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Security isn’t about luck—it’s about strategy. In this podcast, we break down how to protect your home, family, and business from threats most people don’t even think about. We’re not here to fuel fear—we’re here to help you prepare.
Hosted by security professionals, Michael Johnson, a retired law enforcement captain with 29 years of experience and James Kerr an expert from Boss Security Screens, this podcast delivers real, no-nonsense advice. We know what truly stops burglars—not just locks and alarms, but layered security strategies that keep your home and business safe.
What you'll learn in this podcast:
✅ Why the concept of “layered security” is the only way to protect your property.
✅ Guns for self-defense: myths, reality, and what you really need to consider.
✅ How to build a safe space for yourself and your family while minimizing risk.
✅ Real-life stories of break-ins and assaults - and why some homes remain impregnable.
📢 Subscribe now and stay one step ahead of those who rely on luck.
🛡 Ready to take home security seriously?
Visit https://bosssecurityscreens.com/free-consultation for a free consultation.
what if somebody came in my home right
now M how would I defend myself come on
in and say hello to my little friends
Smith and Wesson right how fast can you
do it can you get to it in the dark well
that's a problem right that's a problem
does anybody out there really know how
to barricade a door did you know that
place they had to kill someone boy you
don't ever want to know yeah that
feeling I said go get it right
[Music]
all right so we're back with MJ and you
know he's got the uh extensive law
enforcement security experience and just
again quick give us the
10c eventually I'm going to memorize it
all but it sounds better coming from you
so so uh 29 years of law enforcement
retired in 2019 as a captain from the
Henderson Police Department right and
then I've been in the uh private
security world uh since then and uh I've
been doing some work work for you
obviously uh love your company love your
screens and uh I've been doing uh a lot
of uh investigative work right so you
know MJ uh his description here is
really short reminds me of those uh
Sushi chefs the the sushi Masters they
never put a big sign in front of their
store just the little tiny sign is all
that's required because everybody knows
it's kind of like what I'm reminded of
when I hear your short version anyway
just look online you know on our blog
for example we have the extensive career
so the truth is here I just want to
continue on uh some of the other topics
we touched on including uh gun ownership
and when we talk about security for the
home and even for the office or the
school um many times the knee-jerk
reaction is well just come on in and say
hello to my little friend Smith and
Weston right so it's almost like a
gungho attitude towards look
uh go ahead break into my home you're
going to say hello you know I'm going to
use my weapon and it's true people who
do have weapons will retrieve them but
my overall position on this is and this
is where I want to get into it with you
is look the moment someone's in your
home it's a little bit game over like if
someone comes in my home my weapon
because we have kids is upstairs next to
the bed there's another gun safe but I'm
nowhere near my weapon and if I'm
confronting someone there in the hallway
on the first floor of my home what am I
going to do tell them the hey hang on
here for a second I got to run upstairs
for a moment retrieve my weapon and then
if you think about it when's the last
time I tried to get into my gun safe we
we got a code like I'm I'm stressed
right I'm in the stress environment I'm
running upstairs to the gun safe I'm
trying to remember the code if I key in
the code three times incorrectly dang it
it get it times's out right I gotta wait
now what is it three minutes yep and
mind you now if I'm in this situation
where someone's legitimately trying to
hurt me or my family maybe it's just
someone deranged you know it's on on
drugs in my home I had to get to my
weapon I had to get it out of wherever
it was safely
protected and then I have to be able to
use it right am I emotionally mentally
prepared to shoot someone if I do right
if I do use the weapon uh that person
again you knew better than I but I
imagine no one goes down saying hey
thanks for you know popping me a few
times they're going to be crying for
their mama they're going to be bleeding
out on the floor it's not
um it's not going to be an easy thing to
witness there's going to be a mess and
then let's say the person or persons end
up dying I'm I'm going through the full
you know worst case scenario you're
getting into the dark side here man we
got to pull you back just a little bit
I'm gonna have wait I'm almost done I'm
gonna have uh I'm gonna have PTSD right
me or my family whomever they just
witness something that no one should
ever have to witness and now every time
they walk by that place like who's going
to clean it up right and then every time
we walk by it we're going to think about
oh that that's the place where you know
we had to kill someone and then
eventually we're going to have to move
out of the house because we can't deal
with the PTSD for that long and I think
in in Nevada and other states you have
to disclose whether there was a homicide
and when you put home up for sale and
the neighbors are going to be like hey
did you know that place they had to kill
someone right no one's going to want to
buy that house so for those of us who
have kind of that uh you know the
mentality of uh you know I've got my
weapons come on in I'm going to use them
I feel they really need to kind of think
this through a little better if
someone's in your
home it's already a very dangerous
situation right and so what we Advocate
is look layered security Smart Security
whatever you can do the best you can to
keep it out look the military US
military has the most guns in the world
what do they also have a wall a gate
right they have all these other things
that we're advocating for and they have
all those weapons all right you jump in
well I got to tell you uh that's a whole
lot to unpackage right there I I I just
felt like I shouldn't even interject
because he's on a
roll no I I think that uh everyone has
this in their mind and maybe it's
because of TV you know we all say what
we're going to do and how we're going to
do it and how we're going to react under
a moment of stress nobody knows how
you're going to react under stress
unless you train
unless you prepare and so I'm trying to
go back to some of the things you talked
about um one of the things that I
experienced in law enforcement and it
was kind of a unique phenomenon and that
was when somebody's house was broken
into they felt violated and I know
you've heard this right because uh when
they buy your screens um they say this
right that's right every time they come
home they have a bad feeling about their
home because
listen your home is your Castle your
home is is your space and once somebody
comes into your space yeah there's a a
sense of violation there and a lot of
times people can't get over that right
uh now amplify that let's just say it's
not a burglary let's say you actually
have somebody that's doing a home
invasion yeah and uh they are coming in
your home and unfortunately you do have
to make that decision to take a life
yeah um you know kind of that old
tombstone thing that uh Kurt Russell
said boy you don't ever want to know
yeah that feeling of taking another life
and and I think there's a a real truth
to that yeah uh if if you're comfortable
taking another life uh uh we might need
to a different you know might need to
rethink uh you know how you how you view
the world but uh you know having a plan
and you talked about it uh and I always
go back to our blogs because we have a
lot of great blog content on your site
and and uh we talk about different
conditions right and I've talked about
this over the years but condition white
uh and it goes all the way up to
condition red um but it's it's your
awareness levels yeah you know and the
world today with our cell phones and
everything we all walk around condition
white we don't have a clue what's going
on around us but if you're in your own
home um I I strongly suggest that you
remain
Vigilant and uh that's a term that we
use in in law enforcement being hyper
Vigilant uh well I don't know that you
need to be hypervigilant like a law
enforcement officer but you definitely
need to be aware so uh I do a lot of
what if in my home you know what if what
if somebody came in my home right now
how would I defend myself where would I
Retreat to uh Retreat to yeah and so you
hit on that safety planning yeah uh
nobody wants to plan for a home invasion
yeah nobody wants to plan on being a
attacked right uh but if you don't think
it through in advance if you don't uh
take the time to say the what if right
uh then you're not going to be prepared
in a moment um that's one of the things
that we trained in law enforcement all
the time is the what if game on your way
to a call you're running the scenarios
through your mind and the same thing
should happen and then that goes back
into getting into self-defense training
yeah right I know you have a lot of
self-defense training and what do they
teach you to anticipate right yeah okay
so when you're anticipating your
opponent then you have the upper hand
because you're already thinking ahead of
the game yeah and you're thinking about
your next move so when you're in a home
yeah uh yeah you're right do I have time
to run upstairs and grab the gun right
no you don't yeah you got to make do
with what you have yeah and that again I
would just recommend people to do a
little bit of self trining a little bit
of you know take some boxing classes
take a
uh take some wrestling yeah um but know
how to defend yourself if you needed to
there's no harm in it yeah and hopefully
you never have to use it you know what's
interesting too about the whole
self-defense thing uh is whether we have
the physical capacity to run yes right
so you're you're in great shape I know
you can run and um some of us maybe were
you know eating too much or sitting on
the couch too long and we might want to
dodge something we might want to run
away I once saw someone rob a store and
the the person who robbed the store was
running and the security guard was
trying to run after him but the security
guard was obese and he couldn't run and
he lost his breath and and so at one
point the person who stole the thing
just kind of slowed to a trot and looked
over his shoulder and knew that there's
no way that the security guard could
catch up to him right CU they just
weren't physically able to do it right
MH and so that that on like the simplest
level uh to be able to move is an
important thing right yeah absolutely
you know we talked about uh you know the
safety planning and uh there's so many
things that you can do in the home right
I mean first of all you want to fortify
your home right and there's a number of
things and I know this is going to be
for a later segment but there's a whole
lot of uh crime prevention that can be
done just through your environmental
design the sep they call that seped yeah
c p TD te te yep seped and uh acronym
for crime prevention through
environmental design so like rose bushes
in front of the rose bushes your
Landscaping your lighting there's a lot
of things and we'll get into that in a
whole another segment but when you're
doing safety planning um I do strongly
recommend that you have a safe room mhm
um
have somewhere it doesn't have to be
fortified with brick walls and and big
steel doors right um but having a place
that you can Retreat to and be able to
make a call from right because you got
to you got to call 911 you got to get
the calvary coming so so having that
ability to do that and having the
presence of mind uh to make that call
the other option is to know your house
well enough and we all say we know our
house well enough but in a stress moment
you're going to forget things right uh
but know where your alternate methods of
exit are right you got to get out and uh
and then of course if you can't get out
yeah and you have no other choice but to
defend yourself right now you're dealing
with the things like stand your ground
and and the castle laws that are
available throughout the US yeah I want
to get into those um on the on the
planning side of things you know you
talked about what ifs and we we do that
in business like what if right right we
do that uh in almost every part of our
lives but security we do it for fire
like what if there's a fire we have the
fire drills in schools for example or at
work we know what to do but we don't
really stop and think like what if
someone does try to breach my front door
or what if someone breaches my back door
or what if I come home and there's
someone in in my house and that's not
just for me for those of us that do have
families it's really a
it's a colle it's a group
conversation and training to do together
the other night I sat down with the boys
one of them's 12 years old and I said
there's a fire go get the fire
extinguisher and they're looking at each
other like what I said go get it
right nothing like stress and they're
like where I don't know where it is
right well that's a problem right that's
a problem right and it's the same you
mentioned it fire will everybody trains
for a fire uh you if you got a two-story
house you probably have one of those
ladder ropes that you can uh you know
throw out the window and you can climb
down to safety uh but how many people
think about how do I defend myself if
I'm in an upstairs bedroom yeah and
somebody breaks in how do I does anybody
out there really know how to barricade a
door do you have any tools in your room
to barricade a door you know again
having a safe room with the tools to
help barricade a door um
it will delay yeah and it will hopefully
prevent their entry but uh it gives you
time right to come up with a plan while
they're trying to break in a door it
gives you a it gives you time to plan on
what you're going to do if they do make
it through that door time is everything
that that's interesting the safe room
thing is the one thing I haven't really
worked through uh in our home and with
my family um are so I know people invest
in safe room rooms right and they spend
quite a bit of money on it and you had
mentioned the maybe the closet would
work with barricades or some kind of
locking mechanism in the inside what are
some other quick thoughts on safe rooms
so uh you know having a door that's not
a hollow C Hollow cdor yeah those cheap
doors that come with your home um you
know if you want to make a couple of
safe rooms couple of options uh change
yeah you want to have more than one
option interesting yeah I didn't think
you never want to have
it you don't know they're it's a window
a bed upstairs downstairs uh so have a
couple of doors that you change out go
to more of a solid core door and then
you're going to want to sink bigger
screws in there so it can't be just
busted in with a single kick and then
they make a whole host of simple locking
systems that are really very secure and
it would just make it difficult for
someone to get in but here's something
else to think about y uh most of the
doors in a person's home open inward
correct yeah they right and so if you
Retreat to a bedroom and a bad guy wants
to kick in the door right it's going to
swing easily to the inside yeah uh what
if you made your safe room with the door
facing the other direction where it
opens out into the hallway yeah now when
they try to kick it in right it's going
to be kicking against the frame yeah
they're not going to be able to break
that in the way
so what would they have to do they'd
have to have a pry tool to be able to
try to pry it open and prying is a lot
harder than kicking so to reverse a door
actually is not difficult for example
you could go to a handyman or handy
person or whatever and maybe it's a
couple hundred dollars to reverse a door
and then they maybe get the longer
screws correct the stronger strike plate
right yep it it it's not that expensive
and if you're thinking about it as an
investment
right uh yeah we hope we never need it
it's kind of like a firearm you hope you
never need it but the day that you do
need it you wish you had it and if you
if you had thought about it right and
didn't do it yeah you know there's a
there's a saying out there that says uh
you know in every person's U life you're
going to be called to do something
special something for you and only you
uh what a Pity if that day finds you
unprepared yeah you know so life is
about preparation it's about thinking
things through right and so you want to
make sure that uh you don't live in
paranoia right we don't want to be
paranoid and we're not advocating that
people be paranoid but uh if you're not
thinking about safety if you're not
thinking about your own security and
then you're not taking steps right to
complete that yeah uh then when bad
things happen you're not going to have a
recourse right so it's all about
planning it's all about training it's
all about these things through a little
more and it's not about becoming um
anxious about it right it's not like
we're going to get ourselves all uh
scared right by thinking these things
through it's more like from a very
analytic perspective we're just gonna
kind of consider what would be the smart
thing to do right so you know again in
law enforcement we talk about uh
practice you know yeah if you if you
practice perfectly yeah then your
performance when you go to play is going
to to be uh perfect as well so you want
that muscle memory you want that
reaction time uh to be uh rapid quick
and decisive um you know one way that
you can create stress you know and if
you go to the gun range uh it's very
difficult to create stress but if you
are to say run in place for 30 seconds
or do jumping jacks for 30 seconds get
your heart rate up get your breathing up
and find how how ult it is to actually
hold a firearm steady while your hands
are shaking while your breathing is
rapid and your heart rate is pounding
yeah uh that's the only way you can
really simulate when bad things happen
you're not going to have a recourse and
are you going to be mentally prepared to
handle that the way you do that is to
simulate the the stress and then make
sure that you can perform through it
yeah I try opening my gun save with my
eyes closed that's a that's a great
that's a great thing and you we talk
about you know we we ran that segment on
guns uh on firearms that you should have
in your home or the you know getting
properly fitted uh but what we didn't
talk about is how do you store them yeah
so uh you know most of your safes come
in in three or four Styles uh you know
you have the old key system that you
only you have the key uh you've got
thetion lock you've got the electric
lock and then they've got these
bioelectric locks yeah so uh there's a
lot of options for you to to secure a
firearm um but having those and knowing
how to do it under stress yeah yeah
again in the how fast can you do it can
you get to it in the dark um and if kids
are an issue uh then locking those
Firearms up is going to be critical
because we don't want to have an
accidental shooting because uh we left a
gun out and a child got a hold of
it all right so what are the main main
takeaways here well I think from today's
discussion on uh preparing for safety is
one develop a plan plan got to have a
plan uh think it through look at your
options come up with what you're
comfortable with doing and uh and what
you can afford to do and then number two
is practice the plan you have to
practice the plan if you don't execute
the plan the plan is usually not going
to work I mean you can talk about a plan
but we all know right you know the best
laid plan doesn't happen unless you
reinforce it right uh so build that plan
reinforce it and then um make sure that
you practice under stress yeah because
you can practice while you're calm you
can practice and do it perfectly but if
you're under a lot of stress it's going
to be a different ball game so next time
you sitting down with your kids for
dinner we got a fire where's the fire
extinguisher go get a fire
extinguisher you can try that right see
how quickly they can find it if they're
looking at each other and they're not
moving there's a problem
so yeah definitely want to practice the
plan so come up with a great idea come
up with a plan execute it make it work
[Music]