Plus any taser available to the public will not do what they think it will. In fact, a taser will straight up piss off the aggressor and enrage them even more. So you haven’t incapacitated them, but provoked them because you will have to stop tasing them to run! Albeit, better than nothing. The answer here, since firearms are off the table, is pepper GEL! Pepper gel is more effective and safer for the defendant. Being that pepper gel is typically in a can that can spray up to 20ft. So now it’s a ranged apparatus, instead of up close combat with a taser. Cuz the public won’t be getting ranged tasers anytime soon.
I considered that, but chose it anyway. Maybe that'll happen, maybe it won't. But if they have a gun, you'll get shot before they get close enough to use a melee weapon. And if you use pepper spray in an enclosed space, you're also going to be pepper spraying yourself. And you'll be dealing with it again when you try to clean it. Fuck it, if I had to choose from this list, I'd go with the taser. Fortunately, I'm not restricted to this list.
Blades, as in knives, are pretty bad for self defense. They generally don't hurt much or limit movement much until blood loss kicks in or adrenaline wares off. Granted I do keep a bank blade next to my bed.
The intimidation factor of bladed weapons, however, is higher than both guns and blunt objects. If memory serves it has to do with the subconscious kicking in, as you’ve likely been cut by a sharp object at some point, but you haven’t been shot.
Bladed weapons aren't good because it means you have to get close up and personal, which also means they have a chance to disarm and use your weapon against you, same goes for tasers and bats. Pepper spray would be a better choice though it's also not ideal because if there is wind the spray can blow in your face as well and if in a crowded area then it could affect other people you're not intending on hitting with it. But if you're home then pepper spray would be useful
I was thinking a short sword/long sword not gonna lie. Or like an axe of some sort. Those blades seem pretty solid. Though I've also wanted a sword since I was a kid and even this wooden glaius I bought has brought so much joy (I also use it to close my bedroom door)
My reasoning is this: if the home invader wants to just pick stuff up and go, let them. If he decides to come and rape me, I'm sticking him with the knife, in the gut. Now he'll either realize that he needs to get caught to survive (no way out of that without surgery) or he decides to die and then so do I, but at least I got him and he won't like the next few days. If he wants to live, he'll hopefully not want to add to his years.
I'm gonna assume that by best you mean most effective not most useable so in that case a APC or MBT is quite good while for less giant options Crossbow, Flamethrower, and Nerve gas are deadly
Own a musket for home defense, since that's what the founding fathers intended. Four ruffians break into my house. "What the devil?" As I grab my powdered wig and Kentucky rifle. Blow a golf ball sized hole through the first man, he's dead on the spot. Draw my pistol on the second man, miss him entirely because it's smoothbore and nails the neighbors dog. I have to resort to the cannon mounted at the top of the stairs loaded with grape shot, "Tally ho lads" the grape shot shreds two men in the blast, the sound and extra shrapnel set off car alarms. Fix bayonet and charge the last terrified rapscallion. He Bleeds out waiting on the police to arrive since triangular bayonet wounds are impossible to stitch up. Just as the founding fathers intended.
fire extinguisher. i have memorized the route from my bed to the fire extinguisher, so i can get there in pitch black. i didn’t memorize for this reason, it’s incase something combusts in the middle of the night
Blind that mfer in a cloud of carbon dioxide gas, run for the garage and huck a hammer at him while spilling a box of nails on the floor. Bonus points if you turn on the table saw and scare the shit outta him.
After somebody with a pistol sees my 15th century Celtic longsword, they will be utterly paralyzed in fear at my might, and will be unable to shoot me.
Statistically, this is the correct answer. Burglars don't want a fight, they'll go for the easiest target. So an alarm system and a dog is typically enough to get them to think twice and leave.
Was looking for this. It's one of the oldest weapons for a reason. It's effectiveness has not diminished if we ever end up in a world without firearms.
I have a gun as well, and very large dogs, but I also get the Ant/Roach/Spider spray. Someone gets that or the wasp spray in the face they aren't going to be worried about stealing my TV anymore.
Guard dog. Will most likely bark at them scaring them from even attempting to invade the home. And I don't know about you but even if I was armed I still wouldn't want to go against a big dog. Can be fast and vicious when they sense a threat.
Just slap a wet towel on his face, run out the door and... idk.. let him rob my house because insurance and he can have my tv if he wants i can get a new one
I like this logic. Anyone who doesn’t have a family or friends in the house has nothing to consider other than “Am I willing to die for my stuff?” to which most won’t be. Personally all my research is on my laptop so if I’m trying to flee I’m gonna try and take that with me but that’s it, I’d be financially wrecked and just overall pissed but I’d be breathing.
I’m not especially worried about armed home invaders. I’m pretty sure the probability of someone in my household getting hurt by some gun-related mishap would be higher than the probability of having an opportunity to use it in self-defense.
I don't recall home invasions ever being a big problem for us that we needed to consider weapons (Australia). It seems to be a very American thing to be thinking about it all the time.
In New Zealand pepper spray is illegal so that’s off the table. Tasers are also illegal. So that leaves a bat or a knife. A bat would probably be the best because you can just hit crazy from a distance whereas with a knife to do any proper damage you would need to stab them at close range. But I don’t know anyone who keeps a weapon nearby because it’s not very common to be in such a situation. If there was a home invasion I would say the best weapon the average person would have on hand in a NZ home would be a pan, cooking knife, hammer, axe, or rolling pin.
Pepper spray is the best option because it not only will incapacitate just about anyone for a 15-30 minutes, sometimes longer. It will also irritate his throat and eyes and skin long after. Source: I work in a prison
If you want to stay alive the best option is to call the police or scream. That's how we do it in Europe and the outcome seems better than all attempts with weapons in the US.
At least in China, Taiwan, Japan, and Korea, it's illegal to own guns. So you gotta have such high connections to own said gun in those countries. If you already have such high connections, you're probably not poor and needs to invade other ppl's home. So your assumption that home invaders have guns in a country that makes owning gun illegal doesn't make sense.
The thing is that in America, there are more guns than there are people circulating around and more continuously being made. Making guns illegal doesn’t get rid of those hundreds of millions of guns and officials certainly could not take all of them away. Even if they could, gun owners would never let anyone come up and physically take their guns away. So the assumption that a home invader may have a gun in a country where owning guns is illegal indeed makes sense.
is "armed home invader" some scare tactic used to make children behave in the u.s.? i literarily never think about someone breaking into my home, and i know nobody who does
Aren't people against gun ownership in general not just for themselve ? The point being if no one owns guns, that includes your hypothetical home invader. (now IRL good luck applying this in the US, though I believe it will have to happen eventually)
Training. If you don’t know what you’re doing any weapon, gun included, can end up being used against you. It’s not enough just to have something. You should seek out training for the weapon or in regards to personal defense so you know how to react in such a situation.
This question relies on a false assumption that "home invaders" will be able to aquire a gun easily in a society where their sale is banned. This simply isn't the case. Clearly a gun is the best match for a gun, but all parties are likely to encounter harm if none have guns.
While I agree with your first statement. Buying a gun actually risks your life more. Most likely person your going to hit with a gun is yourself. Next, a family member.
I asked a cop about self defense weapons once as a young girl in college. He told me he would rather be tasered (with a real police taser) every day for a week than be pepper sprayed once again. So I carry pepper spray with me.
Four-to-six large tanks of volatile anesthetics, to serve as an incapacitating agent, which will release their contents remotely, so I may then take them to my basement where they will be either used for black-market organ harvesting, or ethically questionable experimentation.
I would say Material arts will work great for self defence in small rooms. So traditional karate (Goju ryu for example) but if you want something for self defence i would choose the sais to disarm the invader.
I am from India, we don't have guns (I mean notorious people do have), so people keep baseball bats and hockey sticks in car, if cops stop you , you can say I am off to practice
It’s not that I’m against guns. I’m against the fact that it’s so easy to get one. I’m the military you trained with your weapon until you knew it inside and out. It became an extension of you. Some Joe blow shouldn’t be able to walk in off the streets and buy one. You should have to go through an entire training program and a psych evaluation. If you’re not willing to do that then no gun for you
BP revolvers are not guns under US federal law. So I'm going with an 1858 in .44 or if you want to be scary about it a colt walker in .44. Alternatively a double barrel bp shotgun would be good too.
taser wouldnt work, the probes wont work if they have a jacket on, a conventional taser is also terrible because it requires you to be decent in hand to hand combat to actually get it off, and even if you land it, the second its off, the intruder will be completely fine and continue his attack
The good thing about non-gun self defense is you can effectively assume your invader also doesn't have a gun (presuming your country is actually good at having that shit under control).
The police will not protect you. Best case scenario, they catch the guy afterwards, also very possible your murderer goes free and they lock up someone innocent. They do not care as long as they get paid and get their retirement, which they will.
claymore roomba
D.J. Boom-ba.
This is the best answer I've read in a long time lol!! Literally, I just woke up my wife up from laughing... and now she's mad.
Alexa unleash the claymore roomba
Pocket sand
pocketsand
Hell yea
Sh-sha!
Not a taser as it can cause the muscles to contract as well as lock up. Contracting finger muscles = trigger pulled = bang = bad.
Now I regret voting for taser ☹️
Plus any taser available to the public will not do what they think it will. In fact, a taser will straight up piss off the aggressor and enrage them even more. So you haven’t incapacitated them, but provoked them because you will have to stop tasing them to run! Albeit, better than nothing. The answer here, since firearms are off the table, is pepper GEL! Pepper gel is more effective and safer for the defendant. Being that pepper gel is typically in a can that can spray up to 20ft. So now it’s a ranged apparatus, instead of up close combat with a taser. Cuz the public won’t be getting ranged tasers anytime soon.
They also just flat out don’t work sometimes
You guys get home invaders with guns? O_O
I considered that, but chose it anyway. Maybe that'll happen, maybe it won't. But if they have a gun, you'll get shot before they get close enough to use a melee weapon. And if you use pepper spray in an enclosed space, you're also going to be pepper spraying yourself. And you'll be dealing with it again when you try to clean it. Fuck it, if I had to choose from this list, I'd go with the taser. Fortunately, I'm not restricted to this list.
people won't have guns in my country so I'll be fine with taser and then running
Blades, as in knives, are pretty bad for self defense. They generally don't hurt much or limit movement much until blood loss kicks in or adrenaline wares off. Granted I do keep a bank blade next to my bed.
That’s why I keep swords in my home
The intimidation factor of bladed weapons, however, is higher than both guns and blunt objects. If memory serves it has to do with the subconscious kicking in, as you’ve likely been cut by a sharp object at some point, but you haven’t been shot.
Bladed weapons aren't good because it means you have to get close up and personal, which also means they have a chance to disarm and use your weapon against you, same goes for tasers and bats. Pepper spray would be a better choice though it's also not ideal because if there is wind the spray can blow in your face as well and if in a crowded area then it could affect other people you're not intending on hitting with it. But if you're home then pepper spray would be useful
I was thinking a short sword/long sword not gonna lie. Or like an axe of some sort. Those blades seem pretty solid. Though I've also wanted a sword since I was a kid and even this wooden glaius I bought has brought so much joy (I also use it to close my bedroom door)
Knife fights are fucking brutal though
Then you need to learn how to use it first. If you know anatomy a blade is extremely deadly
Use a broadsword instead of some pussy ass knife
Yea, you would probably need training to target tendines and major arteries with a knife. Otherwise it just boils down to luck.
Swords, on the other hand...
My reasoning is this: if the home invader wants to just pick stuff up and go, let them. If he decides to come and rape me, I'm sticking him with the knife, in the gut. Now he'll either realize that he needs to get caught to survive (no way out of that without surgery) or he decides to die and then so do I, but at least I got him and he won't like the next few days. If he wants to live, he'll hopefully not want to add to his years.
I'm gonna assume that by best you mean most effective not most useable so in that case a APC or MBT is quite good while for less giant options Crossbow, Flamethrower, and Nerve gas are deadly
Not sure you wanna be using a flamethrower or nerve gas inside your house X’D crossbow could be good tho
Guys please do not use a flamethrower in your house
Own a musket for home defense, since that's what the founding fathers intended. Four ruffians break into my house. "What the devil?" As I grab my powdered wig and Kentucky rifle. Blow a golf ball sized hole through the first man, he's dead on the spot. Draw my pistol on the second man, miss him entirely because it's smoothbore and nails the neighbors dog. I have to resort to the cannon mounted at the top of the stairs loaded with grape shot, "Tally ho lads" the grape shot shreds two men in the blast, the sound and extra shrapnel set off car alarms. Fix bayonet and charge the last terrified rapscallion. He Bleeds out waiting on the police to arrive since triangular bayonet wounds are impossible to stitch up. Just as the founding fathers intended.
I was looking for this.
The tally ho lads gets me every single time
"Tally ho lads " 😭💀
Nice copy-pasta.
Just as the founding fathers intended. 🫡🇺🇸
And black powder-using guns technically aren't firearms according to the ATF, so a musket would definitely count as an option in this poll lol
fire extinguisher. i have memorized the route from my bed to the fire extinguisher, so i can get there in pitch black. i didn’t memorize for this reason, it’s incase something combusts in the middle of the night
Blind that mfer in a cloud of carbon dioxide gas, run for the garage and huck a hammer at him while spilling a box of nails on the floor. Bonus points if you turn on the table saw and scare the shit outta him.
After somebody with a pistol sees my 15th century Celtic longsword, they will be utterly paralyzed in fear at my might, and will be unable to shoot me.
Anime’s protagonist levsl killing aura
"Celtic sword of Gwaenhyll :
I would use a single or double bladed lightsaber
An elegant weapon for a more civilized age.
I think most people wouldnt be able to use one for more than 15 minutes before accidentally cutting off some of their own limbs
Dog. And alarm system. That should be enough for run of the mill “home invaders”
If he harms the dog that’ll put you in a rage boost so high he’ll flee in terror.
Statistically, this is the correct answer. Burglars don't want a fight, they'll go for the easiest target. So an alarm system and a dog is typically enough to get them to think twice and leave.
The hired assasin probably wont even enter your house, he will likely use a sniper rifle.
A spear, reach is everything.
Was looking for this. It's one of the oldest weapons for a reason. It's effectiveness has not diminished if we ever end up in a world without firearms.
The mighty stick with a pointy thing on the end. I can respect that.
Crossbow
Molotov
Catapult
Trident
You better make sure you hit on that first shot
Musket
A crossbow would be the absolute worst self defense weapon. You get one shot. You miss, you're fucked.
I keep wasp spray next to my bed. It's an accurate shot from 28 feet away. Non-lethal but requires hospital.
I have a gun as well, and very large dogs, but I also get the Ant/Roach/Spider spray. Someone gets that or the wasp spray in the face they aren't going to be worried about stealing my TV anymore.
It doesn’t disable someone like pepper spray does. Get pepper spray
10 meter long wasp spray? You got yourself a sniper rifle.
More like 15 ft. I can shoot accurately from 30 yards so I’d much rather have a gun, especially if the intruder has a gun.
Guard dog. Will most likely bark at them scaring them from even attempting to invade the home. And I don't know about you but even if I was armed I still wouldn't want to go against a big dog. Can be fast and vicious when they sense a threat.
A big dog. I have two trained Dobermans because my wife doesn’t like guns. One sleeps in our room and the other with my daughter.
MY ATTACK DOG! Get him snow ball!
Very circumstantial
Just slap a wet towel on his face, run out the door and... idk.. let him rob my house because insurance and he can have my tv if he wants i can get a new one
I like this logic. Anyone who doesn’t have a family or friends in the house has nothing to consider other than “Am I willing to die for my stuff?” to which most won’t be. Personally all my research is on my laptop so if I’m trying to flee I’m gonna try and take that with me but that’s it, I’d be financially wrecked and just overall pissed but I’d be breathing.
A lawyer who never loses.
I’m not especially worried about armed home invaders. I’m pretty sure the probability of someone in my household getting hurt by some gun-related mishap would be higher than the probability of having an opportunity to use it in self-defense.
Data proves you are correct
I think the question is more of a "given that you're being home invaded, how would you rather defend yourself?" 🙂
Especially if you live in a place with strict gun regulations chances for armed burglaries while you’re at home go allll the way down.
Scaring people off before they enter your home is the most effective way.
Not sure. Whatever the Japanese/Australians/British/Canadiens use
As a Canadian I constantly have a McDonald's poutine on my front porch.
UK - we shout "OI!" down the stairs and hope they scarper.
In France I am using a door
I don't recall home invasions ever being a big problem for us that we needed to consider weapons (Australia). It seems to be a very American thing to be thinking about it all the time.
Man catchers
Canadian here, if someone breaks into my house I'm calling the police and hiding.
In New Zealand pepper spray is illegal so that’s off the table. Tasers are also illegal. So that leaves a bat or a knife. A bat would probably be the best because you can just hit crazy from a distance whereas with a knife to do any proper damage you would need to stab them at close range. But I don’t know anyone who keeps a weapon nearby because it’s not very common to be in such a situation. If there was a home invasion I would say the best weapon the average person would have on hand in a NZ home would be a pan, cooking knife, hammer, axe, or rolling pin.
I’m Australian and have literally never worried about home invasion.
Nothing
All these options are counter offense. Defense is armor/walls. The best defense is not inviting drama into your life
“Just say no, legally the robber can’t rob your home without your consent.”
Pepper spray is the best option because it not only will incapacitate just about anyone for a 15-30 minutes, sometimes longer. It will also irritate his throat and eyes and skin long after. Source: I work in a prison
But, is pepper spray in an enclosed space a good idea?
Is armed robbery such a big problem in the US? I've never heard of anyone that it happened to. I just lock the doors and I don't feel unsafe.
Somehow many houses in the us have walls that are weak enough for someone to easily break them!
If you want to stay alive the best option is to call the police or scream. That's how we do it in Europe and the outcome seems better than all attempts with weapons in the US.
So if an intruder has a gun I have to get close enough to wack his knees with a baseball bat or taser him? Makes sense.
If you can't have a gun, the intruder probably isn't using a gun either.
At least in China, Taiwan, Japan, and Korea, it's illegal to own guns. So you gotta have such high connections to own said gun in those countries. If you already have such high connections, you're probably not poor and needs to invade other ppl's home. So your assumption that home invaders have guns in a country that makes owning gun illegal doesn't make sense.
French here, I can only agree. Home invasion are a thing here but never with guns, and actually rarely with any weapon at all.
The thing is that in America, there are more guns than there are people circulating around and more continuously being made. Making guns illegal doesn’t get rid of those hundreds of millions of guns and officials certainly could not take all of them away. Even if they could, gun owners would never let anyone come up and physically take their guns away. So the assumption that a home invader may have a gun in a country where owning guns is illegal indeed makes sense.
is "armed home invader" some scare tactic used to make children behave in the u.s.? i literarily never think about someone breaking into my home, and i know nobody who does
Legos carefully placed by all the entrances, buckets of water placed on top of slightly opened doors, and a dog to get it all moving.
Imagine being against owning a gun.
Aren't people against gun ownership in general not just for themselve ? The point being if no one owns guns, that includes your hypothetical home invader. (now IRL good luck applying this in the US, though I believe it will have to happen eventually)
Have fun with people not following the law
Guns
I 2nd this amendment to the poll. Nothing scares someone like a shotgun being racked from a dark room.
Landmines
Bear mace
Don't use fucking anything, get out and call the cops
Flashbang, axe, no clothes.
A panic room?
A cannon loaded with grapeshot
A few things to keep in mind:
Nothing - just an alarm system and if you're home run away and get the police.
Punji sticks
Get a bullet proof riot shield, and a cattle prod taser.
Training. If you don’t know what you’re doing any weapon, gun included, can end up being used against you. It’s not enough just to have something. You should seek out training for the weapon or in regards to personal defense so you know how to react in such a situation.
A phone to call the cops… the station is pretty close
The amount of people that think pepper spray is effective is disappointing
A gun
This question relies on a false assumption that "home invaders" will be able to aquire a gun easily in a society where their sale is banned. This simply isn't the case. Clearly a gun is the best match for a gun, but all parties are likely to encounter harm if none have guns.
I mean if they’re breaking and entering into your home I don’t think they’re gonna get a gun through legal channels anyways
a gun
Yes, a gun
I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news but whatever John wick fantasy you have of disabling an armed home intruder isn't going to pan out
Or just like, don't attack them? The chances of them having a gun is incredibly low as well
For real. Not sure why we’re pretending we should have to handicap ourselves
While I agree with your first statement. Buying a gun actually risks your life more. Most likely person your going to hit with a gun is yourself. Next, a family member.
Or just call the cops
Dog. If you don’t have kids, go for a pit bull
Dogs yes, but doesn't have to be a PB to be a deterrent. My random mutt will make enough noise for most sane burglars to leave.
Can backfire though
best thing big sword 🗡 very cool i think biggest better
A panel/shield that can withstand bullets.
Chainsaw 😃
Good ol crowbar
I asked a cop about self defense weapons once as a young girl in college. He told me he would rather be tasered (with a real police taser) every day for a week than be pepper sprayed once again. So I carry pepper spray with me.
I choose to use a grenade launcher.
Four-to-six large tanks of volatile anesthetics, to serve as an incapacitating agent, which will release their contents remotely, so I may then take them to my basement where they will be either used for black-market organ harvesting, or ethically questionable experimentation.
Guns with rubber bullets. But some harder hitting ones.
I would say Material arts will work great for self defence in small rooms. So traditional karate (Goju ryu for example) but if you want something for self defence i would choose the sais to disarm the invader.
I have my sai ready at home! Though I don’t think I am at a high enough level just yet..
Meet Jerry, the home invader hating crossbow!
Me when the single mother with two children hits me with that dollar store pepper spray:
I am from India, we don't have guns (I mean notorious people do have), so people keep baseball bats and hockey sticks in car, if cops stop you , you can say I am off to practice
100m sprint
A gun
a chopper gunner
Grenade
Claymore antipersonnel mine
It’s not that I’m against guns. I’m against the fact that it’s so easy to get one. I’m the military you trained with your weapon until you knew it inside and out. It became an extension of you. Some Joe blow shouldn’t be able to walk in off the streets and buy one. You should have to go through an entire training program and a psych evaluation. If you’re not willing to do that then no gun for you
Huh, prolly a gun.
If nobody had guns, that would include home invaders
That’s assuming all guns are destroyed. The invader would have probably stolen a gun somehow or even made their own.
We can’t control who has guns, just who can legally sell them
If nobody breaks the law, that would include home invaders
What? you think the law is going to stop literal home invaders from acquiring guns illegally?
You really think most of them get those guns legally
Who do you expect to volunteer to go door to door forcibly taking peoples guns? Anyone with 2 brain cells should know that’s a sure way to get shot
[удалено]
The US is different. Always remember that
A gun
A gun
civilisation?
Even more guns
My gun.
Baseball bats and blades weapons won’t be effective against people with guns
A gun
I mean I am a white belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu so I’d have to go with my body.
Civil war Musket.
None of these since I won't have a home invader
I am pro gun but guns are terrible for home defense
I’m not for banning but the purchase should be regulated, for example you need to pass a test to prove that you can own one
Where I am there’s different tests depending on what type of weapon you’d like to own and they all come with a multitude of commitments.
My AR-15 identifies as a stick
Short barrel shotgun. It's not a gun. It's a shotgun. Rapists, robbers, etc hate 00 buck.
SBS’s are illegal for regular civilians to own without special permitting in most, if not all, states
Gun with rubber bullets?
No sane person is against people owning a gun… they’re for gun control which is completely different
In America as in the US no they are for completely taking away guns
BP revolvers are not guns under US federal law. So I'm going with an 1858 in .44 or if you want to be scary about it a colt walker in .44. Alternatively a double barrel bp shotgun would be good too.
What is BP in this sense?
Flamethrowers. :)
My vote was other: Cannon loaded with a scrap metal. Tally ho!
All of England picking bladed weapon
taser wouldnt work, the probes wont work if they have a jacket on, a conventional taser is also terrible because it requires you to be decent in hand to hand combat to actually get it off, and even if you land it, the second its off, the intruder will be completely fine and continue his attack
A gun
Common sense
People can resist pepper spray, and tasers. Blades, like a short sword, is different. Stabbing/cutting limbs off.
I'd rather have a gun, thank you very much
Gun
A gun
M1A2 Abrams
The good thing about non-gun self defense is you can effectively assume your invader also doesn't have a gun (presuming your country is actually good at having that shit under control).
Phone... To call the god damn police. Fuck self defense we life in a society.
They would find your corpse in about 30 minutes
Some people don't have that option. If I call it's minimum 20 mins for help to arrive. If I'm lucky
The police will not protect you. Best case scenario, they catch the guy afterwards, also very possible your murderer goes free and they lock up someone innocent. They do not care as long as they get paid and get their retirement, which they will.