This is the first part of my home-defense lecture: a fast, hard look at the reality of burglaries and violent break-ins, and the practical mindset and actions that keep families alive.

Read this to get the big points — then tune in for the next Home Defense installment where I’ll cover the major dos and don’ts and walk you through four immediate-action drills every household must have.

The numbers are blunt. In the U.S. there are roughly 3.5 million burglaries a year. Over a lifetime, about 80% of homes will be burglarized or invaded. In roughly 25% of break-ins, someone is home; in about 25% of those cases, a resident is assaulted. Home defense situations are common and have high consequences.

A few pattern points you need to know:

* Familiarity matters. Offenders are known to occupants in about one-third of burglaries and in roughly two-thirds of violent home invasions. Ruses and targeted entries happen more often than random smash-and-grabs. The known home invader incidents usually happen due to one of my major “Don’ts” I will cover in the next installment.

* Most enter unarmed — but they will arm themselves. About 60% of offenders don’t carry weapons at entry; many find knives, tools, or unsecured firearms inside. That’s why secure storage and reducing accessible tools matters. 12% carry firearms.

* Injury rates don’t map neatly to compliance. Studies show similar injury rates whether victims comply or resist. When it comes to resisting in the home, half-hearted resistance is a poor choice — flailing, hesitating, or trying to “do a little” of everything usually makes things worse. The clearest, best options are simple: non-violent responses (draw attention, flee, barricade and call 911) when they’re faster and viable, or decisive, committed armed violence if lethal force is the only option — for example, a committed defensive firearm use that’s intended to stop the threat. The data from the lecture supports this: weak, indecisive resistance causes more injury; fully committed options — whether escape or force — are the actions that actually produce better outcomes.

* How they get in: front door ~34%, first-floor windows ~23%, back door ~22%, unlocked doors about 12%, garages ~9%. Second-floor entries are rare (~2%) — the movies lie.

Watch the DoorDash ruse example in the video. There are multiple layered cues — a light disguise, an odd bag, no vehicle placement consistent with a delivery, a daylight knock when no order was placed, along with the mask and gloves — that should have raised suspicion. But when you are out of touch with your gift of fear and have lost your survival sense without a single moment of home defense training under your belt, you will just be an easy victim. In fact, you might even open the door for the criminal to make it easier for them. See my full article on this home invasion here:

Any of you with family at home should ask yourself if you have truly done anything to prepare your family for a home invasion.

Instead, a door was opened, the attacker rushed in, the daughter was restrained, and the children were endangered, leading to an officer being shot during a shootout. Small checklist habits at the door could have prevented that encounter. This is the 1% effort - 100% safer training I often focus on.

So what do you do right now? The short list:

* Reinforce your front and back access points and secure garage pull-tabs. I cover these actions more later in the lecture.

* Practice a “no-unverified-open” rule for doors and an interrogation/verification method for deliveries. Go to Condition Orange, have a phone and weapon ready, check from a safe position, and only open it after deliberate verification.

* Harden obvious places where a thief can operate privately (backyard fences, hedges) or gain quick entry. Understand the pros and cons of privacy fencing.

* Lock and store weapons securely; treat any unsecured tool or knife as a potential risk. This should inform you that if you arrive home and sense a break-in, your first action (without loved ones in danger) should be to get to safety and call 911 rather than explore.

* Teach family members simple, repeatable, immediate actions — barricade, escape route, call plan, and who moves kids where.

When I cover Home Defense again, I’ll break down the critical dos and don’ts and give you four immediate action drills to build into your home plan — simple, repeatable routines you can practice in 20 minutes and actually use under stress. I’ll also provide a PDF of this entire presentation (slides, framework, checklists — videos excluded) to paid members so you can build your own home-defense plan from the structure I use in seminars.

A note on value: This material is delivered in a corporate lunch-and-learn or private seminar format that typically costs $1,000s. I’m putting core lessons here on Substack so that every day families can easily put out the 1% efforts that produce outsized safety gains.

For paid subscribers: You can download a PDF of the full Home Defense Seminar (excluding videos) in the post Free Resources For Paid Members. You can use it as a basis for your preparation. My Home Defense Online Course is coming soon.

Tell me what else you want covered in the home-defense series, and I’ll fold it into the next home-defense lecture.

Make yourself more threat-proof this week.

– Trevor

Grey Group LLC | High Threat Systems LLC

Green Beret | SWAT Cop | Counter-Terrorism Contractor | Instructor

Here is the link to the .pdf: Home Defense Seminar PDF Oct 2025

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