SAN DIEGO — Six months ago, Jim Wiseman didn't even have a spare nutrition bar in his kitchen cabinet.
Now, the 54-year-old businessman and father of five has a backup generator, a water filter, a grain mill and a 4-foot-tall pile of emergency food tucked in his home in the expensive San Diego suburb of La Jolla.
Somewhere in San Diego, someone is writing this name down in a little black book of people who have supplies, and cleaning his gun.
Operational Security (OPSEC) is relatively important when talking about preparations for hard times. Try not to think of your friends coming to you, crazed with hunger, try to think about friends of friends who barely or don't know you, who need food or a quick buck. This is how most crime takes place, not on random targets, but targets they've been able to feel out directly or indirectly.
But ignoring regular crime for a bit; I talk to a lot of people about prepping for emergencies like earthquakes and the like, and I need to take my shoes off to count the people who've said all they need to survive is a revolver with 6 shots, (or a shovel or an axe) and a keen eye to spot the people who have prepared well.
These are good people, friends even, who claim they would have no problem icing some 45 year old father of two to take his stuff when survival was at stake.
Buy a handgun, buy a shotgun, buy a rifle, buy more than one to arm any family members who are old enough to be armed, shoot them to know they're reliable guns, train with them until you can hit man-sized targets at ranges you find around your home; across the street, down the street, in the back yard, in the living room.
When no one has had power for five days, don't fire up your generator.
When people you don't know come to your house begging for food, offer them half a can of expired something, and say you can't spare any more.
When the government sets up a cheese line, show up. (as long as it's safe)
Don't bring attention to yourselves, and make sure your kids don't either.
And when you recommend someone prepare for an emergency, and they say they'll just pick on someone who has prepared; tell them that plan only works when the prepper hasn't already shot five others with similar plans.
Those guys with their little black books are out there. They will be looking for you. Be ready for them.
8 comments:
Lotta people think they can just head up into the hills - they can't. I've been back in there on a dirtbike, and in NorCal there are many more houses than one might think, and they have guns and won't be real helpful to any flatlanders.
You know, this should be common sense, but I still found myself smacking my forehead, metaphorically speaking.
Friends can become enemies real quick when survival is at stake.
"These are good people, friends even, who claim they would have no problem icing some 45 year old father of two"I have to say, you seem to have an interesting definition of what constitutes a good person.
That's the thing Tony, these were outwardly, good people. I had no idea they would be able to do that until the question actually came up. You think you know people...
The fact that they claim they'd do it didn't bother me as much as the nonchalance with which they said it.
Needless to say, after that revelation, they are no longer in my "good people" category...
Ah. Well, I seem to have slightly misunderstood you then.
Yeah, it can be freaky what you sometimes learn about someone you think you already know.
[...] OPSEC Not [...]
It would be best to remove the bodies of friends of friends rather than just stacking them at the roadside. It kind of gives away your status.
Sorry Ernest, but I've got to disagree with you on the "cheese line". There will be registration and there will be rounding up for "makework". No firearms will be allowed, and you will be searched before being allowed to enter. Also, while you're away, others will be going through houses.
Best to just stack your own deep beforehand.
Also, as I mentioned @ RideFast, converting your generator to CNG/propane makes the mill run super quiet and eases fuel storage by multitude.
Somewhere in San Diego, someone is writing this name down in a little black book of people who have supplies, and cleaning his gun.How did you know?
ET, you and I have talked about preparedness a fair bit, and you know that I don't subscribe to the shovel-n-axe club, but you also have to make note of resources that are available around you. For example, the motorcycle shop that stores multiple filled 55-gal fuel cans behind the shop, with hand pumps, or the Savon with overstock bottled water under a tarp on its loading dock.
I'll keep stacking high and deep, both in supplies before such a disaster and sandbags afterwards. I also don't advertise, and place others who express willingness to ice that 45y/o father of two into the "3 S's" group.
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