The Gun Counter

My apartment has blinds on most of the windows, including a curtain over the windows on my doors. I've been torn for awhile on what to do with those. If the curtain is closed of course, I can't be seen, but neither can I see who's at the door. Open gives advance warning to a critter at the door that I'm coming and armed....and also a target. It's a bit of a conundrum. I'll only be in this place another month, but I imagine it's a problem that I might face again.

So what say you? Open curtain or closed curtain?

Camera door viewer.

ETA: The ones I've seen require you to drill a hole in the door if there isn't a viewer already there. You could always replace it with a standard viewer ($5-10) when you leave.

rightisright wrote:Camera door viewer.

ETA: The ones I've seen require you to drill a hole in the door if there isn't a viewer already there. You could always replace it with a standard viewer ($5-10) when you leave.

Good idea, especially since they can't see you walk up and cover the light through your eye piece with your face/eye. You could also put a remote camera in a side window which faces the walk-up or front door area.

rightisright wrote:Camera door viewer.

Reminds me of this.

So you guys all have cameras on the front door? How do you deal with answering a door at night without becoming a target?

Look through a side window with a view of the porch. With the porch light he is not likely to be able to see me peeking around the edge of the drapes inside a darkened room.

YMMV depending of abode configuration

JKosprey wrote:So you guys all have cameras on the front door? How do you deal with answering a door at night without becoming a target?

We don't have a camera, but we RARELY get visitors, ESPECIALLY at night. So when someone bangs on our door unannounced at night, we ALWAYS answer the door armed (or ready to respond in case my wife answers the door - I might be nearby with the 12-GA ready to rock). We also have door side-windows with vertical blinds, but we also have a bedroom with a window which faces the door & entry-way. We frequently observe from that window since the focus is not on the window but the front door (and the motion-sensor'd light next to the door).

If anyone brought evil to our door, they'd be SLAMMED by multiple pieces of high-speed metal and splintered wood.

Saw the thread title and was hoping for something involving chain mail or kevlar.

Heh. Just got a chance to test out the options. My apartment is kinda linear. Door leads to kitchen, which is the central room. From one side of the house, you wind up having to use the drapes. From the other side of the house, there's a window to check out the door before going there.

I was sitting writing a paper and somebody started pounding on the door. I was able to look through the window and saw a little old lady on the porch, but she was knocking hard. I talked to her through the door. She was begging for a cup of coffee at well after midnight and didn't seem all there. I hate to sound like Gunkid but I was a little suspicious. I feel bad, but didn't let her in and told her to try next door. Not my finest moment, for sure.

I was in the process of dialing the police to let them know that there was a potentially confused old lady wandering around (And by this point I had second guessed myself and was planning to go find her)....when she started pounding on the door again and was able to let herself in. I hadn't locked the deadbolt, and the door requires some force to make sure that the regular lock is fully engaged. I typically do keep it locked, but had gone outside to watch a sudden rainstorm and hadn't adequately locked the door.

So now I had a confused old lady in my kitchen asking me to help her break into her house down the road because she had locked herself out. I got police on the line, and then got dyslexic with my address. I live at 6765* (not the real number) but I gave them 6567. The dispatcher did call me back and got the right address. While we waited, I made a pot of coffee and started asking the EMT questions. She claimed to live alone, down the road, and seemed to think that all the houses would be broken into or demolished the next day. Apparently there was also some kind of cattle surgery going on down the road, which was why she couldn't get inside. Very strange. The trooper was a quiet, friendly kind of guy. He wound up taking the lady to where she said that she lived. At that point, she claimed to live with somebody else, but provided a dead number. She also thought she had driven here.

Geez. I was completely and totally unprepared. I like to think that I have an above average level of situational awareness/preparedness, but if this was any indication, I've got some work to do. If that was an actual home invasion, I'd probably be dead. (Probably, because the AR was always within reach, but clearly my reactions weren't up to par)

We had one like that once. Whacked out old lady trying to break in because she was sure her in-laws lived there. Found that out afterwards. She didn't get in. I had my gun out, but didn't actually point it at her.

Speaking of crazy, we had another one where this skinny black girl was pounding on our door. Had a cast on and claimed that she had self-discharged from a hospital about a mile away and needed a ride home because she couldn't finish the walk. She seemed a bit groggy and unstable. I gave her a ride, but in retrospect, I should have had my son in the back seat, both as a witness against potential allegations and to pull her off of me if she went nuts.