Why we prep
Here's another reason why you – and your friends and family – should prep:
Last week, Patrice Lewis wrote an interesting commentary about the loss of fundamental knowledge in our modern world. Truth be told, those skills aren't gone; they just don't reside here in the USA anymore. There are a whole lot of folks in other countries that do know how to milk a cow, harvest grain and stitch a wound. It's only in the "civilized" Western nations that skill sets trend toward technology use (not technology creation, mind you; the average college grad thinks a resistor is a member of Code Pink). The problem for proficient tech users is if they lose the tech, they're toast.
Lewis wrote, "Yank away most peoples' smartphones, put them in a field of ripe wheat next to a lactating cow, and they would starve to death."
But at least some of them now have more time available to pump up their Life 101 skill sets, as illustrated in this article:
I sure hope these college grads take advantage of this "down time" to further their education. I hope they learn where their food comes from. I hope they come to realize where their Rights come from. And I surely do hope they understand what's needed to protect and maintain those Rights.
That's because one of the other fundamental bits of knowledge understood by a lot of third-world folks, including many of those being brought to the Western world as refugees, is the art of war. And some of them have advanced degrees in that course of study.
Prepping isn't just storing food. That college graduate with a degree in Transgender Studies may starve to death in the wheat field. But the folks who own the field and the cow won't starve. And many of those farmers also have the knowledge and skills to protect their own.
And that's one of the reasons we prep.
Gene Autry and Roy Rogers were singin' cowboy men
But I can ride as hard and fast and shoot as straight as them
'Cause I'm a singin' cowboy with a guitar in my hand
Yeah, I'm a singin' cowboy and I'm gonna sing again – New Riders of the Purple Sage
I've put it off long enough, I suppose. It's kind of like getting a bad tooth pulled. You know it's necessary and that you'll feel better when it's done, but the initial pain (I mean time spent in a waiting room listing to Barry Manilow's plaintive warbling of "I write the songs" on the sound system) makes you put it off as long as possible.
The pain I'm referring to here is the slings and arrows of disagreement that will be coming my way, because I'm going to recommend specific classes and types of firearms suitable for the prepper, especially the new or first-time gun owner.
But first a couple of disclaimers:
- If you intend to buy a gun, place it on a shelf next to a box of cartridges, and channel Dirty Harry when the zombies attack, please save your money. I realize that all "Real American Men" are born with the ability to shoot the knot out of a pine board at 100 feet. And that's true. But what you may not realize is this talent is knocked out of you when the doctor slaps your heiney. To re-acquire it, you need to spend a fair amount of time and money pulling the trigger while missing both the knot and the board. If you can't commit to practice with your new gun, buy a hammer instead. Sure, you'll miss the nail at first, but the worse thing you will do to yourself or someone you care about is raise a lump. Much better than burying a friend.
- To all my gun-nut friends: Thanks for all the comments last week. A lot of you really know your stuff. But some of you are absolutely full of it (of course I don't mean you! I mean that other guy. You rock!). The following is my advice for the NEW prepper/gun owner. One gun isn't enough for all circumstances any more than a maul will handle your hammer requirements. This column is about my recommendations for a first gun, not an only gun. Now feel free to comment. I'll just put on some Barry Manilow while I wait.
So here's the deal. The first gun that a new prepper ought to get should be one that makes practice as easy as possible. Shooting is fun! But you won't realize that until you do some. That first firearm should be inexpensive, both in initial acquisition and in the cost of ammunition. It should be something that you – and your other family members – can shoot with minimal training.
It should be a handgun.
Now a lot of the gun aficionados thought I was leading up to a .22 caliber rifle. And yes, every prepper should have one of those, if for no other reason than to have a rifle available to loan to a friend during a zombie attack, thereby allowing you to keep the much better defensive weapons for yourself.
There are a lot of sound reasons for a "handgun first" policy. Here are a few:
- Dimensions. Try carrying a long gun concealed. You'll walk like Frankenstein. Handguns allow you to carry concealed practically anywhere on your body, and concealed or not, when holstered they keep your hands free and allow your body to move naturally. If you are working around the compound and not in a elevated DEFCON, that means that you won't be having your long gun, the one you so carefully leaned against a barn wall while you fixing a fence, fall over into a pile of bovine end product (as mine almost always seem to do). If something is easy to carry, you're more likely to carry it. Simple.
- Weight. Even an uber-light AR-7 survival rifle weighs about three and a half pounds, while a beefy M1911 .45 pistol is a pound less. A Springfield XD-S .45 weighs less than a pound and a half. Weight matters, especially to smaller human frames. Yeah, I know about gun weight and recoil. But a lot of that can be controlled by caliber and powder load choices. And lower weight and smaller dimensions means quicker target acquisition in the most likely scenerios. And speaking of that ...
- Scenerio. We really aren't at the point in our national devolution to regularly need to reach out and touch someone long-range. Most gun interactions occur over relatively short distances. For the first time prepper gun owner, quick access and deployment speeds trump velocity and impact pressures. Let's be real: when was the last time you read about a rifle-to-rifle shoot out? Or two guys going at it with shotguns? Sure they happen. But according to the FBI, in 2014, there were 5562 homicides with handguns as opposed to a little over 500 with shotguns and rifles combined.
- Complexity. A handgun is almost always a simpler tool than a long gun, especially in the case of revolvers. I know a lot of people who prefer them to pistols for that reason alone. Simplicity for a lot of people means less anxiety. And that means a greater likelyhood of practice.
- Cost. You can still find perfectly funtional used handguns for as little as $100. And most handgun rounds are considerably cheaper than long-gun ammo.
For just these reasons alone, a handgun is the best first gun for the beginning prepper. There are a lot of other reasons that we'll get to next week when we take a look at handgun selection and acquisition.
See you then. Get prepared.