I think there should be some limits on firearms. Easy for me to say since I've had a secret security clearance on four different occasions, at one time had a red "Do not detain this person, he is on official Federal government business" card and have been investigated in two states for weapons permits. The government knows all about me. …
I think there should be some limits on firearms. Easy for me to say since I've had a secret security clearance on four different occasions, at one time had a red "Do not detain this person, he is on official Federal government business" card and have been investigated in two states for weapons permits. The government knows all about me. It isn't practical for everyone who wants to buy a gun to come under that kind of security.
My thoughts are not derived from the NRA or Jones. I don't expect rioters in my neighborhood but if a SHTF event like a major solar storm or EMP takes out national power and internet within a few days there might be people thinking that a couple in their 70s would be easy prey is probable when there is no food, gas, or the ability to access your money. As I've written before, I don't have any firearms that are considered assault weapons in California. But a Bic pen is a deadly weapon I could assault someone with. Assault is a verb.
I have no fantasies about lasting longer than a large amount ammunition in a firefight all by myself against an armed group. The world is not like the movies where bad guys can't shoot straight and come at you one at a time. I'd go down fighting, but down I would go in that situation. Would I kill someone who was trying to set my house on fire with me in it? Of course, so would you if you could. Since I don't want to kill the people across the street, a shotgun would be a better choice than an AR-15.
When a SWAT team on a forfeiture fishing trip killed Jose Guerena their AR-15 rounds went thru his house and thru the stucco wall of the house behind him. When nobody answered the door, they broke in to make sure there was nobody laying in the floor with a policeman's bullet in them. A downside to rifles.
As an aside, preppers keep large amounts of ammunition as barter items more useful than a gold bar. A can of beans might cost two shotgun or ten .22 rounds for example. A purpose more common that fantasies about firefights.
We both have our biases as an influence on our thoughts.
I'm with you on the SHTF stuff although I don't worry about it overmuch - a solar storm knocking out power would last probably 10-15 years or more, upon which we're all fucked. What I've seen so far - in the Western world anyway - is major SHTF and the world didn't come to an end. Crime actually went *down everywhere* after 9/11, even in New York where you would expect others would most take advantage of it. Mostly what they dealt with was downed Internet and phone/mobile service but everyone, even Millennials, could remember a world without Internet so everyone somehow survived. Here in Canada, when Rogers went down for a day and people couldn't get money, we didn't riot in the streets or slit each others' throats for food money. Granted, it was only down for a day, day and a half but we still made do some how some way. When we had an ice storm here Christmas 2013 and power went down for up to three weeks in some parts of the city (as a Tier 2 resident in a skyrise pocket I got it back in a day and a half, and stayed with my friend in a nearby town until then) and it was unhappy for many people, but still not mass chaos.
So if the SHTF events are short-lived I suspect, at least in Canada, we'll be okay, not sure about the Ignited States anymore. I know there were riots and mass vandalism in some places with the death of George Floyd and the rise of BLM, the latter of which AFAIK wasn't behind the violent shit, but social movements *do* draw violent hotheads.
I'm not sure *what* I'd do if we lost power here for a great length of time, apart from the 2013 ice storm the worst Toronto had seen was the 2003 blackout, and according to everyone who was here for it (I was still in CT, in a largely untouched pocket), everyone just kinda dealt...even in NY and the Midwest they dealt, ate their ice cream together and finally learned their neighbours' names.
OTOH, I do expect someone like you to have a more reasonable understanding of what a SHTF event is...the Alex Joneses of America...and there are a lot of them...think they're living in Nazi Germany when they're asked to put on a mask to not kill their families.
I think there should be some limits on firearms. Easy for me to say since I've had a secret security clearance on four different occasions, at one time had a red "Do not detain this person, he is on official Federal government business" card and have been investigated in two states for weapons permits. The government knows all about me. It isn't practical for everyone who wants to buy a gun to come under that kind of security.
My thoughts are not derived from the NRA or Jones. I don't expect rioters in my neighborhood but if a SHTF event like a major solar storm or EMP takes out national power and internet within a few days there might be people thinking that a couple in their 70s would be easy prey is probable when there is no food, gas, or the ability to access your money. As I've written before, I don't have any firearms that are considered assault weapons in California. But a Bic pen is a deadly weapon I could assault someone with. Assault is a verb.
I have no fantasies about lasting longer than a large amount ammunition in a firefight all by myself against an armed group. The world is not like the movies where bad guys can't shoot straight and come at you one at a time. I'd go down fighting, but down I would go in that situation. Would I kill someone who was trying to set my house on fire with me in it? Of course, so would you if you could. Since I don't want to kill the people across the street, a shotgun would be a better choice than an AR-15.
When a SWAT team on a forfeiture fishing trip killed Jose Guerena their AR-15 rounds went thru his house and thru the stucco wall of the house behind him. When nobody answered the door, they broke in to make sure there was nobody laying in the floor with a policeman's bullet in them. A downside to rifles.
As an aside, preppers keep large amounts of ammunition as barter items more useful than a gold bar. A can of beans might cost two shotgun or ten .22 rounds for example. A purpose more common that fantasies about firefights.
We both have our biases as an influence on our thoughts.
I'm with you on the SHTF stuff although I don't worry about it overmuch - a solar storm knocking out power would last probably 10-15 years or more, upon which we're all fucked. What I've seen so far - in the Western world anyway - is major SHTF and the world didn't come to an end. Crime actually went *down everywhere* after 9/11, even in New York where you would expect others would most take advantage of it. Mostly what they dealt with was downed Internet and phone/mobile service but everyone, even Millennials, could remember a world without Internet so everyone somehow survived. Here in Canada, when Rogers went down for a day and people couldn't get money, we didn't riot in the streets or slit each others' throats for food money. Granted, it was only down for a day, day and a half but we still made do some how some way. When we had an ice storm here Christmas 2013 and power went down for up to three weeks in some parts of the city (as a Tier 2 resident in a skyrise pocket I got it back in a day and a half, and stayed with my friend in a nearby town until then) and it was unhappy for many people, but still not mass chaos.
So if the SHTF events are short-lived I suspect, at least in Canada, we'll be okay, not sure about the Ignited States anymore. I know there were riots and mass vandalism in some places with the death of George Floyd and the rise of BLM, the latter of which AFAIK wasn't behind the violent shit, but social movements *do* draw violent hotheads.
I'm not sure *what* I'd do if we lost power here for a great length of time, apart from the 2013 ice storm the worst Toronto had seen was the 2003 blackout, and according to everyone who was here for it (I was still in CT, in a largely untouched pocket), everyone just kinda dealt...even in NY and the Midwest they dealt, ate their ice cream together and finally learned their neighbours' names.
OTOH, I do expect someone like you to have a more reasonable understanding of what a SHTF event is...the Alex Joneses of America...and there are a lot of them...think they're living in Nazi Germany when they're asked to put on a mask to not kill their families.