Category: Current Events & Politics

Letter Re: A Lifetime Gun and Magazine Purchases in Just a Few Months?

Brother Rawles, Thank you to you and Ulysses in Montana for the detailed article on .308 battle rifles.  The current political environment kicked me into high gear, buying one.  Ulysses information helped me out tremendously.  It will help me save time and money on getting familiar with a new caliber and rifle.  In the beginning hours of the Gun Grab I picked up an Armalite AR-10 lower receiver and mags. I’ve got a number of 5.56 AR’s but have been putting off getting my “dream” rifle for a couple of years.  Depending on what happens in Washington DC, I might trade it toward a FAL …


Two Letters Re: Many Police and Firefighters are The Good Guys

Dear Jim, Over the last 4 years, I have read your blog almost every day! As a committed “prepper”, most of the advice found herein is good to excellent. Likewise the recent comment by a public safety officer regarding his concern that he not be lumped into a category of untrustworthy “guvmint” agents. My professional work as a physician and my recreational pursuit of shooting activities put me into contact with many, many local policemen, sheriff’s deputies and even Federal agents, e.g., FBI and ATF. In my opinion, based on conversations with these folks, most are good guys who are …


Letter Re: Many Police and Firefighters are The Good Guys

Dear Mr. Rawles, First, I want to take a moment to tell you how much we love your blog site.  The amount of well thought out information that you have available is a great resource for all of us.  I would however like to discuss a disturbing trend I am seeing on your blog.  While your distrust of the policies and actions of the government may be well founded I am worried about the anti law enforcement sentiment that is popping up is troubling.  I would never tell anybody to blindly trust or follow any one person or group of …


Legally Prepared?, by L.C.

Picture this: On some not-so-remote night, you are awakened by an insistent thumping on your door, or perhaps by the sound of breaking glass. You stagger up and groggily go toward the noise, maybe muttering or worse. Perhaps you have the time and presence of mind to grab your home defense tool of whatever description, and maybe you awaken your spouse and get him or her (and any children) to a more secure part of the house. Now what? What are you prepared to do? Like many of you, I have been self-sufficient and responsible for more decades than I …


Letter Re: Voting With Our Feet

Captain Rawles, In response to your mention of people voting with their feet – I believe this is much more prevalent today than people realize.  According to the best data I can find, there are currently more than a million Americans leaving the United States each year.  And while the vast majority will choose to retain their US citizenship, and their reasons for leaving are varied, the net effect on the American economy will be great.  Here’s why:  The people who are leaving are, almost to a family, high income earners.  Many of those replacing them in the US are …


Americans are Voting with Their Feet

It should come as no surprise that at the same time that Statists agitators are vociferously calling for more People Control that freedom lovers are heading for the exit doors in greater numbers, to wit: The American Redoubt movement, Glenn Beck’s announced Independence Park community (in Texas), calls for state secession (which has been going on longer than most people realize), the ongoing but sadly polarized Free State Movement (in which Free State Wyoming has the best chance of success, demographically), the quiet expatriation of thousands, primarily to various Central and South American countries, and the more splashy celebrity exits. …


The III Citadel Controversy

The name “III Citadel” came into the limelight last weekend, when The Drudge Report posted a prominent link to a CNS article by Gregory Gwyn-Williams, Jr.. In a nutshell, a man identifying himself as “Sam III” who is somehow loosely associated with III Arms (a legitimate company, in West Virginia) started a patriot community building project, somewhere east of St. Maries, Idaho. When I first heard about it in November, I made just one short and noncommittal “this sounds interesting” mention in my blog. (A post which I just removed.) Two days ago I was quite troubled to learn that …


Letter Re: A Few AR-15 Full Capacity Magazines Found Available

Sir: I noticed yesterday that one of your readers (and I’m assuming many others) are looking for AR-15 magazines. While I haven’t yet tested the Israeli E-Lander magazines personally (I have six of them on order), the reviews seemed positive albeit the magazines are slightly heavy compared to a PMAG. Beggars can’t be choosers in this [current political and market] environment. A few people noted they were not fitting in MEGA lower receiver magazine wells, and were very tight in some other receivers, however the majority of users had no issues. I believe the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) use these …


Three Letters Re: Why Civilian Disarmament in the U.S. is Just a Statist Fantasy

Mr. Rawles,  I love the SurvivalBlog site and what you do. Many thanks to you and all contributors! I have some remarks on the letter: A Call to Action: The Impending Weapons Ban, by James M. I agree on the fundamental points made regarding firearms, but it does sound like a re-hash of the red-herring debate from ’91 with the only “Call to Action” being that Congress should ban something else.  Maybe they should ban Murder. Oh, wait that’s been done…   I personally don’t think our Congressional leaders should really be banning anything at all, and when the subject …


A Call to Action: The Impending Weapons Ban, by James M.

The massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary was as profound a tragedy as one can imagine; period. In light of this and similar events we need to have a national discussion about the real causes of mass murder. Contrary to what we will hear in the coming days and weeks, guns were not the cause of the Sandy Hook murders. Nevertheless, local, state, and national leaders, lead by California’s Senator Dianne Feinstein, will use this awful event as a rallying call to push for the most serious infringement of our Second Amendment rights ever proposed in this country’s history. They will …


Letter Re: Why Civilian Disarmament in the U.S. is Just a Statist Fantasy

James, The Internet is replete with potential gun confiscation scenarios. Many people voice the opinion that this confiscation will take the form of armed troops going house to house searching for guns. This would be a potential source of revolution, would demonstrate the true nature of government and would result in the deaths of many of the regimes ostensible supporters. I’ll make the assumption that The Powers That Be are not stupid (evil, probably, but stupid, no). Since they are not stupid, and can foresee the difficulties with house-to-house searches, they will use other methods. Let’s explore some of these …


Letter Re: Advice on Finding Full Capacity Magazines

Dear Mr. Rawles I am quite sad to say that you warned me about stocking up on [full capacity] magazines, but I ignored you. I stupidly concentrated on building a couple of .22 target rifles. Now I’m hurting. Here’s my situation: I have a Bravo Company (BCM) M4 with only three magazines (30 round), and a Mini-14, also with three mags. (One is a factory 5 rounder, and the 2 others are junky “PMI” [aftermarket] 30 rounders that I don’t trust [to feed reliably].) I also have a Beretta Model 92 [9mm pistol], but for that I’m in pretty good …


Why Civilian Disarmament in the U.S. is Just a Statist Fantasy

I often have SurvivalBlog readers forward me alarmist e-mails, warning of “total disarmament” of the civilian populace. While there indeed may be plans or schemes to disarm Americans, I don’t consider these threats credible. Let me explain why: I would conservatively estimate that there are about 316 million firearms in private hands in the United States. Of these, less than 10% are logged in any formal registry. Perhaps another 30% have Form 4473s filed with the FFL dealers where they were first purchased, but that is a fractured mishmash of records with a quite perishable life span. It is notable …


T.M.’s Book Review: The Debt Bomb

©2012 Senator Tom Coburn with John Hart Published by Thomas Nelson, Nashville Tennessee 349 pages with numerous charts, graphs, index, and list of official reports available to the public. ISBN: 978-1-59555-467-3 I recently read The Debt Bomb: A Bold Plan to Stop Washington from Bankrupting America. The title tells us exactly what this well-written book is about. Our national debt is a bomb more dangerous than any nuke or chemical weapon known to man. While we spend billions chasing a few terrorists around the world, our politicians are killing our economy, and our freedoms, with rampant, unfunded spending. Senator Coburn …


Letter Re: Argentina Versus Chile as Offshore Havens

Regarding Doug Casey’s linked article on Argentina: The Freest Place in the World.  Seriously?  That country does all the things we fear the US might do.  Rampant inflation?  Check.  Confiscate retirement accounts?  Check.  Currency controls & dollar-sniffing dogs?  Check.  Crony socialism and capricious Diktat replacing rule of law?  Check.  Punitive taxes on the productive, such as farmer-exporters?  Check.  Hitler-style appeals to nationalism to justify seizure of assets (such as NPF, the largest oil company in the country) or to provoke rows with foreigners (Falklands).  Check.  Profound corruption?  Check.  Argentina is cheap for a reason.  Refer to FerFAL (An Argentine who …