Category: Emerging Threats

Gun Grabbers Pounce on the Tucson Shootings–America’s Hungerford?

Just as I predicted, the headlines are already full of shrill cries for civilian disarmament. Never mind the fact that these were the actions of just one man who was mentally unstable. They aim to disarm the 99.9% of us law-abiding gun owners in the hopes of disarming the remaining 0.01%–the dangerous lunatics. This is something akin to the Hungerford Massacre, where the actions of one sick individual were used as the pretext to disarm an entire nation. Most of what I’ve read so far is just the expected statist knee-jerk reaction. But there was one well-reasoned response. And, despite …


Letter Re: New Year’s Eve and The Thin Veneer

Happy New Year! I’ve been reading your blog for a while now and have gotten a lot more prepared than I was in the past. As a law enforcement officer (LEO) for the past nine years, much of the information on human behavior mentioned in SurvivalBlog hasn’t been a surprise to me. I particularly enjoy reading the articles you post from other LEOs due to the fact that they tend to have 20+ years experience and thus impart a lot of knowledge. I wanted to share my experience with you in reference New Years Eve celebrations this year. I live …


The Razor’s Edge, by Don V.

“The sharp edge of a razor is difficult to pass over; thus the wise say the path to Salvation is hard.” – W. Somerset Maugham The United States and a majority of the world stand at the proverbial razor’s edge and as most preppers realize, the road to salvation will definitely be difficult.  The coming changes may happen tomorrow or ten years from now but the grand clock is in countdown mode.  Many experts like to focus on specific issues but it is the culmination of these separate issues that will create the ultimate crisis.  Evaluating each issue allows the …


Crisis Mode and Effects Analysis, by Scott B.

In survivaldom there are countless potential crises to consider, ranging from a limited local flood to massive global nuclear conflict, and anything in between.  For the newcomer to the prepper/survivor mindset, as well as for those who have begun the journey to preparedness, the range and scope of calamities to consider can be overwhelming.  How does one weigh the need to keep fresh baby formula or insulin available while recognizing that unprotected electronics could become useless after an EMP event?  What good is frozen food if there is no electricity available?  Countless tradeoffs and prioritization must occur, but how does …


Letter Re: Little Life Lessons in Crisis Management

Mr. Rawles,   I’d like to share some things that happened yesterday at work to really hit home the basics.  (I’m looking to start my own crisis management firm so these really sunk in for me.)  You wouldn’t think of a Library as a hub for disaster, but naturally it just follows people.  Or at least when there are people around, an occurrence becomes a disaster (tree in the woods?).  No place is “safe” from everything.   1) First Aid Kits — This seems so basic to any of us that we would dismiss minor cuts and scrapes from bearing any seriousness.  “No stitches? No problem.”  …


Where’s the Bad Guys? — Morality When the SHTF, by Kelly A.

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You don’t have to read many gun blogs before you are faced with discussion regarding Bad Guys (“BG’s”). The BG shorthand is the current forum-speak for “Bad Guy”. In these discussions you’ll find that BG’s are always in desperate need of having an end put to their pathetic lives, and that they are nothing really but a target waiting to be acquired. But does reality reflect forum logic? Does every BG have an angry scowl and use someone’s beautiful daughter as a human shield? Life, unlike some forum discussions, is chuck-full of gray areas, shadowy concealment, and moral dilemmas where right and …


Letter Re: Just In Time Consumers

James Wesley,   Thank you for all that you do and the wonderful, informative web site.  I have been active for about a year and am working on my introduction and first contribution to Survival Blog.  Ironically I have basically been employed all of my life in one of the industries, consumer package goods, which is one of the key industries so tied to technology that if TEOTWAWKI hits would be significantly impacted.  Earlier today I came across an article in The Wall Street Journal which emphasizes the needs for preppers to be more prepared and to also know what your …


The Truth About Your Local Grocery Store, By Jay M.

I’ve been reading your Blog for a little over a year now and find it very interesting.  Not long ago there was an entry about trying to convince your family about the need to get prepared.  I to have the same issue when trying to get others on board.  They always seem to give me the “RCA dog look” — like I’ve lost my mind. However, I do have the advantage of some work experience that helps.  I’ve worked for a major grocer / big box retailer for the last 25 years.   In that time things have changed an unbelievable …


Letter Re: A Veteran Policeman’s Observations on The Golden Horde

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James,   A lot has been written warning us of what will happen when the City Dwellers find their homes are untenable and vacate [en masse as The Golden Horde] for “the country”, but I haven’t seen anything on what the make-up of these hordes will be. The generic term “city dwellers” encompasses a lot of territory. Who will they be,what kind of shape will they be in, how will they be armed…all of these need to be examined. One category needs to be examined, I feel, more closely than others. Since I have seen posts on your site lately …


America’s Terrorism Problem Isn’t Domestic

SurvivalBlog reader R.F.J. sent me a link to a recent news account about the would-be Portland, Oregon bomber, Mohamud Osman Mohamed. Reading that article confirmed something that has been very clear to me for more than 20 years: America’s terrorism problem isn’t domestic. As others have already pointed out, the purveyors of terrorism in America and elsewhere are mostly Islamic Middle Eastern Men, predominately ages 18 to 30. All the leftist hand-wringers whine on endlessly about “fairness”, and decry that horrid “profiling.” But the latest incident in Portland is just another in a long, long, string of Islamic Middle Eastern …


The Attitude of Survival, by B.T.

We’re living in a country that’s the equivalent of the Titanic and everywhere around me I see people dancing like nothing’s happening… In the worst of times and in the best of times, it’s the attitude of your undertaking that matters most. No matter what we may imagine will come to be, most of us will be drastically unprepared when the SHTF. We can have all the basics covered, and we can have a solution to everything we might imagine, but like war and science, there’s always the unexpected we can never account for. Personally I think most of us …


Six Letters Re: Preppers as Foster Parents

JWR, My family and I signed up to be foster parents in Arizona and went through the initial home review, interview and application.  The social worker made some recommendations about adding a door to our loft.  I did not feel that her walk-through was invasive at all but we never made it to the official state inspection.  We had to enter a lot of data into the State’s foster care web site and that bothered me a little.  I have actually thought about logging back in to erase everything.  What we found was that as the economy was changing more and more …


Letter Re: Preppers as Foster Parents

Dear Mr. Rawles:   Thank you for your dedication to the survivalist movement.  As a Ten Cent Challenge subscriber, I appreciate being able to read many of the posts and comments on your web site.  I am hoping to pose a question to you and your readers about becoming foster parents as survivalists.    First, I little about us:We live in a small suburban community in Ohio.  Because of several issues, we have decided to retreat in place.  With a little land, we have created a suburban homestead with a large garden and a small chicken flock.  We have also …


A Rude Awakening, by Ruth E. in Hawaii

Power outages are quite common here in Hawaii. It seems like a couple of times a month, the lights flicker, get dim, and then go out. Sometimes they stay out for an hour or longer. We recently had a blackout on one whole side of our island, which truly woke me up to the possibilities of an endless blackout (worse-case scenario). Usually I come out of an anxiety session unscathed, but since I currently belong to an emergency preparedness group, I have been reading tons about the many scenarios that could happen to our island home including tsunamis, earthquakes, flooding, …


Decision Science for TEOTWAWKI, by Dr. P.F.

This article describes how to figure the Who, What, Where, When, Why, How Long, and How Deep of preparedness. Preparing for TEOTWAWKI is a lot like buying insurance. You hope you never have to use it, but the consequences of being uninsured or under insured are severe enough to warrant the investment. Determining how much, and what type, of insurance to get can be a daunting task. The purpose of this article is to provide starting points for discussions on how best to allocate your resources in preparing for catastrophic events. It considers only those calamities, natural or man-made, at …