When it comes to full preparedness, it’s important to have a healthy weapon supply and familiarity. Whether it’s home invasions or aggressive wildlife, a well-tended handgun or rifle can be the difference between life and death. But often in one’s enthusiasm, it’s taken too far. That line is usually explosives.
In popular culture and media, grenades are often seen as a the badass upgrade of firepower. While this works well enough for fiction, they’re stakes in real life are far more dire. They’re far more dangerous to you and your property than they are help against deterring offenders. The legality of them is also rather thin line, which means just ownership can result in jail time.
Risk VS Reward
The biggest issue is how destructive they are. The lethal range of a standard frag grenade is two to three meters. They remain dangerous even past that. the sonic wave from the blast, as well as the fragments inside, are enough to damage everything in its surroundings. While being prepared is good, there will not be an instance where a grenade is the necessary choice for survival, short of fighting in the middle of a third world rebellion. You don’t need a grenade to defend yourself from a bear.
Jail Time
The legality of explosives has been a hard one. Hand grenades are regulated under the National Firearms Act, a federal law first passed in 1934 and amended by the Crime Control Act of 1968. The 1968 amendments made it illegal to possess “destructive devices,” which includes grenades. (26 U.S.C. § 5801.) While I speak only of the United States, many other countries share this mindset toward the device.
In summary: disregard grenades. They’re fun in fiction but reckless in reality.