Dear Friend,
This week’s Armed American Report has so much life-saving info packed into it, that you’re going to have a hard enough time getting through it without me going on and on about how grateful I am that you’re an Armed Citizen, and that you’re reading this Armed American Report right now…
…so let’s get right to it!
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== Survival Update == |
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>>Click Here To Learn More<< |
Keeping What You Need, Protecting What You Love: A Weapons System for After the Disaster
“…stay alive and the wherewithal to keep going until civilization in your area is rebuilt…”
by C.R. Williams
There are three possibilities in the aftermath of a disaster, man-made or otherwise:
1) You resolve to remain at home; you will stick it out there for as long as it takes.
2) You have decided or are otherwise forced to evacuate.
3) The event occurred while you were away from home and you want to get back there despite conditions or obstacles between you and the house.
In each case, I will assume that you have stockpiled some reasonable amount of food and water and that you have or can construct shelter; basically, that you have what you immediately need to stay alive and the wherewithal to keep going until civilization in your area is rebuilt. If you don’t have these already, forget the guns until you get them.
After that, however, history has shown anyone that looks that it is unwise to depend on the mass onset of nobility to prevent others from taking what they need, or even just want, from what you have. So we’re back to considering weapons—in this case, (big surprise here) firearms.
I’m going to suggest a weapon system built around at least two and preferably four weapons, that you have on hand at least 250 rounds of ammunition and 5 magazines (for magazine-fed weapons) for each gun, and that you keep cleaning and simple maintenance tools, materials and supplies in stock to keep those weapons functioning properly without help for an extended period of time. I do not suggest that you empty your bank account, take out a second mortgage, or eat nothing but Ramen noodles for months to get all of this.
I want this system to be easy to put together and inexpensive (as guns go) to get, while allowing flexibility and expansion if you wish to pay for it. I want this system to keep looters and criminals as far away from you as possible for as long as it takes normal law enforcement coverage to be restored to your area. I want this system to be easily packed and as portable as possible. The same system should be able to stay at the house, travel with you as part of a vehicle disaster kit, or go in the bug-out bag in the event you are forced to evacuate the area.
Within those broader parameters, each part of the core system—the two-gun minimum recommended—is intended to give you the best possible chance against my estimated biggest threat—multiple hostiles with weapons either inside vehicles or using light buildings, i.e. houses, for cover. The main difference between the individual weapons is the range of engagement they are intended for. (Note: There will be overlap! That’s part of the plan.)
Get a street-by-street map of your neighborhood, or better yet get the free version of Google Earth or similar mapping program, get an overhead view of your address, and put a marker where your house is (Caution: Google Earth was off about a block on my address. Make sure you identify your house). Now draw scale circles around that mark at ten, 100, and 300 yards. That’s what we’re going to be planning for.
The “hard core” of the system is a sidearm—a pistol or revolver—and a shoulder arm—a carbine or rifle. (For purposes of this article I define a carbine as a rifle chambered for pistol-caliber ammunition. Though there are such things as rifle-caliber hunting pistols and pistols chambered for the .223 cartridge, they will not be included in my working definition.) The pistol can be “dual-use” as your carry gun as well as part of the disaster weapons system. If you are buying for the first time or buying specifically for a kit, I recommend a widely-used caliber to maximize your chances of getting inexpensive ammunition for storage and to give you the greatest chance of getting ammo by scrounging or bartering in an emergency. In the US currently, that appears to be .38, 9mm, .45, and possibly .357 calibers of ammunition. Because of widespread adoption by police, .40 might also be widely obtainable. The most common calibers in your area may vary from my estimate. (If you do choose an uncommon caliber for your sidearm, consider increasing the amount of stored ammunition and obtaining additional weapons in more common calibers in case of supply interruptions.) Whatever brand of ammunition you settle on should, of course, be tested in every gun it fits, and stocks should be rotated from time to time. Very old ammunition is still usable, but test some of those WWII vintage rounds just to make sure.
The pistol is the one that’s always on you, the same as it is now. Whether you wear it openly after an event or continue to conceal it will be up to you and defined by the circumstances and environment. It is your “reactive” weapon, intended to cover the shortest ranges, contact to around thirty feet (the ten-yard circle). It may literally fulfill the purpose of being “what you use to fight your way to your rifle.”
Having a shoulder arm of the same caliber will simplify ammunition purchase and storage choices. Some manufactures also produce carbines that can use the same magazines as their pistols (Hi-Point and Kel-Tec come to mind; the Kel-Tec carbine can be obtained in Glock, Beretta, and S&W variants, in fact). This could simplify logistics and get you more for your money. The carbine part of the weapons system is there to provide better precision (you can mount all manner of optics on a shoulder arm that would be awkward or impossible to fit on a pistol) at longer ranges. It could also be given to a partner while you use the rifle, and/or assigned to family members who would be less comfortable with a full-caliber rifle. The carbine will overlap the pistol in its use at the ten-yard line, but its main use is for precision fire out to 100 yards. Though there are very inexpensive rifles on the market (SKS for example), if cost is a factor consider a common-caliber carbine as the first shoulder arm.
If only one shoulder arm is chosen, and cost or recoil tolerance is not otherwise an issue, I recommend the purchase of a rifle. In fact, if you’re only going to get one weapon solely for protection in the aftermath of a disaster, it should be a rifle or carbine. (For normal self-protection in normal times, it should be a pistol or revolver.) Again, choose a commonly-available caliber—most of what I see here is .223/5.56 or .308/7.62×51, but there are enough imports of Russian designs around that you may find one of those calibers easily available. In urban or most suburban areas, I would favor the .223/5.56 or the Russian 7.62×39. These calibers offers offer enough precision and power (more precision with the .223/5.56, more power with the 7.62×39) over the ranges I expect to face in a town or city. Also, the .223/5.56 will also be less likely to go through walls you may not want to be piercing. (With frangible ammunition the 5.56 has been shown to be less penetrative than even some 9mm rounds. Realize that, even in the aftermath of a large scale disaster and resulting extended loss of government control the rule of law will still apply; more importantly, it will be applied following restoration of control. You will still need to pay attention to laws governing use of force.)
In a rural area or some very spread-out towns and suburban areas I would give some thought to the .308 or similar heavier-caliber rifle. Though the .223 can, and does, do very well at the longer ranges of more open country, I would still feel better with the heavier punch at long range provided by the bigger gun. Also, in rural areas especially, I would expect that potential threats might well be armed with higher-caliber hunting weapons that overmatch the .223. If I must engage, then, I would want to do it on at least equal terms if I can’t manage superior ones.
And speaking of superior terms: Whatever you get in whatever caliber, make it a magazine-fed semi-auto. There are some that can maintain a high volume of accurate fire with bolt-action rifles; I am not one of them, and I believe there are more people like me. With all the stress you will already be under from the post-disaster environment added to the extreme distress imposed on you in a firefight, the operationally-simpler semi-auto will make it easier to protect you and yours during the time of troubles.
A word about optics: On the carbine or rifle, I believe it better to have some kind of optical enhancement than not. The type you choose is up to you. But whatever optical enhancement you put on the shoulder arm, you must be able to switch to iron sights at any time. And you must be comfortable doing so. Do not use an optical system that blocks or replaces your iron sights. You don’t have to expect the optics to fail at the worst time, but you do need to be read if they do.
Once the purely defensive weapons have been obtained, consider adding a .22 rifle and pistol to the mix. This will give you a cheap way to practice basic marksmanship and tactics, provide pest and varmint control in a post-disaster situation, is a common caliber which can be stockpiled inexpensively, and in a pinch can back up larger-caliber weapons in a defensive situation.
So: A pistol or revolver to begin. After that, a shoulder arm, a carbine of the same caliber as the handgun and/or a semi-auto rifle of commonly-available caliber. After that, rifle and pistol in .22 caliber. These are my recommendations; these are the things I believe you will probably need when (I wish I could say “if”) the next Event occurs.
Some will question the need for this kind of collection. Perhaps they don’t know about the gunfights between citizens and groups of looters after Katrina, or about those who were threatening or actually tried to take fuel and food from other Rita evacuees after their own vehicles ran out or broke down. Perhaps they did not hear of how those who turned themselves over to government control were stripped of everything except a plastic grocery bag’s worth of possessions. Perhaps they still believe, after all evidence to the contrary, that the government really will be there to help them. You, though, at least have a hint of it now. So I will leave you not with more information and recommendations, but with two questions:
Do you have what you need to keep yourself and those you love alive?
And, finally:
Do you have what it will take to keep it?
Si vi pacem parabellum.
C.R. Williams is the moderator of the Knives, Lights, & Gear forum on U.S. Concealed Carry Association’s website.
USCCA Laugh of the Week
“I only wish I had this stuff 10 years ago…”
Last month I sent you a link to a complimentary program I felt every USCCA members should own. It was created by a hand-to-hand close combat expert named Tim Larkin. The feedback on it has been phenomenal. In a phone call, one guy called it “a life changing experience.” Here’s what he wrote directly to Tim Larkin (he asked to remain anonymous and we’ve respected that wish by deleting his name).
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“I can honestly not thank you enough for giving USCCA members the huge discount on your Human Weapons ‘package’ deal.
“I have trained most of my life to survive. I’ve taken multiple survival classes (you know, being dumped out in the desert with absolutely nothing and having to live for a week). I took firearms training classes as soon as I was old enough to own one and I’ve taken practical self defense courses, mostly emphasizing on getting it over with as quickly as possible. I’ve worked with Marines all my life so I’ve had advantages other civilians have not had. I’ve also taken medical classes, EMT certified, you name it. Being prepared is something I take seriously. The safety of my family and myself I take very seriously.
“But this mega pack of materials is amazing. The practicality, straight forwardness and focus of the material is fantastic. I have always wondered why so many instructors insist on teaching things that have absolutely no practical value in saving my life or the life of another. Why fill student’s heads with crap. We are only going to retain so much in a true life or death scenario – so give people the best possible odds of winning. The rest is fluff and gets people killed.
“Your information is just so valuable - I have already had many of my friends and co-workers purchase the set.
“As I emailed Tim Schmidt of USCCA - I can only hope that all the money, time and effort that I continue to put into this program is completely ‘wasted’ (ie, I’ll never need to use it).
“Your concept of ’break things inside people so they don’t work anymore’ honestly is so, I don’t even have words for it, unbelievably simple. For the life of me I cannot understand why that isn’t at the core of every training class I’ve ever taken. I’ve heard it said other ways with a lot of fluff around it but it is a straight up truism. All of my firearms training - that was the point of it. Just that simple. From that axiom everything can be built.
“I feel like a lot of my training has been complete crap and I also feel like it is so damn obvious I am annoyed at myself for not realizing it before. After reading your book I know why I didn’t realize it but still, it isn’t a pill that’s easy to swallow.
“A while ago I was put on the disabled list that severely limits the amount I can train. I have to take every opportunity I can to keep pushing myself but I have to do it in a way where I am not making things worse for myself. The material that is in this program is a major help to me. Some things I simply cannot do, others I can adapt to my situation. What is important is that I now have better tools to use and a better understanding of how to use them and when. I hope that I can one day attend one of your classes.
“So - thank you. I only wish I had this stuff 10 years ago and was ahead of the curve instead of catching up.”
(name withheld for confidentiality reasons)
-USCCA member
If you missed it last month, here’s the link again:
=> http://www.targetfocustraining.com/uscca <=
Coming Up On Armed American Radio
The Official Voice of the USCCA
by Mark Walters
WOW again! AAR continues its wild growth across America as we add new stations in COLORADO. Grand Junction, KNZZ YOU are now on the Armed American Radio Network! Join me this week for an amazing conversation with President of the US Bill of Rights Foundation Mr. Dane vonBreichenruchardt and Mr. Dick Heller who will jump in to the conversation about the Supreme Court accepting the McDonald vs Chicago case. DON’T MISS this! Also, Ms. Niki Goeser will join me to talk about her husbands murderer and the pace of the upcoming trial. From Phoenix AZ Mr Marc Preagler, owner of a restaurant and bar will be with me to discuss the new law allowing carrying of concealed weapons by law abiding citizens inside restaurants and bars in the great, free state of Arizona. Another TWO hours of hard hitting talk about your right to keep and bear arms ONLY on Armed American Radio. Visit www.armedamericanradio.org for where to listen and show information.
Lessons from Armed America with Foreword by Massad Ayoob, by Mark Walters and Kathy Jackson is now available nationwide! Pick up YOUR copy today at amazon.com, barnes and noble,com or right here at http://www.whitefeatherpress.com/id16.html
See ya on the radio!!! Don’t miss the radio broadcast taking the radio industry by STORM. The program exists for YOU! Be there every Sunday night from 8-10pm eastern LIVE!
Review of Armed Response’s Newest DVDs
USCCA Gear Review
Thirsty? Not right now? Well you will be in a few hours or even earlier if the fluid being sweated out, breathed out, and peed out isn’t replaced. And by the time one is thirsty, dehydration has already begun. Access to a myriad of beverages is easy when times are normal. Upset the drink cart with a natural or man-made disaster, and people get thirsty fast.
Normally we wouldn’t dip our cups into the water of the toilet’s water tank to get a drink, but go without the precious fluid for a day or so, and that toilet tank water starts to get mighty appealing. However, many households today have the Ty-D-Bol man in there making even that water source unfit to drink.
More families are starting to store an emergency water supply now. Something is poking people in the squirrel centers of their brains to get more prepared. Oh, the squirrel center is my name for that part of us that drives us to put away nuts for the winter. Or in this case, food, water, and other supplies in case of disaster. Having stored water available for emergencies is a superb idea. But what does one do to make water drinkable when on the move, or when the stored supplies run out?
Of all the filters I’ve heard about and read about, I trust Katadyn the most. Pronounced Kat-Ah-Dine in their video advertisements, and not Katey-Dine as many say it, the Katadyn water filtration products are what I own. They have a bunch of different products to meet the specific needs of the users from the Pocket filter being reviewed in this article to Desalinators for those needing a way to make fresh water from saltwater.
The water source any filter is used on must be considered first. Heavy contamination of water with chemicals and biological organisms is not likely to be made safe by any portable filter no matter what the claims are. The three biggest concerns of contamination of water to be used for drinking are bacteria, viruses, and protozoans. These things live and reproduce in our bodies when we get an infectious dose inside of us, and gulping them down into our stomachs in drinking water is a good way to get them inside.
Then there are chemicals such as agricultural chemicals to be concerned with. Fortunately most of the agricultural chemicals are organic and can be removed by filtration through activated charcoal. I have the accessory charcoal filter to go with my Katadyn Pocket Filter. It’s not a bad idea to double up on safety while filtering water by using a halogen such as iodine to first treat a water source. Then use the charcoal filter accessory for the Pocket Filter. Charcoal removes much of the bad tastes of the water including the taste of the iodine will. The huge surface area of the activated charcoal pieces just suck up the nasties.
There is much more to learn about making water safe to drink, and I’m not going to discuss it here in this review since Katadyn already provides free-of-charge an excellent downloadable guide at their website. Click HERE to get a copy of the guide. Read it and more details of this review will make sense. Download it A.S.A.P. One never knows when the knowledge in that little guide will be needed to save a life. Drinking contaminated water during a disaster can kill slowly and painfully.
Here’s what comes with the Pocket Filter:
The Pocket Filter is made out of metal. It is so sturdy it has a 20 year warranty. It is made for extreme use. Every little detail of this unit is well thought out from the curved handle to the cushioned base. The statistics of filtration effectiveness are actual, not nominal. Consumers need to be aware of the difference between those two terms. Actual filtration means the filter actually filters out particles of a certain size all of the time. Nominal is basically saying a filter catches particles of a stated minimum size most of the time.
The Pocket Filter Stats:
Filter is ceramic and cleanable. Not like disposable filters which are not.
Filter to an actual 0.2 microns. This gets out the nasties such as bacteria, protozoa, cysts, algae, viruses, and any other particles greater than 0.2 microns in size. It has a 13,000 gallon filtration capacity operating at a manual output of 1 quart per minute. It is 10 inches tall, 2.4 inches in diameter, and weighs 20 ounces.
I’m telling you, this thing is like having a water filtration plant that fits in the tiniest of packs!
In the kit contents pictured above, one can see a green scrub pad. Yep, just like the ones that are in kitchens across America, the little scrub pad is used to scrub the outer surface of the ceramic filter to clean it when it gets a bit tough to pump water through.
There is a gauge provided to indicate when the ceramic filter will need to be replaced. After so many scrubbings, the diameter of the ceramic will decrease to a point that the gauge will fit over the core. That lets the user know it is time to replace the ceramic.
The Pocket Filter also can reduce radioactive particles in the water as well as some chemicals. Adding the accessory charcoal filter that the water will run through after it comes out of the Pocket Filter will remove more organic chemicals.
When the stored water is gone and when the only sources of water look like they do in the photo below, what plans do you have in place to make water safe to drink? Even water from the stored sources or a deep well could become contaminated and require filtering before drinking. With a 13,000 gallon capacity of the Pocket Filters ceramic, it should last through many trips into the wild or a protracted survival situation.
Prices for the Pocket Filter vary among retailers. Do an online search to find the best price for you. Katadyn started making ceramic filters back in the 1930’s. They know what they are doing, and their products are trusted by many international relief organizations and militaries. Read more about Katadyn’s great products at www.katadyn.com.
Quote of the Week
“If someone is so fearful that they are going to start using their weapons to protect their rights, it makes me very nervous that these people have weapons at all.”
-Representative Henry A. Waxman (Democrat California)
USCCA Forum Highlights
Every paying website member has complete access to the USCCA forum, which is constantly being accessed by members sharing information, knowledge, insight, and fun. With well over sixty-thousand posts and growing by the hour, this is one heck of a valuable resource!
If you have never logged in but are a member, visit THIS location to watch help videos, including how to find out your username and/or password!
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So … my wife and I are sitting around talking about a self defense video that I received from the NRA. The situation was: He was in bed when he heard an intruder in the house. He armed himself, called 911 and retreated to the closet of the bedroom since there was no secondary exit to outdoors from the bedroom. While on the phone with 911 he announced loudly “you in the house, I’m in the bedroom and don’t want trouble, but I have called 911 and I am armed and in fear of my life and am willing to defend myself”.
His point was that the announcement would be recorded on the 911 call for evidence and the intruder may vacate once aware that he’d be shot if he enters the room, and it also let LE know where the good guy is.
Conversely, he stated that this plan only works if you are alone and not depended upon to protect others in the house (kids, etc). MY SITUATION, is my wife and my bedroom is downstairs (standard split level home) and the kids rooms are upstairs. If the kids are home and we heard an intruder in the middle of the night, obviously she or I would not “hunker down” in our room, but would search the house. Now the question becomes, as we head up the stairway from the basement, would it be a) wise or b) suicide to announce that you are armed and coming up the stairs?
We’re new to this “scenario” thing, but it seems to me that any BG that had the mental capacity to load a weapon would camp out with a clear shot at the stairwell waiting for a head-shot as I/she came up the stairs.
Any thoughts?
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Not what you’d call “fancy” but it’s a start.
(Photo used by permission)
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Food Storage, Dehydration and Preserving
I have been doing a lot of food dehydrating as one facet of my food storage strategies. I recently purchased a dehydrator and quickly outgrew it and purchased an Excalibur 9 tray model. Already looking for more capacity and planning to add one of the 160 liter Cabela commercial models.
Lesson: don’t skimp. This is one thing you want to overbuy on.
I have found this to be an excellent option for all of those surplus vegetables when they come in all at once. I have dried sweet potatoes, apples, squash, pineapple, peppers, eggplant turkey bacon etc. Dried food takes up very little space. Once dried I will usually put them in Ziploc vacuum bags. It easily reconstitutes into soups, stews, casseroles, etc. Also makes great healthy snacks for the family and myself.
The pictures are of sweet potatoes and eggplant I am running through the dehydrator now.
Sweet potato chips are easy and great tasting. I slice them in the food processor, spray with olive oil, sprinkle them with some Italian seasoning and dry for about 12-14 hours. Some like them dried less so that they have sort of a leathery, jerky texture but I find that a little tough on the teeth, so I dry them till they are like normal commercial chips.
(See the rest of the photos on the forums)
Video of the Week
Young Derrion Albert died from the beating he sustained as can be seen in this video. Though some parts of the images have been digitally blurred, the horrible sadness and anger one feels from witnessing this crime cannot be stifled. Violence such as this can happen to any of us at any time.
(Note: At last minute, the video that I wanted to show you was pulled from YouTube, but I found another. It is not graphic, and is just a new report from the Associated Press.
There is one quote that makes the entire video worth it: A man, who says something to the effect of “Since the war in Iraq began, we’ve lost TEN soldiers. We’ve lost more than 300 young people to violence right here in Chicago during that time… what is happening in our city?”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VwgGHrDdX0
USCCA Photo of the Week
All Photos of the Week are taken from Mr. Oleg Volk’s website:
http://www.a-human-right.com/.
It is a fantastic site. Please check it out!
USCCA Self Defense Story
Every day, thousands of Armed Americans use their firearms to preserve human life. Let this section of my newsletter serve as a record of this fact!
September 25, 2009
Cherry Hill, New Jersey
From: NBC Philadelphia
(Okay so this one is a bit lighthearted. We figured you needed a break from the really bad stuff.)
Turkeys Terrorize Jersey Neighborhood
A revolt of the feathered kind is going on in Cherry Hill.
A gang of five wild turkeys are invading the area of Brookmead Drive every afternoon sending children and joggers running for the safety of their homes.
“They’re really, really fast…like these things are vicious,” said one young girl.
The birds are charging at children and pecking at joggers. We caught one of the unprovoked attacks on tape Thursday when the bad birds went after a little boy who was riding his tricycle down the sidewalk. The turkeys then lunged at the boy and his mother as they ran screaming across the street.
“I wanna just be able to go back to a normal life and go out of our house without worrying where a turkey might be,” lamented Nancy Giordano.
Township officials know neighbors are fed up with the fowl encounters, but they don’t plan to do anything about it, citing the rules of natural habitat.
“[They] do not belong,” one angry homeowner said. “They need to find someplace to be with their own kind and enjoy life instead of trying to deal with urban life.”
Closing Thoughts
Hi Tim, This is not a question but a factual statement. GOD did NOT give us the right to keep and bear arms. Our Country’s founding fathers did that. Please make sure that credit goes where it is deserved.
Friend, you are right. God did not give us the Second Amendment. The Second Amendment merely recognizes what I believe to be our God-Given right of self-defense. Second Amendment or not, I believe ALL individuals have this right of self defense, and it’s up to them to make their government recognizes it.
Do you have a pressing concern? Use the ‘Ask Tim’ contact form found at this page to let me hear your advice. Just use the graphic below!
Tim Schmidt
Founder - U.S. Concealed Carry
http://www.usconcealedcarry.com
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