"Buggin" In - Can you defend your place?

[Jaxon]

Scenarios are constantly being played in my off the wall brain, and sitting home last night, I wondered again, how well I could defend where I live.

Unless there is a tidal wave, or nuclear issue, then I'm probably not going anywhere. Living so close to Boston, the roads would be packed/jammed/useless and I don't really have any place to bug out too.

So I stay home. I live in a townhouse condo, brick and fairly sturdy, but....

So I board up the first floor windows.... and then what. The place wasn't designed to be defended against a siege.

I'm curious what the rest of you think about your place and how defensible it is, and/or what you have done, or thinking about doing to improve.

 

[Admin]

RJ,

They will simply burn you out. It's almost impossible to defend your home in the burbs. When the hoods get desperate enough they will burn your house down.

 

[Fsorrent]

i live in a apartment complex, with glass door at the entrance. I've come to terms that my place would be a very poor place to make any defensive standpoint.

 

[Admin]

My townhouse is out in the sticks a bit and I wouldn't feel safe for an extended period of time. If people wanted in or wanted my "Stuff" bad enough they would burn me down.

 

[Fsorrent]

Good example,
If you've ever seen the Matrix 3, when Neo and Trinity are going into the machine city they are overwhelmed with force by the machines. Overwhelming force is the best way to defend your home.

 

[Admin]

Overwhelming force is the best way to defend your home.

Yes overwhelming forces is great if you have it. But unless you have a MK19 and a 50 cal MG, it's hard to be that force when it's just you, the wife, and kids.

 

[FPrice]

Against a very small group or people who will give up easily, maybe. But against a large, determined group, nope.

 

[Admin]

Against a very small group or people who will give up easily, maybe. But against a large, determined group, nope.

That's the thing. If I had Adam_MA, FITH, and TonyD, we could IMO take over any house in any neighborhood.

A lot of desperate people are over matched, but there will be desperate guys like us who are armed and will do anything to survive.

It doesnt take much.

 

[Fsorrent]

That's the catch. If you cannot somehow overwhelm your enemy, you cannot win. It's reason or force. At some point, your weakness will be exposed. But if can easily defeat the most determined enemy, then anyone less will retreat.

 

[Jaxon]

RJ,

They will simply burn you out. It's almost impossible to defend your home in the burbs. When the hoods get desperate enough they will burn your house down.

Yes, that would be one of my biggest concern. At this point, I don't have alot of options.

 

[hminsky]

This points out why it is important to have good neighbors, and to have good relationships, with those who have the intelligence and will to organize and protect their neighborhood in the unlikely event it is ever needed. Basically neighbors who look out for one another.

 

[bpm990d]

If you cannot somehow overwhelm your enemy, you cannot win.

You need to read a little Sun Tzu.

B

 

[Admin]

This points out why it is important to have good neighbors, and to have good relationships, with those who have the intelligence and will to organize and protect their neighborhood in the unlikely event it is ever needed. Basically neighbors who look out for one another.

Very true. However with a lot of people living in MA the chances of a Moonbat or bats living next door is high. I can just image the looks you will get when you have the neighboors over for wine and you mention that you want to work on a contingency plan for a SHTF situation and you want to make sure all sectors of fire are covered in the A.O.

 

[drgrant]

Very true. However with a lot of people living in MA the chances of a Moonbat or bats living next door is high. I can just image the looks you will get when you have the neighboors over for wine and you mention that you want to work on a contingency plan for a SHTF situation and you want to make sure all sectors of fire are covered in the A.O.

The upside to having a moonbat-rich environment is that the thugs
will likely try to avoid houses where bullets are coming out the front
door and feed off the moonbats first.... there are plenty of bleating
sheep for them to slaughter before they're "forced" to deal with
us... and they should be able to steal enough from them to keep
their appetites for (whatever) satiated for awhile.


-Mike

 

[dbhn]

Very true. However with a lot of people living in MA the chances of a Moonbat or bats living next door is high. I can just image the looks you will get when you have the neighboors over for wine and you mention that you want to work on a contingency plan for a SHTF situation and you want to make sure all sectors of fire are covered in the A.O.

That is funny. Other than on this board I don't think I know anyone that wouldn't look at me like I had two heads. Not saying it shouldn't be talked about or thought about though. I certainly do. Somebody's got to.

The burning my house down thought is pretty scary. I had always envisioned putting bullets in a few of them to scare the rest away. Guess it depends on how bad they want in.

And as Derek put it, most anyone would not fare to well against a group of Marines or NES'ers.

 

[Admin]

The burning my house down thought is pretty scary. I had always envisioned putting bullets in a few of them to scare the rest away. Guess it depends on how bad they want in.

That's just it Derek. How bad do they want it. With nothing to lose and death only a few days away it would be ugly.

 

[MassMark]

I think it's a realistic scenario to think about - especially in the suburbs and tight neighborhoods. I am out in the sticks, but not out of the realm of possibilities. The plan to hunker down and defend my property includes everything from setting up perimeters, to early warning system, to dropping trees, food management, weapons management, etc. However, it also includes a plan to abandon ship and scuttle the works - leaving the dickheads little more than charcoal...Plan B is generally the plan followed when Plan A blows up in your face.....

 

[Adam_MA]

If I had Adam_MA, FITH, and TonyD, we could IMO take over any house in any neighborhood.

Sweet! I'm in!

Seriously, I know that in my neighborhood I would be dead! I know enough of my neighbors well enough to know that the only other gun owner, has "a SXS and an O/U" shotgun that he uses for bird hunting every couple of years. Also, what about the crybaby at the end of the road that has the inferiority complex, because he's a stay at home "mom" and only talks to people when he sees you doing work around your house and asks "did you get a permit for that". Plus, the only neighbor who knows that I am prepared (because he has been in my basement a bunch of times and saw my LTS food storage) said "We'll just come over here, and let you feed and protect us"

I've got enough ammo, but you gotta sleep sometime!

 

[pdm]

My neighborhood is good. Lots of running water, aquifer, swampland covering one side. The problem is that there are a lot of trees to provide cover for approaching nogoodniks and a nearby major road. I probably could defend it, but not by myself and not for very long. Unless I cut the bridge over the river. But even then, that just cuts off the route away from the major road. Bleah. Like most folks in the burbs, I'd get my ass kicked.

 

[Twigg]

I consider buggin' in as an option only for the short term. I'm surrounded by sheeple so discouraging zombies might work for a bit.

Trouble is sheeple will either turn on you or demand protection.

Like others here, I have relatives who have seen my stores & presumed I'll open my doors and be handing out rifles and I can tell you, as I've told them, that's not going to happen.

Any allies you have would have to have the proper mindset as well.

...and eventually one has to sleep.

Conclusion: A home in the suburbs or some rural areas is not defensible on a long term basis.

 

[Mikey]

Let the house burn I don't really like it anyway.

We'll be safe in the northern woods of Vermont even if we have to shoot our way up, NES'ers are welcome to follow we can set up a ranch like in "Lights Out".

 

[Jaxon]

You guys are depressing me, when I was depressed already enough.

Hopefully, we could saddle up and scoot before the zombies showed up. Most of the locals wouldn't be armed, and I don't expect the police to stay around either. Although they have the good guns.

We'll just have to see

 

[Western Man]

I'll be heading up to the Northwoods of Maine during a catastrophic SHTF situation. I have some family there. We'll be off the grid in a sparsely populated county; and we'll have all the moose meat you can possibly stomach.

 

[JAMMIN]

When they light the house make sure you have a big empty trunk and crash it out your window and come out blazing like Young Guns.

 

[kevin9]

Depends on the scenario. If it's a true EOTWAWKI then I don't really know how to plan for that in a specific way: It is so far out of my experience that I cannot envision enough of the options to do any planning other that "be prepared". What I would do depends on the specific nature of the catastrophe.

On the hand a semi-temporary SHTF scenario, such as a hurricane or ice storm, that lasts a few days to a month or two we would most likely ride out in place. We've got stuff to last that long, and I there is little that I can imagine where we would be safer elsewhere. Getting to that "elsewhere" is the biggest problem. A vehicle is about the most indefensible place to be, particularly if it is immobilized in traffic.

I figure I only need to make my place harder that the neighboring places until some measure of order is restored. In order to burn us out they have to get close enough to be able to do that. I have the family "manpower" to guard all the approaches: It would not be a walk-up job.

 

[KMaurer]

A guy (apparently without sufficient firepower) starts running like hell from camp screaming that there's a lion coming. His buddy starts running with him, then says, "we'll never be able to out-run a lion." The first guy replies, "we don't have to; we only need to outrun the other campers." Same with your home. Sure, if your home were the only one around (e.g., The Alamo), then you're most likely going down eventually. In the real world, the amount of fire coming from most of our places would tend to motivate the goblins to take a close look at the neighbors' houses instead. (Sorry, they had their chances earlier.)

Ken

 

[kevin9]

Exactly Ken!

 

[commandcaddy]

Defending your residence

We live about 15 minutes from NB... rural enough that there are woods around and we have a neighbors home that can be well defended that we refer to as "the Alamo" -fall back house. If disaster strikes... we plan to try to control a certain area with streets and intersections.

Make a list of neighbors and try to see if any bring "things to the table" such as being nurses or EMTs. Like was posted.. you can "write off a lot of your neighbors" as being useless and just trying to "suck off your supplies" if something happens.

Just a thought... if there was a "dirty bomb"in Boston or a strike at the Plymouth Nuke plant... there would be mass panic and a lot of criminal "gang types" would head out of Boston. During Katrina... within 12 hours small towns 3 hours drive away were already full of displaced people so it wouldn't take long for the "boston" criminal element to make it out to different parts of the country.


commandcaddy

 

[Mikey]

Remember this? If for some reason we can't get out then I know I have some "gun friendly" neighbors and I would start with guards at the beginning of our dead end street and hope for a chance to get out. This would probably work for a short term SHTF but anything long term and I would head north.

I just hope my neighbors have better weapons then these guys, I know I do.

 

[kevin9]

I just hope my neighbors have better weapons then these guys, I know I do.

Then you're all set.