better shot than those trying to take you out. A professional sniper can hit you in the head from 500 yards out. If you’re up against those guys, you’ve got trouble.

Any kid who’s watched old westerns knows you’re safe at day! It’s at night when they’ll come for you. You won’t see them. You can’t shoot what you can’t see. That’s offset somewhat if you have night vision capability. John Wayne would have been a real bad-*** with a night scope on his 44-40.

You need enough numbers so some can sleep while others keep watch. From an attacker’s standpoint, waiting till your target falls asleep isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. He could just be waiting for you to crawl a few more yards forward before he shoots you. “Yeah. He’s fallen asleep. Sweet.” Bang.

In the military, there are many ways to discourage opposing soldiers from wanting to come at you through open ground. Barbed wire, claymore landmines. Anything that slows the attackers down or thins the herd helps.

In the city, this all falls apart. I’ve said exactly this in my book. In the city, one guy with a good arm can hit your home with a Molotov cocktail. Regardless of how you fortify your dwelling, attackers can burn you out. Thoughtfullyprepping makes this exact point. Toast is a good word!

There is one thing you could hope for and that’s a community response. If citizens came together to protect their homes, you could create a defensive perimeter. You’d keep the bad guys out of your neighborhood.

This could fall apart for many reasons. Are your neighbor’s dead because they starved? Did they flee because there wasn’t any food? Are they willing to work together or have they turned on each other as each tries to provide for his family?

As a small group of neighbors, I like the term defensive perimeter more than perimeter defense. What is a realistic area you can control? A block? Four Blocks? That only offers a bit of a buffer.

For most of us most of the time, as homeowners, we think of our perimeter as our walls or maybe a fence. We can’t keep out a mob intent on killing us. We can highly discourage the typical small gang of robbers or looters.

Commentary on Byron Smith Conviction

Homeowner Byron Smith was convicted of murder for shooting two teens who broke into his house. Ambush and Execution of burglars isn’t self defense.

Preppers are mixed in their reaction to this.

Many agree with the verdict but have little sympathy for burglars. The jury looked at these factors:

1) Smith recorded the incident. He recorded a lengthy conversation with himself after the shooting. He talked freely with police after the incident. These conversations raised serious doubt that he used reasonable force.

2) He moved his vehicle so it would appear his home was unoccupied.

Smith said this:
“I refuse to live in fear. I am not a bleeding heart liberal. I have a civic duty. I have to do it. Burglars are not human, they are vermin. I try to be a good person, to do what I should, be a good citizen.”

I don’t like criminals but I’d stop short of calling a person vermin. I’m not sure how I’d decide if I were on the jury. I didn’t listen to the tape. He does have a point. Not for a burglar but what if a serial rapist breaks into your home? If you apprehend him and in three years he’s out and he attacks and murders somebody, do you have a degree of responsibility?

One of the most balanced, sane, and respectable experts in self defense, Massad Ayoob, in his book “The Truth About Self Defense,” talks about meeting a deranged killer in prison. If memory serves, Ayoob said if this fellow ever showed up in his home, he’d shoot him dead for sure. Knowing the guy’s behavior, he’d know this guy would harm innocent people as long as he could. Most “normal” people lack experience with this kind of psycho.

One person I know thinks Smith could have PTSD from Vietnam and his role as an embassy guard. It makes sense. If he worried 3 or 4 violent gang bangers would break into his home some night and he’d wake to a knife being plunged into him, a first response of somebody with that background could well be to set up the confrontation so he’d be prepared. He’d want to engage on his terms. It’s cliched, but the best defense is a good offense.

The lesson for preppers: Use all due restraint when defending yourself. If forced to use lethal force, get an attorney immediately before you say anything.  Call police immediately.

One anti-gun post attacking Smith said that any homeowner who owns a gun and doesn’t have good locks is guilty of this “ambush and execution.”  That’s crap. If you only have so much money, a gun is a great defense tool.

I do recommend having great locks. But even with them Smith lived alone and was elderly. Would he hear an intruder before it was too late?

Stripped Thread Repair & Great Links: Ammo Care, Intruder Home Defense

Just sharing some great information I found on other prepper websites.

David Nash (TNGun.com) talks about the best home defense plan. This is really important: the best thing is to arm yourself and stay positioned to protect your family. Call the police from a safe and protected position. Don’t go searching room to room for an intruder chasing them around the house. If you ask anyone with extensive police/military experience, they’ll tell you Nash is right. If you’re pumped up with adrenaline, it’s difficult to stay put, but it’s the right move.

In the video, there is a hall. This is the best situation. If all bedrooms are together and a hall channels an intruder, you’re very safe. No burglar is going to run down a hall with a homeowner with a shotgun waiting on the other end! Stairwells are another defensive impediment. Reminds me of the end of the movie Rolling Thunder. Good film, I recommend it.

Back in Medieval times, when a man’s home really was his castle, after entering the castle, there was often a long and narrow corridor. Not like today’s homes when you open the door and have full access to the living area. This was for defense. A larger force would be constricted. A small number of defenders could hold off a much larger force.

I searched online to find a picture of this inner castle corridor, but all I found was some castle defense game and yet another prepper TV reality show “Doomsday Castle.”

Here is a neat presentation about castles thou.

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On TNgun there’s a short post about repairing a stripped screw hole in wood. The old toothpick trick. Another option is to drill out a hole and hammer in a tight-fitting dowel pin. You can purchase dowel rod at a hardware store. Use glue, if you want. Predrill the new screw hole.

If you need to reuse a wooden screw hole, give threaded inserts a look. They come in different sizes and allow using a machine screw.

I mention this gizmo in the book for securing portable air conditioners to windows for those who remove ACs after summer.

As summer approaches, if you use a portable air conditioner, don’t forget to adequately secure it to the window frame and window. To many people just set the AC in the window frame. A burglar just pushes it into the house and crawls in the opening.

Metal bolt holes strip out too. If you do metal work or car repair, invest in a good tap and die set. For some holes, you can drill and tap to a larger bolt size. Another option is to use a HeliCoil threaded insert.

I didn’t have time to search and find a good video demonstrating its use, but here is a list from youtube of HeliCoil videos:
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=helicoil

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Some really good information about the care of ammunition on ThoughtfullyPrepping. Cartridges on a leather gun belt look romantic, but it’s not the best way to keep your ammo protected from the elements.

If you shoot spring piston air rifles, you should know about the unique recoil of spring piston air rifles.

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4 Self Defense Guns You Need

In my opinion, a well-equipped prepper should have four firearms for self-defense. Gun cranks can own more, obviously, but with four weapons you’re basically all set. You can defend yourself in pretty much any situation. You won’t be undergunned.

1) The first weapon is your defensive sidearm. Yes, soldiers would make their first weapon a battle rifle, but most of us are more likely to need a handgun. It’s portable and for most defensive situations, it’s really all you need. It can be carried semi-concealed and draws little attention. That’s a huge plus. It isn’t awkward to maneuver in tight locations, like inside your home.

There are many great pistols to choose from: The Glocks, the Beretta 92, 1911s, and many others. It could be a 9mm (9×19) Parabellum. It could be a 45 Automatic (45ACP). It could be in another caliber of your choice.

This is your main “Go To” self defense weapon. Whatever you choose, it should be completely reliable and you should learn to shoot it well.

2) A backup pistol. This gun serves as a smaller concealed carry handgun. Sometimes you just don’t want to carry a full-sized gun. In a more violent world, this gun would serve if you became separated from your main defensive pistol or if it failed.

There are many choices for this weapon. It could be stub nose 38 Special. It could be 380 ACP. It could be one of the smaller Kahr 9mm pistols.

This gun is very likely the weapon you’ll have with you in most self-defense situations. Is it the best choice for the Zombie Apocalypse? No. But, it’s great for daily life.

3) A shotgun. Probably in 12 gauge. It could be an autoloader or a pump. This weapon has several nice features. It has better stopping power than the two first weapons. It has more intimidation value. That could be important if you’re trying to discourage somebody from attacking you.

The shotgun does have some downsides: It lacks range, which could be an issue in some situations. On a battlefield against rifles, a shotgun isn’t really a great weapon. Buckshot is easily stopped by most body armor. Beyond maybe 50 yards buckshot really starts to loose effectiveness.

For most of us, we’ll never need to engage an attacker beyond 20 yards and most attackers won’t have body armor. This makes a shotgun a great choice.

If you have the three above weapons, especially, if your defensive handgun is a 357 revolver and your backup a 38 Special, you’re about as well equipped as a law enforcement officer from the 1970s would be. With the revolvers, many today would consider you a bit undergunned. 9mm Glocks have more firepower.

4) A defensive rifle or a battle rifle would be my fourth choice. This is a weapon you’d never need except in the most dire circumstances. If there is a complete breakdown of law and order, this weapon would give you the most firepower to defend your retreat and your family.

Your rifle should be a semiautomatic version of one of the battle proven assault rifles. It could be an AR-15 (OK, some say those aren’t battle proven!), it could be an M1A, it could be an FAL. It could be an AK-47.

To make this weapon most effective, you should have several magazines for it.

Those are my four general “go to” self defense choices. What four self-defense weapons would you choose if you could only have four firearms?

Charlie Palmer -author The Prepper Next Door: A Practical Guide For Disaster And Emergency Planning
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0967162491

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