Are weapons/guns necessary for preparedness?

[MTSilvertip]

Originally Posted by guidoLaMoto

I haven't read this thread, but the question seems to parallel the question I'm frequently asked about riding a motorcycle: "Don't you think you need a helmet?"...My answer-- "Only if I fall off."

Gee.... Just like insurance. You don't need it until your house burns down or you have a car wreck or you get sick.
Otherwise it's just a waste of money right?

[Mircea]

Originally Posted by ukrkoz

This is not question about if to carry, or not and what to carry.
This is question about how useful is firearm when SHTF happens.

Very useful. It's useful for self-defense and useful for hunting. It's also useful for preemptive strikes on those who would lord over others.

It's also useful for rabid dogs, other rabid animals, poisonous snakes, predatory game like bears, mountain lions, bobcats, and other non-predatory dangerous animals like boar.

While you're walking across a field, the last thing you'd want is to be gored by a ram or a steer.

Originally Posted by ukrkoz

None. For starters, it is based in stupid idea that one can barricade himself inside his house and shoot away any intruders. Wrong. Most likely, they will come with their guns. And, much more eager to use them, with better skill, than you do.

That only serves to prove that having a weapon and being in a group with others that have weapons increases your survivability.

Originally Posted by ukrkoz

Ok, say, you are John Wick and you killed several scouts. Well, bosses will get report that, such and such apparently has something of value, if he protects it so much.

Next thing you'll see - if you even see it coming - will be a APC with minigun mounted on it or, a tank of various size. Or, heli with several missiles fired in your direction.

Today's lesson in all-things-military: Route Classification

Why do we have "Route Classification?"

Only someone who had never been in a tank, 113/557 or Bradley believes they can go everywhere.

Originally Posted by sundayrequiem

Are guns necessary for preparedness?

No they are not necessary. empathy, is necessary for preparedness.

Let's see...you have empathy and five intruders hell-bent on raping and enslaving your women and killing you are armed.

Anyone wanna put odds on the outcome of that?

[TRex2]

Originally Posted by Huckleberry3911948

You could stock up food and water but for a thug much easier to take yours than stock up his

Not so easy for him to take my stuff, with a sucking chest wound.
(Or two, if you count the exit wound.)

On second thought, is it still considered a "sucking chest wound," if you can stick a nerf football in it?

I worked with a guy who had had an accident with a deer rifle.
Five years later, he still had a divot in his back the size of a spam can.
(Experience, as a teacher, charges steep tuition.)

[CaptainNJ]

Originally Posted by Mircea

Let's see...you have empathy and five intruders hell-bent on raping and enslaving your women and killing you are armed.

Anyone wanna put odds on the outcome of that?

im pretty sure that if you looked into the victims of all of the murders, rapes, robberies, etc. you will find that they lacked sufficient empathy to protect themselves from such violations.

[markitup]

there aint gonna be any APC, chopper or tank. When the economy collapses, there will be no fuel for those things to go anywhere. There won't be any large groups of marauders after the first month or so, cause there wont be enough plunder for such groups to support themselves. But you WILL be attacked, again and again, if you stay above ground during daylight hours or get noticed at night, leave "sign" that leads to your dugout, etc.

[Nonesuch]

Originally Posted by ukrkoz

Ok, say, you are John Wick and you killed several scouts. Well, bosses will get report that, such and such apparently has something of value, if he protects it so much.
Next thing you'll see - if you even see it coming - will be a APC with minigun mounted on it or, a tank of various size. Or, heli with several missiles fired in your direction. What WILL kill you and your family, you did such a brave job protecting.

The problem with this scenario is that it assumes what is valuable to you is also going to be valuable to your foe, and worth it to bosses to expend resources on it. In John Wick, what he valued most was being left alone with his dog. Hardly worth sending an APC for.

More likely, regions from which scouts don't come back will be marked on the map as "Here there be dragons" and bypassed (at least until resources get even tighter).

Originally Posted by Huckleberry3911948

You could stock up food and water but for a thug much easier to take yours than stock up his

We've got a deep well, a cistern, and a hand pump. A large enough group of thugs could hope we don't burn down the pumphouse when they attack and at best they end up moving in and running the pump themselves, but that just makes them the incumbent defenders against the next group to migrate through.

So no, having an unknown something of value doesn't automatically mean the boss marauder wants to burn through headcount, ammo, fuel to take an unknown that may very well be valueless to his organization.

[Submariner]

Are we still discussing Post-SHTF?

No petroleum is flowing. If you attacked a military base maybe they might have an APC on-base with a little fuel in it. I served 20-years on Active Duty in the US Navy. None of the bases where I was homeported had any APCs or any tanks.