Home Alarm?

[jcsturgeon]

So here I am, minding my own business when I get a sales call at 8:15 PM asking if I want to sign up for a home alarm system. I say: "Hell no, I have a gun, what the hell would I want with a home alarm system?"

It gets me thinking though, if someone breaks in, wouldn't a home alarm just give you more notice to get a hold of your go to gun?

I always get irritated with those alarm commercials. They bad guy ALWAYS gets away. A gun maker should have a commercial where someone breaks in and they are held at gunpoint, the police are called, and they are led away in handcuffs. That would be awesome.

[Blue Devil]

What's irritating to me is the commercials always show a clean cut, friendly looking bad guy. That's not what the pics in the paper look like. I do have an alarm system (not from one of nat'l advertisers) because I'm a pretty heavy sleeper and my daughter is on the other side of the house. I like to think it will give me a few extra seconds to grab a gun. An alarm is not a stand alone solution. If the intruder is violent, he is likely to kill an unarmed victim long before the authorities can get to you. I keep a tactical 12 gauge with 00 buck and a Sig 229 close by at night.

[jcsturgeon]

This is what it should be like:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3HlbgYQLE0

[Mac1]

It's unlikely a burglar is going to break in while you are home. Most don't want a confrontation, armed or not. Unless you are some crazy drug dealer or behind to your bookie, this probably won't happen.
What is more probable to happen is someone break in when you're not home. Not only will the alarm startle them, it will contact the law and if you have neighbors, creates a lot of noise. The crook don't want attention drawn. It will also contact the fire dept if, God forbid, a fire breaks out, home or not.
I've had an alarm for 9 years now. No problems. $31 bucks a month is cheap insurance and peace of mind. I don't display the signs or stickers, that just tells the bg to cut the phone lines. I want it to be a surprise. And if I'm home, it will be one helluva surprise. Just my $.02 I also hate telemarketers. My alarm company did not call me, I called them.

[Blue Devil]

Lol, great commercial. The anti-gun whack-o's would have a field day with that one!

[Rob228]

A dog couldn't hurt.

[AK103K]

I prefer a roaming alarm system thats proactive. Two 125 pound Rotties work for me.

[Blue Devil]

My 20 lb Cocker would probably fall back to sleep shortly after the shooting stops.

[ZeSpectre]

Defense comes in layers

Some type of "alert system", be it a dog or an alarm system, is an important part because it gives you warning that there might be a problem and (hopefully) gives you time to enact the rest of your defensive strategy.

[TXAZ]

ROTFLMAO

[gregjc9]

if someone breaks in, wouldn't a home alarm just give you more notice to get a hold of your go to gun?

Yes, it does. We'va had one for years, makes my wife feel a lot more secure when she's home alone. Though I've not had someone break in, I have had it go off during the night. I just have to learn how to wake up and become more cognizant quicker.

[GM1967]

Gun. Dog. Alarm.


Pick any two, and you are in good shape. All three is even better. Doubling up on them can't hurt either.

Relying on just one of those three isn't as good. And if I have to have just one, it would be the gun

[Drachenstein]

Dogs,,,,, plural,,,,,, big dogs. I had two teenagers push the door in on me, happened so fast it caught me by surprise, before I could react the shepard reacted, it happened so fast it caught them by surprise. I restrained the dog after a point. The police lost the blood trail somewhere down the street.

The dog is always cocked and loaded. Most burglars see one large dog = they hesitate, see more than one they go elsewhere.

[FrankenMauser]

Lol, great commercial. The anti-gun whack-o's would have a field day with that one!

Even pro-gun people had issues with the way that company was doing business (Far too IN-YOUR-FACE, and too much play on political scares).
Thse were two of the reasons they changed names (and legal ownership), and calmed down for a little while. However, they're starting to get irritating again. I see another name change coming within the next couple years.


I have a home alarm system that was installed primarily for four reasons:
1. My wife felt better about being home alone.
2. So there is something protecting my lonely firearms (and other valuables) while I'm hunting/camping/traveling.
3. So there is an additional 'trigger' to wake me, should some one break in during the night (I sleep heavily).
4. If some one does break in during the night, the alarm is triggered instantly, and automatically put on max-level speaker phone (wireless signal, not a land line) for communications with the operator/police.

[Bamashooter]

I have 3 alarms. A crazy chow mix male thats 8yrs old. A funny looking fiest mix that has a tiny head, and a registered black weenie dog that has a nepoleon complex. He stays inside the house at night. They are all great dogs that alert me to anything going on outside at night.

[radom]

Here you call 911 at night they ask "you have a dead body on the floor"..if not call back at 8 in the morning. Total waste of time as you say yes dead body on the floor it will be around 20 min to a hour till they show up.

[Crosshair]

I prefer a roaming alarm system thats proactive. Two 125 pound Rotties work for me.

My aunts Rotweiler "Tip" will bark and make all sorts of racket toward anyone coming up to the house......then goes up and wants to snuggle. She'll lean against you so you so hard for attention that you'll fall over. She's so adorable.

She does do a superb job of killing the muskrats and keeping her chickens safe from coyotes.

[AK103K]

They are big babies, as long as youre well behaved. Raise your voice or make a sudden move towards "family", especially towards "mom", and their demeanor quickly changes.

[Uncle Buck]

Mac1 (in Post #4) makes some good points.

But there is always a chance you could be home when/if someone breaks in.

Any good security system has to has depth to it. A dog, an alarm, a gun, etc, etc, etc.

A residential alarm (mechanical) by itself is usually given a low priority by most police departments. These systems are notorious for the false alarms given.

A dog that barks constantly is usually ignored by the neighbors (although cursed quite a bit).

A gun is only effective if you know how to use it and are home to use it.

Locks are good at keeping honest people and stupid criminal at bay for a bit.

Use layers to develop a security system. It takes the sherrifs depart almost 15 - 30 minutes to respond to our end of the county in an emergency

[atlctyslkr]

Cutting the phone lines doesn't always work. Some systems used radio backup or are totally radio. I know of one that has a radio backup and if the phone line is cut it sends out a signal. Burglar thinks he is getting a leg up not realizing that the police still will be on the way. There are alot of false alarms trasmitted by phone lines but not too many by radio.

[Crosshair]

Uncle Buck

Any good security system has to has depth to it. A dog, an alarm, a gun, etc, etc, etc.

Yup, there are lots of little gadgets nowadays. This one in particular I think highly of.

130db Alarm



Good for securing basement windows and a whole bunch of other stuff. It's a basic contact switch so you don't have to worry about arming or disarming it every time you come home. Criminals are not gonna stick around to figure out how to get it to shut up and your neighbors are gonna get ****** and call the police when it's going off for 5 minutes. Best of all they run about $10 each, some places for as little as $5.

[Uncle Buck]

Crosshair: I use to travel with two of those types of alarms in my luggage for use when I got to my hotel room.

I have yet to meet the person who can sleep through one of those types of alarms. Piercing is an understatement.

When traveling we would sometimes have to go to places in very bad neighborhoods and stay in rooms with so so security. We would do resource protection and physical security inspections.

I remember one place where we inspected and the guy in charge was not too happy the owners had sent us. He tried to argue every improvement we recommended.

"But we have bars on the back of the building."

Yes, he did, but you could see where the bars had been cut and re-welded at least three times. The offices where in the front of the building and with machinery running between the offices and the back store rooms, you could have probably torn the back of the building off with a bulldozer and not have heard it.

Security in depth and redundancy.

[EdInk]

http://www.google.com/m/search?oe=UT...CBIQ7AkwAA#i=0

This works better than the little ADT signs.

[FrankenMauser]

http://www.google.com/m/search?oe=UT...CBIQ7AkwAA#i=0

This works better than the little ADT signs.

My family used to hunt on a large plot of private land in central Wyoming. Posted every 120 feet along the fence line, and posted on MASSIVE signs at every gate, was the message:
"Experimental Rattlesnake Breeding Farm. Entrance by permit only!"

At the 'main gate', the sign had a subscript:
"The closest hospital is almost 2 hours away, and does not keep anti-venom on hand."

That man never had visitors, and claimed to have never had a trespasser after putting the signs up. (If you hadn't guessed... he didn't actually breed rattlesnakes.)

[LDSGJA]

The crook don't want attention drawn. It will also contact the fire dept if, God forbid, a fire breaks out, home or not.
I've had an alarm for 9 years now. No problems. $31 bucks a month is cheap insurance and peace of mind.

For when I am not home I prefer to simply have good home-owners insurance, its $55 a month and covers everything at replacement cost. 3 years of alarm service = my $1000 deductible. And chances are you need homeowners (or renter's) insurance anyways . . .

If someone breaks in while I am home, that is a different situation.