I spent 20 years in the home security industry. Trying to fortress and alarm your apartment is a losing battle in my experience. A decent door deadbolt and normally secured windows is as good as trying to make a fortress. Never lock a door KNOB. It is a waste of time and causes people to forget to lock the deadbolt.

A fortress makes your home look like a target. A dog has drawbacks. Biting neighbors or yapping at anything creates an additional stress. A very well trained dog would be great but it takes strict discipline to train a dog for a family security need.

We have had two home protection dogs killed by police lately here in Idaho.

You can buy "Barking Dog" alarms.

I run a company that designs rifle accessories. As a normal course of R&D, I have to be around rifle-shooting. For the record, I have never had the slightest sense that the noise and/or recoil has aggravated my brain condition in any way. Every brain situation is different, of course, and YMMV, but that is my experience.

Oh, if an apartment or close housing situations, any shots fired that miss the intended target, could harm innocent people, so that is a concern.

tough situation..

YMMV is very true.

I have been shooting since my military days in the 60's; and even now, 2 years after injury, go or try to go every 2 weeks, for small arms and rifle fire to keep up.......earplugs and muffs.

Since my mTBI I have to cut most sessions short or end up with rebounding pounders for hours after, but as you said, each are diffent.........and Im not stopping my practice.

But, as has been said, SpaceCadet, Train , look into remedies, find what suits you and your family needs, and find safe methods.

Be safe.

Hi,

Really? The guy who is rabidly suicidal two weeks ago is looking into getting a rifle "to protect his family" and y'all are seriously engaging in the conversation?

Nick, please please please get treatment for your depression. It is lying to you about the worth of your life and the best way to solve problems.

Trust me; I have been there. There are better ways out.

I'm trusting that he is truly concerned for family safety and not for any other use.

I really hope no one would post here asking about rifle/guns/home safety if they were planning to do personal harm to themselves.
Plus, it usually voids any insurance policy payouts to the beneficiaries.



I don't know how the bad guys are entering the homes/apartments - breaking down the door, thru windows left open?

I'd beef up the inside locks and add safety latches, and maybe a few baseball bats stashed around the home, just in case a bad guy gets inside.

I don't know if the baddies are armed or just trying to break in & steal things.
And are they entering empty homes vs when people are at home?

Eowyn wrote:
"Really? The guy who is [__] suicidal two weeks ago is looking into getting a rifle
"to protect his family" and y'all are seriously engaging in the conversation?"
__________________________________________________ _________________________

Thank you, Eowyn, for this.
I thought much the same, took it as a joke post or not serious, perhaps OP in a "playful" state of mind? ;)
Second thought was, or an unspoken "Help?" of sorts?

Maybe this post was missed by some?
If I was stuck in a very bad area I would consider some ways to protect my self & family.
Other protection methods have been mentioned.

If I had a list of things that I would never do, killing myself would be in the top 3.

I've already tried anti-depressants. They didn't really do much for me. My psychiatrist made a real good point. Let's say that someone is missing his thumb. Every time he tries to pick something up, he drops it or has trouble holding it. This makes him depressed. No matter how much medication he takes, it's not going to fix the underlying problem. Let's say that a man is depressed about his wife leaving him. If he takes the highest dosage of Paxil, will that bring his wife back? No.

What am I trying to get at? I have horrible cognitive problems and I seem to be getting worse all the time, instead of better. If I take an anti-depressant, will that fix my brain injury? Nope. Talking about it doesn't help either because communication is my biggest flaw and it ****** me off / makes me depressed when I can't get my point across.

I forgot where I was going with this.

I'm not gonna blow my brains out. I love my son too much to do that and would rather suffer for the rest of my life than take my son's dad away.

Everyone else, thanks for all the useful information. You've all been a great help.

Nick

I can understand Eowyn's concerns considering your past posts SpaceCadet.

You had not related your progress from the posts before , but now it seems you may be moving forward, as long as it is forward progress.

Good tidings, guy.

Keep the positives developing, and keep forward motivations .

Good luck.