Guest Post by Jeff Thomas
In talking with American clients about their need to prepare themselves for the upcoming socio-economic/political upheaval in their country, my advice to them primarily revolves around the concept that, if you’re living in a bad neighbourhood, the obvious solution is to leave.
Many choose to do just that. Those who have limited funds seek out employment in a country that’s less likely to be dramatically impacted than their home country. Those who are a bit more well-heeled generally liquidate what they can in their home country and forward the proceeds to one where the economy and socio-political situation are more stable—and one where the rights of the individual are more greatly respected.
They then convert their wealth into a more protectable form, by buying real estate in such countries and, particularly, by converting wealth into precious metals and storing it in a top-rate facility in the chosen country.
If they can afford it, they additionally rent or purchase a home and acquire the right to residency in such a country so that, if their home country suddenly becomes less liveable, they can simply pack a carry-on and be on a plane that day.
However, far more individuals say something to the effect that “I’m too invested in where I am. I’ll make a stand right here. Let the bastards come and get me if they want to. I’ve got plenty of guns and ammunition.”
This position is, of course, very manly. It smacks of the protection of home and family. And, like John Wayne in his role as Davy Crockett at the Alamo, it has a truly patriotic ring to it.
Of course, it’s also true that Davy Crockett died at the Alamo, along with all those who fought alongside him. (Not at all a positive outcome.)
So, let’s have a realistic overview of this commonly stated “plan” to “make a stand.”
What if the authorities arrive without aggression?
It’s entirely possible that authorities will go door-to-door, neighbourhood to neighbourhood, to confiscate provisions and weaponry. If you see personnel carriers loaded with SWAT teams, who then approach your door quietly, but armed, are you really going to throw open the door and start blazing away, or are you going to recognize that giving up your weapons is better than certain death?
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Do you possess adequate weaponry?
When I’ve visited the US, I have, on quite a few occasions, been shown the gun collections of those who described themselves as “armed and ready.” They’ve shown me a wide variety of weapons, from AK-47’s to crossbows. (The former might be a good choice to fight off an assault, but the latter would be a very poor choice.) The “defender” invariably has weapons of a variety of calibres—an assortment of handguns and rifles.
Unfortunately, as any combat veteran will advise, having racks of weaponry in differing calibres is a very poor approach to defence. Instead, a semi-automatic long weapon with plenty of clips of ammunition is the way to go, possibly backed up by a spare, plus a handgun or two, holstered. This should be the outfit for each defender within the home. Not an interesting but ineffective gun collection.
And, even if you’re more combat-ready, with, say, a dozen M-16’s, if you don’t also have a dozen trained defenders living in your home, they’ll do you little good.
Do you have adequate troops?
Some defenders assume that they’ll put the wife and kids in the cellar, while they alone take on the invaders. Others train the wife and kids to fight. If the latter, the defender should first ask himself if the wife and kids are capable of coping with a combat situation. And, in either case, he should face the fact that, once the shooting has started, if he’s not the victor, his wife and kids are also likely to be killed.
Can you man the ramparts 24/7?
Historically, if invaders are repelled, they tend to bear a grudge and, if possible, return again. When they do so, they’re likely to have a better plan and be more determined. Consequently, once your home has been hit once and you’ve survived, the war isn’t over. From that day on, constant vigilance will be needed if another attack is to be survived.
Can you remain at home for months at a time?
Once the fighting begins, it’s not possible to arrange to have battles occur when it’s convenient. There can be no trips to the supermarket or the doctor, as it’ll be too dangerous. It’s essential that you and your family can remain in your “fortress” for an extended time. It may be weeks or months before you can go out the door, and you’d need to be entirely self-sufficient during that period.
Can you actually bring yourself to kill others?
Combat veterans and ex-cops have had the training that allows them to shoot another human being without question. There are also those with sociopathic tendencies who have no qualms about shooting someone who’s facing them. Most other people will not know if they can pull the trigger until they’re facing another person with a gun in his hand. Many hesitate, which is likely to be fatal. Training the wife and kids may therefore be a death sentence for them.
Are you prepared to sacrifice your life and that of your family?
Regardless as to whether you may be visited by the authorities, in riot gear and with automatic weapons, or whether one or more bands of raiders attack your home, what you’re essentially accepting by saying that you’ll stay and defend it is that you’ve made the decision to live in a potential war zone. Given the choice to either put yourself and your family in harm’s way, or move to a safer place (perhaps a country that’s not experiencing conflict), which do you think is the more responsible choice?
Would you not rather be lying on a beach somewhere?
Without being overly alarmist, it seems increasingly evident that the US and possibly some other countries are not so far away from dramatic civil unrest. Whether it be the National Security Agency, the Department of Homeland Security, state or local police, raiders from a nearby city who have become opportunistic, or simply a neighbour who’s run short of food and has become desperate, literally millions of Americans are of the belief that invasion by one group or another is in the cards and are arming themselves as a result. Certainly, their anger is understandable, but their conclusion may not be.
Some of these people will take to the streets, but many more simply want to protect their homes. This is a noble sentiment, but if you and your family are at great enough risk that you’re planning to face being under siege, would it not be more responsible to leave before the bullets start to fly?
Most people, in the course of their lives, move from time to time. In most cases, when they do, it’s because they’d like to live in a better neighbourhood. In this case, the “better neighbourhood” means one where your family’s lives are not in imminent danger.
If this means moving to another jurisdiction entirely—one that’s less likely to be under siege—would that not be the best preparation of all?
Editor’s Note: There’s a sensible, level-headed way to avoid civil unrest and safely protect your family and wealth from any government run amok. Click here to download your free PDF copy of our new special report, Getting Out of Dodge.
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I don’t think Jeff Thomas is familiar with Sun Tzu? Standing alone in the front yard slinging lead isn’t the receipe anyone has in mind regardless of how many “clips” (he-he) of ammo he might have.
No, ya find out where the fuckers live and take em’ out at your leisure…with your posse.
If I am not mistaken, SWAT teams are made up of policemen who train for SWAT. So…
And those same policemen have homes with families to protect. When it gets real, they will protect their own over protecting the mayor.
Exactly, you may be the unlucky one to be the first in line, but after that they are not going to go door to door hopefully unchallenged, and that is where your choice of location and preplaining comes into play.
Once they top their hand, it will be open season, because they have declared war with a clarion call.
Just more buy our gold and run for your life BS from a guy that has no idea what a clip is.
If THEY decide you are a problem area they just call up the military. Consider what is happening now in Gaza. Sure, the second amendment was supposed to prevent this, but it has long been reduced from the right to keep and bear ARMS (the weapons needed to wage war) to being allowed to keep those personal weapons currently permitted by the government. In Gaza the outnumbered and likely to lose resistance has RPGs and ATGMs, do you?
Although I have wrote volumes on this in the past, why it is BS, remind me, what war has the US won lately?
Gaza too, is a relatively “disarmed” concentration camp, hardly a fair comparison, and interestingly enough, they managed to build those RPG and ATGMs themselves (so we are told, though being supplied from outside is almost just as meaningful), in a concentration camp, let alone what that would mean in a still relatively free and resource rich place as America (even if they have been trying their best to drain those resources off, cash for clunkers, just being one example, among endless examples).
The scenario you outline too, depends on the military not fracturing, much as it did during the civil war, and taking much arms and man power to the side of the people, and that includes law enforcement as well.
What caliber of people would be left? They are already at a deficit, both in manpower and equipment. How much farther stretched would they be when several other fronts open up around the world opportunistically (and certainly by other factions internally too), because of the internal turmoil? Especially when we already are likely seeing that as a result of DC ineptitude.
Yes, they may certainly go all out to contain one small area, as I already suggested would be unlucky for those affected, but then all hell breaks loose. They would be lucky to be able to pull back what military resources they have / had to protect their strongholds and their own skins, much as we saw after Jan 6th in DC
Gaza is a good example of this also, though a feeble one their condition, in that while Israel has made some imperfect attempts of (further) containment, it has escalated on many other fronts, and Israel continues to lose equipment and manpower, to that feeble opponent.
Not to mention the political price that would have to be paid, as has been paid by Israel, would be extreme, think Waco on steroids, and further eroding its standing on the world stage and internally.
As such, I’ve been saying for decades, that there is no end to the parties who would be willing to lend us an hand with logistics (if needed), most especially Russia perhaps (though one could argue they already have been).
It is difficult to see the future ahead of time. I have more questions than answers.
The missing trillion$ before 9/11 and since then are doing what?? Way too much to steal. The recent occurrence in Hawaii might offer one clue. I suspect there is much more afoot.
Are they really weak or pulling a Sun Tzu? I think you underestimate them, but would like to be wrong.
Are they really trying to “win” in the classic sense, or just reduce uppity areas to rubble?
You don’t suppose there’s a reason for letting all those military age males flood over our southern border? Like recruiting army units with with no ties to the natives perhaps. The ramping up of military production occurring now supposedly for Ukraine/Israel will be used for what?
ping
HMmmm , if an article can be written to demoralize you and discourage your fighting back , convincing you to surrender and flee then that is the distilled essence of Art of War.
Exactly. That does seem to be the central message from this ilk though.
There are 70 million gun owners in Merica, with close to 1 billion guns and a shit ton of ammo.
That my friends is the LARGEST NON-ORGANIZED STANDING ARMY in the entire world. FAFO……..
That is true but not much training in them. I would suggest they read Max Velocity’s technical books.
There are Nam, Iraq and Afghan vets out there with skills who could get folks into ship shape fairly quickly.
There is big industry doing just that at present, and for a very long time now.
They don’t need all that much training, ask the Russians. Quantity , has a quality all its own.
Cain didn’t seem to need much training to kill Abel. One might go so far as to say it came naturally to him.
But many are on all sorts of drugs BL. Just saying.
That is NOT enough ammo. That’s 14 rounds per person. SMH
??? No mention of the number of rounds of ammunition, just a shit ton, so how did you make the calculation?
TN- That is called Glock math, Shit ton comes in at many multiples higher.
You guys are right. I fucked it up. I thought BL wrote 1 billion rounds. I’m hoping it’s 1 trillion rounds.
Based on the people I know, I would put it at TRILLIONS of rounds.
1 trillion rounds would be about 15,000 rounds per person between 70 million people.
TRILLIONS of rounds sounds awesome.
Hmmm? If it really got real, wouldn’t a few Armories get hit or transports intercepted? They have to store their ammo somewhere.
You don’t think there would be partisans within thge ranks of those attacking us? Etc…
Steve- Wolverines!! comes to mind.
It’ll be laying on the ground literally everywhere for free. All makes and calibers. I don’t think people have an accurate picture of what this shakes out looking like.
“And in those days, I shall make Man rarer than the gold of Ophir”
An effective booby trap is overloading common cartridge cases with explosives and leaving them lying around for ‘discovery’ by your target. Eventually ruins a weapon and possibly a shooter.
If you have to shoot them more than once, I suggest you lose the pussy piece and take some shooting lessons. Try something that starts with a 4…or a 5.
Very true but when the manure first hits the fan, it will take a few brave men to sacrifice their lives to get the rest to organize and resist. Do we have enough of those?
RUN AWAY, Mr. Thomas’s solution for everything. Sometimes Jeff real men take a stand. Thats why there is a country here for you to abandon. I stood in the path of a forest fire 10 years ago when everyone said run. Then I had a choice, this time I have no choice but to stand, Maybe I don’t get lucky twice, but I will stand.
YAWN. Same spool different day. I’m don’t have the means much less the will to move to a brown country where I’m an outsider and know no one.
If things go sideways here the chances of it happening world wide are high. I’ll just hang out here with the cows and a watchful eye
It will happen somewhere else before here
If your pm’s are in a vault that someone else has the combination to, it is really not your property.
TN,normally agree,that said,me best friend has combo and she will if I die get it all(more then just metals),feel things go very wrong may not be around to hand the goods to her and family.
Oh,and I am not leaving the country,tis one of many hills willing to fight and hopefully not die on……,again,just saying.
Me friends gathering in the final days.
James, I was thinking more along the lines of letting someone else keep your valuables locked up in their safe that you cannot access without them. I understand the necessity of having a back-up with the combination. Our grandson has “the keys to the castle” and instructions on what is to be done with it, in case something happens to me.
“or are you going to recognize that giving up your weapons is better than certain death”
Um, giving up my weapons is certain death so, nope.
A list of wonderful countries who would love to have us refugees would be handy! A friend of mine has dual citizenship in Chile he purchased. Requirement was to put 2 MILLON in a Chilean bank. Checked my piggybank and found out I may have to save for another 120 years. Also, does the name Pinochet ring a bell? Nutbags sre available in every country in the world so just deal with the ones in your neighborhood. You know who they are!
Balbinus,
“Nutbags are available in every country in the world so just deal with the ones in your neighborhood. You know who they are!”
Correctamundo.
Pinochet did nothing wrong.
anon,
you beat me to it —
“…a semi-automatic long weapon with plenty of clips of ammunition”…my first clue the author was a clueless fuktard.
Dude , it had a shoulder thing that goes up !
Tone of article is Tokyo Rose , go home to your cheating wives and girlfriend Yankee , you can’t win here !
Author is a defeatist shill……….common democrat interweb message .
Stopped reading when the author mentioned “clips of ammunition”. Someone who doesn’t understand firearms should NOT be bloviating about home defense.
An SKS uses stripper clips to assist in loading and the venerable M-1 Garand uses a clip for loading, so it is not a completely ignorant comment.
Another diaper load of advice from some paper salesman who sits down to pee. I’ll bet he would tell you that he has “a whole clip full of bullets for his machine gun”. What a dweeb.
.
There is not anywhere else safe anymore