Looking for a General Statistic

[Liver Punch]

This is probably best fit to the LEOs here, but anyone with insight, please feel free to chime in. I'm looking at making a switch for my personal home defense weapon. Instead of basing it on what works best in a warzone, I've decided to take another look at things through a realistic perspective. The conclusion that I've come to is that I'm not sure what I'm using is best suited to the situation that I'd likely run into.

In short, I'm down to attempting to look at real-world situations. As I look at the statistics for home invasions, robberies, and break-ins for all the offenders entering our facility, it would seem that almost all of them are performed either alone or with two people. This is in stark contrast to the 10-man commando team that a lot of people believe/would have you believe will enter your home unwanted. I've not managed to find a good set of statistics regarding this, so for those of you who've had experience with this sort of thing, what, if anything seems to be the most common situation?

[MasterPain]

Statistics can be hard to find and misleading.

Going on one person's memory of things they know about in a 3-county area over 20 years can be even worse.

I can provide the latter. Around here, we had a group of 3 or 4 people who would beat someone until they needed plastic surgery over an insult. 2 of them were shot, one fatally after (from what I've heard starting a fight with a Texan after kicking his truck as they walked by.) Other than that, a guy shot the guy who had been beating his sister. Unfortunately, the abuser was unarmed and not being a threat at the time, so that guy is serving 20 or 30 years. There has been a couple of unrelated cases of people going nuts and killing people with carpenter's hammers. 2 stabbings in the course of committing another crime. A middle aged man beat his elderly father to death with his bare hands. A body was found riddled with stotgun wounds, sitting beside a backhoe in a rural area, that's all I know about that one. And a man with a pistol and an AK walked through a restraining order and killed his ex-wife and her mother. Out of the ones involving home invasion, that is the only one I can think of involving a firearm.

[Liver Punch]

So, no ninjas, commandos, terminators, or zombies? We can't let the serfs find out about this.

Edit: This morning I've been mapping out my "home defense plan" on paper. We don't exactly live in a mansion, and it's quite the logistical quagmire. There's the possibility of one person being home, two people being home, a hundred combinations of the two of us being in different spots, several combinations of us being in the same spot, and 5 possible entry points. On top of it all, there's weapon placement, wall thickness and materials, a very thorough examination of ballistics and penetration, consideration of shot placement, etc. Then there's weapon ranges - not just of firearms, but of assorted bladed and bludgeoning weapons.

Once that's all sorted out, we'll get to run dry fire exercises, middle of the night drills, and a whole host of other exciting things. Paranoia quite simply provides the most affordable form of entertainment on Earth.

[bushido_man96]

That sounds like a lot of fun training, Liver Punch. How did you get your family to go along with it?

[Liver Punch]

I don't have any kids, but whenever that happens, they'll be brain washed from day one to enjoy this sort of thing. As for the soon-to-be wife, I just talk about murder, rape, home invasions, and then describe how much more fun slinking around the home in the dark for preparation will be.

In the event that all of those things fail, you just pay a friend to break in some night... I'm not sure it's ethical, but it's effective.

[JusticeZero]

Looking at statistics seems like it is potentially a very bad start. One can imagine a 6'4" male football jock seeking to enter a military career researching common self defense scenarios and concluding that he needs to learn how to fend off a date rape attack by a larger assailant, as that is a statistically common scenario.

Best to first start by modeling your life and your area and trying to find what threats might be drawn to attack you and why, then minimizing the attractiveness of your home as a target.

Only after you have minimized your home as a good target for crime, AND worked out whether there are any threats that might specifically target YOUR home in particular, should you start worrying about how to fight to protect it.

I would also urge that self defense often starts by taking the "self" assumption out. Most people live in a neighborhood. As much as people say they want that whole neighborhood feel, people seem to have forgotten how to DO it. It starts by walking around near your home and saying hello to your neighbors and asking them about themself and their interests. In the examples I see of these things, people gloss over the fact the good endings tend to start with the attention of the neighbors being drawn somehow.

[JusticeZero]

(accidental double post)

[Liver Punch]

Looking at statistics seems like it is potentially a very bad start.

I would agree to a point, particularly on everything but home defense. Not looking at statistics at all is the norm, and it's pretty much accepted as fact that if your home is invaded, it will be by nine machine-gun wielding, fully armored ninja-commandos that can only be stopped with a hand held cannon. I'll gladly buy a small cannon and some depleted-uranium sabots for it, but I'm not sure that I'd be preparing for something realistic.

Best to first start by modeling your life and your area and trying to find what threats might be drawn to attack you and why, then minimizing the attractiveness of your home as a target.

Only after you have minimized your home as a good target for crime, AND worked out whether there are any threats that might specifically target YOUR home in particular, should you start worrying about how to fight to protect it.

We're in an apartment now, which has its high and low points. It's about as secure as I can make it, but the idea that the people who break in need money and I own nice things is currently just a fact of reality. Those pesky glass windows are awfully breakable too. I wanted to just brick over them, but management told me that wasn't allowed. Even minimizing the likelihood your home is broken into is a practice in statistics: following certain practices makes it less likely to be broken into.

As for neighbors, all of mine are idiots. There's the 35 year old guy who attempts to do a burnout every time he leaves the parking lot, the people that only speak Spanish, the people that only speak Arabic, and the Dungeon and Dragons nerd (Not that there's anything wrong with that) with a ponytail who seems to be afraid of everything. We had a meeting to set up a neighborhood watch committee, and the only attendees were me, a 90 year old woman, and a representative from the police department who basically recommended that we all carry a rape horn.

Despite being a fairly nice community, I constantly run off drunk and/or homeless people who are knocking on my door asking for god knows what at 2 AM. I've tried being nice to these people, but nice doesn't seem to be a language that they understand. The drunks on the other side of me seem to be well versed in the art of mutual spousal abuse. It's not a huge stretch to see any of these situations ending with someone angry in my home.

So, we're back to the start - I've done all I can, but bad things can still happen. They put 2 airbags in my car, despite already putting in seat belts, good brakes, excellent handling, and great tires. I'm essentially playing around with the best kind of airbags for my home, and toying with where I want them to be. While certainly not foolproof, statistics are the best predictor of what's going to happen. Given enough data, one ought to be able to estimate the likelihood that they'll be completely wrong, and make an educated guess based on all of that.

[Groinstrike]

Glad to see that youve went full on Master Hearst when planning for a potential home invasion. Master Hearst, if you just read this, i mean it in the best way possible, please don't hurt me.

I too live in an apartment, on the second floor no less. I have ran countless scenarios in my head and they all end the same way, grab the mossberg 500 loaded with buckshot and go to work. Now this may be oversimplified, but it seems to me that if someone is in my apartment illegally they had it coming.

That being said, located within my five room apartment are the following weapons: Two hook swords(Yes those kind of hook sword that Kabal uses in mortal kombat), many assorted machetes and other bladed weapons, a beretta .40 cal pistol, a 12 gauge shotgun, golf clubs and other bludgeoning weapons.

Considering i live in a much smaller area than Liverpunch, the closest thing i have had to a home invasion is when two jehovahs witnesses knocked on my door. Me being a victim of healthy amounts of paranoia was going through how i would defend myself against these two should they try anything.(This was before they introduced themselves to be Jehovahs witnesses). Sometimes you just have to act on the fly.

[MasterPain]

I have stabby/slashy/smashy things within 10 feet of me and on my person at all times. I'm in the market for a cheap boomstick as well. Hail to the king, baby.