[bamafan]

Seems to me that one of the best ways to stop a lot of this is to go to a truly gated community. All vendors would have to be screened and given ID's before they could have access. There are a lot of questionable persons just running the streets of TV. There also needs to be some controls placed on solicitation. A gun is not always the answer, as stated most people when confronted with a situtation will react in an undesirable manner, however it does cure the receivedism rate.
Alarm systems are only as good as the response to them. If the bad guys know that the response is going to be slow then they do not have a lot to lose. They will however alert and sometimes annoy your neighbors with the siren going off. Oh and has the Daily Sun mentioned any of the break ins?