I've never understood that about America. You guys have weak doors. In Western Europe you have brick houses, heavy double glazing, and the outer doors are solid

I've never understood that about America. You guys have weak doors. In Western Europe you have brick houses, heavy double glazing, and the outer doors are solid wood or stretched metal, or one of the very heavy plastics reinforced with metal bars. The walls, nearly all of them, are concrete or brick. Security doors are reinforced concrete. Lately there has been a big push (by the police) to replace traditional locks with security locks and put locks and shutters on the windows, security doors, ... complete with tax breaks and a personal advisor (police would come down and do a security survey of your house if you wanted them to. They'd index all the entrances and exits, point out where there would be no visibility, tell you to have at least one locked barrier inside the house, ... Then give you the report, and I don't think they even kept a copy. Not that it would help them that much to get in). Windows get double tax breaks : better security and better isolation. The big problem they're trying to protect against is power-tool equipped robbery gangs coming in from outside of the country, but within the EU. Frankly, given the response to self-defense these days (intrusion = 1 year probation, hurting an intruder goes from 6 months to 10 years, but guaranteed not to be fully probation), you're pretty much forced to do things this way, plus it's a lot safer. If the police wanted to kick down my door (previous owner installed a security door) ... they'd have to bring a tank, or heavy power tools, and it would take them 20-30 minutes to get in. SWAT teams exist of course, and they regularly get into that situation. Person locks himself in with drugs, and they need the entire afternoon to get past the door of the house. Then you go visit America, and you see American houses. I'm not exactly fit anymore, but I'm pretty sure I could kick down one of those doors. The windows do not resist a light tap (average West European windows will easily resist a football getting kicked into them, good ones will resist a hammer, and when they do shatter, they shatter like plastic does, which still doesn't give you access without 10 minutes of cleanup) Always wondered why that is. Is it just cheaper ?