Hugh,
This is very helpful information. Some of the comments made me think of something I learned from another person. In everyday life, we deal with three kinds of information. Level 1: Things that we know and are familiar with and do without giving it any thought, such as brushing our teeth. Level 2: Things that we do, but we suddenly realize we need help, so we ask for help or use a manual, such as when changing a part on a vehicle. Level 3: This is the one that will get you killed. Information that we don’t know, and we don’t know that we don’t know. In the post, the Shopkeeper referred to the people who had brand new AR-15’s that still had the factory grease in them. Apparently, these folks knew nothing about guns. They didn’t read the owner manuals that came with their guns. They had no “skills” in this area. They never thought to ask for help. As preppers, we need to practice alertness. My definition of alertness is: Being constantly aware of the things taking place around us. We need to recognize when “something is not right here” in every situation. We must practice evaluating the situation as time permits and then take the appropriate action. Sometimes that means we just stop and think. Other times it means back off to a safe distance and observe. Other times, ask for help from those around us with more experience. WE need to be constantly learning and increasing our knowledge base and our group’s knowledge base. These levels of information saved my life and the lives of my co-workers in an industrial incident that had never occurred before where I worked. Because I had learned these “levels”, I was able to move from Level 1 to Level 2 and then realize that I was in a Level 3 situation. We stopped what we were doing and investigated and discovered that we could not continue safely. We needed more resources and help to complete our task. Because of this, I am still alive to write this note. Thank you for this blog and all the info that you share. – MER