One of the things that I enjoy doing is meeting other people that are into the same things I am, ie. prepping, survival, and citizen soldiery. Unfortunately, there is a disturbing trend in the type of people that seem to gravitate to this lifestyle. Most of us are fairly squared away upstairs, that is, we have our heads on straight. We are good at planning, stocking, prepping, etc. But that seems to be about where it stops. Most of the people that I meet are what we call armchair survivalists. I think that most people are survivalists, or militia men, only so far as it is easy to do. Spend some money on gadgets and camouflage, buy some guns, read a book or two, and presto!, instant expert. But I would like to spend a moment discussing the dangers of this type of attitude.
Ask yourself, how many of you can actually carry that ruck sack for more than a few blocks without getting tired? How many of you could actually walk miles on end, day after day, in an end-of-the-world scenario? How many of you are in decent enough shape to pass the PT tests that most serious militia groups have? How many people can actually run a mile and then have enough stamina to shoot a rifle and hit the target? Hell, when was the last time you just walked around the block?
A real shit-hits-the-fan scenario is going to call for a great deal from us. Waiting until it is too late, thinking that you will get in shape while you are doing the work necessary for surviving is just ridiculous. More likely you will give yourself a heart attack, or at the least, be a burden to those around you. Discipline yourself now, and get into at least a modicum of shape. Be able to walk around the block for starters. Build up to being able to walk several miles with with a pack. We don’t need to be athletes, but we need to be able to perform above a minimum level.
While most people who are serious about developing a prepping lifestyle will end up owning at least a few firearms, if not a small arsenal, most of the people that I meet or talk to, are not cognizant of the whole spectrum of organizing firearms for a survival situation.
It is not enough to simply buy a bunch of guns and thousands of rounds of ammunition to go with them. It is not even enough to learn to shoot, and become an expert marksman. What most people never take the time to consider is maintaining the firearm in the event of a catastrophic collapse.
Some things to consider. You should take the time to learn to not just field-strip and clean your guns, but to completely disassemble and repair firearms. Take armorer courses or buy the armorer DVD’s that are available from American Gunsmithing Institute, and get whatever manuals you can. Buy all of the necessary tools for working on each and every one of your weapons. Most importantly, buy parts, lots of parts, for each weapon. If you break an internal part and have no back-ups, suddenly the gun becomes worthless, and unless you have access to a full machine shop, with the skills to use it, you will be unlikely to be able to repair your gun. Talk to experienced armorers and gunsmiths, and find out what the most common repairs and and parts are, then learn to do them and have the parts on hand.
One final thought. Guns are a lot like cars. Preventative maintenance will help them go longer and be more reliable. While it is not generally well known, a lot of the firearms manufacturers have a recommended schedule for replacing certain parts. For example, Glock recommends replacing the recoil spring assembly every 2,500 rounds. It might take some researching, even contacting the manufacturer directly, but it is information worth knowing.
The blow out kit is a first line emergency kit designed for a severe life-threatening injury, particularly trauma due to a gunshot or knife wound. It is important to know that a person can bleed to death in under four minutes if a major artery is damaged, therefore this kit is primarily designed to be self-applied, in order to keep from bleeding out due to uncontrollable hemorrhaging, to help prevent a tension pneumothorax, and to help prevent airway obstruction. A blow out kit may also be referred to as an immediate action kit or, more rarely, a personal trauma kit. I prefer the term blow out kit as it is the most widely used, and is the military term.
A few notes here that I think are very important. First, most store bought kits are worthless. Assemble your own kit. I cannot over emphasize this point enough. Most civilian kits are inferior both in regards to what they contain, and in the quality of the items therein. Your blow out kit should only contain items of military/tactical grade as most civilian bandages will not hold up under severe use. Also, take the time to learn how to use this kit and the items in it. There are numerous videos and articles online, but the best thing you could possibly do is to take an EMT course at your local community college.
Before we delve into the details of the blow out kit, let me take a moment to dispel some misconceptions about what the blow out kit is. In other words, let us look at what a blow out kit is not. It is not a first-aid kit. It is not there for cuts, bruises, headaches, splinters, fractures or common broken bones. The kit does not contain band-aids, splints, burn dressings, motrin, antidiarrheals, moleskin, etc. The blow out kit is for severe emergency trauma only. Continue reading »
Yesterday was Independence Day, the 4th of July. The 4th of July is, for all practical purposes, America’s birthday. A day that we routinely celebrate with fireworks, barbecues, and family picnics. Yet, in all of my running around yesterday, not once did I hear anyone say “happy independence day,” it is always “happy 4th of July.” Which has left me wondering how many people actually know what the purpose of the holiday is? How many people know why we celebrate on the 4th? How many people know what Independence Day is?
Independence Day is a federal holiday celebrated everywhere in the United States of America. Independence Day celebrates our signing of the Declaration of Independence, which was our declaration of succession from the English. There is actually some debate on what day the Declaration was specifically signed, but July 4th is the day that we commemorate the adoption and signing of the document.
Every American citizen, and every person who values the importance of individual and national freedom should read and be familiar with the text of the Declaration. From Wikipedia:
The United States Declaration of Independence is a statement adopted by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, which announced that the thirteen American colonies then at war with Great Britain were now independent states, and thus no longer a part of the British Empire. Written primarily by Thomas Jefferson, the Declaration is a formal explanation of why Congress had voted on July 2 to declare independence from Great Britain, more than a year after the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War. The birthday of the United States of America—Independence Day—is celebrated on July 4, the day the wording of the Declaration was approved by Congress.
Following is the text of the Declaration. Please, take a few moments and read it. More importantly, reflect on what it says and think about how much of what we were declaring independence from is similar to what we are currently experiencing with our government.
In Congress, July 4, 1776.
A Declaration
By the Representatives of the
United states of America,
In general Congress assembled.
When in the course of human Events, it becomes necessary for one People to dissolve the Political Bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the Powers of the Earth, the separate and equal Station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent Respect to the Opinions of Mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the Separation.
We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness—-That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it, and to institute a new Government, laying its Foundation on such Principles, and organizing its Powers in such Form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient Causes; and accordingly all Experience hath shewn, that Mankind are more disposed to suffer, while Evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the Forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long Train of Abuses and Usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a Design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their Right, it is their Duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future Security. Such has been the patient Sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the Necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The History of the Present King of Great-Britain is a History of repeated Injuries and Usurpations, all having in direct Object the Establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid World.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public Good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing Importance, unless suspended in their Operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the Accommodation of large Districts of People; unless those People would relinquish the Right of Representation in the Legislature, a Right inestimable to them, and formidable to Tyrants only.
He has called together Legislative Bodies at Places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the Depository of their public Records, for the sole Purpose of fatiguing them into Compliance with his Measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly Firmness his Invasions on the Rights of the People.
He has refused for a long Time, after such Dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the Dangers of Invasion from without, and Convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the Population of these States; for that Purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their Migrations hither, and raising the Conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the Tenure of their Offices, and Amount and Payment of their Salaries.
He has erected a Multitude of new Offices, and sent hither Swarms of Officers to harass our People, and eat out their Substance.
He has kept among us, in Times of Peace, Standing Armies, without the consent of our Legislature.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a Jurisdiction foreign to our Constitution, and unacknowledged by our Laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For quartering large Bodies of Armed Troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from Punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all Parts of the World:
For imposing taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us, in many Cases, of the Benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended Offences:
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an arbitrary Government, and enlarging its Boundaries, so as to render it at once an Example and fit Instrument for introducing the same absolute Rule in these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with Powers to legislate for us in all Cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our Seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our Towns, and destroyed the Lives of our People.
He is, at this Time, transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the Works of Death, Desolation, and Tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty and Perfidy, scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous Ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized Nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the Executioners of their Friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic Insurrections among us, and has endeavoured to bring on the Inhabitants of our Frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known Rule of Warfare, is an undistinguished Destruction, of all Ages, Sexes and Conditions.
In every stage of these Oppressions we have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble Terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated Injury. A Prince, whose Character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the Ruler of a free People.
Nor have we been wanting in Attentions to our British Brethren. We have warned them from Time to Time of Attempts by their Legislature to extend an unwarrantable Jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the Circumstances of our Emigration and Settlement here. We have appealed to their native Justice and Magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the Ties of our common Kindred to disavow these Usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our Connections and Correspondence. They too have been deaf to the Voice of Justice and of Consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the Necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of Mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace, Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the World for the Rectitude of our Intentions, do, in the Name, and by the Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly Publish and Declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be, Free and Independent States; that they are absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political Connection between them and the State of Great-Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm Reliance on the Protection of the divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.
Signed by Order and in Behalf of the Congress,
John Hancock, President.
Attest.
Charles Thomson, Secretary.
Philadelphia: Printed by John Dunlap.
This is the first in a series of videos of an eight-hour introduction to Constitutional Law class that I highly recommend.
In the early eighties Michael Badnarik started his career as a computer programmer at an Illinois nuclear power plant. For the past twenty years he has continued this professional course, but during this time he became interested and frustrated with politics. As a result, in 1983 Badnarik began studying the IRS and then the Constitution. He had since condensed his 18 years of research into a short eight hour course that he would teach in a lecture format. It included some of the fundamentals on our rights and the foundations of our republic.
To read the Constitution, in its entirety, visit here.
Here is a little test that will help you decide.
The answer can be found by posing the following question:
You’re walking down a deserted street with your wife and two small children.
Suddenly, a crazy man with a huge knife comes around the corner, locks eyes with you, screams obscenities, raises the knife, and charges at you…
You are carrying a Glock .45 caliber handgun, and you are an expert shot.
You have mere seconds before he reaches you and your family.
What do you do?
……..THINK CAREFULLY THEN SCROLL DOWN:
Continue reading »
America’a Militias Armed & Ready
Why Oath Keepers are Under Attack
An important speech, not just for the Oath Keepers organization, but for everyone who is a Patriot.