Category: Self-Defense

Letter Re: Going into Debt to Acquire Firearms Before New Ban Legislation is Enacted?

Mr. Rawles, Thanks for your recent advice. My question to you now combines questions of politics, debt, and firearms. The last time the executive and legislative branches were [both] held by the Democrats, we all got to enjoy the Assault Weapons Ban for 10 years. How removing a bayonet lug from firearms reduced gun violence, I’m not sure. The big problem with this, however, was obviously the magazine capacity limitations. The election of 2008 makes a similar act quite possible. By October 2008, a front-runner will probably have emerged. If that front-runner is not gun-friendly, where do we go from …


Letter Re: Skills Versus Gear for Survival

Jim, After reading the Profiles you have posted. I have come to the conclusion I cannot hold a dime to these folks. Makes me wonder why should I bother. Hmmm, that thought lasts all of five seconds. A lot of the people for whom you profiled are in a much higher income bracket than the rest of us working folks. Personally, I have two jobs and work 12-14 hours a day. I was unlucky enough to be in a third rear end collision. In my life time this year, although instead of being rear ended by an illegal uninsured illegal …


Letter Re: Hardening Gates for Retreat Security

JWR: Since I had some spare time over winter break I re-read “Patriots: Surviving the Coming Collapse”. It is an awesome book, I really like the “survival manual wrapped in a fiction novel” format. It left me with a few thoughts on physical retreat security. I am talking about locks, fences, gates, and so forth –not people. When the gate lock was cut [in the novel] you mentioned the characters welding a 3 inch pipe [section to the gate post] to protect the [new] lock. That is a great idea, except many who live in timber country are aware of …


Letter Re: Hunkering Down in an Urban Apartment in a Worst Case Societal Collapse

Hello, In the event of a disaster (I live in New York City) I intend to shelter in place until all the riotous mobs destroy each other or are starved out. I am preparing for up to six months. I have one liter of water stored for each day (180 liters) and about 50 pounds of rice to eat as well as various canned goods. I have not seen on your site anything about heat sources for urban dwellers who intend to shelter in place. I’m assuming that electricity would go first soon followed by [natural] gas and running water. …


Letter Re: A Twenty-Something EMT with Limited Preps Storage Space

Mr. Rawles, First off I would like to thank you for your profound impact on my life in the last four months. All of my life I grew up with a father and grandfather who were/are minor survivalist men. They believe that the end times are coming and we should prepare for them. They keep about three days of food and water at their homes and plenty of guns and ammo. For the longest time I always thought it was ridiculous and never understood it. Now my thinking has changed to the fact that they are under prepared. When I …


Letter Re: Comments on the Movie “I Am Legend”

JWR, My wife and I saw “I Am Legend” last night at the local theatre. The movie house was packed. Almost every seat was filled. Of the most interest was the end. As the movie faded to black and credits rolled, there were more than several spontaneous bursts of applause throughout the audience and a few cheers. Wow! The last movie that I remember ever getting applause was the last “Star Wars” installment. Something really hit deep with many in the audience… My wife was weird’ed out by the zombies though, as they were quite scary. So viewer beware. As …


Letter Re: Preparedness for Less Than a Worst Case, From an Eastern Urbanite’s Perspective

Jim: In response to “Preparedness for Less Than a Worst Case, From an Eastern Urbanite’s Perspective” your response D.C. for improving his family’s preps is reasonable but I think that your advice can be expanded. So I offer the following to my fellow New Yorkers and to other urbanites. D.C. is right that 99% of the inconveniences we encounter will be of short duration. Preparing for these will put us far ahead of the unprepared. Preparing for a week long event will benefit you no matter how long the event lasts–be that an hour or a month! In the same …


Letter Re: The Importance of “Weak Side” Firearms Practice

Sir, A recent shoulder injury has alerted me to the fact that my weak side drills were totally inadequate. Just tucking the strong side hand in and using the weak side does not equal the reality of having a useless and painful limb effecting balance, movement and concentration. This is a very humbling experience. I will try to use some sort of “handicap” rig to duplicate the effect at the range. Safety is the first rule. Long gun drills will be a real challenge. Sincerely in your debt for the great blog, – Spud JWR Replies: Al of the major …


Letters Re: A Tactical Hack for R.C. Model Cars

James, The letters reacting to my friend’s mobile, radio-controlled Glock platform make some very good points. The triggering systems of these particular machines were built on very simple eccentric cams (powered by cannibalized motor-driven wheel components) that were intentionally de-powered after a single revolution. In this configuration, shots were limited to about a one second interval, requiring another push of the button for another shot. It could’ve been made into a “rapid fire” mechanism but the builder didn’t see any advantage to such a modification. The trigger used a redundant system of three simultaneous frequencies in order to compensate for …


Four Letters Re: A Tactical Hack for R.C. Model Cars

Jim- [Regarding Hawaiian K’s letter]: Just want to offer a caution to anyone who might experiment with a firearm mounted on a radio controlled vehicle of any type: While modern Radio Controlled (RC) stuff is generally very reliable, there are many scenarios in which a partial failure of batteries, transmitter, receiver, servo, radio interference, unintentional collision with an object, or simple human error could cause the mounted firearm to discharge unintentionally. If any of your readers intends to experiment with such a setup, I hope it will be under very tightly controlled circumstances. Regards, – Rich S.   James: The …


Letter Re: A Tactical Hack for R.C. Model Cars

James; A late acquaintance of mine was something of a hacker/genius. Prior to Y2K, he developed several cute but deadly machines based on radio-controlled toy cars that he’d picked up at garage sales. These were fitted with tiny wireless cameras and ingenious harnesses for the Glock [Model] 19. He showed me how they functioned in a field test which displayed a couple of them firing at targets at his command. It was a strange feeling to watch his laptop screen, line up a target with a joystick and then fire it quite precisely at the push of a button! The …


Letter Re: Using .22 Rimfire Conversions for Low Cost Pistol Practice

Jim: I have just finished firing 500 rounds through an Advantage Arms .22 conversion for my Glock 17 and Glock 22 While not as accurate as my .22 Ruger pistol, it allows me to practice my shooting skills using the same holster and magazine carriers at fraction of what 9mm and .40 cost. More importantly, by using a conversion rather than a different pistol such as the Ruger, I am developing the same muscle memory, skills, and techniques I will use when shooting my service pistol. I chose the Advantage Arms over the Ciener conversion because the slide locks open …


Letter Re: Preparedness for Less Than a Worst Case, From an Eastern Urbanite’s Perspective

Hello Jim, I am very new reader of your blog and am just now starting to go through the archives. Based on what I’ve read so far, I commend you on putting together a useful, fact-intensive blog on “survivalism” (whatever that means), that isn’t geared towards loony, off-the-reservation, tinfoil hat-type readers, who believe that 9/11 was a plot masterminded by Halliburton. That said, one problem I suspect I will have with your blog is that you consistently seem to be preparing for an extreme, and more-or-less permanent, breakdown of society—or TEOTWAWKI, if you will. In one of your blog posts, …


Six More Letters Re: New-Found Respect for .223 as a Potential Man Stopper

Note from JWR: The string is starting to degenerate into one of those endlessly-mired “Ford Versus Chevy” or “Revolver Versus Automatic” debates, so this will likely be the last batch of letters that I post on this topic. Hey Jim: The .223 versus.308 [debate] is interesting. I think that several factors should be examined when selecting a cartridge and weapon. Military and police snipers shoot .308 or bigger. Why? Killing power. all the hype about .223 boils down to this. It is a varmint round meant to shoot things under 50 pounds. Jeff Cooper described the controversy very succinctly. a …


Letter Re: Advice on Buying AR-10 Rifles

James, I live outside of Boise, [Idaho] on 40 acres with a deep well and have most everything ready for a jump to my brother’s new ranch in Montana, if (when) the SHTF. While my place will be occupied by my friends that don’t have anywhere to go and /or want to stay in the area. I will leave for a better Bug Out Location where I and my family can better survive long term. I only live here because it is a good job and I can’t find anything even close to pay in the part of Montana that …