How To Avoid Having To Shoot Home Invaders

Remember the incident in Dayton, Ohio last week where a woman shot and killed a home invader?

It turns out that it wasn’t the first time that this home was targeted by criminals, nor the first time that she’d shot a home invader. Two teens had targeted the same home in 2013 for a home invasion, and she shot one of them when they kicked in the back door.

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Her home had been violated in a burglary just a week before the latest incident.

Why does it seem that some homes are targeted more than others?

Because they are!

In some instances, the home is a frequent target because of know illicit or even legal business that transpires on the property, or the guileless homeowner puts out a display of wealth that may as well say, “come rob me,” like leaving the box for a new television or video game system for roadside trash pickup.

In these instances, criminals are looking for specific known or suspected items.

In other instances a home is targeted simply because it looks like an easy mark because of isolation, or perceived ease of access. This lady’s home in Dayton home appears to fall into this latter group:

The homeowner’s brother, Efriam Goldsmith, says this isn’t the first time his sister’s house has been burglarized.

“Once last week, they took some electronics and last year, two teenagers kicked in the back door,” said Goldsmith.

2 NEWS asked Goldsmith why he thought his sister’s house is a common target.

“You can come in from the alley and no one is going to pay attention, you have two accesses that is blocked from everything, its the ideal house,” said Goldsmith.

While having a firearm and having both the training and mindset to use it are critical, it’s best to avoid encounters with criminals if you can. When it comes to burglary, it is typically a simple matter of making your home less attractive and accessible as a target, so that criminals decide that your home is more trouble than it’s worth.

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You can follow the usual advice of alarms and motion-activated lights, but there are other things that you can do that are just as effective, such as defensive landscaping to make access to certain windows incredible difficult or painful to access.

Your goal should not be adding so many security features that you suggest to criminals that you have valuables to take, but enough subtle deterrence that they see your property as too much trouble for too little payoff.

We’d strongly suggest that you spend a little time researching how to burglarproof you home.

A firearm and firearms training is a key part of your home defense strategy, but it should also be your last line of defense against criminals, not the only line of defense.

Be safe!

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