Close the door. Lock it. Set the alarm.

This is how most people close up their summer homes. Yet an unprecedented amount of people fail to take the necessary steps to make sure that alarm system is functioning properly.

Here are some key tips about keeping your summer home safe:

Alarms are essentially “dumb” electronic devices that, like any other frequently used device, are prone to failure and have certain components that are more reliable than others. Have a professional check your alarm system on an annual basis. A trusted and experienced electronic security installer will be able to assess your system prior to closing the house up and determine if any part should be replaced in a preventative nature.

Alarms are good at one thing – alerting people that something may be amiss at your home. Equally important to the initial alarm is a response mechanism. Have a family friend or community contact that is available on short notice to come to the house to open the door for the police, to conduct an outside inspection and to look for environmental damage such as water, or excessive cold / hot temperatures. All of these problems can be detected by alarm systems and done so without a great deal of advanced technology, however, it is in the analysis and response to those signals where alarm systems offer their best value.

Fire is also a big risk to summer houses. Often times local fire departments are staffed by volunteers and have a long response rate. It’s important to make a thorough assessment of fire risk, both as to what equipment can be put in the house to prevent fire and also what kind of insurance coverage you should have in case a fire does occur in a closed summer house.

When building a new summer house consider installing a residential sprinkler system. Sprinklers can dramatically reduce the risk of fire. However, because sprinklers can not be turned off remotely or electronically, they can also be a source of water damage. Therefore, it is crucial when installing sprinklers to make sure that there is a robust system in place to respond to the home if the sprinkler is activated. Have a “human” response ready to step in and make sure the water valve is easily identifiable and accessible, even to strangers.

Electronic security is not the end of the security obligation. Homes must have strong locks which should be secured prior to closing. There may be extra deadbolt locks that are not used during the summer, make sure these locks are installed and locked prior to leaving the house. For houses that have large amounts of glass exposure, consider using security window film to make it more difficult to break through the glass and break into the house.

All of these steps will go a long way to ensuring that when you return next spring, your house will be in top shape and ready for the opening spring security check list.

It depends.

In 2008, Kurt William Havelock plotted a massacre outside the Sun Devil Stadium in Arizona, the location of that year’s Super Bowl. He mailed death threats to surrounding media outlets, saying things like “I will sacrifice your children upon the altar of your excess” and “it will be swift and bloody.” Mr. Havelock surrendered to local police and was convicted on six counts of mailing threatening letters.

Last week, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the conviction of Mr. Havelock, on the basis that threats to corporations are legal. According to the Judge William Canby, “the ‘person’ to whom the mail is addressed must be an individual person, not an institution or corporation.”

This decision is a miscarriage of justice and should have us all worried.

The vast majority of people making threats and carrying out their violent acts do not threaten individual targets, but rather they communicate via veiled threats (i.e. making broad sweeping threats about an organization, corporation, or any other group of people). Institutions including non-profits, religious groups, political groups, etc. are simply groups of individuals who have a connection with each other and equally suffer from threats as would any individual. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals makes a distinction between individuals and corporations where there should be none. The law is intended to protect all people from threats.

Timothy McVeigh was known for firing off angry letters to local papers with threats like “America is in serious decline. We have no proverbial tea to dump. Should we instead sink a ship of Japanese imports? Is a civil war imminent? Do we have to shed blood to reform the current system? I hope it doesn’t come to that, but it might.” He also rages on against “cataclysmic” taxes, self-serving and corrupt politicians and the disappearance of the “American Dream.” These threats were not against a specific person – but they ultimately resulted in the deaths of 168 people (19 of them children under the age of 6) when Mr. McVeigh blew up the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City in April of 1995.

Threats themselves are crimes and should be handled as such. Ultimately, “person-hood” vs. “organization” is not the real issue here – the issue is that making threats are illegal. Period.