New sign for my front window

[LedJedi]

One of my chl buddies has one of these on the front of his house. We went fishing this weekend and he was telling me how he watches people come up to his house and just walk away before even knocking on the door (sales guys and folks that just want to be annoying). I thought i'd try the results for myself and low and behold... it works. I watched 2 folks come up to my front porch, look directly at the sign and then turn around. I was amazed.

I have a plastic version of the sign. This one looks wooden, but says and looks the exact same.



Now strategically i'm not wild about it as to the more intelligent criminal it flags my house as a good place to break into if nobody is home as I have valuables laying around (guns). I'm hoping that's offset by the fact that they may not know exactly when that is since we come and go constantly.

We also made an improvement on our front door answering technique. I dont normally wear a weapon in the house, but i always have one in reach... well i thought i did until i realized we don't when answering the door. Now we have a loaded 9mm in condition 1 quietly tucked into a nice hiding place immediately by the front door.

I think we're going to start pricing out gun safes soon. Anyone in the houston area have an old one they want to get rid of cheap?

[KaiserB]

This reminds me of the old "Property Secured by Smith and Wesson" signs that were floating around about 10 yrs ago.

[Liko81]

Just playing devil's advocate here:

Is someone in your house at all times? If not, do you have a security system other than your guns and/or barking dogs? If you can't answer "yes" to at least one of these, take the sign down now. Why? because you are advertising that you have guns, which are valuable tools of the criminal trade. You might as well put up a sign saying "please rob this house; I rely on firearms to defend it so you can take anything you like when I'm gone".

Secondly, what kind of message are you sending to your neighborhood? I would personally like to get plugged into neighborhood activities, and a sign saying "cranky civil libertarian gun nut lives here" will not get you invited to many block parties.

And lastly, what happens if you shoot to defend your house? The first thing the DA's going to show to attack your self-defense justification is that sign, as evidence you were expecting to shoot intruders and in fact relished the chance to do so.

Feel free to refute any of the above, I just do not think it makes sense to advertise yourself as a gun owner when there are guns in your home that you cannot personally secure by wearing them.

[DoubleJ]

1. Dude lives in an apt, don't think he's getting invited to any Block Parties
2. Dude lives in an apt, and those doors are reeeeeeeal easy to kick in. or, if you live on the 2nd floor, getcha a ladder, climb up on the balcony...

[Liko81]

2. Dude lives in an apt, and those doors are reeeeeeeal easy to kick in. or, if you live on the 2nd floor, getcha a ladder, climb up on the balcony...

Not sure if you meant this to agree or disagree with something I said, but I see it as further reason not to advertise you are a gun owner if your gun cannot always be on your hip. You're telling potential burglars you have very desireable objects inside, AND security other than your firearms in your hands is lacking.

As far as your first point, my apartment complex has resident parties of varying types every month, it's a gated community so there are few if any door-to-door salesmen or Christian witnesses to interrupt my evenings/weekends, and the property owner has the final say over what you can and cannot do to your front door. So, hanging this sign would have mostly disadvantages where I live, from a social standpoint. Not saying it would never be appropriate, but in most urban or suburban environments I can't see it being useful.

[DoubleJ]

it is a factual point. whether you agree or disagree with it, it is what it is.

[LedJedi]

2. Dude lives in an apt, and those doors are reeeeeeeal easy to kick in. or, if you live on the 2nd floor, getcha a ladder, climb up on the balcony...

Not sure if you meant this to agree or disagree with something I said, but I see it as further reason not to advertise you are a gun owner if your gun cannot always be on your hip. You're telling potential burglars you have very desireable objects inside, AND security other than your firearms in your hands is lacking.

As far as your first point, my apartment complex has resident parties of varying types every month, it's a gated community so there are few if any door-to-door salesmen or Christian witnesses to interrupt my evenings/weekends, and the property owner has the final say over what you can and cannot do to your front door. So, hanging this sign would have mostly disadvantages where I live, from a social standpoint. Not saying it would never be appropriate, but in most urban or suburban environments I can't see it being useful.

no worries man. I just won't send ya one for Xmas. :)

I agree and acknowledged your first point in my own posting. If i were on the first floor that got a LOT of traffic I would probably be more worried about it. That's not the case in my situation.

I have 0 desire to interact with my neighbors. If you saw my neighborhood you'd understand.

I'm not in the least concerned that law enforcement or the DA has to think about the situation. If i'm legally able to defend myself or my property my disposition in doing so is irrelevant. I wouldn't lose a wink of sleep defending against a goblin.

but thanks for your input.

[DoubleJ]

If i were on the first floor that got a LOT of traffic I would probably be more worried about it. That's not the case in my situation.

That in and of itself is a reason to live on the second floor. I refuse to live on the 1st.

[matrxx]

You don't have to have guns in your house to be able to put up this sign on your windows.So, does it....?

[Excaliber]

Several years ago I lived out in the country and was constantly getting pestered by unwelcome salespeople and the occasional person who had no good reason for being there and just wanted to see if someone was home.

I tried no soliciting signs. I tried no trespassing signs. They worked as well as the gun free zone signs at Virginia Tech.

I considered and rejected the sign at the beginning of this post for a variety of the drawbacks thoughtfully cited below.

Then I found THE solution:

A colorful, heavy rubber doormat that showed the head of large german shepherd with jaws fully open and eyes in attack mode. The lettering said:

"Go ahead - make his day."

A very large and very loyal male german shepherd was on the other side of the door from where the mat lay outside. He was quite enthusiastic about his protective responsibilities.

I watched door to door salesfolks smile at the no soliciting sign, walk past the no trespassing sign, and stop dead when they saw the doormat outside the front door. Then they heard the evidence from inside that it accurately portrayed the situation. They'd back up, walk back the way they came, and bother someone else.

From that day forward, the doorbell only rang when an invited guest arrived.

Problem solved. Peace at last.

[LedJedi]

I watched door to door salesfolks smile at the no soliciting sign, walk past the no trespassing sign, and stop dead when they saw the doormat outside the front door. Then they heard the evidence from inside that it accurately portrayed the situation. They'd back up, walk back the way they came, and bother someone else.

From that day forward, the doorbell only rang when an invited guest arrived.

Problem solved. Peace at last.

Funny, I've talked to a few professional door to door sales guys over the years and they always say they love to see the no soliciting sign. They've all said it tells them that the person living there is weak and easy for a sale and that they don't want to see a sales person because they know they're going to buy something. One guy even said that he looks for those signs first and that it's almost a guaranteed sale. That really surprised me.

Reminds me a lot too of a problem i had with a few jehova's witnesses a while back. They would come by and wake me up on random Saturdays. I would always tell them I wasn't interested, but they always came back. Finally one day I invited them in and asked them to have a seat. I told them I would be right back, i wanted to change out of my jammies. On my way to the bedroom I stopped at the computer for a minute and adjusted the webcam and turned it on.

I sat in the back bedroom watching the webcam feed of them uncomfortably waiting in my living room while I ate cereal and lounged in bed for about 45 minutes. One of them eventually went to the restroom and then they decided they were leaving. When they were gone i got up and locked the door behind them.

I haven't seen them since... that was... hmm, 6-7 years ago?

[Excaliber]

They've all said it tells them that the person living there is weak and easy for a sale and that they don't want to see a sales person because they know they're going to buy something.

Well, that's the first time I heard that, but if it is part of door to door sales training I now understand why it never did any good! Thanks for letting me know about that.

In my case, the training didn't exactly hold because on principle I never, ever bought anything from a door to door salesperson, and my conversation with them was terse, to the point, and didn't last more than about 20 seconds. My wife wasn't any easier on them.