Home defense in non-permissive environments...

[Highspeed]

At a funeral wake for a biker friend a few years ago I met an ex-Green Beret ( mate of the deceased guys brother and now working in banking security like him )

We got pushed together and told to talk to each other because of a shared interest in guns. Turns out the Green Beret wasn't really into guns much at all, they were just a tool to do a job as far as he was concerned. All he cared about was if they worked.
But we did get on quite well anyway...

The wake moved on to the brothers house and he's done well for himself, got a big plot of land in the countryside. I happened to mention that I'd got a stock of military pyro's and smoke grenades and the Green Beret's eyes lit up.
The pyro's and grenades aren't restricted items but they are bloody difficult to source and fetch a lot of money from the airsoft crowd ( like $40 for a grenade ) but what the fuck, it's my bro's wake and we have to send him off in style.

After throwing a few smoke grenades the Green Beret actually said " hold my beer and watch this " then proceeded to turn supposedly non lethal pyro's and some household items into what I can best describe as a Fucking Huge Explosion.

I thought I was pretty good at shit like that but he definitely knew a whole lot more than me...it was a little embarrassing as I had built up quite a reputation for blowing stuff up and was regarded as a bit of a legend in that department. But it doesn't hurt to lose to the best...

His specialisation when he was in the Green Beret's ? Medic
If that's what a medic can do what are their Demo guys like ?

[workinwifdakids]

Yeah, no kidding. Actually, we have PE, so the bat is good to go.

Please clarify that PE does NOT equal Plastic Explosive, otherwise, I WANT TO COME WORK WITH YOU and your FELLOW EMPLOYEES WORKIN' WITH PE!!!

I LOVE workin' with EXPLOSIVES!!!

Nah, the best the 5th graders have done so far is to shine a laser into my eye, and start to take a swing at me.

Pikers.

[Darrell]

She doesn't want to go through the registration junk, and she's in NYC part time, so not a resident. (Not sure if she can get a permit to keep a long gun, unless she is a resident of NYC.)

Oh, ok, didn't realize the lady would be a non-resident (I don't believe non-residents can get firearm licenses).

I've banged this drum before too: First step is to harden the perimeter as much as possible, make her place as unattractive as possible to a would-be invader. Make him decide the place across the hall is easier pickings. Second, how about a dog? A big enough one to be a deterrent of course, not just a furry alarm. Third, if the SOB gets past the door and dog, then a nice claw hammer makes an imposing weapon in the hands of someone who's determined to use it.

That last half-sentence is probably most important, mind-set. If the perp detects hesitation or unwillingness to bash his head in, she's going to be in a world of hurt. If she projects an attitude of "Any of your body parts that get within reach are going to be damaged or detached" she'll likely prevail.

Tomahawk. As you said, though, she better be willing to use it.

[Yogimus]

She doesn't want to go through the registration junk, and she's in NYC part time, so not a resident. (Not sure if she can get a permit to keep a long gun, unless she is a resident of NYC.)

Oh, ok, didn't realize the lady would be a non-resident (I don't believe non-residents can get firearm licenses).

I've banged this drum before too: First step is to harden the perimeter as much as possible, make her place as unattractive as possible to a would-be invader. Make him decide the place across the hall is easier pickings. Second, how about a dog? A big enough one to be a deterrent of course, not just a furry alarm. Third, if the SOB gets past the door and dog, then a nice claw hammer makes an imposing weapon in the hands of someone who's determined to use it.

That last half-sentence is probably most important, mind-set. If the perp detects hesitation or unwillingness to bash his head in, she's going to be in a world of hurt. If she projects an attitude of "Any of your body parts that get within reach are going to be damaged or detached" she'll likely prevail.

Tomahawk. As you said, though, she better be willing to use it.

Alarm dogs are the most effective deterrent.

http://www.crime-safety-security.com/Bu ... ntion.html

[Highspeed]

Alarm dogs are the most effective deterrent.

Are you being sarcastic ? it's difficult to tell the difference between the several different ( annoying ) personas you adopt for your own amusement and the irritation of almost everyone else.

Whatever.

Dogs are fucking useless deterrents to professional burglars\intruders. They have several ways to knock them out of the game.

I'd list them but I just can't be arsed.

[Highspeed]

Our instructor intentionally kept pairing her w. me because I was the biggest guy in our class .

The kickboxing club my wife was a member of used her as the go-to girl whenever they got some blowhard self styled 'streetfighter' wanting to join.
They would turn up saying shit like ' I can fight really well I'm just here to sharpen up my skills ' and then try to bully the other students.

So they would get put in the ring with her for a sparring session. It always went the same way - the guy would smirk and say he didn't like hitting women and was going to go easy on her. Then she would crack him in the face with a jab or a kick and he'd go berserk, forgetting about not hitting women.
Which made her job a lot easier of course

The sparring sessions were videotaped, I wish we still had the copies. It's priceless watching some shaven headed self styled badass with a pot belly ( these guys all look the same, it's like there is a production line somewhere that keeps churning them out ) getting the crap knocked out of him by a girl who can punch twice as hard as he can...
It was so funny watching them with their heads down, arms swinging away at nothing like windmills. Streetfighters my arse, they were just big fat guys who never had a real brawl in their lives.

It sounds like you were the other side of the coin - the nice guy who got the shy students to channel some aggression.

[Yogimus]

Alarm dogs are the most effective deterrent.

Are you being sarcastic ? it's difficult to tell the difference between the several different ( annoying ) personas you adopt for your own amusement and the irritation of almost everyone else.

like... totally... What-ever..

Dogs are fucking useless deterrents to professional burglars\intruders. They have several ways to knock them out of the game.

I'd list them but I just can't be arsed.

odd that nearly every survey taken of professional burglars list them at the top by a wide margin. Look at the link. I qualified my statements.

[Aglifter]

People inherently dislike uncertainty. Most dogs can be bribed, some dogs can be ignored, others go full-%(^ nuts, and will require being shot, accurately, in the head.

(We had an English Mastiff growing up, in various instances - including when some burglars ran her over, and she got back up - she made is clear what she was willing to do.

We had to pay for some car repairs, when she smashed the side of an employee's car, who wouldn't leave/kept trying to come to work at the wrong time, and she generally had her version of routine and order, which could only be altered by my parents, but overall, a great dog.

She did pin a man down by his throat once, but she didn't leave any marks, and he was being an idiot - he claimed he was "pretending" to beat the woman watching the house, and the dog, to see what the dog would do, and that she "pretended" to scream in fear... But, dogs react more to scent, than to anything else, so I don't know how "pretend" the woman's fear was... )

We had African strain Rhodesians, which were death on wheels.

It depends on how useless you've raised your dogs to be, and how useless the initial blood line is, but, even most terriers, will do their best to raise hell. (And, people pay more attention to a dog going nuts, than to an alarm.)

[Yogimus]

People inherently dislike uncertainty. Most dogs can be bribed, some dogs can be ignored, others go full-%(^ nuts, and will require being shot, accurately, in the head.

(We had an English Mastiff growing up, in various instances - including when some burglars ran her over, and she got back up - she made is clear what she was willing to do.

We had to pay for some car repairs, when she smashed the side of an employee's car, who wouldn't leave/kept trying to come to work at the wrong time, and she generally had her version of routine and order, which could only be altered by my parents, but overall, a great dog.

She did pin a man down by his throat once, but she didn't leave any marks, and he was being an idiot. )

We had African strain Rhodesians, which were death on wheels.

It depends on how useless you've raised your dogs to be, and how useless the initial blood line is, but, even most terriers, will do their best to raise hell. (And, people pay more attention to a dog going nuts, than to an alarm.)

"professional Burglars" don't bother to find out. They move on.

http://www.scambusters.org/homeburglary.html
http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/big-dog ... akes-54581
http://blog.certifiedsecuritysystems.co ... rrent.aspx
http://www.simplysearch4it.com/article/25861.html

(any and all devices/tools are useless if someone wants to specifically rob YOU, as opposed to "someone")

[Highspeed]

We had African strain Rhodesians, which were death on wheels.

We have one ( had two but Selous died from a reaction to antibiotics last year ) You would need a lot of distance between you and the Ridgeback and a shotgun to defeat one.
They don't go straight for you, they run around your flank and go for the blind side. I'm 5'11 and Zola can jump high enough from standstill to reach my throat.
Two of them... god help you.

But like all dogs they will eat fucking anything and will cheerfully scoff a piece of meat chucked over the fence which has been poisoned.

Which to my mind makes them a liability as home defence.