Preparing for Unrest – Home

In this part of our continuing series, we’re going to talk about the steps you can take to make your home a little more prepared. There is Tactical Wisdom about defending your home:

When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own house, his possessions are safe.

Luke 11:21

As I always point out, home security begins with a detailed area study. You should know all there is to know about your neighborhood and daily commute area. Learn where the danger areas are, like hospitals, police and fire stations, pharmacies, liquor stores, etc. More importantly, walk your neighborhood and review every neighbor. Put them either in the ally or hostile columns. Note that I didn’t mention neutral….if they are not an ally, they are potentially hostile. Know which neighbors support which side.

I tell the story of a West Bank neighborhood where both Jews and Muslims got along and their children played together. The minute that Hezbollah showed up, though, the allegedly friendly neighbors immediately pointed out the Jewish homes. Someone might be your friendly neighbor right up until the torches and pitchforks arrive, then he’ll gladly point you out to protect his property.

Learn the not-so-obvious ways into and out of your neighborhood. Figure out how to defend against entry, but also learn how you could potentially come and go from your neighborhood undetected. As you may recall, after both the Maui fires and the Hurricane Helene, there were folks who were told they could not go back to their homes. Know ways around the roadblocks. There are also times when you may want to leave the neighborhood undetected by anyone who might be watching.

Monitor social media to learn who the local agitators and groups are in your area. Learn where they meet and where they plan on protesting. That way, you can avoid them and have advance notice of planned unrest.

Consider using gray man tactics on your house. As much as we talk about learning about your neighbors, I assure you that your opposition is doing the same thing. Take down political signs or things that promote political causes. A recent YouTube video directed people to catalog which houses have American flags. I won’t take mine down unless there is active unret going on, but consider it. These are unusual times. Pay attention to the cars in your drive as well. I had one neighbor who had no outward displays of political leanings, but each of his three cars had stickers facing the roadway from various gun companies. That makes him a target.

Consider the emissions from your house. What do I mean by that? Well, turn down your WiFi signal. There is no need to expose your internet to potential breach surviellance by blasting your signal 3 blocks. Turn down the power on your router via the settings to the lowest level, rather than always turning it up. Also, once your home devices all have the network saved, go into the router settings and turn off “Broadcast SSID”. People won’t exploit a network they can’t see. Stop connecting every device in your home to the internet. Make a grocery list, you don’t need to look in the fridge from the grocery store. Stop being lazy, nerd.

Think about heat signatures as well. Leaving a heater on a couple hours a day in an unoccupied house can make it appear that someone is home.

In the event of an actual riot in your area, immediately harden your home. Have pre-cut panels to fit over windows. Consider barring the door with 2X4 into the studs. Pin all first floor windows so that they only open a few inches. Buy a deadbolt with a 3 inch throw instead of smaller standard ones. As a side note, the Wilson Key, a fire fighting tool to open locked doors, cannot defeat a deadbolt. Place bright lights facing outboard to blind anyone looking at the house from outside.

Prep your house for fire fighting. Move fire extinguishers (yes, plural) and stage them throughout the house. You can also stage buckets of water. Fill the tubs with water, just in case. If it is known that rioters are setting fires (or even a wildfire in the area) you can wet down your house and yard to slow the start of fires.

Stage mutliple first aid kits around the house during times of unrest or disaster. You may not have time to dig one out of your cool-guy storage room. Put them in readily accessible areas.

Part of your preparedness plan should be running drills. Have a “stand to” drill, where everyone goes to their assigned spot to provide security or, in the case of kids or unhealthy adults, be defended. Consider these “battle stations”. Have another drill for an attempted break in, and another for an emergency escape from the home. Not everything is worth dying over. Practice these drills.

For training classes, my Community Security Operations course covers these topics and more for defending a whole neighborhood. Combat Studies Group offers Ground Rod 1 & 2 about securing your communications and CQB levels 1 & 2 for defending your home. Don Shift’s books can help as well as mine.

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