Home Security Systems?

Before installing a burglar alarm, I’d make sure the simple and inexpensive security measures have been taken: deadbolts on doors, effective locks on windows, photocell- or motion-activated outdoor lighting, interior lights on timers, valuables not visible from outside, trimmed vegetation, locked backyard gates, telephones that work with Enhanced 9-1-1, burglar alarm signs posted, Fido’s water bowl on the porch, and so on.

If you still want an alarm, consider it as just one part of an overall security system. Think carefully about what you and your wife want the alarm system to do, and how effectively it would be able to do this. For example, should it:

• Warn occupants who are inside that the perimeter has been breached, and that they need to call for help, flee, or prepare to defend themselves?

• Warn occupants who are returning that an intruder might be on the premises?

• Frighten away an intruder with a loud siren?

• Summon a response from a law enforcement agency?

In the latter case, find out which agency would respond and their policies. For example, do they respond to residential burglar alarms at all? Do you have to use a local installer or monitoring service? Do you need an alarm permit, and what does this cost? Are there fines for false alarms?

Consider the likely response time, too: in an upscale suburb with a well-staffed police department, officers might usually arrive within 30 minutes, but if your neighborhood is a quiet part of a larger city, or a semi-rural area, low-priority calls might routinely wait for several hours. In some places, the only way to assure a timely response is to contract with a private security firm that will dispatch its own operatives to investigate alarms.

You may also want to think about the risk of law enforcement response to false alarms: an unnecessary encounter with armed officers isn’t something to take lightly, even if they have excellent training and discipline in the finest Peelian tradition.

 

I saw a picture of a revolver handgun in the newspaper several years ago - back when newspapers were still popular. I think the advertisement was done by Brinks alarm. Now Brinks are out of the alarm business, ironically. Caption underneath it said, "this can't call the police for you". One of the gun owners here at work had written underneath the advertisement, "don't need to" .

 

Similarly: "when seconds count, police are just minutes away"

A bit more cynical: "call for police, call for pizza delivery, see who gets there first"

Though I'll also say that if she wasn't born or previously pulled into a responsible gun-owning culture, this isn't a good circumstance in which to start, so an alarm system is very likely a better choice. Popular media on this topic are quite toxic, and overcoming the bad lessons initially learned from them is a very difficult and time consuming process.

 

Simplisafe.
...Done.

Anybody that says different is probably selling something, or describing a system to satisfy an atypical need. There IS a disadvantage with SS in that you have to pop for the equipment in advance, which is is typically in the $500-up range for a whole house system but is is scalable, extraordinarily flexible, and.....as the name implies, SIMPLE.
I like the SS systems because they are not dependent on wiring. There are some exploits for the (433Mhz?) sensors out there but these are typically not employed by the smash and grab set or those interested in.....other things.

Buttress this system with some $25 Wyze Cams and pop for the $2 a month person detection.
Defense in depth....

@ ".....a typical American street. Very low crime, homes in the $400 to $500K range."
I'm leaving that be.

@ Being armed:
When seconds count...Police will be there in a few minutes.
Even at their current funding level.

HOWEVER!!! (comma) if the homeowner does not want a shootin iron or is not qualified to use a weapon, then they're better off not having one around.
Even the venerable home defense pump shotgun has drawbacks in that you have to make some decisions as to how to store the weapon (they are NOT drop safe!) they have very robust recoil (look for a 20-gauge...75% of the effectiveness with half of the recoil) AND most people in a panic situation forget about the "pump" part.

Consider getting another dog and place signage.
Home invaders HATE pooches.
Best deterrence value out there and your CFO already has one....so you're already pooch friendly.


Good Luck!

 

*shrug* Could be about right for the homes on my block.

Collectively....

There could be something to that. My parents did make earnest efforts that I should learn safe and responsible handling. Some of it did get through, I guess, considering that by the time I got my own place and moved away, I was the only member of the immediate family not to have made a bullet hole in the family room ceiling.

 

It is quite unfortunate that they made these earnest efforts only with you, not with all the other members of your immediate family or even themselves.

 

As one who had an unlimited supply of ammunition only provided for free if it was used up on a quarterly basis, I shot and carried a wide range of weapons. Think a .45 on my hip as I carried the last months crypto key documents over to the base hospital incinerator. (If I was unlucky in drawing a time, I got there just as the hospital finished burning all the medical waste from the amputations (Vietnam era folks)).

My wife grew up on a farm. Father used a pistol for killing cattle to be butchered. A WW 1 rifle for hunting deer. I have that sitting in my living room. No ammunition in the house.

I always have reckoned that the dangers of depression or excitement outweighed the value against a home intruder. I use solar light to light up the entry way to the house, have obvious deadbolts on the doors. And beyond that, nothing.

One of the wonderful things we enjoy is the ability to make our own judgement about probable risk and reward.

 

There were just the three of us, and Dad was perfectly serious; he taught me handling and safety and there was nothing wrong with what or how he taught.

The hole in the ceiling happened when he was doing a routine cleaning, something he had done countless times before, only one time he ... happened to ... overlook one small detail. No injuries, just a hole in the ceiling.

I'm certainly not immune to the same kind of thing happening to me. It's never the first time I do something, when I know I'm learning and I'm super attentive. It'll be after I've done something countless times and it's grooved and I'm thinking a tiny bit ahead to my next project or what needs to happen after dinner.

A saving grace is that most of the projects I engage in are on things that aren't firearms, and if I have one of those moments it will be embarrassing and often a frustrating or even costly setback, but leaves my body parts where I had them last.

I don't remember offhand what the details were for the hole Mom made, but it was something similar. They happened on two different occasions, far apart in time, but were nicely grouped in the ceiling, suggesting they might both have been seated at the same spot at the table, working in similar positions.

 

Well, this is not a gun rights post, but....

My dad taught us all how to shoot and handle firearms, knives, cars. All the dangerous stuff. Mom also taught some dangerous stuff. Knife use in kitchen, hot stove. But, somehow, dad's lessons were more critical?

Anyway, I can use a gun. I am not that great a shot. My younger brother is one of those folks that can shoot the eye out of a partridge, but, if I got close to the partridge....

But, back to the original post, there was another subject, right. I really think home security systems are a great thing to stop an attack before they begin. In other words, signs touting said systems, etc.

Not that you necessarily have said system...

I mean, if they see a sign and still break in...
kris

 

Absent a mechanical fault, so-called "accidental discharges" require two overlapping human errors.

At least they had the muzzle direction properly controlled.