Some days it feels like the Biden administration is at war with Western Civilization. It’s almost as if they want to take Americans down a few pegs in terms of our standard of living. They’re actively working to decriminalize crime while restricting and criminalizing gun ownership.
Those who run government will always live large, of course, while the little people like you and me will just have to sacrifice and learn to live with less in order to save Gaia or rethink policing and criminal justice.
Are you ready for what’s coming?
Crime has been increasing rapidly for the last two-plus years. In many metropolitan areas, it’s spiraling back to the levels of the dystopian 1970s. Utopian Democrats led by Joe Biden and his sidekick Kamala Harris have advocated and worked for defunding the police nationwide since well before the 2020 elections.
Today, with many politicians throwing the police under the bus and cutting department budgets across the nation, police agencies are struggling to keep the officers they have and to find suitable new recruits. Meanwhile violent crime grows as the bad guys get more brazen knowing the likelihood of getting caught — or remaining in jail if they do — shrinks by the day.
The best thing any of us can do to avoid becoming victims of these emboldened bad guys is to maintain situational awareness. If you look like a hard target and have that commanding presence about you, 95% of potential attackers will move on and look for an easier target.
Sadly, given the current state of political discourse, we should all expect more political turmoil and violence. This includes violent mobs blocking streets and attacking motorists. Or lunatics running down people because they perceive them as having extremist political views.
Here in Illinois and places like California, intentionally self-destructive energy policies have limited traditional electricity production and will result in failures when the grid is strained. Adding larger numbers of mandated electric cars charging overnight without improvements to generating capacity and people should expect increasingly unreliable electric service in the next five years.
Backup power capability for your home should be a top priority. That’s unless you don’t think you need your freezer, sump pump and your CPAP to work all the time. Or power for communications, surveillance cameras, and alarms, along with lighting for safety and security.
Given how winters in much of the nation can sometimes get mighty cold, it might behoove your family to have a backup source of heat. And no, that decorative fireplace isn’t gonna keep your family warm if the power goes down.
You may also need to get into better shape. Join a gym and work out. Lose some weight and gain some muscle mass. It’ll make you tougher and harder to kill.
If you’re older, start walking. Do mobility exercises to improve your range of motion. Get into shape now so you can react more effectively in an emergency.
Also visit the doctor. Get a physical and make sure you’ve got a 30-day supply of any life-sustaining medications on hand. A 90-day supply would be even better.
If you snore, get a CPAP. No, it’s not exactly romantic, but you’ll sleep better, live longer, and have a better quality of life.
What else? You need to acquire the basic skill sets to be a “Minuteman.” You need decent handgun skills along with a rifle that you can shoot well enough to score solid hits on a man-sized target at a hundred yards, minimum. Have some magazines loaded and ready to go, too. Unloaded magazines are useless.
Don’t have those skills? Seek out coursework at a local range or with a local instructor. Here are some tips for finding better instruction. Also, Appleseed shoots do a nice job teaching gun safety, rifle marksmanship, and American heritage and history for a very affordable price.
You’ll need some basic gear to function as a “Minuteman” in any weather, including rainy, 30-something degree weather. That means gear made of synthetics like GoreTex clothing (preferably in discreet colors).
Good boots are a must as well. Boots that are broken in for your footsies. What’s more, you should have the knowledge of how to dress and work — or fight if it comes to that — in adverse weather without getting hypothermia or frostbite.
Again, bonus points for seeking out training in any and all of the above. Buying a piano doesn’t make you a musician any more than buying an AR-15 or a handgun makes you an “operator.”
Hint: You don’t have to be an operator. You just have to have better skills than the ethically- and usually intellectually-challenged hoodlums who learned firearm skills from movies and music videos. These bad guys have a lifetime of experience inflicting violence upon others. A good skill set and situational awareness will keep you from becoming their next victim.
You’re probably already got the gun and ammo thing knocked out. Make sure you’ve got the first aid, fire suppression, and potable water things figured out at your home.
And because few of us can go it alone for very long, make sure you build your network of friends. Make mutual arrangements for a place to stay in an emergency, and make preparations to reciprocate with guests if their residence becomes uninhabitable during an emergency.
Closer to home, get to know your neighbors as part of improving your general security posture. Make yourself a resource and an asset to them. They’ll be the same for you. Find out if they have some knowledge, skill sets or talents that might come in handy in a bad situation.
I know of several networks of great people with lots of skills sets that I’ve met through Guns Save Life. If you start regularly attending one or more meetings of similar organizations each month, you’ll probably meet some exceptional people, too. Gun clubs and ranges are chock full of good people. Go to monthly meetings, participate, and make friends and relationships.
Other folks have networks they’ve built from family, church, or the workplace. It doesn’t matter where you find them, just have them. The better the quality of people, the better your life will be.
If you have any network of successful, productive and talented friends, you’re way ahead of most. Keep working on it though. And do the networking now in decent times, not after an emergency hits.
Food: Most of us, myself included, could use less food. That said, compulsory dieting sucks. Make sure you’ve got shelf-stable food for at least two weeks on hand if you’re in an apartment and four to eight weeks if you live in a single-family home.
Even if nothing happens, you’ve bought the food cheaper now than it will be a year from now. Given fertilizer shortages, droughts, input and transportation costs for crops, food is likely to get much more expensive.
Water: Make sure you’ve got a source for potable water, either through chemical treatment, filtration, or other means. Diarrhea and dehydration isn’t a good way to live…or to die.
There are a lot of boxes to check to help make societal upheaval more of an inconvenience for you and your family than a life-threatening crisis. Put in a little effort now to get ready.
Hope for the best, but plan for the worst.