I too currently have no home alarm, but we have the "castle law" in our state, meaning that if someone comes into your home, and you feel your life is threatened you can shoot them. DH and I used to instruct on home defense, so we are crack shots. We have special ammo for the home, so the bullets wont spin too fast, fly thru the wall and harm someone or an animal in another room. They spin slow, but do a lot of damage when they hit.

We lock our doors. ALL our doors. Even when we are in the house. We close or windows when we leave our home. We dont leave ladders out in easy reach for criminals to reach another floor or roof top. We close our curtains when we are not here, and leave a TV going. You dont know if someone is home or not cause you cant see them. Our cat patio cannot be opened from the yard. You must enter from the house if you want that door open. DH has many things laying around outside that say "a Marine lives here" We fly the Marine corp flag and he leaves his boots on the step when he comes in. We dont have any doggie things since the dog was put to sleep, but its a great idea.

The best defense is a good offense. Be proactive instead of reactive. Do you have a cell phone? make sure its handy or reachable at night without having to get out of bed. Put the charger at a place you can swoop and go. Have a plan. What would I do if someone kicked in the back door? Where would I hide? or would I stand up and fight? If you want a hiding place, make one. Use your closet or bathroom. Sit in the tub, pull the curtain. Put a chair in your closet if you dont want to crouch on the floor. If you lay in the closet, cover yourself with clothes, so you cant be seen. Have a baseball bat? can you swing it? Eye gouging, or throat punching is easy, fast and takes very little pressure to get someone off you.

Are there self defense classes offered in your area? I highly reccomend knowing how to defend yourself. 12 pounds of pressure in a kick to the knee, and he wont be chasing you. its handy to have these facts and it gives you some confidence to be able to practice in a safe space.

A couple of well placed NRA stickers cant hurt either.