I will have no mercy on anyone that breaks into my home and threatens my family. [/quote] AMEN!!!. I am prepared to repel "boarders", and have full intentions to do so. EMS will NOT be needed, LEO and the Medical Examiner will be. I probably won't use a bat as that requires me to get too close to the scum. The aforementioned only if my German Shepherd dosen't get to them first, hehehe.

One year while shopping for college supplies, I picked up an aluminum T-ball bat. I lovingly called it "The Attitude Adjuster". When the guys I lived with and I would razz each other, often times we would pick it up and threaten each other jokingly. Never had to use it to defend anything though.

It seems to me that when one is considering such a tool for defense in an enclosed space, the shorter T-ball bat might be a good option. True, the reach is less, but since using a bat as a defense tool is a short distance affair anyway, you will be less likely to clobber that heirloom grandfather clock or the curio cabinet with a T-ball bat.

I don't know as in a situation like this if the physics of wood vs. aluminum or plastic for distributing force and such will be as important. Remember that most criminals do not want to fight someone...they want to dominate someone. A good whallop from a bat will immediately start the BG thinking that he picked the wrong house. Broken bones serve as a good wake up call of course, but the object is to eliminate the threat, whether he ends up broken or merely bruised.

Cold Steel's Brooklyn Smasher and Brooklyn Crusher look like fun options for bat defense IMO.

Dogs are a great first line of defense strategy. Normally, they are pretty territorial.

A different tactic could be the non-lethal approach as shown on some TV program: get a can of Great Stuff expanding insulating foam and fire away. If you saw the show you know that us guys have a natural instinct to protect the twin sources of our lineage (as it were). Just aim low and fire away. The hands will drop to protect and get mucked up. You could, of course, aim at the face and see what happens there.

This method may need to tried out the next outing with the guys. Find the one who is being a bit of jerk. Tell him "Here, hold my beer..." or "Hey watch this!!..." Could be fun for you and everyone else, minus one.

Cold Steel makes an unbreakable bat made from synthetic polymers and is designed for just this use.

The three or four cell mag would be good, albiet a short reach self defence tool (i.e. weapon) and very easy to explain to local law enforcement. When responding to this I was kinda thinking self defence via "harmless" items. For example, in Great Britton it would be hard to justify the cold steal polymer bats....easier to explain a normal one. Or even better a cricket bat. Bonus of being shorter and heavier than a baseball bat. Other items could be a hammer, either end but steer away from the claw end (asuming you want less than lethal aplications), hatchet, axe or crowbar. Put a couple rolls of quarter into a "double bagged" pair of socks. Kitchen knives, meat cleaver, large pair of sicisors, golf clubs, hockey stick, tennis racket......the list goes on and on.
For me, I'll stick to my mossberg 590 (and yes it does have the bayonet lug...and bayonet) or my glock 22 with nite sights and m3 flashlight underneath.
But I didn't have guns, I'm swinging for the bleacher on the first crook who tries to steal home

-Bill Liptak

I'm using my machete if I can cut a 2" limb off a tree with one swipe then other limbs shouldnt be a problem. Thats if my guns are somehow unavailable.

Good point about the legality. Unfortunately in Canada anything becomes a weapon the second you swing it at somebody so it wouldn't matter if it were a bat or a kitchen knife or a lead pipe...all would be considered weapons home invasion or not.

So if anyone desides to break into our homes here in Canada we had better make it worth our while as we are going to jail anyway. Screw the bat, my Mossberg 935 and a few 3 1/2 inch Mag shells filled with #4 Buckshot will make the jailtime worth it.

Break in? I thought folks in Canada didn't lock doors...at least that's what Michael Moore showed in "Fahrenheit 9-11"

Some don't. I have friends who leave their doors unlocked at night.

I don't buy into that brand of faith.