When all else fails, you need to be able to protect yourself with the best home defense weapon in the event a threat has crossed your path. Maybe you have implemented everything we have talked about, a home security system, stronger locks, blinded all your windows, and brought home a pack of wolves. By this point, if an intruder has entered your home, they are systematically out to get you. You need a way to protect your family. You need the best home defense weapon money can buy.
Or perhaps you are already saving up money to buy the best system money can buy. Until you can implement all the right security measures, you still need a way to protect your family! You should always have a Plan B. And Plan C, and Plan D… however, too many defenses can potentially make you a target. If you are the only home on the block with razor wire on the backyard fence, well… now intruders accept the challenge. Fortunately all of these topics are low key and blend well with your day to day lifestyle.
Best Home Defense Weapon – The Last Straw
Pepper spray is a great self defense carry weapon, but not for the home. Pepper spray requires you to get real close to the threat so you can aim it in their eyes. If you are out shopping and somebody confronts you, pepper spray is a great non-lethal way to get away from the attacker, but so are other options.
When you are in your home though, you want to keep the intruder as far away from you as possible. In the ongoing frenzy, you want a weapon that requires less aiming and more eliminating the threat.
You also want the best home defense weapon that you are capable of wielding. A 12 gauge shotgun that is loaded with buck shot may knock your shoulder out, but will quickly get the point across to the intruder. A collapsible baton, or night sticks like the police use, is much easier to handle, and each swing is going to land somewhere on the victim, but requires you to get close.
Collapsible Carry Baton
This multi-purpose self defense mechanism can be carried with you anywhere. They typically come with a carry bag so you can have it ready to deploy in seconds. The tip of the baton has a hardened steel ball, which when delivered to your threat, can cause serious injury. I remember the days when we were in middle school, and we would wad up masking tape in to small, tight balls and throw them at each other as hard as possible. If you know what I am talking about, you remember it hurts!
The small surface area of the steel ball is what really makes this baton a great choice. The smaller ball inflicts more pain than a baseball bat would because you are delivering the same amount of energy on a smaller area (this takes in to consideration the SAME amount of energy, delivered by the same person at the same speed. Dwayne the Rock Johnson could do more damage with a baseball bat, but the last time I looked in the mirror I looked nothing like him).
It’s like having a compact and hardened baseball bat that inflicts pain like a whip. And you can take it with you! What a friend to count on.
The weakness of these weapons is heavy clothing. A prepared burglar may be wearing layers of heavy clothing to prevent injuries from sharp glass and weapons like this. That’s why there are better options such as…
The Taser
While a baton can inflict serious pain, the attacker can still advance or block the blows. With the taser, not so much. You have probably watched the YouTube videos, but the taser will stop a person in their tracks, and leave them squirming on the floor. Tasers come in a variety of shapes and sizes and are the same units law enforcement utilize. The preferred taser for home use should be something with a little bit of reach. Most hand held tasers fit in the palm of your hand, and look much like a handgun. When an intruder is breaking in to your home, you want to keep your distance from them as much as possible.
Tasers have replaceable cartridges with two electrodes in each. When you pull the trigger, the two electrodes shoot out at up to 30 feet. When the electrodes make their mark on the threat, just hold the trigger down and let the show begin. Your attacker will be suffering from Neuro-Muscular Incapacitation, also known as the shock of their lives. This gives you the ability to handcuff them or subdue them further in time for the cops to arrive.
Stun Gun
Stun guns are different, the electrodes are fixed in the unit, meaning you have to get within arms reach to place the electrodes on the threat. If the threat is carrying a knife, this will not work. There are stun guns that double as powerful flashlights, and come in 12 to 19 inch lengths, keeping the threat at arms length.
The flashlight portion of the stun gun can easily disorient and completely blind the intruder. I have tested this on myself before, and I was an idiot for trying. But for your benefit, you should know that I looked directly in to a 300 lumen flashlight in the middle of the night. Not only did it quickly blind me from seeing anything, it left a large black spot that blurred the majority of my vision for the next few minutes. You can imagine the advantage you will have when your intruder can literally not see you.
Check out this neat stun gun flashlight combo. It weighs a bit, but has all the features you need to incapacitate a threat right quick. It features 2,000,000 volts and multiple flashlight modes. The end of the flashlight is sturdy enough to wield as a baton as well. So swing, flash, and zap away!
These stun guns are non-lethal and don’t have the loud bang associated with them, although they do have a very loud and intimidating electrical sound to them, which may be enough to scare someone. I, for one, do not care to be hit with a zap from a stun gun.
Non-lethal Shotgun
Nothing is more universal than the sound of a pump action shotgun racking in the middle of the night. It screams at the intruder to GET OUT before you unleash their worst nightmare on them. The only problem with a shotgun, is the damage it can do to your home, and your family if aimed in the wrong direction. Shotguns can blast through walls, which can reach unintended victims.
We don’t want that, which is why if you are not well versed with a shotgun, but want one for the ultimate in home protection, there are non-lethal rounds you can purchase for the purpose of home defense. These rounds are typically made from rubber or compressed powder, and much like a bean bag launcher that riot police use, will stop a threat very quickly. Some of the non-lethal rounds are designed to dissipate in to powder the moment it hits a solid object like a wall, so you can be rest assured that the rounds don’t hurt anyone on the other side. Non-lethal rounds don’t have the kickback of normal shotgun rounds either, making a shotgun easier to handle.
The shotgun is the preferred choice for home defense because of the spread of the ‘shot’. You don’t need to aim precisely for one of these rubber balls to land on the intended target. As always, much care and attention comes with the ownership of a shotgun, but it is easy to learn and there are many classes you can take to become well versed.
YOU are the Best Home Defense!
That’s right, YOU are the best defense weapon in your home! Being able to take on an attacker fist to fist is the best thing you can teach yourself. Hand to hand combat is your last line of defense when it comes to protecting yourself and your family. Martial arts, karate, jiu-jitsu, they have not been in use for thousands of years just because it is good exercise. While you still want to utilize the weapons noted above, learning hand-to-hand combat is a skill you can take anywhere with you, and each form of combat is respectfully powerful.
And do not underestimate your size or abilities! Hand to hand combat trains you to use your body in the most effective way, exponentially making you more powerful than you believe. A swift knuckle punch to the throat will hurt anybody. A swift kick in the groin, I don’t care who you are, is slowing them down significantly.
Regardless of your choice, it is important to train with your home defense weapon at least a few times a month so you are comfortable with it and fully knowledgeable of your weapon. Buy all of these tools and place them around your house. No matter where you are when the unexpected happens, you will be ready. Bring on the pain to anybody that wishes your family harm.
Thanks very much. I like your website design especially the little indicator at the top that shows how much you have read through the article. When I was looking into Home Defense weapons I heard about shotguns but I was afraid that let’s say the intruder was near my computer or something I wouldn’t want to have any of the pieces that spread out hit my computer. So I heard about the less damaging ammunition and that seems like a smart idea.
The stun gun seems like a good idea because it’s not lethal but it will keep them from advancing.
I like how you said you are the best home defense weapon. This article is very helpful and hopefully it never comes to that but it’s good to know how to defend our home if we have to.
Thank you! I aim to help people stay informed and make the best decisions for their family. That’s what makes you the best weapon, knowledge is power!
The non lethal shotgun rounds will still do damage to electronics, but much less so that it may be salvageable. The compressed powder rounds are your best bet.
This is very useful information! I personally will go with stun gun and maybe practice some basic hand to hand combat. Also, pepper spray may be quite useful too if we can ambush the attacker. A friend of a friend throw pepper bottle to her home robber before her husband attack the robber. They can seize the robber without much struggle, because the robber’s eye was hurt 🙂
Great story! It is all about the element of surprise! Just when a robber thinks they have the advantage, you get hit with a pepper spray bottle and tackled to the ground! Stun guns come in a variety of sizes, so look around your local shops to see if they sell them and hold them to make sure you get what you are comfortable with.
My experience with this is that yes everyone wants to protect themselves however when you have a family you put them first in my experience its not about YOU anymore. Situations vary as well in my experience many of these have worked however you can never have too many cameras either to go along with that taser!
Excellent point there Trevor! Protecting your family takes selfelssness, which I hope most people are willing to do. Courage is fading in our society, but hopefully we can turn the tides on this!
Security is very paramount in a home. Everybody needs to understand this importance. Many times, people get hurt from intruders and whilst one can take some measures, this are very great personal defence weapons that one can get. I get the idea of that baton. One thing I haven’t heard of is a shot gun that’s not so harmful. That’s pretty awesome if I can use something like that on an intruder but not kill him…or her. Well, great post here, I’ll try to get the beaton and that handheld taser too.
I am glad you found this useful. The biggest benefit of the baton is its ability to be swung wildly. It is light enough you can keep swinging vigourously and not wear yourself out in a fight, and it is an inexpensive item to carry around with you. It is great for breaking windows if you have to escape a locked car or room too!
Definitely, there are situations where all security measures fail and all that is left of is just to self defence to avoid being a victim of whatever the outcome may be. It is true that one is the best defence that one can ever get and in such situation, there needs to be courage to face off whatever treat the attacker is coming with. However, it wouldn’t hurt to get any of these listed above as they provide better alternative to getting involved in a fist fight. They would at least help to provide a safe distance between the assailant and me. Thanks for this
Courage is the hardest thing to muster up in any kind of confrontation. But when it comes to the security of your family, some people find it easier to get than others. Going to a self defense class, or karate for example, helps you face off easier and trains your mind for that day, which hopefully never comes. Thanks for reading!
Very useful and informative information. What do you recommend for a woman? I think the shotgun might be a little too much for me, although I like the idea of the non-lethal one. You are certainly right that the sound of a shotgun being readied is a scary sound and that alone would probably get the threat to leave. I carry pepper spray with me and luckily I have never had to use it, but it makes me feel safe when I am out and about. You’ve provided extremely helpful tools and I really appreciate that. Maybe your next article could be on what women can do for home defense? Keep up the good work!
Thanks for mentioning it, that is on my list of things to write on! But to answer part of your question, shotguns come in a wide variety of sizes. And the ammunition varies wildly too, and the result is hundreds of possible combinations to suit your needs. The .410 shotgun is very light, compact, and the non lethal rounds use very little gun powder to reduce the speed of the round, resulting in no recoil. All you hear is the loud bang and slight push back from firing. The .410 is so small, they actually made a handgun out of it. Pepper spray is a great self defense mechanism too, and like everything else, hopefully you never have to use it! Thanks for reading!
While reading this article, I remembered a scenario that made me laugh. A friend of mine had his friend calling him from the window late in the night. If not for the fact that my friend could recognize his voice, he would have gotten himself some karate beating that night, as my friend wasn’t expecting anyone around his house by that time. These home defense weapons are very useful and helpful. It is somewhat a necessity as we can not tell when they would be needed. So it’s best to have them at hand. I would love to inquire if excess use of the taser on a person can maybe lead to death?
Thanks for the relatable story! In regards to your question, Tasers are designed to be a non-lethal, life protecting device. You can deploy them multiple times to the same victim and not degradate their life. They may be extremely sore the next day, but beimg shocked with one excessively does not increase chances of death. For both the intruder and the victim.
The crime rate is spiking everywhere because of the bad economy so it is best for all of us to be prepare for the worst. Where do you suggest that we can get the taser gun or the stun gun? I believe that different states have different regulations so I wonder if I can get it online or not.
You are absolutely right, it is always best to be prepared! Amazon, and taser.com both have the taser available for purchase.