In times of societal collapse, securing your home becomes paramount. Implementing a layered defense strategy, known as concentric circles, can enhance your home’s security. This approach involves creating multiple protective zones around your property, each designed to deter, detect, and defend against potential threats. By fortifying each layer—from your home’s interior to its perimeter—you can effectively reduce vulnerabilities and better protect your loved ones.
For instance, enhancing your home’s security might include installing heavy-duty locks and alarms, while securing your yard could involve setting up motion-activated lights or surveillance cameras. The outermost layers might benefit from neighborhood watch initiatives or community patrols to identify and address potential threats before they reach your doorstep.
By proactively strengthening each layer of defense, you not only safeguard your property but also contribute to the overall security of your community. Remember, a well-prepared defense is the best deterrent against those who might seek to take advantage during challenging times.
Concentric Circles
In my experience, the best way to understand home security at the 50,000ft level is to view it through the concept of concentric circles.
At the center of these is your home. The next circle in the series represents your yard and fence, basically your perimeter. If you have a larger property that might represent your next circle in the series. Wider still is the next circle and that could even include some of your neighbors’ homes.
You can affect home security in a collapse by fortifying each of these circles. For your home, you might add better locks and alarms. While the widest circle out could be a great place for a trail camera or some kind of surveillance to see who is skulking around the neighborhood.
At each circle you should have the capability to deter, detect, and defend. These are the three basics of ALL security operations.
In my opinion well done deterrents are magic. They can poison the mind of a bad guy long before he ever steps on your property. The goal of any deterrent you put in place is to make your home less appealing.
Why would people want to break into your home? Money? Food? People? So, what is all that worth to a bad guy? It will vary based on the person of course. Will they battle two pit bulls to get into the home?
Dogs are great deterrents.
What if instead of flying your America flag you fly a flag that says MOLON LABE? From the street that sends a clear message that this person is armed and ready to defend themself. There are also physical deterrents, too. You could build a high fence or install a metal fence with sharp spiky posts.
Related: Home Security Tips From An Ex Burglar
You just want a bad guy to look at your house and say, ‘That ain’t worth the trouble.,’ and move onto the next one.
An Army deterrent that is easy to replicate is called tanglefoot and it uses metal wire, high tensile fishing line or even barbed wire to eave between trees in forested areas. This is a nightmare to travel through, particularly in the dark.
If you suspect threats coming from the direction of a forested area this is a must to deter them.
Should your deterrents fail then you should have surveillance capabilities and perimeter alarms in a collapsed world. Far from home you can place wireless cameras that are battery or solar powered.
Your fence line or perimeter should be rigged with some kind of alarm system. These should be motion activated alarms. They could be silent to only alert you and maintain the element of surprise, they could be loud to alert others in your community, or they could be trip wires that cause physical damage.
Trip wires can be used to detonate explosives, shoot single shotgun shells, ignite flammables, or even release noxious gases. Not something you should play with now but in a collapse, all bets are off.
Persistent groups with evil intentions and numbers on their side might make it to your home despite deterrents and detection methods. At this point you must make a decision about defending your property.
If you do not have a plan to defend your home, then you should abandon it because there is a good chance you will just get killed.
Defending your home in a societal collapse means you are going to have to be lethal and nothing is off the table. It is a kill or be killed, or worse, situation. This is a very personal decision and requires training and understanding of when you are facing an overwhelming force.
WINNING BEFORE A FIGHT BEGINS
The things we have mentioned above are a great start for post collapse home security. They will give you a leg up on most people who have ZERO plans for dealing with that kind of a world. However, you are a prepper. You are capable of much more than just deter, detect, defend.
We can be so far ahead of the bad guys that we surprise them.
Gathering Intelligence
I know this sounds like some kind of top secret undertaking but the reality is that you can learn so much about your area right now through 100% accessible resources. I was told by an intelligence officer that the most valuable intelligence is OSINT and HUMINT.
- OSINT – Open Source Intelligence or intelligence you can gather from resources like the internet.
- HUMINT – Human Intelligence or intelligence gathered by talking to humans.
Right now, you can begin to build a portfolio on the gangs and threats in your immediate area. As things fall apart, and you lose the rule of law there will be word around town of people who are taking power and groups that are doing bad things.
Finding a few people who know what is going on and getting reliable info from them will give you a huge advantage should your neighborhood come under attack.
Find out things like how many people are in these groups, what kinds of weapons and tactics they use, and of course what they are after. Where are they based? Could a well-planned attack put them out of commission?
No Fighting at Home
Another huge difference maker is to take the fight away from your home. In fact, there is no better way to secure your home than to face the threats far away from it. That has been the operating procedure of the American military since Pearl Harbor.
If you are shooting at bad guys from your bedroom window, then you set things up wrong. This goes back to concentric circles. The fight should be in that circle farthest from your home.
The Demands of Physical Security Patrol
If you have given some thought to real home security or securing a neighborhood then you know you need people. The larger the area you are patrolling the more people you need.
Related: These Types Of People Will Turn Into Looters As Soon As SHTF
It’s important you understand that if your ideal security patrol requires 10 men then that actually means you need at least 35-50 people who can walk or stand guard on those patrols.
Remember, a person can only be on guard so long till they have to eat, sleep, go to the bathroom, or even to simply be effective. How effective and attentive would you be 6 hours into an 8 hour shift of standing guard?
Bump in the Night Plan
What is the first thing you do when a person is trying to kick down your door at 3am? If you are looking for me to answer that for you then you are WAY behind.
You need a plan from the moment your dog barks or your eyes open in bed and you realize the home is under attack. Step by step you and your family need to go over those plans and rehearse how that will all happen.
Will you grab the gun and chest rig to go room to room to check on kids? Will the kids come to your room? Is there a saferoom where everyone should go? The moment a break-in begins there should be no hesitation.
In the daytime, physically lay in your bed and then start your bump-in-the-night drill. Get up, gather the things you need, are they even in your bedroom? Do you have access to a weapon there? If all your guns are in a safe in the den, then you are starting off unarmed. Bad idea.
The bump in the night plan is yours to develop and practice. It should be unique to your home and should get all the people in your home to a safe place immediately. It should also give you the upper hand in any altercation because you know the home better than anyone.
Look! I know I said that you are WAY behind and I implied that I will not tell you what to do. But, if your home is not secured, I HAVE to give you a helping hand. At the very least, learn from the Bulletproof Home. For only $37 you get all the information you need to make your home security top notch with a limited budget!
Final Thoughts
We are going to see fits of chaos and some of these ideas might have a place in our society the way it is today. Keep that in mind. Having a plan for the security and defense of your home a community is just as important now as it will be in a collapse.
Much will change in a collapse situation, but the basic principles can be practiced.
Hone your bump in the night drill because home burglaries and home break-ins are becoming more common. The police will not be at your home in minutes, and you need to have an action plan for moments when the unthinkable happens.
You don’t have to become some kind of warlord in a collapse of society, but you will likely be part of some team that protects an area from things like thieves and marauders. You might as well be one of the most valuable members of that team, or maybe even the leader.
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