If you live in Florida and you’re largely concerned with hurricane season (and the occasional Floriduh man and woman), the answers are going to focus on how to secure one’s home, business, and/or other property from high winds, driving rains, storm surge, and flooding. Your response is going to focus on ensuring that you and your family have enough supplies – food and water, medications, alternate power sources, other emergency supplies – to either shelter in place and ride the storm out or the resources to evacuate early or to evacuate ahead of the storm to an acceptable shelter. And don’t forget to think about what to do with your pets!

However, if your concern now is a response to the uptick and spike in hate crimes since the election, then your potential responses would be different. And this is where I want to change the tack of the discussion a bit. Personal security that arises from the fear of other people, even when that fear is or may be rational, is not the same thing as just making sure you’ve got a week’s worth of food, water, etc  and a generator in case of a bad storm. While the questions above may still be applicable, the consideration of them needs to shift. The first thing that will need to be done is to grapple with whether there is a very real threat that needs to be deterred or that might need to be responded to. There’s no one size fits all solution because there are far too many variables for me or anyone else to just write: if you do X, you’ll be fine.

Keeping this caveat in mind here are a few things you can do to enhance your and your family’s personal security, as well as security at your business, congregation, or any other organization you belong to.

1. Invest in good locks: for under $200 you can put good quality deadbolts on your doors, as well as additional locking mechanisms on sliding glass doors/windows and window frames so you can open your windows a bit for ventilation and not have to worry about them being forced. You can also, for a reasonable price, harden your doors if you don’t have heavy duty/security doors.
2. Invest in some motion sensor lights if you live in such a place that would allow you to install them. I tend to use the solar powered ones. They’re not as bright, but I don’t have to worry about batteries or the electricity going out.
3. If you’ve been thinking about getting a dog keep in mind that many of them will make a good early warning system and decide if you want to include that consideration when you adopt.
4. If you have a garage, park your car/cars in it. (Yes, this means you have to get your stuff out of the way and no, I have no idea why builders in PA build 3+ bedroom homes with one car garages)
5. Install a video doorbell, preferably one with motion sensing tech that alerts you, via your phone or tablet, and gives you video when someone just approaches the door regardless of if they ring the bell.
6. Get a few, good, high lumen flashlights (I like the Anker ones). Carry a small one in your purse if you carry a purse or in your pocket and keep a larger one accessible in the car. Blinding light right in the eyes can work wonders. As can prodding someone with one if necessary.
7. Make sure your smoke detector batteries are good, your CO2 detector batteries are good (if you have one of these), and your fire extinguishers are also up to date.
8. Make a plan with your family, and if you and your neighbors get on well, with your neighbors. It should include who is going to contact and check in with who, where to meet up, who is responsible for securing or taking care of or picking up who, what to do in case of a natural or man made disaster such as a hurricane or flood or earthquake. Things like that. This should also be done for your business, congregation, and other organizations you belong to.
9. Make sure you and at least one other family member has CPR and first aid training. And make a first aid kit in something portable like a backpack. I like the Mayo Clinic’s suggestions for what to get.

This brings us to the final two things that I think need to be addressed. The first is fear or anxiety or stress. If you are having this type of response and its making you feel vulnerable, and you want to do something to prepare for the worst do not take a self defense course. People that take self defense courses go in scared and able to be hurt or killed. They come out scared and able to hurt or kill. These types of courses are not designed to get at the underlying issues in a systematic way. So if you feel you have to do something, and you’re willing to give it a try, skip right to a martial art taught by a legitimate and experienced instructor. The purpose of this training isn’t just, or isn’t really, the physical components of strike, lock, pin, but rather to use the psycho-motor skills training of learning them to access the internal energy, psychological, emotional, and mental components of those who study these systems and disciplines. It’ll take longer to be physically proficient, but you’ll start to see some of the internal benefits in a few months. Between myself and several of the other martial artists that comment here, we should be able to provide some suggestions in the comments.

The final one is firearms. To me this is an even more intensely personal question or issue. Guns, both handguns and long guns, are tools. In the right hands at the right times in the right places they can be tremendously effective. In other hands at other times and at other places not so much. As I mentioned in the comments to several questions about this, as well as to several emails from commenters/lurkers, I came to the use of firearms very late (I was 37) and for professional reasons (as part of my pre deployment training for Iraq). I had been doing martial arts for 24 years at that point and had some basic familiarity instruction with guns, but not a lot of practice or experience. Now, because I’ve been asked at least once a year for the past four years, if I would be willing to deploy, I go for regular training with a SWAT tactical training instructor to maintain my skills. I’m not recommending anyone get one and I’m not recommending one not getting one. I’m not advocating for anything here, nor should any decision I may or may not make in regard to firearms be an example for anyone else.

That said there are several questions that one needs to answer for themselves when considering getting a firearm, especially if its for self defense purposes

1. Do you, your spouse/SO, parent child/children, roommate, or anyone else that might be living with you think that if push came to shove you could bring the weapon to bear and shoot it if necessary (seriously injuring and/or killing what you are aiming at, whether person or animal)? If you all can not answer yes without qualifications, you shouldn’t get it. Having it and being unable to use it is as bad, if not worse, than not having it.
2. Are you,your spouse/SO, parent child/children, roommate, or anyone else that might be living with you willing to commit to proper instruction and training in the use and maintenance of a firearm?
3. Do you have a plan to secure the weapon, but in such a way that it is accessible when needed?
4. Does anyone in the home have a mental health issue? If so you may not want to bring a gun into the dynamic. And if someone in the home should develop a mental health issue, do you have a plan for securing the weapon away from him or her (offsite) and an alternative self-defense/security plan for once the gun is removed?
5. Do you want this only for home defense or are you planning on conceal carrying it?
6. Put your hand in your pocket. Now have someone run at you from 33 feet away while screaming at you. Try to remove your hand from your pocket and point it at the person running at you before they can touch you on the shoulder. If this exercise freaked you out, getting a gun for self defense may not be for you. Are you willing to commit to regular instruction from a professional to overcome this response? If not, then getting a gun for self defense may not be for you.
7. Do you want a long gun (rifle or shotgun) or handgun (self loading semi-automatic pistol or revolver)? If its a handgun, how is your hand strength? Are you able to rack the slide/charge a semi-auto pistol? If not, then a revolver might be better. How is your arm strength? Revolvers with barrels of four inches or longer will be quite heavy? As will be some rifles and shotguns?
8. Where do you live? An apartment? A Condo? A one wall attached house? A single family home? All of these are considerations in regard to firearm and ammunition choice.