Can You Really Protect Your Family

You don't want your wife to know you hunt?

 

Not so secret anymore.

 

In SHTF, you cannot defend your house from inside! At least as long as accelerants and matches exist! If you are going to defend a building/area you must fight it out on the outside! Better not to defend at all if possible!

 

Quite honestly, I don't think I can protect them in our home the way it is made. The one advantage I may have is that I live in a village of 1200 people and am good friends with the village leaders including the Chief Of Police. We will get advanced warning of any wave of bad intent coming from the large cities as we are an hour away from them.

That golden hour will give us time to relocate to a safer temporary site until the threat passes.

 

The best method "I've been told", is to meet the enemy far away from home and on neutral ground .
That way loved ones are out of harms way and enemy do not know where they are.

 

There it is...if you gotta fight, fight on ground of your choosing...not theirs. Our "defense" plans revolve around getting out of the house and either melting away to a predetermined rally point, moving to pre-staged defensive positions, or setting up an ambush, depending on the situation.

Back in the day I used to volunteer to be the bad guy for my local PD's SWAT training. One time (not in band camp) when they wanted to breach and clear a building another buddy owned, rather than hole up inside, we set up outside and ambushed them. They were TICKED...but after the swearing ended they did see the value of throwing the unexpected into their training (being their elected commissioner helped too ) But it was carnage...we killed them all AND they had to buy the beers afterward.

 

I often run the scenario in my mind of trying to take the place of the "bad guy" in an effort to bolster my own survival capabilities. How would I approach a situation if I were the bad guy?

I would first gather intel on a group of people that I had singled out as potential victims.
I would learn as much as I can about them as far as lifestyle, perceived assets, and the likelihood that they would offer resistance.

Once I chose a victim, I would recon their location for a day and using NV at night before acting. This would tell me who the leaders probably were, their daily patterns, and their level of alert status. If it were simply a family and they were clueless, I might just accost the female or one of the kids and demand food and any weapons they may have and leave.

If they were known to have weapons, i.e. preppers, I'd likely incapacitate their leader and take what I needed from the shocked remnant under threat of harm.


Then I turn it around and think...okay, how do I prepare so someone with that mindset does not get the drop on me?

Perimeter alarms, dogs, changing daily patterns, not exposing oneself unnecessarily, always being armed, have a plan of action should I as my family's main defender go down?

At the least it gets one thinking about the mindset of bad guys

 

Every time I come home be it during the day or at night , I will assume that the property is compromised, and I do a walk through ,just like clearing a building .
I don't know that there isn't some one there ,
till "I know," that there isn't some one there.
Once in a while I get a waft of cigarette smoke around the house, and I don't smoke.
There are wineries in the area like bars with out side entertainment.
Not finding any one here, I assume that the smoke is just passing with the breeze. never the less I do not take that for granted.
Night time is the worst because patrolling must be done in the dark . a flashlight is like a neon sign saying,"Here I am, shoot here"
When you do this night after night , it challenges your skills and stealth.
Animals will set off my motion sensor lights as well as my self , but all the more reason to be diligent .
I take my pellet gun along for rats that migrate in from the neighboring horses corrals so I'm carrying 2 guns each time. another challenge.
I have cameras around , but this practice "is practice", and "sharpening my skills", if the cameras are compromised.
Never become completely dependent on technology.

 

Did any one see the video of the 2yr old and mother get attacked by 2 dogs in California?
I bet she thought that a phone call is all she needed to protect her family.

 

That would unsettle me. How far does cigarette smoke carry? I know smoke from a wood fire will carry on the wind but a wood fire is steady and quite large vs. a cigarette.

 

Well I get unsettled with it from time to time and I still hunt the house and property assuming nothing really.
I was just in town and a fellow walked past me reeking of cigarette smoke ,though he was not smoking at the time. This concerns me now .
On the motor cycle I smell everything , good in some ways , especially this time of year with folks using their fire places, but it just so happened that on my way home a car pulled in front of me smelling of the same cigarette smoke I smell at home , so since it was on my way home I stayed behind the car to see where they might turn off. turns out they drove on further than my turn off , so Iet it go.
Still there are not a lot of people that smoke any more much less those that chain smoke enough to create that much of a trail.
This by the way is an important skill detecting enemy forces, and knowing your own.
Animals have been doing it forever and we tend not to use or develop that skill .
Sharpening it though has made a difference on many occasion .
Use the skill sharpen it and learn how to identify different smells .