Planning #7 - Yes finally, GUNS!!!!!!

Here we go DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE ......... This subject is the bases of so many websites and blogs. Why? Everyone has an opinion and opinions are like........ everyone has one. Most fellas who start thinking about planning ahead come at the subject from this mindset. Most ladies avoid this subject and infact might be turned away from planning because this subject comes up.

Neither is right or wrong....... Ok maybe they are? No one subject is the end all be all when discussing planning. If you have read through the other post on here and found them informative but dislike the idea of guns please keep reading! This is not going to be a 'gun porn' posting.

I do not care how many firearms you have stacked up, at some point you are going to get hungry........

This may seem cool when you and the buddies are sitting around BBQ'ing and having a beer or two BUT how many of those can you use at once? How many of these serve a purpose, a purpose other than to make you feel "super cool"? Most of us will never find ourselves in a situation where we are going to need this many firearms. Most of us do not even have enough friends who know how to use these tools correctly if we were in a situation where we needed to arm the neighborhood..........

When you think about a situation coming up in which you have to break out the 'tools' images of you walking the street like this might come to mind...... for most folks this is the reality.......

This guy is having his rifle taken from him............ Why because he brought out the wrong tool. The story stated the man getting his ass whooped was trying to stop looters. With a rifle....... an air rifle or otherwise known as a BB gun!!! He obviously did not understand the tool he was carrying. You do not use a hammer when you want to cut a piece of wood. You do not bring a BB gun into the street with you during a riot!!!

On the flip side of the coin you can not focus on every other subject concerning planning and not address firearms. You maybe able to work the kitchen like Martha............

 Your pantry might look like a grocery store but if you live in denial of what people are out there...

This person only wants what you have? Maybe you just give him some and he goes away? Maybe he doesn't? Maybe he comes back for more? Maybe he brings friends who are also in need?

It is a good if your daily life is a postcard of family, fun and enjoying life.

When we are planning we must remember other people do not live this way. Other people have different ideas about life. On a regular day, let's say just any Monday, some of these people are willing to kick your door open and take what you have.

Even on a normal day some of these people think they have a 'right' to steal from you for whatever reason they have come up with. Imagine what they will do if a bad day comes? Imagine your home full of food and water and light and heat and toilet paper! Whatever excuse they use on a normal day is just amplified during a crisis.............

Maybe you end up like this guy? Read the captain he is not somewhere you would normally think of when you picture a guy standing in front of his home ready to defend his family with bat. Even with the bat this father is at a disadvantage against the bad guys in the previous photos. Out numbered two to one and out gunned by another. YES, there is a chance he could stop the guy with the gun....... I rather not be in a gunfight with a bat......

Why have I avoided discussing guns in the previous posts to this point? Because the same way some folks want to fill their garage with guns, some folks want to fill their pantry with food and both want to ignore the other...... This is a mistake. I have purposely focused on the subjects other than guns to try and show the importance of other subjects. Now it is time to focus on firearms and show they have an important part to play in planning also. Let's take the scenario we started with for this planning session.

Something happened, your whole family made it home safe, you have decided staying home is the best idea to deal with the situation. Now you just sit there? NO! You have put food away, you have back up lighting, you have a deck of cards or board games to play, you have a radio to listen to the news, your doors lock and you know the neighbors will look out for you the same you will look out for them. All is well....... until it isn't

There is a reason these signs pop up when an emergency occurs. There is a reason why people suddenly find themselves having to defend themselves, loved ones and neighbors. To ignore or deny the need for guns in your planning is to set yourself up for failure. Prior Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance. Think of the dad with the bat........ He did not plan ahead and has set himself up for poor performance when the bad guys show up

What if the phones are out? What if you can not call 911? What if they can not come? What if you had to depend on yourself and your prior planning for for only five minutes? Five minutes is a long time when you are defending yourself. Defense is not like a boxing match, there are no rounds or rest periods. Most confrontations are decided in the first couple of seconds.

Suddenly finding yourself in a Mad Max environment or having to hunt for your daily food is not something most of us will be faced with. The majority of situations most of us will face are temporary and brief. So we must ask ourselves what do we need a firearm for? A firearm is a tool. Really is just that simple, yes it really is. Guns do not cause crime, guns do not stop crime, guns do not kill, guns do not stop killings, the person utilizing the gun decide what purpose the gun is used for.

The first step, we must decide what tool we need. We need a tool easy to use, requires little training and does not cost to much..............

Double barrel shotgun! There was a time when almost every household had one of these tools. The are simple, effective and do not cost to much. Good for putting meat on the table and defending the meat once on the table.

Revolver! Another excellent tool for defending the family during an emergency or just on Monday when the bad guys decide to kick in your door.

Both of these can be had in configurations almost everyone in the family can be trained to use. You do not have to be a big burly man to use these tools. In fact these tools even the playing field between the big burly man and the not big burly man when utilized properly. The key here is to purchase the right tool for the task and to train to use the tool.

Grandma with a shotgun has been a dangerous sight to bad guys for a couple of hundred years now!

 Even the young can be trained to use a revolver properly.

My how times have changed...... The key to utilizing this tool and incorporating them into your planning is training. Someone has to teach you how to us a wrench or a radio. Firearms are no different, they are a tool which you must learn to use.

I strongly suggest you find an instructor to teach you how to use a firearm! I do not mean your uncle with a bunch of guns, I do not even mean your well meaning other half! There are instructors out there and it is easier to learn from a stranger than a family member. In fact it is better! Doesn't cause an grief in the house!!!

Alright, this is getting long and appears will take more than one posting to do any justice to the subject............. Let's wrap this one up so you can get back to your life. To review.....

Gun good! You need gun! Learn to use gun! Gun not everything! Gun part of plan!

I hope that simplifies everything? Until the next trip down the rabbit hole.....

As Always,

Stay Safe!!

Corsair Trainers

Venezuela - reality check

Maybe you have some family or friends who do not plan ahead? Of course you do, we all do! Let us take a reality others are living and try to learn from what they are faced with. Seeing what others are going through gives us a good idea of what we can do now to help us later if faced with similar situations. Yes this situation could happen to you and your family.......

For this post we will try to stay away from the politics of why this is happening. Instead focus on what the people are trying to find and buy. Focus on the actions of "normal" people trying to get what we could consider as 'basic items' for living day to day.

Here are some excerpts from articles across the web.......

"As time went by, desperate Venezuelans grew anxious over not being able to buy food. Then they started jumping over the gates and stormed the supermarket."

"They took milk, pasta, flour, oil, and milk powder. There were 5,000 people" one witness told Venezuela outlet El Estímulo."

Kind of interesting all these people are holding rolls of toilet paper.

"There’s no rice, no pasta, no flour,” resident Glerimar Yohan told La Costa, “only hunger
There are other mechanisms that divert these goods from supermarkets and corner shops, like smuggling abroad and hoarding. But the basic principle is the same. Private sector wholesalers and retailers, as well as corrupt elements in the public system, resist selling at controlled prices, so that they can make much larger profits elsewhere."

Normal people are not able to go to the store and buy food for their families. The aliens haven't landed, the zombies have not risen from their graves and no one has invaded the country. Shelves are just empty. Even if they have the money and wait in line there is simply nothing to buy.

Doesn't matter how much money you have if the food is not making it to the stores.

Even if there is food in the store you might not be able to get any if the number you are assigned can not shop that day.

Maybe it is your day, you have the money but you still can not buy more than what they are allowing. (sign says you can only buy six cans of tuna.)

When people can not find food they become desperate. What would you do if could not feed your children? Having some sort of food storage can mean the difference between having to risk being caught up in a bad situation and being at the wrong place........

Law enforcement or military will not care why you are caught up in the violence, their job is to maintain control of the situation. This means you could go out to find food and not come home because you were so desperate to find food you did not have the option of leaving when things got out of hand. Now your family does not know where you are and you are of no use to them..... you have made the situation worst for your family.

And of course there are those who, right or wrong, will cause a situation to spiral into violence. They are not thinking about you or your need to find food for your family............

Buy things now, put things away and make a habit of having extra on hand. Having a full pantry can make the difference for your family in your time of need. Having prepared you can make the choice to leave if a situation goes south. You can make the choice to stay home while others are forced to go out and look for food. If you have food in the house you can go out to secure what you can to add to what you have. But you are not desperate, have the option of leaving and have the ability to not take desperate acts to feed your family.

Toilet paper, flour, rice and powdered milk were high on the list of things these people are looking for. Here is a link to a post where we talked about staples previously. (if I did it right)
http://broadheads.blogspot.com/2014/11/food-storage-start-with-staples.html

Remember what you do today affects what you will have to deal with during a bad day. Encourage your family and friends to put something away. Anything! If you can, stock up on 'basic' items and encourage your family to do the same. One good trip to a big box store could make the difference.

If you do nothing else today....... GO BUY EXTRA TOILET PAPER!!! Nobody wants to be in the middle of a food riot because they need toilet paper!!!

Prior Planning Prevents Poor Performance

As Always,

Stay Safe!!

Planning #6 - Security

On today's installment of going down the rabbit hole let's talk about security. Now before some of you get all excited...... No we are not just going to be talking about guns..... Anyone ever get the idea I am trying to sort of avoid the whole 'gun thing' in my postings?

 
Again this is a subject we can go down the hole and get completely lost in. As in other subjects people have what they think is the most important part or the part you need to focus on the most. Remember, we are trying to cover as many issues as we can in our planning. This means we will try to put in a solid foundation and you can personalize your planning from this foundation.

This is a very wide subject to try and tackle on one posting. What do we focus on? Physical, cyber or any other type of security? Right now let's focus on the physical. Why? Because if we are not physically secure the rest of it really does not matter.

Let's try and keep things easy here. Think of your physical security as concentric circles going outward from you. Each layer gives you depth to your security and defense in depth is a good thing. Take a look at your front door......... How does someone get to your front door? Do they start at the street, walk across a yard or sidewalk and end up at your door? Each point of this trip is somewhere you can take measures to increase your security. The further out your rings start the better it is for you and your loved ones.

If your neighborhood looks like this............

And full of folks like these...... we need to focus on you moving first of all!!!!

Be a good neighbor. Yes you have to be a good neighbor. We all have the one or two people who live by us who are 'that neighbor', if you do not know who they are guess what????? Get to know who lives around you. Maybe even get on friendly terms with some of your neighbors?

Of course this seems harder and harder each year, that is for a different post. Try to learn who is supposed to be in the area and who is not.

Just do not take this getting to know your neighbors to this point!!! This makes you 'That neighbor'. What this does is gives you the first ring in your security. We are not "friendly" with all of the neighborhood. Most folks come home, go inside and you do not see them again till they drive away again. We are on friendly terms with several of the neighbors. We wave, say 'hi' and on occasion have conversations with them for a few minutes. This paid off last Christmas when someone was going through one of our cars and the neighbor scared them off. The neighbor knows who is around our home and realized the person was not someone they had seen before.

 
Your circles start with where you live, community this is the outer ring for most of us. Coming one in is our neighborhood and the people who live around us. The next ring is the physical layout from the street to your door.

Hundreds of articles have been written on proper lighting to deter thieves but the easiest way to help a thief decide to go somewhere else is to take away their concealment. If they are going to break into your home not being seen from the street as they do it is a plus to the bad guys.

 
This diagram is a good place to start. You want to be able to see out of your home but also to allow people to see toward your home. This makes it hard for bad guys to sneak up on you and also let's the neighbors see them if they are at your door. Here is a good example. Nicely kept yard, allows you fields of view and allows others to see what is going on. Now can we all do this? No, each of our situations are different.

Maybe your next ring is a fence? The fence does not have to go all the way around your home. In some cases having a fence all the way around your property might help rather than hinder the bad guys.

Fencing like this is simply another obstacle for someone to have to get past but still allows you to see what is out there.

Even one as simple as this adds a layer to your circles.

A fence like this is good but keep in mind this also stops anyone from being able to see what is going on and you can not see past the fence either............. Maybe not something we want wrapped around our entire property or entry way?

With any of these layers, circles or rings of security you have to keep in mind a determined person will find a way through them. Even at the White House people have managed to get inside by hopping the fences. Each layer is first and foremost to deter the bad guys. Why pick the neighborhood you know people are watching, people who will say something or call the police? Why pick the house everyone can see you at? Why pick the home with the gate when the one next door doesn't have one?

 
If you need cement walls around your home with glass imbedded along the top or razorwire crowning the wall............ we need to talk! It might be time to move!!!!

Short of barricading your door, we need to make sure we have sturdy doors on the outside of our home. There is a difference between doors designed for the inside of your home and the outside. Outside doors are thicker and harder to just kick in. Ideally we would want a front door we can see out of and is locked with a deadbolt.

Even with the deadbolt we want to make sure and use metal reinforcements on the door and long screws to slow down someone's ability to just kick the door open.

 
Going back to thinking about someone walking up to your door, have you thought of anything which you could change to make concentric circles of security around your home? Go outside and take a good look at your home or apartment. Look at your home through the eyes of a 'bad guy'. Where would they sneak in at? What do they have to get over, around or through to get to your front door? Anything else you add brings another layer to your physical security. All of which hopefully will encourage someone to look elsewhere for easy pickings.

The home security system let's you know someone is trying to get in or has gotten in. The sign out front of your home might be enough to have someone look elsewhere.

 Security cameras can also discourage people and are great for having evidence of what happen after the fact.

 Motion lights coming on take the darkness and the ability to go unseen away.

Even ankle sharks can send 'bad guys' away when they get to yapping. Remember the bad guys do not anyone to know they are there and anything which can cause them to get caught might deter them in the first place.

If we go back to the scenario we were working with for this planning session..... Something has happened, your family has made it home safely and you have decided to stay home. Of all the things you can count on to work during a bad situation, the physical layout of your home and Fiddo might be the only things working. Law Enforcement might be overwhelmed and the power might be out. For most of us this takes away the things we normally count on as parts of our rings for security. Layer your planning, have some depth to your defenses and remember a determined opponent will get past any passive obstacle you might put in their way.

Ok this trip down the rabbit hole is getting long....... Let's back out for awhile and I will let you stop thinking about a bad day. Go back to your regularly scheduled day and have some fun!!!

 
Just make sure you can really sing before you run outside and annoy the neighbors!!!

As Always,

Stay Safe!