Nick,
Your comments about door magazine hawks are right on the money but I take exception to your comment ‘Definitely Never Buy One of These’ (www.ReadyToDefend.com) products. As a 2A Lifetime Member, fellow gun guy & IDPA shooter, I understand the thinking. However, as the founder of Ready to Defend, I’ve spoken personally to hundreds of LEO’s including Sheriffs, PD Chiefs and many more street cops who disagree with your assessment . . .
These same LEO’s buy our products for their own homes and for their families. Why? I can only tell you what they tell me. They tell me our signs are “the single best crime deterrent for the money”. That’s what THEY tell us. I would never be so bold as to make that up. I don’t pretend that EVERY LEO thinks the same way but there are MANY who do.
They don’t just say it in passing. They’re backing it up by spending their hard-earned dollars on our products as a kind of “line in the sand” between the would-be criminal / predatory / thug / bad guy and their families too. These men and women are the ones who eat, sleep, live and breathe crime every day… and know the mentality of who they’re dealing with.
Ask your neighborhood cop how they’d feel responding to an alarm call in the middle of the night at a house with one of our signs posted out front and our decals in the windows. That’s how P. J. in Broward County Florida first learned about RTD and called to order his signs the next day.
For the record, we don’t believe that posting a warning sign is some kind of magic shield from all evil-doers. As you’ve said in your fine article (fine except for the part disparaging Ready To Defend), there are many things we can all do to make our home appear to be a more ‘hardened’ target.
Actively reporting suspicious activity, keeping doors locked, having a working alarm system, making your home look occupied at all times, big dogs (or the appearance thereof) motion sensor lights are just a few of the tactics we can use to make our homes and families a less desirable target.
Still, according to our cop friends, the single biggest deterrent for criminals is ‘DYING by GUN SHOT’. We know our products aren’t right for everyone but we think our customers put us in pretty good company.
One last thing, Ready to Defend just relocated from Los Angeles to San Antonio so it looks like we’re neighbors. Give me a shout and let’s sit down over lunch. No matter the disagreement, it’s always good to know a fellow competitive shooter and 2nd Amendment supporter.
James Miller – Founder Ready to Defend