Seal your windows with paint: Paint over your window seals on the ground floor. A thick coat of paint will make your windows much harder for burglars to open, and most burglars, being lazy good-for-nothings, are easily deterred by any unantic.i.p.ated difficulty. Sealing your windows will also make your heating and cooling bills lower.

A neighborhood watch: Neighbors watching out for each other is one of the best deterrents against crime. And if you see suspicious behavior around the neighborhood, don't keep it to yourself. Saving someone from being burgled is a great way to be a hero. The safer your neighbors are, the safer you are.

When Things Get Really Bad-Guard Your Windows

I grew up in a house in Maine that was so old that it dated to the French and Indian Wars. One of the windows still had Indian Shutters-an interior piece of wood with a built-in gun slit. In good times, the Indian Shutter was recessed into the wall. In the bad times, you pulled that shutter tight and started shooting out the gun slit. Securing the windows (and doors) against attack saved lives more than once.

We can hope that things don't get that bad for our kids and us. But too many U.S. homes are designed with little thought for safety; there are windows directly beside the front door or close enough that a thief could just smash it and unlock the door. Sliding gla.s.s doors that open to patios and backyards are big enough to literally drive a truck through.

So how are you going to secure your windows? Newer homes in hurricane-p.r.o.ne areas are already equipped with nice steel hurricane shutters. You can put them up in a matter of hours-much more quickly than a breakdown in society will take.

If you're going to turn your home into a refuge, seriously consider steel shutters, roll-up shutters, or retractable shutters for your first-floor windows. Alternately, you can get impact resistant windows, a security grille, or retractable security grates.

Once you have your outside secure, it's time to think about the inside.

Hiding Valuables in Your Home-The Pharoah's Treasure

For a second layer of security, make the valuables in your home tough to find, even if someone does manage to get inside. Cash, important papers, gold, and guns-these are all things you want to hide as effectively as possible.

This reminds me of a story that ill.u.s.trates the difficulty of home security. If you own gold and silver, you'll be able to sympathize with one of the most famous pharaohs in Egyptian history, Ramses III.

Ramses III was a noted collector of treasure. In fact, he may have ended up with the Lost Ark of the Covenant after sacking Jerusalem-Stephen Spielberg borrowed heavily from this legend for the movie Raiders of the Lost Ark.

According to the ancient Greek historian Herodotus, Ramses' vast and valuable h.o.a.rd of gold dwarfed all others. Consequently, he faced a problem that has bothered gold owners to this very day-a problem that may be bothering you: How do I keep my gold safe?

Ramses thought he had the answer. He hired two of the most famous architects in the then-known world: the Greek brothers Agamedes and Trophonious.

They'd made quite a name for themselves designing temples and palaces-the kind of places that have a lot of gold to keep safe. And sure enough, the brothers designed an impregnable treasury for Ramses.

When it was done, the treasury was a huge stone building built next door to Ramses' palace (all the better for him to keep his watchful eye on it), and it was considered to be burglarproof.

The walls were thick stone, there were no windows, the door was sealed by the pharaoh's personal seal, and the door was manned around the clock by armed guards. Ramses made sure he was there in person every time the seal was broken and the building entered.

So it was especially disturbing for the watchful pharaoh when his treasure started disappearing.

The pharaoh was determined to solve this mystery. He had his personal guard set deadly traps throughout the treasury-traps that were kept secret from everyone else.

The Pharaoh Takes a Head Count

On his next visit, the pharaoh found that, indeed, one of the traps had worked and killed a would-be thief. However, the mystery deepened, as the thief's head was missing! And along with the missing head, the biggest share yet of the pharaoh's treasure had been pilfered.

The thieving stopped, but with no head, the thief couldn't be identified. It took some time for the persistent pharaoh to figure out the truth, but he eventually realized that his two architects had also disappeared.

The body was the corpse of Trophonious. He and Agamedes had designed the treasury walls with one outer stone that could be moved away easily, making a secret entrance. Thus, while guards stood dutifully at the front door, the unscrupulous Agamedes and Trophonius constantly snuck around the back and robbed the impregnable treasury.

When the trap caught and killed Trophonius, Agamedes didn 't panic. Keeping a cool head (sorry, I couldn 't resist the pun), he beheaded his dead brother and took as much gold as he could carry. He then high-tailed it out of Egypt.

Agamedes vanished into legend; he was supposedly swallowed by Earth. Maybe the pharaoh's treasure still remains to be discovered.

Though Ramses solved the mystery, things didn 't go well for the pharaoh, either. Soon afterward, Egypt was beset by invaders. With one calamity after another, Ramses found himself chronically short of funds.

Eventually, he couldn 't pay his workers, and he got hit with the first known labor strike in recorded history. Oh, if only he 'd been able to efficiently safeguard his gold.

And that brings us to the question: What is the best way to store your valuables at home?

Expert Tips to Keep Your Treasure Safe

Let's say there's a crisis that triggers social collapse. Bad guys break into your home and threaten your family in front of you. The cops won't be showing up because they're too busy and overwhelmed, or they've run off. Of course you're going to give the bad guys your valuables. But you don't have to give them everything.

The first rule of keeping your treasure safe is not to store it all in one place (Ramses really had that one wrong). And there are other options . . .

Home safe. Make sure the safe is bolted to the floor, or otherwise secured, and it's much better if it's concealed. If you store valuables in your safe, just remember that it will be the first thing bad guys want to open. There had better be something in the safe, but that something doesn't have to be everything.

Gun safe. For that matter, if you have a gun safe, you can also use it to store other valuables. If big trouble arrives on your doorstep, you might be going for both your guns and your gold at the same time. A concealed or non-obvious gun safe, separate from your regular safe, is best-if bad guys get your guns, your situation goes from bad to worse.

Underneath the silverware. An alternate place to store gold and silver coins is taped or glued to the bottom (or top) of the drawer that holds the silverware. If thieves are using a metal detector, they'll a.s.sume that the silverware set it off and not look any further. For the same reason, the back of your tool cabinet can also be a good place to hide your valuables.

Hidden in your car. You might want to keep some precious metals in your car. If you do this, make it a place that you need at least a screwdriver to access. The advantage is that if you're racing to get out of town, you already have some gold in the car.

The disadvantage is that if you're in a car accident severe enough to rip up your car, you might lose your gold, too. Also, remove the gold before you have any work done on the car, or your mechanic could end up with one heck of a tip!

In the insulation of your attic. Most thieves are (1) not looking in the attic, and (2) lazy SOBs who aren't going to go crawling around in fibergla.s.s insulation. If you have a hanging ceiling with removable panels, you can also tape valuables to the opposite (hidden) side of the panels. Just be sure not to put so much weight up there that it comes crashing down.

Secret cache. This is a concealed hiding spot in an ordinary wall, which anyone with even the most rudimentary skills (yes, even you) can construct. It works in typical wood-frame houses with sheetrock walls. Pick a section of wall in an interior bedroom where a mirror wouldn't look out of place. Locate the wiring in the wall. It typically runs through the wall about one foot up from the floor. Do not choose a section of wall with vertical wiring in it.

Use a magnetic stud finder or otherwise locate the studs in the wall. Make small holes to confirm the location of the studs. You also want to avoid sections of walls that contain fire stops, or building materials installed to slow the free pa.s.sage of flame through concealed s.p.a.ces.

Buy a vertical mirror that is at least 16 inches wide and three or four feet tall. It works best if you can find a mirror the same width as the distance between the studs in your wall. These mirrors usually come with a set of L-shaped mounting clips that attach to the wall with screws.

Cut a hole in the wall between two to four studs. This hole is your cache. Don't rest anything heavy directly on the wiring. Mount the mirror over the hole. You can access it by twisting the L-mountings, or if you 're in a hurry to get out, by smashing the mirror.

What's the point of all this work? A determined burglar will sometimes steal a safe even if it's secured to the floor (h.e.l.lo, Mister Sledgehammer). You not only lose your safe; your floor is busted up, too. But most thieves who find a mirror attached to a wall won't bother investigating further-they're in too much of a hurry to stick around.

The Most Important Rule of Hiding Valuables There are pros and cons to all of these hiding places. For one thing, the safest way to hide anything valuable is to not tell anyone where it is.

As Confucius said: "Three men can keep a secret . . . if two of them are dead."

And yet, supposing you croak next week; after all, along with taxes, death is unavoidable. If you hide your valuables too well, your family may not be able to find them. So be sure to write down the location of your valuables in your will.

Do You Need a Gun?

You can turn your home into a secure fortress. But if there is a real social breakdown, you also need to think about defending that home.

A wired burglar alarm will summon the police, but in real chaos, the police won't be coming. In this case, you might want to consider arming yourself with one or more guns.

Some people hate guns. Having a gun will increase the chance that someone in your house will get shot through accidental discharge. That said, I sincerely believe in the right of individuals to own reasonable firearms, and I'd recommend a gun for every adult in the house.

Here are some things to consider . . .

You don't need a b.u.t.t-load of guns. You may want to stock up on ammo if you plan on hunting. Otherwise, you just need enough for hunting and the very brief firefight in which you're (possibly) going to be engaged. The money you don't spend on a lot of guns and ammo is money you can spend on other gear and grub.

The time to buy guns and ammo is long past WTSHTF. You have to pa.s.s a background check, and ammunition is probably going to become nonexistent when a real crisis. .h.i.ts.

If you buy a gun, I hope you have someone to help you, as I did. Take safety and concealed weapons cla.s.ses. You'll need ear protectors, safety gla.s.ses, a cleaning kit, and a safe place to store your gun. A gun is not something you load, stick in your desk drawer, and forget about-especially if you have children in the house.

If you have children in the house, you need some sort of trigger lock. A basic trigger lock came with each of my guns. If you don 't like the one that comes with the gun, buy a better one, and use it.

Learn how to clean a gun from the manual or from a friend. You'll have to do that because you're going to be shooting your gun a lot, in practice. Hitting a human-sized target in a vital spot at even a few yards, distance with a handgun is much harder than you think. That goes double when you're in a stressful situation and low light. It takes a lot of practice. If you aren't going to put the time in at the range, then the odds are that you'll be wasting your money by buying a handgun.

For home defense, a shotgun is the better choice. The sound of a shotgun being c.o.c.ked is one of the most distinctive sounds in the world. And it will scare the pants off of anyone trying to come into your house.

Consider getting a gun safe, even just a small one, for your handguns. Secure the gun safe to the wall or the floor (concealed is even better). I've known people who have been burgled, had their guns stolen, and then had those guns used in a crime. That sort of thing weighs on your conscience.

Along with all these factors, here are five things to consider when selecting a handgun:1. Grip 2. Ease of loading 3. Ease of use (this includes reliability, as well as disa.s.sembling for cleaning) 4. Safety 5. Cost of ammo Hold several guns before buying one. If the grip is metallic, sweat can build up on it as you hold it in a crisis situation. A sweaty gun can slip in your grip when you fire it. However, you can replace a grip easily, so don't let that be a deal breaker.

Try not to think about the gun's color. You are thinking about the gun's color, aren 't you? Sigh. Really, it doesn't matter. You're not a frickin' commando. A nickel-plated or stainless-steel finish rusts less and is easier to maintain.

Avoid guns with unusual calibers. The ammo will be expensive and perhaps hard to get in a crisis situation. Stick to your run-of-the-mill .38, .357 magnum, 9-millimeter, and even the .45 for you cowboys out there. The less expensive your ammo, the more likely you are to go target shooting and therefore be able to hit your target when it counts. Some people will tell you that a 9-millimeter bullet won't stop a bad guy. It would stop me, that's for d.a.m.ned sure. Another good choice is the .40 S&W (Smith & Wesson), a good compromise for power and accuracy.

Glock pistols have a huge fan base. They have a three -safety internal safety system, hold a high-capacity magazine, and are made of mainly high-grade plastic, which translates into less maintenance.

Another good pistol is the Ruger P90. The difference is that the P90 has both a safety lever and an actual hammer. The Glock has a firing pin and no de-c.o.c.ker or visible safety lever aside from the trigger catch. In a panic, people have been known to accidentally fire Glocks when their finger slides into the trigger guard. Other pistols with safety levers do not suffer from this problem. And when you chamber a round in a pistol with a de-c.o.c.ker, you can always unc.o.c.k the gun for additional safety.

Both guns have advantages. If you're thinking of buying a handgun, you should try one out first. You can often rent a gun at your local shooting range, and I'd recommend that to anyone before buying one. Yes, renting first costs more money than just buying right away, but a gun isn't about saving money-it's about staying safe in a very bad situation.

And if you want a handgun designed for people who occasionally do something really stupid, you can't get more stupid-proof than a double-action revolver. I write this as a satisfied Ruger .357 Magnum revolver owner. I haven't done anything stupid with it yet, and it's a very well- made gun.

Don't fixate on handguns. You may not need one-a .22 rifle will take care of your small-game hunting needs, if you're into that sort of thing. And when it comes to home protection, don't sell your basic 12-gauge pump shotgun short. Nothing says leave me the h.e.l.l alone quite like the cla-clack of a round chambering into one of those bad boys. Mossberg and Winchester both make excellent 12-gauge pump-action shotguns, which are relatively inexpensive, especially if purchased used. They are easy to use and hard to screw up. The Remington 870 is also a nice choice, though one dealer told me that Remingtons need more maintenance.

I'm not writing about high-caliber rifles, because this is a book for suburban survivalists. If you miss with a high-caliber rifle, the bullet will potentially continue on to your neighbor's house, punch through his walls, and hit his kids. I would prefer that you stick to a shotgun for use in suburban settings, as shotguns have a shorter range than most rifle cartridges. But you should be aware that even a smoothbore shotgun has a maximum effective range of 100 yards, and a shotgun on full choke can do damage at greater distances.

There is also a misconception about non-lethal loads for shotguns, also known as rubber slugs or beanbags. Reality: There is no non- lethal load for a shotgun. A rubber slug is less lethal.

Guns have their place in the prepared home. That said, your first line of defense should really be the friendships you build with your neighbors. A neighborhood that stands together can ride out any crisis. A neighborhood where it's every man for himself can dissolve into chaos at the first wave of trouble.

Start or Join a Neighborhood Watch

A Neighborhood Watch is good to have anyway, and it will be a real lifesaver if society breaks down. Neighborhood watch members are extra eyes and ears for the police when law enforcement is functioning. If and when a crisis overwhelms the police, a neighborhood watch can channel information between neighbors to keep the bad guys out and the good guys safe.

The police probably will help you set up a neighborhood watch. Be the first on your block to get the ball rolling.

Establish the borders of the watch area at your first meeting. It must be an area that can be effectively watched and maintained. Set guidelines on what to report to the police and others. The police will tell you how best to use 911, and discuss crime trends in your town or city. Some police departments will discuss home security measures and make recommendations. A police officer will probably attend the first few meetings.

Any neighborhood watch needs block captains, so be one. A chairperson will give the program some direction and a rotating chairperson will prevent anyone from letting the power get to his or her head.

The National Sherriff's a.s.sociation has a Neighborhood Watch manual that you can download at their web site: www.usaonwatch.org/pdfs/WatchManual.pdf.