Home & Personal Defense for Preppers

Home and Personal Defense for Preppers One very important aspect of preparedness is home security and personal defense. We spend so much time and money purchasing supplies and getting ready for when disaster strikes, and along with this comes protecting those supplies, and ourselves from people that don’t have the foresight we do.

Even though statistics show that globally this is the safest time to be alive in our history, it really means nothing to us locally. Just tell the people living in Venezuela how good things are today. It’s great that more people have access to clean water, healthcare and education, but what happens when that goes away?

As preppers we are always looking to the future, and catch a lot of heat for thinking about “What if” scenarios. These statistics are great for showing how far we have come, but say nothing about where we might be headed. These stats say nothing about our national debt, nothing about natural disasters, and nothing about the rising tensions in the United States.

Regardless how “good things are” that could all change at a moment’s notice. We need to be prepared for when bad things happen, and we need to be prepared for bad (or unprepared) people that take advantage of that.

IN THIS ARTICLE (Jump to a Topic)

SPP222 Home & Personal Defense for Preppers

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This week in the show we were honored to have Brian Duff from The Mind4Survival podcast on with us to talk about operational security, situational awareness and defending yourself and your home against intruders.

Below are a few of the bullet points we covered in the show. We went into quite a bit of detail on all of these, so if you get a chance make sure and listen.

Operational Security

Creating Good Habits: Everything we do on a daily basis either puts us at risk, or increases our safety. Over time, our routines become habits, and we basically sleep walk through life. Start creating (or changing) habits that help you become more situationaly aware, and start recognizing what is going on around you.

Keep Your Head Up: Even if we are not paying attention to what we are doing, someone else might be. Criminals are opportunists, and prey on soft targets. If you have your head buried in your cell phone walking to of from the grocery store, you have no idea what is going on around you.

Knowing Your Neighbors: Like it or not, your neighbors are going to be around when any sort of disaster strikes. We need to determine whether they might be a threat, or an ally in a SHTF situation.

Being the Grey Man: Being the grey man before a SHTF event or disaster scenario is much different than during a disaster. Things we do online, at work, or around town can put us at risk. Being the grey man means being as unremarkable as possible, and not drawing attention to yourself.

Personal Security

Physical Fitness: What you think you can do, and what you can do are probably 2 different things. We could have the best plan in the world on paper, but a real world situation will be much more difficult. For preppers, physical fitness is more about endurance than strength. In the show we talked about being “farmer strong”, not weight room strong.

Self Defense Training: In a past podcast we talked extensively with Sara Hathaway about personal defense, non lethal weapons and how taking actual classes is much better than watching a YouTube video. Practicing and training are also very important. Most of us can throw a punch, but how many of us could wrestle an attacker for an extended period of time?

Self Defense Weapons: Regardless whether you are talking about a firearm, a knife or a pointy stick, we need to have the skills necessary to use them, and the willingness to use them. The last thing we want is to have our self defense weapon used against us.

Home Security for Today

Outside the House: Some things we can do now to secure our perimeter include security lights, security cameras, motion detection, fencing, signage and dogs. Anything we can do to make ourselves look less attractive, or more of a hardened target to criminals will make them think twice.

Inside the Home: Hopefully you have done the work outside your home and have had some notice before it gets to this point. In the show we talked about some options to handle this type of situation.

CQB (Close Quarters Battle): At the upcoming Colorado PrepperMed course, Brian will be teaching a class on CQB and also how to stay out of that situation. In the show we talked about being aware of your surroundings, and ways to keep yourself out of this type of situation.

Home Security When the S Hits the Fan

Outside the House: In any sort of SHTF scenario, your perimeter security options will be a little different than today. We did a podcast in the past about this very subject. The first step we can take is to survey our property and figure out what our options are.

Being the Grey Man After SHTF: As preppers we tend to be more prepared than the average person. In a SHTF situation we need to maintain our operational security by blending in. This means looking the part, as well as acting the part.

Here is a great video that explains the grey man concept in a SHTF environment…