We moved there in the early 2000s, those security upgrades happened long before we moved in (I think at least a decade). We were told a wealthy older woman (which was like 80% of the neighborhood population demographic…) was assaulted years earlier which prompted the upgrades to all the homes in the community.

The idea was that if there was an intruder or shooter you could stay low, crawl to the wall and hit one of the buttons without showing yourself through a window or be forced to go to the wall mounted alarm controller to hit the panic button.

I can’t remember if we also had remotes in addition to the buttons but I think not…

Problem we had with these buttons was furniture placement. Couches and beds might block access to some or even trigger the button if pressed too close to the wall. Some homes had pull strings instead of buttons, I always guessed that was the reason.

Used to live there, when I was a kid, in a gated home within a gated community that had armed guards at the front.

If guns made us safer, why did they need all of that and why did they install panic buttons 2 feet off the floor on most walls of the house?

So glad I left Texas.