Home Defense Best Practices to Keep Your Family Safe

There aren’t many places in the world more sacred than your home. It’s designed to be a safe and relaxing retreat from the dangers and stressors of the world. And it’s important that you keep it as such. 

Knowing how to properly protect your home from criminals and other outside threats could mean the difference between keeping your family safe and exposing them to dangerous situations. As you read this article, consider how you can apply the following tips to your home.

6 Home Defense Suggestions

The best home defense is preventative. You want to prevent the attack from happening in the first place. Keeping this in mind, here are a few suggestions you can use to improve your family’s safety.

• Keep Entry Points Secure

The first step is to secure all entry points into your home. This includes major points of entry, such as the front door, as well as entry points that you never use (like a basement window). 

Securing entry points is usually as simple as installing the proper locks. This means always using deadbolts on exterior doors. As for windows, regularly go through your home and verify that they’re all locked.

• Install Smart Security Cameras

While locks will keep your entry points fairly secure, they aren’t impenetrable. Windows, in particular, can be smashed in. The same goes for some doors. So while a lock will prevent easy access, a determined criminal can still find a way in. Thus, it’s wise to install security cameras.

The best security cameras are smart, cloud-based cameras. These cameras automatically detect motion in certain areas and instantly push a real-time notification/video feed to your devices. They’ll also record footage to the cloud, which can be used as evidence in a situation where there’s illegal activity on your property. For best results, install smart security cameras at all major entry points of your home.

• Have Firearms on Hand

The goal is to keep intruders out of your home. However, if someone does enter your home while you’re there, it’s important that you’re able to protect yourself. This is where firearms come in handy. 

Having semi-automatic pistols in the home ensures you always have a way to defend yourself against an attack. It’s recommended that you have at least one on every level of your home. Thus if you have a three-story, you’ll want one handgun in the basement, one in the main living area, and another upstairs. 

• Invest in Landscape Lighting

Burglars prefer to operate in the dark. You can deter nighttime break-ins by installing adequate landscape lighting around your property. As part of your lighting design, you should also install motion-sensing floodlights around the perimeter of your house. These lights catch prowlers in their tracks and usually cause them to flee the scene.

• Set Up a Security System

A security system is always a good idea, but there’s a reason we didn’t mention it as the first tip. Because if you have a security system installed without first understanding the basic principles of home security, it’s not going to be very effective. An alarm system is just one component of a much larger approach. Install one, but don’t be so reliant on it that you become lazy in other areas.

• Be Mindful of the Garage

Most homeowners forget about the garage (which is a big mistake). The garage is becoming the preferred entry point for criminals, and a failure to account for this aspect of your property could leave you vulnerable to a break-in (even if every other part of your home is secured). Here are some suggestions:

• Cover windows in your garage to avoid giving a criminal a look inside
• Secure your garage doors with additional locks
• Upgrade to a smart garage door opener
• Lock your car doors at night and/or avoid leaving a garage door opener out in plain sight
• Always lock the door going between your house and the garage

Securing your garage is a must. Take the extra time and effort to do it right!

Protect Your Family From Harm

Nobody is going to protect your family for you. It’s up to you to proactively defend your home from outside threats (no matter how unlikely they might be). Through a combination of smart habits, security technology, and self-defense strategies, you can say safe and enjoy peace of mind.