The People of the Gun are hardly a homogenous group. There’s the tacticool tribe, the not-so-fabulous Fudds, the doyennes of self-defense, those magnificent marksman and their shooting machines and preppers (amongst others). While the anti-gun media and most members of the firearms fraternity view armed survivalists as loonies, aren’t preppers the meta group? Even if you’re just fixing on shooting Bambi or punching paper, you gotta be prepared. My question to you: where do you draw the line between prepared and paranoid? Number of guns, amount of ammo on hand, what? Or is that a line that doesn’t need drawing?
I draw the line at the amount of money my wife lets me spend.
Yep, pretty much.
I don’t have one of those any more, so I’m limited by space and available funds, not in that order.
And there we have it wives are the line they keep men from being in the paranoid crowd by limiting the amount spent on guns ammo and other things
Sounds about right.
+1
Not mine. My wife pretty much demanded that we have a full pack in each vehicle with emergency medical, food, and other supplies – e.g. blankets, additional clothes, flashlight, etc. Fortunately I already did most of that as a holdover from being a heavy 4x4er/hiker, but we are at near-Mormon levels of emergency preparedness both at home, and in our vehicles.
We aren’t “preppers” per se, but we are definitely ready for most emergencies that could come our way. You’ll just never find me building a bunker or burying guns and ammo in the back yard.
while i can’t stand the sight of a perfectly good gun going to waste ( i.e, buried or destroed in one of those gun-buybacks) i do want a bunker………not because i’m a prepper, but i think that would be the ultimate man-cave.
My wife is a mormon. I am not. I have to sometimes rein her in a little on preps. Space is the biggest problem.
Katrina really got her attention. I’m of the opinion and experience that natural and man made disasters can happen at any time any where. So having sensible preps is a good thing.
No, it seems to me the disarmed aren’t barred from paranoia.
haha. Exactly. +1
The prepared gun owner isn’t the fat guy in his basement with 1,000,000 rounds of ammo.It’s the quiet woman who runs twice a week and shoots her one carry pistol religiously.
Actually both can qualify. No need to discriminate amongst the two.
Agreed. I have a supply of ammo and workout regularly. However, if we discount fat shooters we lose half the gun owners out there or more.
Training >>>>> Gear
If shit goes down I’d rather know how to handle myself and have practice doing so than have a basement full of crap I’ve never put to any use.
That said: ideally I’d take a well stocked basement and the knowledge / experience.
+1. Knowledge and skillset are just as important as gear
Well the statement I replied to assumes that the person who has a bagillion ammo stockpiled and is fat doesn’t train. I’ve seen fat people at the range. Two, the guy with a googolplex of ammo has plenty to spare when something happens. Which also brings the question of WHAT happens? There are many different methods to prepare, tolerances of success, natural talent, ability to perform under life or death pressure vs training, that have to be examined based on the situation.
Who’s to also say the fat guy doesn’t drill, dry fire, use airsoft substitutes etc etc in his basement? Also an expert marksman with 5 rounds can do some fantastic work with the 5 rounds, but after that they are like having a professional computer programmer looking for a desk job amongst notech tribes in the backwoods of the Amazonian Rain Forest.
Apparently, FEMA is prepared for the shit going down, and soon. Do they have knowledge that we lack, and/or are keeping from us? YOU DECIDE.
Agreed. That fat guy can burn those fat reserves a lot longer than the woman running twice a week. After everyone has starved to death and died and the flora and fauna has taken over everything and he is still burning that fat he’ll have enough ammo to to last him the rest of his life for defense while scavenging and hunting game.
yeah, but humans aren’t a species that gain high advantage from having lots of fat reserves. when a person is severely overweight, that usually entails a lot of other health issues coming along with it. not only that, but I doubt the overweight prepper can even get out of his own way if he had to move in a hurry.
humans just aren’t like most animals, whose bodies can carry a large fat reserve and still run several miles flat-out without stopping.
yep. it blows me away how many big-time preppers are in woeful physical shape. overweight, smoker, chewer, etc.
Exactly. Are these people really going to waste space in their SHTF bag on cigarettes? And where do they plan to get more once they run out? What are they going to do, trade valuable ammunition or food in exchange for a few more cartons of Marlboros?
I guess it’s no big deal as long as they are prepared to give it up immediately, but why would you want to go through nicotine withdrawal in addition to being in a SHTF situation, probably under the greatest stress of your life?
With respect to your first comment, Jeff, it seems true that the overweight are much less prepared to go without a few meals. I wholly agree. The mean and lean are much better equipped for that sort of survival.
I am a fat prepper I wish I had a million rounds in my basement :). With that said I have lost 75 lbs since I started prepping. There is an old saying. Assumption is the mother of all FU.
Thanks
Robert
75 pounds! Keep up the good work!
Turn it around. The prohibitionist, anti-gun people are the ones who are paranoid.
Agreed 100%
I agree. I’m not paranoid! Those other people are! I can hold a gun and have no fear. They are the ones totally spazing out over just the mere sight of them.
Yea, being paranoid is thinking one of the millions of ar15s out there is likely to hurt you.
Or, one of the millions of snakes out there will slither in and bite you. Or, one of those millions of cars out there will run you over. Or, one of those billions of meteors out there will fall on you.
I suppose there are lots of things to be paranoid about. Meanwhile I just wish for meddling busybodies to leave me and my stuff alone.
Apparently being a gay gun owner makes me not gay enough, for what its worth.
As in, other gays don’t think you’re gay enough? That doesn’t seem fair. So much for tolerance.
You’ll find that the “tolerant” type only tolerate people who are just like them. Which isn’t very tolerant at all, is it?
The tolerant only tolerate tolerance?
I’m sure if you can find a way to mount a pink M2 on a Miata you can top out the scales.
But you’re a member of a minority that has been routinely and often violently discriminated against by law enforcement and government officials, so clearly you’re supposed to turn to law enforcement and government officials for your own personal safety!
Wait, I think I missed something…
A minority and a gun owner. Sounds like your going need to stock up extra hard. Lots of bigots out there, hate guns, gays and everything in between. Also good job for standing up for yourself too. The more people fighting for ALL of their rights the better.
The line between paranoid and prepared isn’t quantifiable, it’s situational. I CCW and own an AR-15. I have friends who think I’m a crazy nutjob prepper. They’ve never met my Prepper friends with a 12 month food storage plan. When the day comes, my non-gunny friends will be jealous of my rifle, and I’ll be jealous of my other friend’s food.
IF the day comes….. unless you have some inside info you’re interested in sharing.
There’s a very good chance we are prepping for our kids (or the random person who finds our abandoned house), as we very well may be bones and dust before our plans are ever utilized.
Gun gets food kind of like rock breaks scissors.
If the people with the food have thought of that as well, then the “gun only” plan won’t work out as well. There’s no reason not to do both, and certainly no reason to do neither.
That won’t cut it either. During the great depression, white tail deer in the southeast went extinct. Many other species as well. They had to reintroduce the species from other regions to get back what was hunted for food. The human population back then has nothing on today’s numbers. You will see most wildlife disappear in the case of a national catastrophe, unless a LARGE chunk of the population dies quickly. The real goal is having a plan to supply your own food. Heirloom seeds, knowledge of hydroponics, and a way to hide the produce from looters.
Rambeast, during the great depression a large chunk of the American population were rural and experienced hunters. Modern America is mostly large urban sprawls. Hunting skills are rare and how would these masses get to the open land to hunt?
I think in a nation wide SHTF the cities would tear themselves apart in a mass of hysteria and panic. Those that survive this culling will migrate like locusts outward to the smaller towns and farms. If the rural folk aren’t prepared and work together they will be ground under.
I am getting close to 2 years supply myself but as someone else put it the best option is to have a resupply plan. Something I currently lack because I don’t own any land at this time. I hope to change that in the next few years.
Thanks
Robert
From my understanding, while a lot of preppers are gun enthusiasts, guns are not the most important thing to practical prepping. It certainly very important to have a good means of self defense, but more important are basic needs like food.
Keeping your food supplies away from Loyd (and his friends) for your family to EAT is rather a basic task.
^This. Doesn’t matter how well you prep for an emergency if you have no plan to protect yourself and those preparations from the many people who didn’t bother.
This is the difficult part of prepping :
1. You have yours and screw everybody else. You and your family/close friends are going to survive while watching everyone else die.
2. You didn’t make anything even close to adequate preparations and now you are ready to take by force whatever you can get from those who did prepare.
Not a pretty picture either way. Aside from global natural catastrophe like the Yellowstone volcano or a meteor strike/alien invasion can’t we work together for some sort of system that doesn’t pit us against each other in this sort of scenario? I don’t claim to have the answer to that, but I think it is a legitimate question.
People are irrational creatures, and in a SHTF or TEOTWAWKI situation, they will rationalize that you owe them what you have. Some communities will band together and cooperate, but then the risk of collectivism creeps in. Unless that community is successful at keeping needs met with the population and mentally prepared for long term hardship, it will tear itself apart quickly.
While the state mercenaries (cops) were totally in the wrong (towards the end of the video) the home residents should NEVER have opened the door for them. If they had a search warrant they wouldn’t have bothered knocking (pounding) — they would have already had a SWAT team there and they would have busted the door open and… well you know what happens next.
Geez, I think I fell into almost every category there. Hunter wasn’t mentioned though, and it’s probably the third most important reason I practice, reload, shoot, own, etc…
Hunters were included in the insult tossed off toward the “Fudds”. It is becoming readily apparent that Fargo has a strong dislike for Traditional Americans and the nation we built.
“Dislike”? “Contempt” would be a much better word.
So Fudds to you are “Traditional Americans”, with which you identify yourself? So you’re a hunter who’s completely fine with legislation banning modern semi-autos and restricting magazine capacity, because it doesn’t affect you. Besides, people who want those guns aren’t authentic gun owners, anyway right? Not like you.
@ emfortygasmask: FWIW, most of the gay dudes I know are gun owners, and that’s quite a few. I wasn’t aware that being a gun owner had any effect on being romantically interested in men. Being who you are is good enough, please don’t let haters get you down brother!
Right you are.
Actually it could be that being gay would cause a need for self defense, ya know from homophobes like the Westboro baptists. But yeah, do whatever yo want bro! It’s a free(ish) country. Usually.
I think paranoia is the moment when you don’t do something for fear of the possible end result.being prepared is understanding that you do or don’t have the tools to make it work. Calling your children out of school for a week and hiding in the basement when a storm is brewing is paranoia, itemizing a list of food,water,medicine and batteries before the storm is preparing.
“A paranoid is someone who knows all the facts.” – William S. Burrough
I used to draw the line at gas masks, then I bought one.
The wife works in an industrial area near train tracks.
Now I draw the line at not being able to live a normal life because you spent all your time and money on preps.
Okay. Well, is being fearful and prepared not better than being an ostrich and dying?
Well, if my only options are “how to die” I’d rather go quickly than by, say, starvation or some debilitating disease like radiation sickness or some new plague.
Obviously, as far as anyone’s been able to tell, alive is better.
I’m reminded of the famous Swiss answer when reportedly asked about the threat of a German invasion.
“We will all each take one shot and then go home”
And so it was, and could well have been the same right here at that time.
Fast forward 30 years or so and it was more like “Half of us will take ten shots each and then go home.”
And now, I’m sorry to have to say, it may well be something like “One in ten of us will have to take a hundred shots and then we might go home…or not.”
Somewhere along the line, it was too late…
Tom
No, NOT too late. Defeatism is… well, it’s SELF-DEFEATING, now isn’t it?
There’s a lot of optimism amongst the “Freedom Movement;” several notable people have spoken out about the encroaching loss of our Liberties. Of course, there’s a strong Libertarian streak there, which the lamestream mass consumers seem to find off-putting. I thinks it’s because there are too many people who want freedom for themselves, but think other people should be prevented from doing things that the lamestream don’t like or are afraid to do themselves.
Of course, this includes all of the “sins.”
In the Land of the Free, the only rule is “don’t hurt anybody.”
.
Is it really paranoia if they really are out to get you… and there is no doubt that the modern-leftist wants to grab the guns (especially when you have a Bill Ayers’ disciple in power)
Paranoid is covering your windows with tinfoil and loading all 400 billion rounds you own into magazines and muttering about invaders from the planet zog
Well, I think we should worry at least a little bit about the quasimilitary buildup on planet Washington DC.
The rest of the stuff, well, it’s always a good idea to have extra water, food, blankets. first-aid supplies, books, flashlight batteries, etc., etc., etc – anybody can get crappy weather and there are areas where earthquakes and tornadoes are common.
But as to where a person draws the line arms-wise is pretty much a personal decision, apparently in a lot of cases determined by money.
And as others have said, is it paranoia if they really are out to “get” you?
And as
No but mounting an m2 hb in a crowes system on a miata may come close to the line on the other hand my old man used to say if you need it and don’t have it you’ll be singing the blues and if you have it but don’t need it you’ll find a use for it eventually. so its a very blurry line to say the least.
No, it isn’t.
I respectfully disagree William. Those that keep blankets candles matches food water tire chains and an extra gas can in their cars during the winter aren’t paranoid they are prepared even if, like this last winter, the weather turns out to be mild. I think the same holds true for those soldiers who, out in the field, carry spare ammo and rations as well as normal people who stock up on necessities and ammo you never know when it may come in handy but you keep it just in case.
NOT what I disagreed with. Respectfully.
Oh i apologize William
S’alright.
And if the Zogians get here who’s gonna look stupid….
You owe me 1 keyboard.
Being paranoid is thinking there is a zombie, or ATF agent, behind every tree. Being prepared is having the guns and ammo to defend yourself and family just in case there is a zombie, or ATF agent, behind every tree. And remember, just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean you’re not being followed.
+1
does buying homeowners insurance mean that I’m paranoid my house will catch on fire?
does buying life insurance mean that I’m paranoid I’m going to die soon?
the chances of something bad happening are small, but not zero, and sticking your head in the sand is not an action plan
Where do I draw the line between prepared and paranoid?
I don’t really draw one. Each person is free to consider possibilities and the probability of those possibilities happening as well as how seriously those possibilities would affect their lives.
Personally, I think most people have no idea how vulnerable our society is these days. I have come to learn every strength is a weakness and vice versa. For example our modern society and economy is highly specialized and takes full advantage of technology. The result is incredible efficiency, “just in time” business, and low prices. Those are all strengths of course. And yet there is also inherent weakness. A tiny disturbance to almost any piece of our specialization/economy could bring the whole thing crashing down. Remember, “just in time” means there is almost no inventory in anything anywhere and everyone is specialized.
The opposite of this — where everyone is a generalist, is mostly self-sufficient, and there are large inventories — means it doesn’t matter if there is a tiny disturbance to anything. That is a strength. And yet that would mean high prices and a lower standard of living for just about everyone, a considerable weakness.
What really bothers me is how many different sources of chaos exist. For example, several possible natural events can cause serious problems. (Think large fires, epic ice storms, massive floods, hurricanes, earthquakes, Megavolcanoes, Tsunamis, etc.) There are more exotic possibilities as well such as viral outbreaks, solar flares, and even small asteroid collisions with Earth.
Then of course there are countless human sources of chaos. Criminals, domestic governments, foreign governments (including cyber attacks, electromagnetic pulse weapons, and even invasion), market/investment raiders, and even accidental events such as chemical plant, refinery, and nuclear power plant disasters.
When you consider all the possibilities, it is actually amazing that something doesn’t impact each and every one of us more often. And yet someone might be facing cancer right now. If they don’t pour all of their resources into fighting their cancer, they won’t be alive next year to worry about what might go wrong. For that person, their personal choice is obvious. For someone else in good health, preparing for possible long term disruptions to our way of life might be an obvious choice.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KT_05h3EQ98&feature=youtube_gdata_player
This is an intro trailer to the upcoming Tom Clancy game The Division (it is worth a watch). It’s actually a pretty good intro to exactly what you said regarding the delicate balance of our system. Very dramatic, but I thought it made the point well. (Yes, I’m a gamer, which is why this came to mind when I read your comment. )
Wow, that video does an excellent job summarizing the complexity and vulnerability of our modern way of life. It is spot on.
Honestly, there are just some people who have completely disconnected from reality. I think it was a program on discovery about doomsday bunkers in which one of the customers was looking for automated turrets at the entrance.
To me, Paranoid means altering your behavior to prepare for something that is very unlikely while not addressing more imminent threats.
For example, most people who conceal carry EVERYWHERE they go would never dream of wearing a helmet while driving to work in their automobile. I would bet most of us are more likely to die from head injuries in motor vehicle accidents than to be shot. But then again, I could be wrong. Where I live, I consider concealed carrying everywhere a little paranoid given my risk of being shot. However, making the late night run to a convenience store in a bad part of town, my risk may be increased to the point that having a weapon makes a lot of sense. Most people would be better off driving the speed limit and making sure their tires are in good repair.
I don’t think there’s an easily quantifiable answer. For myself, it’s when preparing for an unlikely TEOTWAWKI scenario begins to dominate my life now. Unless you’re flat broke, getting enough supplies to get through a few weeks of trouble is pretty easy, as is having supplies to load up and get out out of Dodge quickly for a while. Likewise, it isn’t hard to get enough guns and ammunition for survival in most of the likely emergency scenarios. After that, I think diminishing returns start to kick in. How much do I want my life now to be ruled by my fears of dying after some catastrophic event? Not that much.
oh i see how it is leave the milsurp guys out int he cold …….
You’re paranoid when you have the money and time for either another case of MREs or some really great nookie and you choose the MREs.
Ladies and gentlemen, I believe we have a winner! ;-D
What if you decide on so-so nookie and a dozen cans of spam?
Always and i do mean ALWAYS choose the nookie… Spam and MREs make horrible dates and odd sex partners
@jwm, The Bachman – Turner Overdrive answered the question almost 40 years ago and they’ve never been proven wrong.
At the risk of being flamed, I was never a BTO fan. Enlighten me as to which song you refer? I will Tube it.
I don’t draw a line. I am not prepared for TEOTWAWKI, much less paranoid about it. If that ere to happen, I, as a transplant recipient, will be dead or dying when the meds run out. And my wife, who is completely disabled, will die, as will all the old and disabled, when there is no one to care for them. Under this scenario, preparing to survive more than a few weeks–which I can manage without preparing–is pointless. My only concern is with violent criminal mischief, and for that nothing more is needed than a pistol and practice.
The line is drawn when you can’t reasonably control your own preparation / paranoia impulses or you start to negatively impact your own well-being or the well-being of those around you.
Case in point, all the tards that bought out all the ammunition recently. Fact of the matter is, a good portion of people that did the buying / hoarding weren’t doing so for their own defense or prep, they were doing so to take advantage of a market phenomenon and to make a buck afterward. Pure greed and selfishness. Who really got hurt because it? All of the average Joes and Janes that just bought a a gun for legitimate self defense reasons that suddenly couldn’t find ammunition for their training.
Regarding common sense and responsibility, if you build a bunker in the middle of suburbia and piss off your HOA, well that’s your call and you are free to deal with the headache that comes with it. I would think having a bunker in a more practical location would be more ideal, but just like some OCers, some feel the need to call attention to themselves — for little or no gain. All I’m asking is for people to be a responsible adult about bringing bad press down on your own head because of your actions and owning up to the fallout (if any). If you call negative attention to yourself, you lose the right to bitch about it, because you knew what you were getting into.
My opinion on preppers: Prep all you want, I don’t really care what you do with your money — just stop with the projecting your philosophy of readiness on others. People will make up their own minds on what fits their lifestyle and their needs and your opinion is just that, an opinion.
Leave it at that.
The only reason I have for a limit on guns is that without one, I would have a limit on ammo.
I have no limit on ammo, and bring in as much as I need to make me comfortable.
I’m not comfortable. I doubt I ever will be.
Paranoid? Mental illness? After 30 years as a Paramedic and ER Nurse, my working theory is that everybody is crazy, but only a few of us get caught. Seems like most who get caught go to work in Washington DC.
Stockpile of ammo, multiple pistols and long guns, hard and soft body armor, gas mask, 3 week supply of food and water, first aid, critical aid and surgical kits, 30 years of survival/tactical/medical training, stress proofing, ongoing education and having already made all the hard decisions about life and death long ago I’m not sure what you’d call me. I call myself an ‘enthusiast’ because it’s sounds so much better than “I’m going to live through this if it’s possibly and if not I’ll die fighting”.
I long ago lost track of how much of it is practical, how much is hobby and how much might be paranoia. I know this, if the SHTF no one is going to be glad they took an extra vacation or ate many meals out instead of buying the gear and training they needed to stay alive.
Sometimes the SHTF because you broke down in a bad place, bad weather, or bad situation. Sometimes it’s because you or your hunting buddy has been serious injured far from civilization. Sometimes the SHTF for an hour, a day, a week or a month. The SHTF every minute of every day for someone somewhere, and at anytime it can happen to you.
I’m less involved in preparing for an apocalypse as preparing to remain safe and comfortable from more usual and common disasters and emergencies. It’s not all us vs them. I’m well enough prepared and well enough armed that I can spare some effort to help others stay safe. If I were myself terrified and starving, I too might well become part of the problem rather than the solution regardless of my morality. In a large enough disaster the human element is the most dangerous.
It’s been said that we’re only 9 missed meals from total anarchy. That gives the average person about 15 days to cause untold havoc before hunger stops their activities, unless someone else stops them first. Having food is as much about avoiding being part of the problem as it is about surviving. It’s irresponsible to have no food, no water and no means of personal or group defense. It’s tantamount to saying that you intend to rob your neighbors, loot and even kill if the worse comes, because no one simply gives up and starves.
Very well said.
Just ‘three weeks’ of food?
Three weeks will get you through most natural disasters. Anything longer, and you will need to get moving. Sitting on years of supplies without a small community to defend it will be extremely difficult to keep.
TO: Rambeast
RE: Supplies Are Not Enough
Three weeks will get you through most natural disasters. Anything longer, and you will need to get moving. Sitting on years of supplies without a small community to defend it will be extremely difficult to keep. — Rambeast
For the ‘long-game’, you need to become a farmer. That means a LOT considering how ignorant most urban/suburban people are about raising crops. Most of them will become the walking-starving as described in the A Distant Eden series..
Within several months most of them will be dead. Or become ‘Reavers’.
Regards,
Chuck(le)
[Be Prepared….or be a cannibal feast….]
Precisely. Having land is what most people think when considering this, but again, you have to worry about defending it.
There are step by step programs for self contained hydroponic systems out there, of which I recently aquired. It is fairly small, can be kept indoors, and also utilizes fish to eat plant waste and fish waste fertilizes the plants. A well maintained system will produce all the veggies a large family will need, and about 700 lbs of fish per year.
As others have mentioned in this thread, knowledge is power. Second only to the mental preparation to endure hardship.
So, when are you going to write up an article on your little enterprise? 🙂
I can’t publish the details, but I took a chance and went here when a prepper “mentor” of mine told me to check it out.
backyardliberty.com
TO: Rambeast
RE: Heh
backyardliberty — Rambeast
Been there. Done that. It has ‘issues’. They haven’t thought the whole thing through, e.g., where do you get the fish to restock with if the economy has collapsed.
Regards,
Chuck(le)
[Be Prepared…..]
I’d say that’s a line that needn’t be drawn.
One should prepare for what one foresees as one can and feels they should.
So long as they don’t draw on FedEx or dig under the neighbor’s yard to get at their root vegetables, more power to ’em.
EDIT: Or raz me to excess ’cause I haven’t a 15 year supply of diesel fuel hidden in an underground storage warren. And would I tell you if I did? Whether or not I’ve a warren is nunya, as is what is or isn’t in there!
Now where’d I leave that copper helmet…?
“One should prepare for what one foresees as one can and feels they should.”
You’re right, but I would add that people’s preparation is limited according to their financial means. A low-income person or a person of a fixed income is faces with more choices than one who is not.
Perhaps that’s what you meant by “can”.
Low or fixed income makes ones choices more numerous? Not sure I get that part. Do you mean that they must needs pick and choose, rather than splurging?
Indeed; “can.” Presumably it’s not wise to miss every other meal or default on the gas bill in the name of prepping.
EDIT II: I will cop to two weeks’ food and a small multi-fuel generator.
Ice storms and other infrastructure interrupters are my main concern; the generator is for the well, a small fridigitator and heat trace on water and waste lines. I’m fine with oil for lighting and cooking.
End of my “prepping.”
Russ, you live in the country. I started life on a farm. What we did as day to day routine would be called prepping by some people today. A well, cellar, mason jars, live stock and chickens and crops in the right season were just another part of life for us.
Indeed.
Having watched the video I’m going to call it paranoia. That said, it would require a fool, or rather a collection of fools to think that the US could be conquered and pacified by really any number of troops. The very idea that US troops would work in conjunction with Russian troops to control the US citizenry is tin foil hat stuff.
The idea that the US military and the Russian military combined could conquer and pacify the US is nonsense. What would result is the utter destruction of the US economy, infrastructure and government as sabotage, failure to report to work and guerrilla warfare became a normal part of day to day life. The power grid wouldn’t like it make it 3 days after such an attack and rail service would be gone almost as quickly. It is absolutely and totally impossible to guard these assets without which millions would die. Next would come petroleum pipeline and refining facility/tank farm destruction resulting in an absence of domestic gasoline production that would first cripple the economy but soon enough render the entire military as foot mobile infantry. These assets are also too widely spread to be effectively protected, especially considering one might well have to protect them from the people who work in them.
Between civil warfare and wide spread rioting and looting the death toll would be appalling. Highway travel even assuming availability of fuel would be suicidal given that if only 1% of the populace actively set IEDs one would have 3 million IEDs on the roadways.
Military defectors would likely be the norm rather than the exception, with whole units either passively refusing to perform missions with the support of their officers, standing down, disbanding, or coming to the aid of the citizenry en toto with their weapons and equipment. Federalization of the National Guard would be impossible and it’s likely that Guardsmen would fight as units alongside their civilian counterparts.
Local police forces and county sheriff’s departments would likely become rallying points for dissenters and freedom fighters all of whom may find themselves deputized to resist the unlawful activities of government. This is unlikely in cities but highly likely in rural areas and towns. Likewise National Guard units would be community rallying points around which support for resistance would coalesce.
The Moose, Elks, Lions and Rotary clubs in many localities may also organize units of resistance to the treasonous government and foreign invasion. Likewise shooting clubs, professional organizations and even unions may well spawn their own militias.
IEDs, sniping, assassination and sabotage would be the normal order of things while anyone willing to go to work would be under constant threat from those who refused to continue to serve tyranny or were otherwise occupied with fighting a civil war. The death toll simply from the incidentals of such a situation would surely be in the millions, and would likely outnumber combat fatalities.
Health care would become sporadic, electrical power is unlikely and would probably exist only in certain localities. Rail and truck deliveries would become either impossible or severely disrupted leading to wide spread starvation, particularly in urban areas.
I suggest that no one within the US federal government is unaware of any of these potentialities and that the vast majority would not want any such thing to befall us. I further suggest that it’s a rare military officer who would be willing to turn his combat power on the citizens or who could not conceive of the disaster I’ve described above both in terms of desertion and destruction. There is also the realization among most military officers, or would be if you presented the problem to them that without an untold and huge number of civilians the US military machine would grind to a halt within days or weeks.
Imagine for a moment you’re a high ranking officer in the military and you’ve been presented with a plan to take on the US citizenry in a fight to the death. Even given that you don’t have moral objections to doing so, your intelligence section informs you that all of your ammo, rations, fuel, uniforms, spare parts, specialty services, advanced/long term medical care and everything you depend on except manpower come from civilians who are likely to either stop work or actively engage in sabotage if you attack them. The average military unit in the US is less than a week from becoming foot mobile infantry without civilian support. They are only weeks from starvation, and months from being nude.
Now picture yourself a soldier being asked to attack your own friends and family. Imagine watching as the infrastructure and the very civilization of everything you swore to protect is destroyed. Even without moral objections, imagine when the vehicles run out of fuel and you have to march to combat with determined and well armed adversaries who use every dirty trick in the book, known the terrain and have the support of the local populace. Imagine when your own family is starving or at the hands of criminals and looters while you’re in the field. Imagine when the ‘rations’ are what you can scavenge or steal from civilians, and you never know who might have put water in your gas, sand in your cartridge, a bomb in your bivouac or poison in your food. How long would you keep fighting?
The very notion of the US military taking on the civilian population is absurd. Most wouldn’t do it in the first place, and those who did would handily though perhaps slowly be defeated by the population at large. This isn’t something military planners aren’t aware of, they know that they lack the resources and numbers to successfully subdue us, they also lack the will.
“You cannot invade mainland United States. There would be a rifle behind each blade of grass.”
Incorrectly attributed to Japan’s Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto but it still sounds way kewl!
Correct quote, Rich. But is it as true now as it was six decades ago? I think a little less so, but true nonetheless.
Don’t forget the American Legion and the VFW. I was briefly a member of both. I was attracted by the cheap drinks and the “therapy” of sharing space with people of similer experience.
This was a reply to Ardent.
When I watched that video I made sure my tin foil hat was on securely!
I think anyone owning a gun is suspect to the banners and anyone with more than one or 500 rounds is extreme.
I remember when you could get boxes of 555 rounds for $15 and me and my friend could go through it in about 2 hours just shooting at cans and jugs with a single rifle. 500 rounds is not extreme, it is 2 hours of entertainment. I hope those days return soon too.
Repent all ye sinners, the judgement day is nigh!!
Well, that vid was hysterically ominous. Sounds like we’re in for a couple of interesting weeks. Oh boy, goody.
WTF did BHD have to do with that spiel in the video?
The rule of thumb with any habit is “does engaging in this activity interfere excessively with other aspects of one’s life?”
TO: AaronW
RE: Interference
Does not preparing for disaster/catastrophe ‘interfere’ with your probability of survival?
Do you keep a bug-out-bag? Preparing a proper one does take money and time. As well as training.
You could have been having barbeque…. — To paraphrase Will Smith in Independence Day
Regards,
Chuck(le)
[Chance favors the prepared mind.]
P.S. Our bug-out-bags are enhanced versions of what I humped as a young paratrooper. To include a bit of tech, e.g., EMP protected iPads with scads of PDF files on survival as well as topo map apps that don’t rely on the 3G network and rechargeable using backpack solar cell panels.
They thought Noah was ‘paranoid’….
“They thought Noah was ‘paranoid’….”
Well, it’s fairly well documented that he was hearing voices. Just think, just a few millennia ago, when men were hearing voices they wrote down what they said and turned it into holy books and formed religions around them; nowadays they go on shooting rampages in gun-free zones.
Try not to be a total dumbass…..
TO: All
RE: Heh
As a professionally trained ‘paranoid’, I’m curious about all the references to 1 October 2013.
This is just one source stating all these allegations regarding that date and purchasing/training requirements.
Are there corroborating reports from other sources? It would have been nice if this source had cited the documents/communications about all this activity.
Until then, I’ll take it with the proverbial ‘grain of salt’.
Regards,
Chuck(le)
[Even paranoids have enemies…..]