Pat’s Product Review: Ruger SR556E

I’ve always been a big fan of Ruger firearms – all of them! There’s many reasons for my liking Ruger firearms, first of all, I find their firearms robust, strong and well-designed. Ruger doesn’t simply copy some other designs for the most part – instead, they are innovators in many ways. I still remember when the first Ruger P-85 9mm handguns came out, and everyone thought they wouldn’t last because they were made from “investment casting” aluminum frames- Ruger proved everyone wrong.
 
A few years ago, I tested the Ruger SR556 piston-driven AR-style rifle, and loved it. Everyone was jumping on the piston-driven AR bandwagon, and Ruger was no different, they than they didn’t copy anyone else’s piston-driven design – they came up with their own, after a lot of research and development. The SR556 comes with all the bells and whistles you can ask for, and then some – including a nice padded carrying case, several MagPul PMags – which I personally believe are the best AR mags on the market, and top-of-the-line pop-up front and rear sights and many other accessories, that don’t come on many AR-style rifles.
 
However, not everyone wanted or needed all that the SR556 came with as standard equipment, nor was everyone willing to pay the almost $2,000 price tag. Now comes the Ruger SR556E. Many people mistakenly believe that the “E” stands for an “Economy” model, but that is NOT the case. For the past several months, I have been testing the SR556E sample, and I have found nothing economical about this neat little rifle. What we have is a 5.56mm carbine, that can also fire .223 Remington ammo. The gun only weighs-in at a mere 7.36-pounds, a bit lighter and it balances better than the SR556 does in my humble opinion.  The SR556E also comes with a 16-inch cold hammer forged mil-spec 41V45 barrel with a flash suppressor on the end of the barrel. There is also a 6-position telescoping stock – closed the gun is 32.75-inches long and fully-open the gun is 36-inches in length. The flat top upper also has a forearm that has a Picatinny rail for mounting accessories at the 12:00 O’clock position and you can add other rails to the 3, 6 and 9 positions and these are sold separately. There is also a dust cover over the ejection port, and a forward assist – that I never recommend anyone use – it only leads to more problems, but it’s there just the same.The SR556E also comes with a soft padded carrying case.
 
I like the MagPul (I believe that’s the make) pop-up rapid deployment front and rear sights – they are outstanding. The front sight is adjustable for elevation and the rear sight is adjustable for windage. Where one would normally find the gas block for a direct impingement operating system, we have the patent-pending 4-position gas regulator. That’s right, this is NOT a direct gas impingement gun, it has a two-stage piston system that is chrome plated for easier maintenance, and the hot gases vent out of the bottom on this two-stage piston, causing the gun to run cleaner and cooler, and that is a very good thing in my book. The direct gas impingement system vents dirty, hot gases directly into the bolt and bolt carrier – causing guns to run dirty and very hot – not a good thing in many instances – it can lead to malfunctions if the gun isn’t properly cleaned and lubed on a regular basis – as in combat!
 
The 4-position gas regulator can also be completely closed off so the action doesn’t cycle for using a suppressor, where you don’t want any noise from the bolt cycling back and forth [or any sound of gasses escaping a gas port]. The other three positions are for running various types of ammo, and if your gun starts to run a bit dirty, you can adjust the gas regulator to a different position. Ruger ships the SR556E with the gas regulator set at the #2 position and suggests you do most of your shooting from this position. There is a complete tutorial video on the Ruger web site, that demonstrates the various settings. I left my sample on the #2 setting, and never looked back – although, I did play around with the different settings for just a bit – just to see how they function and how the gun ran – it ran fine in all but the closed position. However, for all my actual function testing and accuracy testing, the gun was left in the #2 position.
 
One thing you will readily notice with a piston-driven AR-style of rifle is the different recoil impulse. Hard to explain, but the gun runs a bit “differently” than a direct impingement operating system – it runs smoother, and it seems to run a tad quieter, too. Again, hard to explain, however if you shoot the SR556E next to a direct gas impingement rifle, you will hear and notice the difference in very short order. Now, some piston-driven AR-style rifles have had problems with “carrier tilt” – in that, the bolt carrier tends to tilt downward into the buffer tube, causing unnecessary wear and tear. Ruger overcame this problem by redesigning part of the bolt – removing some material here and there, and there isn’t any problem with carrier tilt. You might notice a little bit or wear from the anodized coating inside the buffer tube, but no actual wear on the material. Ruger did their homework – as they always do!
 
During my initial testing of the SR556E, I ran 5, thirty round magazines through the gun as fast as I could pull the trigger. When I was done, there were zero malfunctions, and I broke the action open and pulled the bolt carrier out – it was cool to the touch. Try that with a direct impingement AR and you’ll burn your fingers after just running one 30-rd mag through the gun. Additionally, the bolt carrier and bolt were still very clean – one mag through a direct impingement AR and the upper receiver and bolt carrier and bolt are dirty, very dirty – especially if you run some Russian-made .223 ammo through an AR.
 
I ran well over 500 rounds of various .223 Rem and 5.56mm ammo through the SR556E – however, in future testing, I won’t burn-up that much ammo – not with the big ammo drought we are facing, and my inside sources tell me that, they expect ammo to be in short supply for about two more years – or even longer, depending on the political climate in DC and in some states. Be advised and act accordingly. In future firearms tests, I’m only going to run about 200 rounds through gun samples. Even with my several sources of ammo for use in my articles, ammo is still hard to come by these days. My sources want to give me more, but they don’t have it – every round they make goes out the door each day – they don’t have a warehouse full of ammo any longer.
 
From Buffalo Bore Ammunition I had their Sniper .223 ammo – a 55 grain Ballistic Tip bullet, a 69 grain JHP and their heavy 77 grain JHP – which is recommended for barrel twist of 1:8 or 1:7 – the SR556E comes with a 1:9 barrel twist – the most popular for civilian AR style rifles. From the good folks at Black Hills Ammunition, I had a wide assortment of .223 – a 52 grain Match HP, 55 grain FMJ – new and reloaded, 55 grain SP, 68 grain Heavy Match HP and their newly released to the public, 5.56mm 77 grain OTM ammo – this is almost the exact same ammo that Black Hills Ammunition – and Black Hills Ammunition alone – provides to all the US Special Forces – no other maker produces this ammo. I also had a couple boxes of Winchester 55 grain FMJ USA brand .223 on-hand, and I use a lot of this for simple function testing – its a great round and less expensive than burning-up some more expensive ammo for function testing.
 
Once I had the SR566E zeroed, I did all my shooting at the 100-yard mark for accuracy testing – although the gun was zeroed for 300-yards – just my zero mark with all my AR-style of rifles. The Buffalo Bore, Black Hills and even the Winchester 55 grain FMJ loads were all giving me 3-inch groups if I did my part, with open sights, at 100-yards. This is about average for many AR-style rifles – nothing to write home about in the accuracy department. The Black Hills new and reloaded 55 grain FMJ ammo gave me the same accuracy results, so don’t go thinking you are getting slighted by using reloaded ammo instead of brand-new ammo all the time. The Black Hills 52 grain Match HP load gave me groups a little under 3-inches – better, but I knew the SR556E could do better – a lot better. I should note that the Black Hills 55 grain SP gave me 3-inch groups as well – and this would make a dandy load for varmints – even smaller dear, at close-in ranges. Although, I suggest using a larger caliber rifle round for deer – the .223 can still do the job if you place your shots where they need to go.
 
The Buffalo Bore 69 grain JHP was giving me groups right at the 2-inch mark, and I was starting to get impressed with the Ruger. The Black Hills Ammunition, 68 grain Heavy Match HP load was giving me groups around an inch and a half if I did my part – I’ve found this to be a very accurate load in all AR-style rifles I’ve tried it in. I ran out of the Buffalo Bore 69 grain JHP load, just as I was getting a good feel for it – and I believe it can match the Black Hills 68 grain Heavy Match HP load in the accuracy department.
 
Last up were the two heaviest loads, and you should be advised that, some rifles with a 1:9 barrel twist will only accurately shoot bullet weights up to about 68 or 69 grains – some will even shoot 75-grain bullets – but not all. Each gun’s barrel is a little different, and as I’ve said before in my articles, experiment with your gun and various types, brand and weights of bullets, to see which one will shoot most accurately in your gun. The Buffalo Bore 77 grain JHP and the Black Hills 77 grain OTM 5.56mm loads were both giving me groups in the 3 to 3 1/2 inch range. I honestly didn’t expect either one of those rounds to actually give me accuracy this good – considering the SR556 has the 1:9 inch barrel twist. I will admit though, that there were some groups that opened-up quite a bit more – however, I was advised by both Tim Sundles at Buffalo Bore and Jeff Hoffman at Black Hills, that it might be a waste of good ammo, shooting these heavier loads in the 1:9 barrel twist. Well, not a waste of money, but it proved to me, that in a pinch, you can shoot these heavier bullets in the 1:9 inch barrels, just don’t expect the accuracy you think you’ll get. I have fired both of these loads in another AR-style rifle with a 1:7 inch barrel twist, and had outstanding accuracy in the one inch to an inch and half range if I did my part. So, I know both of these heavier loads can shoot a lot more accurately in the right barrels, than they did in the SR556E.
 
During all my testing, I had no malfunctions of any sort. When I tested the original SR556 when it first came out, I did have a couple failures to extract in the first magazine, but after that, the gun ran fine. So, I was very pleased with the performance of the SR556E over the course of more than 3-months of testing. I never cleaned the gun during all this time, nor did I give it any further lubrication, other than the day I got the gun and inspected and lubed it. The gun was extremely clean at the end of my testing – and I believe I could have easily shot several thousand more rounds without any problems or further cleaning or lube. The SR556E with the two-stage piston-driven system really proved it’s worth and ran cleaner and cooler than direct impingement ARs do. There is no comparison between the two systems in my humble opinion. If you want a gun that runs smoother, cleaner and cooler, you need to take a close look at the SR556E, as opposed to a direct impingement operating system. Now, with that said, I’m not about to take my other ARs that are direct impingement and sell them or toss them in the trash – they all work just fine – I don’t keep guns around that don’t work – simple as that. I either make them run properly, or I get rid of them if I can’t fix the problems.
 
Now for the good news and the bad news. The good news is, the Ruger SR556E has a full-retail of only $1,375 and that’s a bargain in my book – for all that you get – there are other piston-driven ARs on the market that retail for a whole lot more, but they don’t give you more. Now for the bad news, with the big drought on all AR-style guns these days, if you can find an SR556E, they are going for about $2,000 these days. No, Ruger did not raise their prices, it’s just supply and demand, and all SR556 rifles are in great demand, ever since they came out, people have wanted them. If you’re in the market for a gas-piston AR, then take a very close look at the SR556E from Ruger – I think you’ll like what you see – just don’t pay too much – shop around and spend your money carefully. Now, after my wife shot my sample SR556E, she wants one of her own – she owns a different brand of AR-style rifle – a direct impingement version and while she shoots it very accurately, and hasn’t had any problems with it – other than a few hang-ups with some Russian-made .223 ammo – she just likes the way the SR556E handles, and she doesn’t hear that “twang” inside the buffer tube, like you hear with many direct impingement ARs – I personally don’t hear it – after so many years of shooting, I have some hearing loss. But now I have to find a way to not only pay for my own SR556E sample, I have to see if Ruger can ship me another one for the wife. I should have learned long ago, to not let my wife shoot any of my gun samples, she has fallen in love with more than one and ended up in her growing collection.  – SurvivalBlog Field Gear Editor Pat Cascio

Harry’s Book Review: After the Snow by S.D. Crockett

Book Title: After the Snow
Author: S.D. Crockett
Copyright Date: 2012
Publisher: Feiwel and Friends
ISBN: 978-0-312-64169-6
Audio, e-book or foreign translation avail? Yes–Kindle
Suitable for children? Teens probably.

When you find a story predicting that the future is another ice age you know you have found an author who is thinking outside of the box. The global warming crowd is not going to be pleased if this is our future. Not only do we get an Ice Age, but the solar farms and wind farms are a complete failure. Nuclear is king and coal is the next best alternative.

As a consolation prize, just about everyone else’s sacred cow gets gored too by the end of the novel.

The premise behind the novel is that the polar ice caps do indeed proceed to melt, but once they have an impact on the oceans the currents stop and then everything ices up.

The story revolves around Willo, a teenage boy who has only ever known the ice and snow. He has heard the stories of the graybeards. He knows that once upon a time water came out of the walls and the world was warm, but it’s all stories to him. His life is trapping hares so their pelts can be traded for oats and the supplies needed for the family to survive. His family is one of those known as “stragglers”.

Almost all of the world has been moved into the cities, and there is no going back and forth. The cities are fenced in and guarded. There is not supposed to be anyone living up in the hills, but that is where Willo’s family is, their cabin hidden by trees which grate against the walls with the wind. The author does not go into detail about how they subsist except to say that they raise goats and eat poorly. They trade the furs of the hares which Willo traps in order to get supplies. The trading is done through Geraint, a permitted farmer who has Willo’s sister Alice who Geraint got pregnant when she was fourteen.

SPOILERS AHEAD!

The story opens with Willo watching his family’s empty house and him wondering what has become of them all. The family has been taken away, but there is nothing to tell him by whom or to where. Deciding that the house is not a safe place to be he loads up some essentials on a sled and heads for a cave he knows up on a mountain.

In the process of traveling to his cave he comes across a starving boy and girl in a derelict cabin. They are waiting for their father to return. Willo discovers a dead man in the barn and decides he doesn’t want the burden of two starving children. He goes on his way and camps that night in the empty cone of a downed windmill. However, he can’t shake the images of the starving children, so the next morning he goes back to get them.

Once he gets there he finds that a pack of wild dogs have found the body of the dead man. Willo is nearly killed by the dogs just trying to get into the cabin. There he finds the boy has already died, and now Willo and the girl, Mary, are trapped by the dogs. Mary doesn’t even want to leave, but Willo persuades her that they must. Although he loses his sled in the process he does manage to fend off the dogs and get away with Mary.

His goal is to take Mary down to the road which goes between the city and the coal mines so that she can get picked up by a truck and taken to the city to live. In the process Willo and Mary run into the “stealers” who live in the forest. Pursued by these cannibals Willo and Mary both end up on the road and are both picked up by a truck and taken into the city.

In the hills Willo knows what to do and how to survive, but in the city he is scared to death and doesn’t know which way to turn. Here Mary is the capable one. She leads him to a place where they can both get some food, and from there they follow a drunken rat trapper to his hidden abode.

Willo isn’t at all comfortable with the situation, and his goal is to find his family. Early in the morning he gets up and leaves Mary behind. In short order he is captured by a gang of children, but then soon freed by one of them who takes him somewhere with the goal of selling his coat so they can purchase some grog (alcohol). She abandons Willo in disgust when he makes it clear that he has not intention of exchanging his coat for grog. Eventually Willo ends up at the home of Jacob, and elderly man who Willo helped out in the streets.

Willo’s jacket is the subject of much interest to Jacob and his wife, especially when they learn that Willo made it himself. Jacob is a furrier, and he has a wealthy client who has commissioned a jacket, but Jacob is getting too old to do the work. Willo is quickly seen as a welcome addition to Jacob’s household, but Willo wants to be out looking for his family. Jacob argues for patience and suggests that Willo needs to have papers in the first place. Thus it is that Willo has to learn how to live in the city.

After living with Jacob and his wife and earning their trust Willo is shown a book which Jacob has carefully hidden under the floorboards in his house. It is a book which Willo recognizes as one his father owned, although his father’s copy lacked a cover and was held together by string. The book is titled “In Search of an Ark” by John Blovyn. The book covers such topics as making snares,tanning hides, childbirth and other survival skills. The mere possession of the book identifies one as a “straggler”, and as such, as a subversive element.

Apparently the greatly subversive message of the stragglers is one of optimism. The hope that things could get better and that one should

seek out a better place is an unacceptable message.

In the past John Blovyn had called his followers to the hills. In this book he is calling them to an island. The authorities are determined to find out where the island is, but for all their infiltration, interrogation and torture they have yet to get an answer. Nonetheless, their efforts continue undeterred.

It comes as a shock to Willo when he learns that Robin Blake was not his father’s real name, but rather John Blovyn. To make matters worse, apparently not only did his father not tell him his real name, but he didn’t love him either and was disappointed in him because he was such a “simpleton” and just wanted to run around in the hills.

Rather than spoil the entire book I will simply say that everything is the opposite of what one would expect. The renowned survival author is gone and his son rejects his hopes, choosing instead to make the most of the world at hand rather than seek out a better place.

A major theme of this book is that things are not going to turn out the way anyone expects. Chinese steel is the good stuff, and Chinatown is where the wealthy live. The premium real estate on the planet is Africa. “Go west” is out. Now the way to head is east.

As long as you are willing to see your own sacred cow served up as hamburger there is value in considering the ramifications of dramatically different outcomes.

After the Snow spares the reader of the details of what could otherwise be graphic scenes. There are plenty of bad things which happen, but most of the details are left to the reader’s imagination.

There is some foul language, but only in a couple of incidents, and there it is a matter of a particular character in the novel. On the other hand, the author’s choice of devices for indicating the degree of sophistication of Willo’s vocabulary may be a nuisance to some readers. Willo speaks in the vernacular of today’s youth using such terms as “cos” instead of “because”. I suppose there may be some who appreciate the use of their preferred vocabulary, and I expect them to be under the age of twenty. Such is probably the intended audience, and this book is a reasonable option for provoking them to consider alternative futures.

Letter Re: CCW Permit Holders are The Good Guys

JWR,
One topic that has come up recently is that license holders are more law-abiding than the general population, presumably because they’ve undergone background checks by the state.    The reality is that this has been shown in multiple case reviews.
 
A 2011 study in Texas concluded that CCW/CCL permit holders generally do not use guns to commit crimes and they commit crimes of any nature much less frequently than the general population of Texas.
 
According to an article by the Beaufort Observer concerning the study:
 “The Texas Department of Public Safety published a list of crimes committed in Texas in 2011 by everyone convicted and by those convicted who also held CCL’s. The bottom line: Concealed carry permit holders commit less than 1% of the crimes. If you want to be exact, they committed two tenths of one percent of the crimes in 2011. And not all of those involved firearms or violence.”

“The data show that 63,679 people were convicted of a long list of crimes. Of those 63 thousand, only 120 were CCL holders.”

“Ironically, if you drill down into the data it shows that the most frequently committed crime by CCL holders were domestic violence related crimes.”
 
Likewise, a recent article looking at Kansas CCW permit holders by the Wichita Eagle concluded the same:
“Of the 51,078 permits that have been issued by the state since the law took effect in 2007, 44 permit holders have been charged with a crime while using a firearm through late October, according to records provided by the Kansas Attorney General’s Office.    That works out to one charge for every 1,161 permit holders, or 0.09 percent.   The numbers squeeze even tighter when you consider that of the 44 permit holders charged, 17 licenses have been revoked because they were convicted of a crime that disqualifies them from having a permit.
 
Additionally, a 2011 New York Times article derived that among North Carolina permit holders, they were 5.48 times less likely to commit a violent crime.
 
Granted, there is no guarantee that someone with a clean past cannot commit a future crime – we are all born without a criminal conviction.     However, it would seem impossible not to concede that those who legally carry a weapon are the Good Guys.

Thanks again, – Doc C. in Flyover Country

Recipe of the Week:

C. in Florence’s Sandwich Spread Recipes

Cottage Cheese Sandwiches
1 cup cottage cheese
1/4 cup chopped peanuts
8 slices brown/wheat bread
4 tablespoons margarine
1 egg
2 tablespoons cold water
Covo (cottonseed and peanut oil) or your favorite frying oil

Mix the cheese and nuts together. Spread on 4 slices of bread. Cover with remaining bread. Beat egg and mix with water. Dip sandwiches into egg and water mixture and fry in hot oil until golden brown. Serve with chips.
 
Peanut Honey Sandwiches
6oz. Cream cheese
1/3 cup Honey
12 slices Brown/wheat bread
peanut butter, creamy or chunky
Mix cheese and honey together. Spread six slices of bread with this mixture. Spread remaining six slices of bread with peanut butter. Sandwich bread together and eat!
 
Date and Orange Sandwich
2/3 cup dates
1/4 cup Orange Juice
12 slices of bread
pat of margarine
 
Heat dates and OJ together in a stock pan. Heat until dates are blend with juice. Leave to cool. Spread between buttered slices of bread.
 
(The following is a sandwich that takes a bit of time. in my youth [in Rhodesia] I would have used Dairibord Butter or Stork margarine, Willards salt, Colcom bread, but they are gone and I live in the US, so we do with what we can get.)
 
Rarebit Sandwiches
1 tablespoon butter
1/2 grated/shredded cheddar cheese
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon mixed (prepared) mustard (I like stone ground/dijon)
3/4 cup milk
1 egg
2 tomatoes
6 slices (meaty )bacon
6 slices Bread (I like 100% whole wheat)
seasoning

Chef’s Notes:

Toast bread. Cook the bacon crisp and set aside. lay toast on serving plate.  in large bowl beat egg with a whisk. set aside. Thinly slice tomatoes thinly length wise. place two slices of tomato on each bread. In sauce pan melt butter and then add cheese, stir until cheese has melted. Add salt and mustard. stir a second. stir in milk SLOWLY and then pour in mixture on top of beaten egg. stirring continuously. (From heat of sauce the egg will be cooked) sprinkle tomato with salt and pepper. Cover all bread with sauce. top with the bacon and serve while dish is hot.

Useful Recipe and Cooking Links:

Sandwich Spread Recipes

Cold Sandwich Recipes

Rhodesian Recipes

Do you have a favorite recipe that would be of interest to SurvivalBlog readers? Please send it via e-mail. Thanks!

Economics and Investing:

Gold Forecast 2013: On the Verge of a New Monetary Order and Gold’s Rise

H.L. sent: Syrians Turn to Backyard Refining as War Reaches Oil

Gold & Silver – War Unofficially Declared on 12 April 2013

Items from The Economatrix:

David Woo Warns Of Major Market Re-alignment

Deflation:  A Three-Act Play

Jim Sinclair:  Swiss Bank Just Refused To Give My Friend His Gold

Physical Gold & Silver Shortages Are Accelerating; Premiums Exploding

Odds ‘n Sods:

Reader J.B.G. sent: News from England: Big brother to switch off your fridge: Power giants to make millions – but you must pay for ‘sinister’ technology

   o o o

I can remember back in April of 1980 I was quite concerned that Zimbabwe (the former Rhodesia) had been taken over by Comrade Robert Mugabe, a quintessential African Dictator. Sadly, the passing of 33 years has not seen freedom and justice prevail in Zimbabwe, nor here in these United States. Yes, all these years later, Mugabe is still in power, and we now have our own would-be African Dictator, with a similar ideology. To clarify: I am outspokenly anti-racist. But please just dispassionately look at the similar collectivist roots and the totalitarian goals of Robert Mugabe, Jacob Zuma, François Bozizé (the recently-deposed dictator of the Central African Republic,) Omar al-Bashir and many others. Compare their ambitions with those of Barack Obama. There are some frightening similarities.

   o o o

I see that Camping Survival now has full size O.D. nylon sandbags starting at 44 cents each and priced as low as 32 cents each, if purchased in large quantity.

   o o o

I heard that our friend Enola Gay is selling her Naturally Cozy home business. That is a great opportunity for someone who is handy with a sewing machine. As I see it, the advantages of this business are: Non-controversial merchandise, lightweight and compact products–hence they can be mailed inexpensively, and plenty of repeat customers.

Notes from JWR:

April 28th is the birthday of Aimo Johannes Lahti. (Born in 1896.) This clever Finn designed (or co-designed) an amazing array of weapons including the L-35 Lahti pistol, the Suomi M-31 submachinegun, the Lahti-Saloranta M/26 LMG, the famous Lahti L-39 20mm anti-tank rifle, and even the 20 ItK 40 (a 20 mm dual anti-aircraft cannon.)

—

Today we present another entry for Round 46 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include:

First Prize: A.) Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate, good for any one, two, or three course. (A $1,195 value.) B.) A course certificate from onPoint Tactical. This certificate will be for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses. (Excluding those restricted for military or government teams.) Three day onPoint courses normally cost $795, and C.) Two cases of Mountain House freeze dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources. (A $350 value.) D.) a $300 gift certificate from CJL Enterprize, for any of their military surplus gear, E.) A 9-Tray Excalibur Food Dehydrator from Safecastle.com (a $300 value), and F.) A $250 gift certificate from Sunflower Ammo. and G.) A roll of $10 face value in pre-1965 U.S. 90% silver quarters, courtesy of GoldAndSilverOnline.com. The current value of this roll is at least $225.

Second Prize: A.) A gift certificate worth $1,000, courtesy of Spec Ops Brand, B.) A Glock form factor SIRT laser training pistol and a SIRT AR-15/M4 Laser Training Bolt, courtesy of Next Level Training. Together, these have a retail value of $589. C.) A FloJak FP-50 stainless steel hand well pump (a $600 value), courtesy of FloJak.com. D.) A “grab bag” of preparedness gear and books from Jim’s Amazing Secret Bunker of Redundant Redundancy (JASBORR) with a retail value of at least $300 and 10 TAPCO polymer magazines (5 AR and 5 AK) courtesy of Armageddon Armory, E.) A $250 gift card from Emergency Essentials and F.) Two cases of Meals, Ready to Eat (MREs), courtesy of CampingSurvival.com (a $180 value).

Third Prize: A.) A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21. (This filter system is a $275 value.), B.) A large handmade clothes drying rack, a washboard and a Homesteading for Beginners DVD, all courtesy of The Homestead Store, with a combined value of $206, C.) Expanded sets of both washable feminine pads and liners, donated by Naturally Cozy. This is a $185 retail value, D.) A Commence Fire! emergency stove with three tinder refill kits. (A $160 value. E.) A Tactical Trauma Bag #3 from JRH Enterprises (a $200 value), and F.) Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security.

Round 46 ends on May 31st so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.

God Invented Prepping, by M.B.F.

Consider the evidence:   

Preppers throughout the world sense a coming, apocalyptic event.  If you are a prepper, God’s warnings, in part, are already clearly formed in your heart:  “A prudent man foresees the evil, and hides himself [knows how to escape calamities]:  but the simple pass on, and are punished”–Proverbs 22:3.  [Words in brackets mine]  In the book of Hebrews, we read of perhaps the most famous prepper of all time:  “By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith,” (Hebrews 11:7).  Notice, Noah was prepared because he feared [heeded] the Lord’s warnings:  the fact that we believe the scriptures is made evident in that they change the way we live our daily lives.  God warns that a time of trouble worse than anything ever before witnessed in human history will occur at the end of the age:  For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be (Matthew 24:21).

Preppers believe in storing food and ensuring access to clean water.  God advises us that the ants are a people not strong, yet they prepare their meat in the summer (Proverbs 30:25). Like the ants, we must lay up a storehouse of food.  This is God’s way of preparing His people for difficult times.  [Notice, the political leaders of many nations lack the godly wisdom to prepare in this way; in fact, just the opposite is occurring (running up high debts and living on short-term inventories).].  In the Old Testament, God warns Joseph in a dream of a coming drought of seven years duration, counseling him to use the seven years of abundance that will precede the drought to store up food for the time of adversity.  Because Joseph follows God’s counsel, the people of Egypt are spared:  and the dearth was in all the lands, but in all the land of Egypt there was bread (Genesis 41:54).

Preppers believe that large cities are potential death traps.  God teaches us that the conies [field mice] are but a feeble folk, yet they make their houses in the rocks (Proverbs 30:26).  Like the mice, we must use every natural advantage at our disposal to secure our homes and protect our families.  Field mice are weak and timid; yet, they are safe in the rocks because they seek the protection that nature affords them.  In order to safeguard our families, we must develop a working knowledge of basic security practices, products, and systems.  If possible, we must seek the protection that nature affords for remoteness.  Obviously, in the event of any major catastrophe or societal breakdown, major cities will become harsh, unforgiving, merciless environments.    

Preppers believe that people are the greatest force multiplier.  God’s counsels that the locusts have no king, yet go they forth all of them by bands (Proverbs 30:27).  Like the locusts, we must form small groups of networked communities for mutual assistance, so as to magnify our strength.  Notice, the locusts all move in concert, yet they have no identified leader among them.  Christians are all under the leadership of the Holy Spirit, having the scriptures to guide them.  No one man rules over them:  rather, those mature men among them who have demonstrated wisdom and right conduct over time are to work together to care for and provide guidance to their local assemblies and communities.  We must move away from a culture of isolation (which is a perversion of the Lord’s congregation) and develop a corporate lifestyle and perspective.

Preppers believe in self-sufficiency.  God reminds us that the spider taketh hold with her hands, and is in kings’ palaces (Proverbs 30:28).  Like the spider, we must be industrious.  Notice, the servants of influential men do not think spiders are fit to be found in palaces.  Yet, no matter how hard they work to kill them, they cannot get rid of them all—for the spider takes hold with its hands—working hard to prepare a place for itself.  If we are industrious to do all that God has commanded us to do to prepare [as simple acts of faith], He will sustain and comfort us in the day of adversity, preparing a table before us in the midst of our enemies when the time of trouble arises (Psalms 23:5).  

Unforeseen circumstances and difficulties are a given.  [It’s what you don’t see coming or anticipate that usually kills you.]  Without God’s divine intervention to make provision for and guide His people, we will not survive the time of trouble.  Proverbs 24:10 reads, If thou faint in the day of adversity, thy strength is small.  While God counsels us to make natural preparations, it is only those who have been spiritually prepared before hand by the power and guidance of the Holy Spirit who will survive the day of battle.  Scripture is clear that securing God’s blessing during times of trouble will be dependent upon sound spiritual training and moral development:  we must both know and follow God’s counsel to receive His reward.  Here is an example of the practical instruction contained in the Bible:  

“If thou forbear to deliver them that are drawn unto death, and those that are ready to be slain; If thou sayest, Behold, we knew it not; doth not he that pondereth the heart consider it? and he that keepeth thy soul, doth not he know it? and shall not he render to every man according to his works?” (Proverbs 24:11-12).

It is the nature and character of God to seek after justice (Isaiah 58:6).  If we are able to aid those in mortal peril from unjust persecutions, we are to do so, especially if they are of the household of faith [Christians]:  for we cannot feign ignorance about their suffering and expect God to deliver us from our own afflictions (Galatians 6:10).  Rather, we are commanded to help:  in fact, our expectation for our own survival is dependent upon understanding this truth.  Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap (Galatians 6:7).     

The Bible contains the words of life and death, and it is only by studying its counsel that we can learn how to be guided moment-to-moment by the Spirit’s leading:  

“See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil; In that I command thee this day to love the LORD thy God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his judgments, that thou mayest live and multiply: and the LORD thy God shall bless thee in the land whither thou goest to possess it,” (Deuteronomy 30:15-16).  

Of course, the greatest danger of the age is not simply death, but deception.  Before the Lord returns, there will be a great falling away from true faith in Christ [which we see even now in much of the traditional, American church system]:  for many churches are filled with false teachings, and their members lack godly fear [a respect for God and His wisdom].  Instead of warning the people, these churches preach the very message of peace and safety that Christ warned we would hear:  

“For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape. But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief,” (1 Thessalonians 5:2-4).  

It is the wisdom of God to prepare–and the best means of doing this is as a fully functioning, spiritually healthy fellowship of like-minded believers–for the local assembly is how the Lord encourages us in both peaceful and difficult times:
“And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works:  not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting [encouraging] one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day [of our Lord’s return] approaching,” (Hebrews 10:24-25).  [Bracketed words mine]

Notice, we were not created for isolated independence, but rather, a Spirit-led interdependence in which each member of an assembly plays a specified, pivotal role, according to their divine calling and function.  This cannot happen when we do not share our daily lives with one another, according to the apostolic pattern.  In the book of Acts (2:42-48), we read that believers in the early church continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, meeting both publicly and breaking bread from house to house.  

Simply, Christ’s doctrine is made known, not only by our teachings, but also our manner of living.  This is why Paul states [when writing to Timothy, his son in the faith]:  “Thou hast fully known my doctrine and manner of life …” (2 Timothy 3:10).  When we depart from the apostolic pattern [which is for like-minded believers to develop close, spiritual friendships in their daily tasks and lives], we misrepresent what Christ died to achieve and raise up a false image of God in the earth.  Pointedly, church is not a holy place, but a holy people–and a means of relating to one another according to the commandments of God.  

This is why, while preparing for the rigors of the cross in the Garden of Gethsemane, Christ prayed for His present and future disciples with these words:  “Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; that they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me,” (John 17:20-21).    
It is in our unity and love for one another that the greatest testimony of our faith is made known.  Cooperating to achieve practical goals requires a humility beyond that which is typically associated with the traditional church experience–for it is not always easy to keep collective commitments–or to share communal responsibilities.   

In the days ahead, our need to function as an extended family will only grow.  Just as the Captain of our salvation was made perfect through sufferings, so also will the church [the bride of Christ] be made without spot or blemish by her many persecutions (Ephesians 5:27; Hebrews 2:10).  The entire New Testament is written as a warning for us to prepare for the testing that will come at the end of the age.  Jesus said, “These things have I spoken unto you, that ye should not be offended [against God].  They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever skillet you will think that he doeth God service,” (John 16:2; Ephesians 5:25-27; Hebrews 2:10). [Words in brackets mine]

We are forewarned because we are not to live in fear, worrying about [real or imagined] evil things:    

“Do not say, ‘A conspiracy,’ Concerning all that this people call a conspiracy, Nor be afraid of their threats, nor be troubled. The LORD of hosts, Him you shall hallow; Let Him be your fear, And let Him be your dread.

–Isaiah 8:12-13 [NKJV]

We are to fear God, not man.  

Consider Paul’s words to those in the church at Thessalonians:    

Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him, that ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand.

–2 Thessalonians 2:1-2                

The believers in this locality were wholly distracted, their minds shaken and hearts continually troubled by deceitful men claiming apostolic revelation [“nor by letter as from us”] in order to build personal acclaim.  Overcome by lies, the people were now in bondage [to fear]–believing that the time of great tribulation was upon them–and that they had missed the catching away [rapture] (2 Peter 2:19).  

Any distraction from our godly responsibilities is a dangerous thing:  and in the latter days, these deceptions will increase by a multitude and variety of means:    

“Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day [of our Lord’s return] shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; who oppose and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God,” (2 Thessalonians 2:3-4). [words in brackets mine]

Notice, the apostle warns that men will try to deceive believers into thinking that they can avoid the prophesied time of great trouble [for which cause, they will not be prepared].  In an age of apostasy, there are many deceptions to distract believers from focusing upon essential things.  

Paul specifies two conditions that must be satisfied before Christ returns and the time of great trouble ends:

  • A Falling Away:  the rise of the false bride of Christ, the apostate church, full of corruptions and every evil work.  As John the Baptist prepared the way for the coming of the Lord, so too will this growing deception and false form of Christianity groom people to believe the anti-christ’s lies and manipulations (Revelation 17:3-6; 18).
  • The Rise of the Man of Sin [anti-christ]:  when Jerusalem is surrounded by foreign invaders and the anti-christ stands in the holy place, pronouncing himself as god.  Notice, Matthew and Luke’s words:  “And when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh (Luke 21:20); when ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place …” (Matthew 24:15).  If death has not taken us, we will physically see the revealing of the man of sin.   

                      
Once we have accepted the fact that we have a pressing need to prepare, the enormity of the challenges facing us can sometimes lead to feeling overwhelmed, especially for those just entering the prepping lifestyle.  Through much prayer, God has given me 3 extraordinarily simple rules to follow that bring order to my efforts and peace to my mind:

  • Doing something is better than doing nothing
  • Simple beats complex [do what works for you]
  • Do first things first [what the Spirit first reveals]; and the rest of preparations will fall into place

Throughout the book of Isaiah, we find the same pattern:  entire chapters detailing the tremendous calamity and wide-spread ruin that will come upon those who have turned from the true worship of God:  and interspersed throughout, here and there, God’s repeated promise to deliver the faithful.

If you are not appointed to martyrdom (Revelation 6:9-11), and have been prepared before hand by the power of the Holy Spirit, you will prevail:  for “a prudent man foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself; but the simple pass on, and are punished,” (Proverbs 22:3).  It is deception to lose our focus upon Christ and His warnings, wasting our time on non-essential things:  Jesus Christ is the true Ark–He alone has the power to grant men eternal life–and prepare them for the day of battle.   

As the following parable attests, all of our preparations [stored riches] will count as nothing if our faith and dependence is not foremost in and upon God: 

And he spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully: And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits? And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided? So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God. – Luke 12:16-21

Odds ‘n Sods:

I heard that KGI in Arkansas is starting to ship Tavor bullpups! I suspect that the parts for these will soon be import banned via Executive Order, so they’d be good to buy even as an investment. The brown “Flat Dark “Earth” color variant would blend in better, in nearly all environments. (Black is a color rarely seen in nature, so it sticks out.)

   o o o

A gent in Delta Junction, Alaska wrote to ask if we still provide free shooting targets. Yes, we do!

   o o o

The first mass-marketed fire escape respirator to protect against carbon monoxide: SCape CO/CBRN Escape Respirator

   o o o

Why Such Secrecy about Private Military Contractor’s Men Working the Event?

Note from JWR:

Today we present another entry for Round 46 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include:

First Prize: A.) Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate, good for any one, two, or three course. (A $1,195 value.) B.) A course certificate from onPoint Tactical. This certificate will be for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses. (Excluding those restricted for military or government teams.) Three day onPoint courses normally cost $795, and C.) Two cases of Mountain House freeze dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources. (A $350 value.) D.) a $300 gift certificate from CJL Enterprize, for any of their military surplus gear, E.) A 9-Tray Excalibur Food Dehydrator from Safecastle.com (a $300 value), and F.) A $250 gift certificate from Sunflower Ammo. and G.) A roll of $10 face value in pre-1965 U.S. 90% silver quarters, courtesy of GoldAndSilverOnline.com. The current value of this roll is at least $225.

Second Prize: A.) A gift certificate worth $1,000, courtesy of Spec Ops Brand, B.) A Glock form factor SIRT laser training pistol and a SIRT AR-15/M4 Laser Training Bolt, courtesy of Next Level Training. Together, these have a retail value of $589. C.) A FloJak FP-50 stainless steel hand well pump (a $600 value), courtesy of FloJak.com. D.) A “grab bag” of preparedness gear and books from Jim’s Amazing Secret Bunker of Redundant Redundancy (JASBORR) with a retail value of at least $300 and 10 TAPCO polymer magazines (5 AR and 5 AK) courtesy of Armageddon Armory, E.) A $250 gift card from Emergency Essentials and F.) Two cases of Meals, Ready to Eat (MREs), courtesy of CampingSurvival.com (a $180 value).

Third Prize: A.) A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21. (This filter system is a $275 value.), B.) A large handmade clothes drying rack, a washboard and a Homesteading for Beginners DVD, all courtesy of The Homestead Store, with a combined value of $206, C.) Expanded sets of both washable feminine pads and liners, donated by Naturally Cozy. This is a $185 retail value, D.) A Commence Fire! emergency stove with three tinder refill kits. (A $160 value. E.) A Tactical Trauma Bag #3 from JRH Enterprises (a $200 value), and F.) Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security.

Round 46 ends on May 31st so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.

My Five-Step Plan to Ban Guns in the US Within 10 Years, by Jason H.

I currently provide consulting services to major global corporations. One effective way to do battle with a competitor is to place yourself in their shoes and plan out your own demise – exactly what I will do here today. Below is my concise strategy to completely ban firearms in the US within 10 years. I am not alone here, rest assured there are many groups that have paid tidy sums to have the same roadmap developed and are currently rolling it out in a very deliberate manner.

Step 1 – Divide to conquer. We know there were not enough votes to maintain the AWB and there are more gun owners now then there were in 2004. We know there is Youtube and forums that people gather on and multiply like cockroaches. We know that about 5 million AR-15s have been sold and probably the same magnitude of AK-47s if not more. We have surveys, Freedom of Information requests and NICS records at our disposal. We cannot defeat the entire gun owning US and we know it, but it doesn’t matter one bit. Let them believe the NRA is all powerful and they don’t have to act on their own, much less as a group.

First, make this a Democrat versus Republican issue. This will cut their forces in half immediately.

Next, divide the gun owners into niche groups and get them to turn on each other. We know there are gun owners that only hunt. We’ll craft a message that explains they hunt with three shotgun shells, why would anyone need a Saiga baby killer that can accept 10 or 20? That gun is only meant to destroy lives, you can’t even legally carry one into the field. That will resonate with at least some. We also know some only target or competitively shoot. Why would you need a 100 round drum magazine? Find a time when it was used to kill and convince them to give up someone else’s 100 round drum, in return for not touching their 1911. Then, find all the new concealed handgun people and show them how ridiculous it is to have a flash hider and PVS-14 night vision scope. These are offensive tools for the military and how would you like it if they got in the wrong hands and the bad guys entered your home one night with them? If we can make a reasonable law about offensive weapons, I’m sure we can live with your right to defend yourself against criminals trying to get them to kill your family and steal your guns.

This is by far the most powerful and greatest strategy to achieve our goal, divide the group off and pick them off one at a time. If we do nothing else, do this.

We will also hit them at the local, state and federal level. We have politicians and the media at all levels and they don’t. Make them defend several fronts and confuse the issue by launching similar but different bills. Have ten different definitions of an “assault rifle” and make them tell everyone how great assault is. “Assault” is a crime, force them to defend it daily. Our goal is to chip away and develop a base to build on; we just need small victories and don’t really care where they are or what we take out of their hands. Let the genie out of the bottle and she won’t go back.

Finally, divide the supply chain and make independent deals. Make a deal with Wal-Mart to slack off the government heat in exchange for them to voluntarily agree to stop selling semi-automatic weapons and 5.56 ammunition. Make a deal with the NRA to expand background checks in return for a larger voice or a few extra cops. Amazon.com is probably willing to do just about anything as are the other retailers from the west coast. People will see all of these big companies coming on board and each deal by itself will make some sense. Together, we gain a tremendous amount without giving anything up. It’s like winning without the burden of a congressional vote. Church groups are golden, get them on stage with you and host discussions about how bad guns are. Pass out candles and framed pictures of the fallen. Make sure we develop the agenda and makes sure it is gun control.

Step 2 – Hearts, not minds. Babies dying. Families destroyed. Tragic accidents. Candlelight vigil. Sensible steps. Moral obligation. Reasonable response. Blood. Funerals. Mothers crying. President’s crying. Enough is enough. Why is the US so much worse? Emotion sells, don’t deviate.

We sell to the heart and ignore the mind. People on average don’t know history and won’t take the time to research anything we or the other side says – plus, they tend to be limited by the truth. If we say it, it is true. “Assault weapons” are what we say they are, and can and should expand over time. The 5.56 is a high-powered killing machine designed to mow down military enemies 1,000 yards away and has no civilian use. Tyranny is so dead we don’t even bring it up unless we are talking about the Middle East. The second amendment applies to hunting with muskets. High capacity is anything over one round. Everything is high-powered.

Make up new names or find ugly names like “street sweeper.” “Tactical” companies play right in, go out and find guns with pictures of snakes, infidels, skulls and goblins on them. Put them on the news, in the press and on the morning and evening shows. Use those pictures for stories they aren’t even related to. Make famous a few YouTuber mall ninjas and tough guys who don’t shave. Use the word militia and northern Idaho with pictures of skinheads from the 1980s.

Answer questions with questions. Q: Do you believe in a natural right of self-defense? A: How many little children have to die before we act?

Statistics are great, start with strong societies like Japan that are inherently peaceful. They have no guns and just about no murders, case closed. Don’t worry about places like Chicago, nobody outside inner city Chicago knows or really cares. Chicago doesn’t even care. Canada and the UK are safe too. We want to be just like them, probably even better. The university brigade is your best friend here, start with UC Berkeley and go out from there. Find the janitor at Harvard and get him on MSNBC and CNN. He is an expert in a suit and tie and we all believe him. Combine university experts with their anecdotal statistics. Better yet, find a crazy gun owner and have a debate showing everyone how rabid they are.

Our side is the “pro” side and their side is the “anti” side. Remember how we turned the pro-life crowd into anti-abortion activists? Activists shoot people and blow up buildings. Pro-safety is the first step but not the last. Develop a name other than “gun owner” or “gun rights” and certainly stay away from the word constitution. Our enemies are anti-_____ activists, fill in the blank.

Finally, send every gun death story to the media and discuss it during all press briefings. Every issue can be tied back to the tragedy of the day. Are you old enough to remember when the nightly news read every American death nightly during the latter part of the Vietnam War? It is flat out effective. If it ends up showing something you don’t want to see (like the Oregon shooting stopped by a legally armed citizen who didn’t even need to fire a shot), simply let it fade. Nobody will pick it up except maybe Faux News. Every article should contain the following words: high-powered, high-capacity, military style, arsenal, explosives, cache, bulletproof vest, legally owned and certainly assault rifle. Have a high count for something; the number of deaths this year, the number of mass shootings, number of guns at the scene, number of bullets, just find big numbers. Don’t worry about accuracy, who is going to argue with you and take the side of the killer? Nobody will notice when the 10 assault rifle cache discovered in his car turns into only one two weeks from now.

Publicize reloading. Send the ATF in to inspect illegal ammunition factories cranking out thousands of high-power rounds in garages. Did you know your neighbor had a stockpile of explosive gunpowder, 5,000 detonators and 5,000 armor piercing bullets and was assembling them in the garage near the playground your kid uses? Let them argue terminology and defend the terrorists. We probably need a hotline like we had for drugs as well as several stock homemade videos of explosions and anarchists for the news to use.

Step 3 – Diversion – “an attack or feint that draws the attention and force of an enemy from the point of the principal operation” (from meriam-webster.com).

Beat the “ban” drum. Beat the executive order drum even louder. Let Feinstein and all of the pro-safety groups whip them into a frenzy. While the other side is all lathered up and running around putting out fires, we are free to get work done. Use existing powers to limit or tax imports (creating US jobs or protecting US manufactures from those pesky Russians and Chinese dumping illegal cheap imports into the US). Pass regulations to make it just about impossible to be an FFL. Raid a few. Send IRS auditors to the rest.

Work on Internet sales, how can they actually verify someone is 18 or 21? There should be a couple dozen hoops to set up somewhere. A good raid or ten would work well here too and doesn’t require anyone to vote on anything. Use stock pictures of a gun shop in the seedy part of town and tie it back to a shooting – “in a store like this…..” even if the store had nothing to do with any crimes.

Undercover gun show footage is great – everyone knows that is where evil goes for fun. We prove our point and make people afraid to buy or sell. Beat on the gun show loophole but never define it. “Narrow” it six or seven times, always limiting something but never quite fixing the problem.

What about shooting ranges? Do they comply with zoning requirements? How about making new ones? Noise ordinances? Have we tested nearby water for lead? I bet we can find a few holes in the outside wall the local news would love to hear about. What chemicals are in primers or powder that can hurt people or damage the environment? Same goes with gun stores, the city really should find a way to ban the sale of arms and ammunitions within city or county limits, don’t we have an attorney they could borrow or a “best practice” from another city we could share with them?

Get the point yet? Make life miserable for gun merchants and owners. Many will throw in the towel and give up. Make them drive long distances, spend lots of money and take tremendous amounts time to do the simplest task. Their group will get smaller over time and eventually they will go down in a whimper.

Step 4 – Money talks, especially when they don’t have any. Remember sin taxes on cigarettes and liquor? We make more money from smokes than Marlboro! Tax ammunition 50% and use the money for victim support and trauma bandages for first responders. Put it up for a vote with no riders, let them vote against grieving mothers.

Parlay this with Step 1 – people accept more taxes as long as we tax someone else. Go round and round and eventually you have everyone. Divide ammunition up and start with taxes on military ammunition, “armor piercing” or hollow points. What is military ammunition you ask? It is something we don’t want them to have. Expand it over time. A .308 or 30-06 can and will pierce a police officer’s Level IIIA vest, do we even have a name for ultra-high power cop killer armor piercing bullets yet? Vilify reloading, they are some of the most dedicated.

An NFA firearm or accessory now costs $200 just for the tax stamp, simply expand it to include things we can’t yet ban. Who would argue against a more solid background check for assault rifles (remember the truth doesn’t really matter here). $200 for the rifle stamp, $200 for a magazine stamp, $1,000 for a rifle (isn’t supply and demand great?), $600 for a case of ammo, $100 for mandatory locks and cases for the home and vehicle followed up with $150 for a state license = Joe be too broke to be a gun owner.

Levy a $1,000 annual FFL renewal fee plus $50 per firearm sale and use the money for more inspectors. We probably only have a few, or at least that is our story. Shouldn’t they also need $50,000,000 in liability insurance as a minimum? How can a hairdresser be required to be licensed, but not a guy selling the most high-powered weapon known to man? The owner and all their staff needs to be federally certified and licensed as well and that’s going to cost money a guy making $12 an hour just won’t have. The instructors are private citizens that also need to be certified. To protect the workers and gun shop owners, we’ll limit what they can charge to $50 for the four day course which will naturally restrict how many classes they offer and where. Add a test that they send in to us for an eight week grading process. They will have found another job by the time they get the results. Annual renewals with excessive paperwork work well.

Don’t forget about the local level, they deserve love too. They need the money new licenses and permits can provide – plus two sets of permits beats one any day. Inspectors are people that need jobs too, especially if we reward the ones that issue the most citations with promotions. Let’s see how they like “pay for performance.”

Step 5 – Frame it and hang it on our wall. We experienced a near miss when the NRA proposed an idea to end the real problem – social violence. This should serve as a stark reminder of our need to completely define the discussion. For anyone not paying attention, we are aiming to end gun ownership. Use tragic events to frame the discussion of gun control. Debate gun control, not violence or our society.

What would have happened if the NRA proposed a gathering at their headquarters to develop a comprehensive proposal to curb violence by addressing it as a social problem?

We frame the issue, we choose the venue and we choose the participant list. The issue is always gun control, we don’t debate the problem, we debate a version of the solution – gun control. The only question we want to hear is what type of gun control is best? How many rounds do people need? Should this gun be legal?

Use tragic events, then quickly transition to the core issue of disarming the nation. Every tragedy has the same solution.

Debrief – It would be almost comical if it weren’t playing out on the news every night. President Obama has chosen this place and this time as the battle royale. This is the big one. Canada had theirs, so did the UK and New Zealand. Today in the UK, you can be arrested for carrying a baseball bat in your car. I say this to reinforce the fact that you are either in support of private gun ownership or not. This isn’t the time to debate what types of magazines are “necessary”. Win this battle or the only magazine you will be buying will be Newsweek.

Six main reasons were cited by the authors as to why the Second Amendment is necessary (reference Wikipedia):

• Deter a tyrannical government
• Repel invasion
• Suppress insurrection
• Facilitate the natural right of self-defense
• Participate in law enforcement
• Enable the people to organize a militia system

Hunting and target shooting are notably absent. In fact, all of the above justifications involve fighting or war-time activities. The Second Amendment has nothing to do with deer or pieces of paper with circles on them. Noah Webster perhaps summarized it most eloquently (my emphasis) “Before a standing army can rule the people must be disarmed; as they are in almost every kingdom in Europe. The supreme power in America cannot enforce unjust laws by the sword; because the whole body of the people are armed, and constitute a force superior to any band of regular troops that can be, on any pretence, raised in the United States.”

I now take the liberty of combining the six known justifications for the Second Amendment into two:

• Defend the country against a tyrannical government
• Defend ourselves, our family and our neighbors against people who wish to harm and kill us

The most effective (and only logical) argument that the Second Amendment is antiquated and should be removed or revised would be to argue that these are modern times and the two bullets above longer exist. Regarding tyrannical government, as of this writing the world has witnessed the beginning of at least five revolutions in the last two years: Egypt, Syria, Libya, Yemen and Tunisia. In the last decade, at least five additional governments were overthrown by their citizens. I refuse to participate in the fantasy that American leaders are somehow genetically immune to future tyranny – it is an unfortunate human trait.

Neither can a sane person assume that Americans will never again face war or crime that requires citizens to bear arms in defense of themselves or the nation. Our armed forces and law enforcement are the best trained, best equipped, finest organization that has ever walked the Earth, yet we cannot expect them to be everywhere, always. Reference the LA riots, 9-11, Katrina, or any of the 6.6 million violent crimes committed every year in the US during “peace time.”

We need semi-automatic rifles with full capacity magazines for the same reason the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard, police, National Guard, FBI, CIA, State Department, Secret Service, Border Patrol, and Homeland Security do – they are a very effective tool for stopping bad people from doing bad things to those we care about. Go back to the LA riots, if you were looking out your window and an armed group of thugs was heading to your front door, what weapon would you want?

If you think this is a republican vs. democrat or liberal vs. conservative debate, please wake up. Republicans, if you ever want to find a concentrated group of gun enthusiasts, head over to the union hall. The fight is those for the constitution and those against it. If one amendment falls, what holds the other ones up?

What do we do? Easy to say, hard to do – act as one unit and stand for someone you may not even agree with. You may only hunt birds and actually really despise the AK-47 and the punks on Youtube. The thing is that someday you will probably need that guy with the AK to stand for you. If he falls, who do you think is next? My daughter’s NRA instructor hit the nail on the head by having a student break a pencil. Then he handed 15 to the strongest guy in the class that couldn’t break them all at one time. Realize that there is an agenda to disarm you and this is simply the first fight.

The future depends on sportsmen and gun owners, make more of them. Find more like you and band together – you’ll need reassurance and a strong partner. Join whatever organization floats your boat, better yet join three or four.

Take your kid hunting. Take a neighbor shooting. Teach them both to be safe and respectful of life. Attend a rally or protest in a suit armed with children, mothers, an honest face and a bunch of facts. Volunteer as a gun owning group, volunteer to teach hunters education. Take the Scout troop to the rifle range to shoot arrows. Take a class or teach a class. Host a swap meet at the range. Invite people out to your property for shooting or hunting. Turn a fisherman into a hunter. Turn a bird hunter into a defensive pistol shooter. Buy them all a pocket constitution. Have you ever heard of Project Appleseed? They will send someone out to talk to your group for free.

You don’t have to be a gun owner to respect the constitution. Talk with as many people as you can, you may be surprised how many non-gun owners are just as afraid as you.

Buy arms and ammunition, a right not exercised is a right lost. You shouldn’t need another reason to pick up a new gun, magazines, ammunition or parts right now. Do it. Buy whatever you need, buy whatever you may need – the industry needs your support. Firearms, ammunition, magazines, parts, holsters, targets, everything. Make sure to tell the vendors your support is based on their support, one big happy family. Find the ones that actively donate and work with GOA and the NRA. Send them a letter thanking them – they will probably be getting a lot of heat soon. Convince others to do the same. Could you talk to 10 people to get them to send a single e-mail, letter or call? Do they support second amendment groups? Ask them why not and remind them their competitors do. Keep the heat on anyone that starts to go soft on our rights. Use your Youtube channel or your blog to magnify your efforts. Link to other like-minded messages.

Get a concealed carry permit and use it. In my state, each and every one either goes across the desk of a sheriff or police chief. What message will the small town sheriff that is up for re-election next year get if 500 cross his desk this month? Meet your local sheriff or police chief and thank them for what they do. Go as a sportsman’s group and hit the fire station on the way home.

Watch each company that meets with the administration or state and local government. Write them a letter thanking them for what they do and letting them know your continued business 100% depends on helping defend our constitutional rights. Let them know about your YouTube channel with 50,000 subscribers or the 10 forums you regularly post to. Send the letter out to other companies just in case. They may be caving or preparing to fight, you don’t know without asking.

For an offensive strategy, how about we also talk about the 2,500 babies killed every day in abortion clinics? Maybe we can discuss how Obama and David Gregory’s kids go to a school with 11 armed guards? Remind them this is in addition to the Secret Service, the school had the guards long before the Obama kids showed up – Obama and David chose to protect their kids with guns and now want yours. What about Bloomberg’s bodyguards? Hypocrisy doesn’t play well with most Americans. They already know politicians have a tendency to be elitist hypocrites, feed that fire with some good old facts.

The solution is measured, appropriate action in massive quantity. Pull people toward us, don’t push them away. Act as if your life depends on it because it just may. What are you going to do TODAY? What can you do during your lunch break? What about for 30 minutes tonight?

You have a natural right of self-protection that you enjoy today because patriots banded together and gave their life so that you can be free. Nobody knows what tomorrow will bring; liberty is the one gift we must give to our children and grandchildren just as it was handed down to us.

Letter Re: Building Cabins on a Shoestring Budget

Dear CPT Rawles,
Thank you for SurvivalBlog, and best wishes to all of you at the Rawles Ranch.  

My wife and I have written to once before about retreat locale recommendations, and you were so very helpful.  We are, I guess what you could call “late preppers” because we’ve only been working on this for about the last year, & part of that with admittedly a certain skepticism. Time has proven you right however, & now we are doing all we can.  It’s tough to prioritize when you need so much, and everything is like an emergency right NOW kind of need because of so many new regulations, and doors being closed.  I’m sure you understand how all of that is.  We have taken your past advice seriously, and are moving to the Redoubt in June of 2014, hopefully things will hold together that long…  Last year we purchased 10 acres in Boundary County in the general vicinity of [locale deleted, for OPSEC], and it is about that that I am writing to you.  To put it plainly, an appraisal of our situation is that we are very poor, financially speaking.  We have however managed to reach zero debt, but have only one income, plus whatever I can scratch up.  I am a disabled veteran, injured in the Gulf War, and no longer able to work in my chosen profession (LEO), so I am now finishing up learning to be a locksmith.  Our land purchase depleted most of our savings, but it is fully paid for.  Our land is undeveloped, save for a gravel driveway/access road and a leveled and cleared building site.  It has a small creek that flows through it.  I was told that the creek is seasonal.  According to my neighbor it has not gone dry in several years.  The property is timbered and also has some pasture land.  That is what we have to work with.  We currently live in [locale deleted, for OPSEC] with our three teenage sons (18, 16, 14).  Our plan is to get moved to the Redoubt as soon as possible.  That relocation is our top priority, as we feel time is of the essence, and it will at least give us the best fighting chance with what preps we have been able to put into place, as opposed to back here.  To make that happen however is requiring a lot of bailing wire, duct tape and “McGyverisim”.

As we will be unable to build a home, we are thinking of taking storage buildings (from a provider in Ponderay, Idaho) and setting them on concrete footings, as “roughed in” structures that we can then insulate and finish out as finances allow (double pane windows, 60 psf snow load, steel roof, etc are givens).  We would start with two, one for my wife and I, which would also contain the family common areas, and a second for my son’s, as a bunkhouse, if you will.  The plan is to eventually have five, which we will inter-connect via breezeways for lack of a better term, with an inner courtyard.  The buildings will be 14′ x 40′ (560 sq ft) each, with the ability to be added onto if later desired).  The long term thought is that if things hold together long enough, each of my children will be able to have their independence in their own “wing” of the house, much like an apartment if you will (independence but common security & mutual benefit being the goal here). The plan is of course that this will all be off grid.  

Q:  Have you heard of anyone doing such a thing before?  In your opinion is such a plan viable? Is there any advice or cautions that you would offer?

For cooking and heat we will obviously want to use wood, but are debating if it would be best to try to cook on a wood stove (which I see as more of an emergency adaptation than practical for daily use) but would be much cheaper initially, or would we be better off buying a wood cookstove such as the Heartland Sweetheart stove, which would be more than ample to heat our space (if it is efficient for that purpose I am not sure), warms water and uses a thermo-siphon to provide it for showers, etc I’m told but have not yet confirmed, and allows for all forms of cooking and baking, but is much much more expensive (i.e. $6,000-7,000.)

Q:  Do you have any experience with, or thoughts on this?

Q:  As you are obviously a well thought and researched person, do you have any thoughts and/or recommendations on efficient wood stoves, other wood cook stoves we should perhaps be considering, the use of propane for a cook stove and refrigerator for the short term, and any recommendations for an emergency generator (our electronic needs would be small).

Q:  Lastly, regarding drilling a well, according to area well reports we have discovered that with the exception of 1 or 2 wells, most are really deep (400 to 500 feet deep at roughly $37 per foot) so are there any options you may have experience with know about that may allow us to use the surface water from the creek that we could check into?

Thank you for for your time, and any input you may be able to provide us to help us along the way.  We always take what you have to say with the utmost seriousness.  Once again thank you for all that you and your family provide to the preparedness community. 
God bless you and your family! – B.D.

JWR Replies: If you have enough level ground, a “spokes of a wheel” arrangement for the cabins should work fairly well.   Just keep in mind that North Idaho can get up to 6 feet of snow, so allow room for the snow that comes off the roofs to pile up.

For heating, rather then burn fires in five separate stoves, you might consider an outdoor furnace in its own little shed, right next to your wood shed.  (With metal roofs for both.) In addition to hydronic (radiant) floor heating, these can also be used to provide domestic hot water. This approach creates less chimney fire hazard, and just one chimney to clean, twice a year

Creek water is of course not safe to drink untreated, but a lot of folks make do with constructing ponds or cisterns and then using two-stage filters and an ultraviolet water line light on the service line. (These are commonly used to sterilize the bacteria in the water circulated through fish ponds.)  If you can divert the creek and establish a pond or cistern at least 30 vertical feet uphill from the house, then that avoids a huge set of problems.  (There are no pumps in the system if you have gravity feed.)  OBTW, the pond must also have a stout, tall fence around it to keep out all livestock and wild game.