It's recommended in Paxton Quigley's book, Not an Easy Target. See it here (under DoorJammer): http://www.paxtonquigley.com/doorjammer.html

I like the design of this one better than those adjustable door braces (http://www.carvaluesplus.com/security/jammer.htm), but can't seem to find it anywhere. Any leads would be appreciated!

Home Depot/Lowe's usually has them in the Master padlock area. If not that area, try door hardware.

where do you use it for? Your home door or for traveling. For traveling there are a few models. Or go for simple and cheap and buy wegdes from a hardware store. Cheap as chips and really strong.

A question is what is the purpose? Is it to lock yourself into a room from intruders, give yourself some time to prepare for an assault into the room, or give yourself some passive defense in a hotel or guest home.

As a basic passive deterrent buy a simple $2 door wedge. Kick it under the door frame close to the jam. Regardless if a man is kicking the deadbolt or snapping the chain, the door wont budge back unless its literally ripped from the hinges.

In fact even if the door has no lock, it will be darn near impossible to open the door with the wedge under it.

The one on Quigley's website is the only one that exists, apparently. The photo is poor, she doesn't provide a link.

All the door jammers I could find are bars that you stick under the doorknob, except for this one http://www.911zone.com/shopdisplayproducts.asp?id=20&cat=Door+%26+Window+Jammers

And if that is indeed the one, Quigley should pay attention and get the name right. AND provide a link or source.

Sue

One downfall of this design is that it can only be used with solid-core, inherently sturdy doors. Since this product only braces the bottom part of the door, instead of the middle doorknob section like the alternatives, a hollow-cardboard-core door (e.g., interior doors) will simply break at the bottom where the DoorJammer braces it. The alternatives that brace against the doorknob section are much better (although not perfect) for hollow-cardboard-core doors, as they reinforce a section of the door that is already made stronger by the doorknob being latched and/or locked into the doorframe.

That reminds me of that silly Naked Gun movie where OJ tries to kick in the door and gets his leg stuck in the splintered mess.

If you are traveling then a normal rubber/plastic door stop
will work, just remember to cut a bit of the tip off so
anyone on the outside will not know the position of the stop.
The blunt tip will make it more difficult to tap out from the outside but not affect use of the Jam.

A bit off topic but I just browsed that website and found this little "gem" on the Useless Weapons page:
http://www.paxtonquigley.com/useless_weapons.html



For the record, I have absolutely no idea who Paxton Quigley is but the above is, well, ridiculous. Sure, a knife may not be a good self-defense weapon for a lot of people. But that thing about a sharp blade having "no stopping power" really says it all.

If I were you, I'd just take everything Mrs. Quigley says with a big grain of salt.

And yes, a door wedge of any kind is at best only as good as the door itself. Which in practice means you'd be better off looking for some more effective solution.

Great point. In hotels with interior-only room access the gap between the door and the floor can be signficant.

Yikes. I have no idea who he is either but he sounds like he received his weapons training/education on MSNBC.

Some ideas, just remember when traveling overseas for women, your best defense is proximity alarms, lots of loud noise and some type of wedge since firearms and knives aren't options overseas, but big kitchen knives and things you can use as a club while loud noise is being blasted helps. Bottom line is never ever be taking alive. In the states firearms are recommended with prox alarms.

Wedge with alarm

http://www.corporatetravelsafety.com/swege.html




Proximity alarm so you know who's getting ready to try to get in

http://www.uberreview.com/2007/07/hotel-door-security-alarm.htm



The Club

http://journal.drfaulken.com/master-lock-265d-door-security-bar-review/



Door anchor

http://www.christinecolumbus.com/products.asp?pID=715



And my personal favorite that I highly recommend is a Model 500ES snub nose .50 bear pistol,you can use it to kill bears and shoot through walls and doors that try to come in. I guarantee one shot from this thing and they will think twice about coming in.

http://www.smith-wesson.com/webapp/wcs/s...tegory_rn=15707

Paxton Quigley is a her, not a him. Her thing is women's self-defense and she is a proponent of handgun carry. GF has one of her books around here, there it is -- Armed and Female: . . ..

Firearms and bear mace are the best options in the states for women IMHO. If they are going to break in then someone will pay.

I remember reading about a guy selling a strap that wraps around the door return rendering the hotel door practically unopenable. You probably do the same with a Walmart or home store type nylon webbing, especially if it has a ratchet type tightener.

it's not clear to me what application you are thinking about.

if you are looking at strengthening your home entry door against intrusion - these heavy duty box strikes can be installed without needing a lot of skill.

they also have other door security hardware. i've seen their products at do it best and other home improvement stores.

a longer throw deadbolt, when coupled with one of these, looks like 'regular' door hardware. but you'd probably put a hole in the door - or tear the door off the hinges - before attaining entry.

it buys you time to 911 and / or unlock the weapons.

Basically, I'd like something for the bedroom door that will buy me some additional time to arm myself in the event of a home invasion. I wanted something better than the lock we already have the door. But since the door isn't a solid-core one, I suppose the DoorJammer wouldn't work as well as I'd hoped. Thanks for the heads-up.

The rubber door stop would at least get use while travelling and at home. I guess we'll have to experiment with a few things.

I bought one at Big Lots for eight bucks.

One thing to remember is that there really is nothing that is practical to travel with that will completely stop someone from getting through your door. Hotel door rooms are relatively simple to force, so anything you use is simply a deterrent or obstacle
to buy you time.

I travel with a Wedge-It. The not only can be used to wegde the base of the door, the also can be used to keep the door open if needed.

Then the best thing might be to install a new, solid core door with a sturdy lock. Of course, this only applies to your home - safety in hotel rooms is a different matter.

Bracing a hollow core door is useless - I've put my fist through one! (2 hits, reach in) - never mind having to open one with a youn child on the other side who had collapsed - one kick, and I was in - not that it unlatched - there was a hole in the door big ehough to reach in and unlact the door - I spent the rest of the day putting up a new door in both cases

These are cute and versatile.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSXnilQ4Z6U

i hate to assume, but i assume you've taken the 'layered' defense - strengthening all of your exterior points of entry and that your question is for the last line of defense.

hence my previous suggestion.

you might consider an interior 'fiberglass' door - much more difficult to put a fist through, looks quite smart, and less than $100.00 at lowe's - even comes with door frame - and coupled with the heavy duty box strike, should buy you a lot of time.

Depends on if you're talking a few extra seconds or minutes. If you're only looking to buy a little bit of time, a second deadbolt installed higher up on the door and with a stronger strikeplate will delay entry. That prevents someone from kicking directly where the lock is, and the flexibility of the door will work against them. Eventually the door will break, you could upgrade the door to something stronger, but then the weak point becomes the frame. But the difference between a one kick entry and two or three kicks might be enough.

Sorry Tom, it doesn't.

How do we define "stopping power"? I take it to mean that you can do enough damage to someone before the can get their hands around your neck or draw a weapon that isn't already in their hands. She is pointing out the 20-30 stabs because people have taken that many and still walked into the ER. That probably took a minute, minute and half to inflict, to.

Unless you do massive amounts of damage (decapitation, disembowelment, amputation), the way cutting weapons work is by blood loss or the severing of muscle tissue. The latter takes a LOT of skill, and usually a willing or at least unaware opponent. Blood loss takes time. During that time, you've got someone who didn't have your best interests at heart within arms reach. And there is a very real chance their blood qualifies as a biological weapon.

Considering that Quiqley's target audience is women, that lack of stand off become a big factor. Due to the general lack of body mass, and upper body strength in general compared to men, a woman with a knife unless she is very well trained in hand to hand is at a lethal disadvantage to someone 6-12 inches taller and 50-100% heavier even if all they have is their bare hands.

On the other hand, five or six 3/8" holes to the torso (or even just two or three that actually connect) has greater stopping power. Putting a bullet through the skull, not that hard; through the rib cage, very easy. Yes, we are again looking at blood loss, but we have more damage to deeper structures and two openings. And a LOT more kinetic energy. Oh, and you don't have to be close enough to smell their breath. If you let them get that close, you've already pretty much failed, man or woman.

So even though I've carried a knife with defensive applications in mind, I don't count on it, and I know quite a bit about how to use it. But it does not stop them quickly, I know if I'm using a knife, I'm going to be there a hell of a lot longer than I should be. I'm buying time for those with me to get clear. If I'm that worried about my own defense, I'm adding something with some range. And if I'm getting ore recommending something for someone who will typically practice maybe an hour or two a month, it absolutely is not going to be a knife- the maintence time of the needed skills is too high, the performance is to low, and range envelope is bad as the bare hand.

I'd rather give someone a length of 1" solid steel round stock, with sports tape for a grip- that will break bones, mobility kills are faster than fluid loss kills.

YMMV.

People have taken a fair number of bullets and lived. Somebody took a load of 12ga. buckshot but it didn't stop him from taking away the bad guy's shotgun and beating him to a pulp with it. There are NO guarantees ever. On the other hand, many, many people have been killed by something as feeble as a single .380 or .22LR. It works both ways.

I don't care about statistics and terms like stopping power or blood loss. It's a technical way to talk about something that is completely non-technical in nature. Which often indicates people don't entirely understand what they're talking about.

Anyway, cutting and thrusting with a knife is a gross-motor skill that actually improves under stress as opposed to the fine-motor skills required for using a gun. A lot of people lose fine-motor skills under extreme stress and that's a major factor I've not seen mentioned here lately.

Once you're at grappling range (where attacks tend to happen in the civilian world) there is basically no safe way to defend against a sharp blade. Some of the most experienced combatives instructors were reluctant to teach knife defense techniques because they knew they probably wouldn't work in reality.

A knife is a thrusting weapon first. Anyone can easily land three solid thrusts in a single second. It's not even a matter of skill or training, just intent. A kitchen knife a few inches deep in the gut will stop you in your tracks pretty much right away. Does that qualify for stopping power? A quick cut across the hand will sever fingers and cut tendons. Land a cut on the inside of the wrist or forearm and that arm is gone. A thrust to the groin plus a ripping cut on the withdrawal, whew! Then there's the face and neck, Achilles tendon and all the other minor targets of opportunity.

Above all, a knife is a psychological weapon. There are very few people who won't panic while they're being cut apart. That's also why knives work best in an ambush situation or when you manage to distract the other guy with a verbal ploy, quick punch or some dirt thrown into his eyes. But it definitely doesn't and shouldn't look like an Escrima bout.

Are knives a perfect self-defense weapon? Probably far from it. Are they suitable for women? I don't know, quite a few women have successfully used a knife in self-defense but yes, size and strength are a major factor. Would I recommend a knife to a woman? Extremely unlikely! A can of pepper spray would probably be a better choice most of the time.

But any time I hear somebody talking about knife fighting as if they were trying to write down a new Dungeons & Dragons manual (how many damage points per critical hit again?) I know that person simply does not understand the issue and probably has zero actual experience.

Your Mileage May Vary - and I really mean that!