Jim,
After reading the recent letters about home invasion robberies, I’ve gotten a little paranoid about the idea of someone kicking in my front door in the middle of the night. It would be incredibly easy to do and it’s unlikely I could retrieve a firearm quickly enough to defend (I have a toddler so all guns are locked up except a pistol, which my wife doesn’t know is in Condition 3 in a drawer too tall for my daughter to reach).
The Strikemaster II is out of budget (I need three of them) so I looked into having similar strikeplates fabricated. As it turns out, I can have them made for about $30 each by a local guy who has a plasma cutter. This is an option for those in a similar situation.
On a related note, on a whim I purchased a lock pick kit at a recent gun show. With just several minutes of practice I am now able to pick the deadbolts on my house in less than 10 seconds each. So my locks have got to go. Any standard lock that you purchase at Home Depot or Lowe’s can be picked or bumped in seconds. Neither of those stores carry locks that provide high security, all on-package claims aside. The only locks that even approach being secure (enough for residential use) are those that meet or exceed ANSI 156.x standards, and even this level only provides that the lock can’t be picked in less than 15 minutes. A good article on the subject can be found here and here.
I have glass adjacent to two of my doors. Rather than putting a double-cylinder deadbolt in, which would be unsafe during a house fire, I’m replacing my deadbolts with a high-security cylinder on the outside and a keypad-equipped cylinder on the inside. The keypads cost about $100 and are backlit. As an extra safety measure, I’m hanging keys inside each door – but not close enough to see or reach through a broken window.
With all the glass on modern houses, it would be impossible to stop a determined burglar unless someone is home. My objective is to buy the extra time I’d need to respond to someone breaking in. For burglary protection for valuables, I’m relying on a security system and a large gun safe bolted to the floor with four 4-1/2″ anchors. Best, – Matt R.