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As preface, I would like to say that I abhor violence and believe killing should only be done when absolutely necessary, but if things in America ever deteriorate to the point of national collapse, with murderous gangs of looters, or other violent oppressive groups wandering the land, it might be worth going on the offensive instead of sitting tight and hoping for the best. Even in the most well-defended retreat, a dedicated group of aggressors has all the time in the world to devise an attack strategy that could defeat you. They could rain .50 caliber rounds on you from a mile away, or take pot shots at you any time you peek out a window or attempt to go outside, until you run out of food or ammunition, or they could set your retreat on fire.

Sometimes it is necessary to go on the offensive to erase the enemy capability to do you harm. One or two well-equipped, well-trained individuals can defeat a much larger force. Unconventional tactics must be adopted, with a guerrilla “hit and run” strategy in mind. Sun Tzu wrote the widely known “The Art of War” [which is available as a free e-book.] It is still taught in military institutions around the world. The concepts laid out all those years ago are still the same that work today.

For the sake of brevity, this is my extremely condensed version of The Art of War. (I suggest that you get a copy and study it.) These are the principles that guide my ideas in resisting an government gone crazy, foreign invasion, or terrible social disorder where all Schumer has broken loose.

1. When you avoid battle, you are invulnerable. When you partake in battle, you become vulnerable. (this ties directly with Concept 2:

2. Only choose the battles that you know you will be victorious in. Having the wisdom to avoid battles you cannot win, and knowing how to strike when you cannot lose, makes you invincible.

3. It is greater to take the enemy’s weapons, equipment, food, resources, than it is to destroy them.

Concepts explained

1. It is pretty easy to understand this concept. If you never attend the gun battle, you can never get killed in the gun battle. If you decide to show up, you risk being shot. This brings us to the next concept, which is extremely simple if you keep concept #1 in mind, but extremely complicated because…

2…there are in infinite amount of possible variables that could contribute to your tactical situation. The enemy may or may not have snipers over looking his “weak” points to pick off possible troublemakers.
The enemy may or may not have any number of tools at his disposal, from land mines, to guard dogs, thermal night vision, surveillance drones, or any assortment of lethal and unseen assets intending to capture or kill you.

This is where knowing your enemy comes into play. You have to make a study out of the enemy. When do certain activities happen? (Guard shift changes, meal time, sleep time, patrols, et cetera.)
What is left unguarded and when? What is the chain of command? Where are the communications located? What events will cause a mobilization of forces? All these questions and many more must be asked and answered. It only benefits you to know as much as possible about your adversary.

All that information helps you to decide if you can potentially make a strike against your enemy without taking losses, or by taking acceptable losses. Acceptable losses in a group of five family members may mean that only a plan that is likely to produce no losses is acceptable. But if you are taking part in a full scale guerilla war against an occupational military force, then some losses may be acceptable if certain objectives have to be met for victory on a strategic level.

Concept 2 is to only fight when you know you will win. This is done by gathering as much information as possible and putting yourself in your enemy’s shoes so you can choose when, where, and how you want to fight.

3. If possible, recover any assets from your enemy that may be of potential use. Magazines, weapons, armor, night vision, batteries, anything. This also means gathering items of possible intelligence value like; unit patches, force deployment maps, supply information, duty rosters, and chain of command information. You could even steal uniforms for possible impersonation of enemy forces in later operations. Your victory is all the sweeter if your engagement not only produces dead bad guys, but extra weapons and supplies to continue the fight and lessen the strain on your own supplies.

Make the best use of your money to allow you the most capabilities in combat.

Arm and equip yourself in a manner that allows you flexibility in tactics so you can choose to fight and win in instances that someone might normally be unable to fight at all. For example.

Example: John decides he is going to buy an M1A, a FAL, two AR15s, two Mini-14s, one Glock, one SIG pistol, one HK pistol, and a couple of revolvers. He buys 10 sets of woodland BDUs and 3 pairs of GI combat boots. He spends an additional $2,000 on all the different spare magazines that he will need for all his different guns. He spent roughly $12,000 for everything and is essentially limited to carrying one rifle and a sidearm, and being camouflaged in a woodland environment no colder than 45 degrees. The other weapons will stay at home and he can’t go out on operations during the winter months because he would freeze.

Example: Bill buys an AR-15, mounts an EOTech sight with night vision capability and an AAC suppressor, along with 500 rounds of subsonic .223 ammunition. He buys a set of decent Generation III night vision goggles. He buys a few sets of BDUs for the summer months and heavier clothing for the winter months, including cold weather boots. He also buys a .45 pistol with suppressor and pretty much all .45 ammo in the 230 grain weight is subsonic already. Last but not least, he buys a tactical vest to carry all his magazines and side arm in for easy access.

Bill spends about the same amount of money as John, yet is a much more well-rounded warrior. He can operate in just about any climate, save for extreme weather. He could sneak around at night with night vision goggles and utilize his suppressed weapons to take out any threats with barely making a sound [that could be heard more than a short distance away]. (Subsonic ammunition is essential.)

Bill could sneak into an enemy camp and quietly send potentially dozens of people off into the after life with his suppressed pistol, and walk away without anyone ever knowing he was there. John on the other hand could do no such thing. John would stumble through the darkness, possibly bump into someone, and discharge his weapon, waking up everyone within a mile.

So try to spend your money in ways that add to your capabilities. Some redundancy is good, but some flexibility is very important as well.

Be creative in your tactics Be creative in your fighting. Use outside the box thinking. For instance:
In many previous wars, weapons have been booby trapped to explode when fired. Ammunition can be loaded to explosive pressures and left for the enemy to find. Poisons quietly poured into tomorrow’s breakfast ration during the night could potentially incapacitate a large majority of the enemy force in one sitting. Creating diversions to draw attention away from your main objectives is often a good idea. Setting fires in multiple places simultaneously creates confusion and panic. You get the idea, just be creative. Use all things to your advantage!

Most people reading this blog have probably read JWR’s novel, “Patriots”: Surviving the Coming Collapse“, so I will use a few examples of how things could have gone differently if the characters in the book had some other equipment on hand during some of their battles.

Somewhat early into the book, a number of vehicles try to attack the retreat but are stopped by small arms fire and are eventually killed after a gun battle with some well trained and entrenched defenders. Just to throw out an idea for additional defensive measures. Create pieces of cover for attackers to use when attempting to overtake your position. If you are over looking 200 yards of open grass, you place seemingly harmless things leading up to your position that can be used as cover. Maybe a small shed that one might think is used for storing tools.

When attacked, enemy forces will try to use this shed for cover and will take refuge behind it. Unknown to them, the shed is filled with 50 pounds of Tannerite[–a binary explosive target mixture that is legal for individual to own without any permit or license in most of the US–] and gasoline. When they get close enough to use it for cover, you shoot the shed, detonating the explosives and fuel, creating one h**l of a blast and fireball, and eliminating [or at least badly discouraging] the attackers that were hiding behind it.

Another situation the characters found themselves in was when they were driving to go rescue two of their own who hadn’t been able to make it to the retreat. On the journey they encounter a road block and one of their members is shot and killed. That night the two remaining members of the rescue team ambush the road blockers and kill them during a pretty one sided shootout.

If the rescue team had a set of night vision goggles they could have traveled completely by darkness and possibly avoided detection. Also, upon spotting the road block, one member could have approached the road block on foot with a suppressed pistol and neutralized all the threats as they slept without drawing any attention to the area with loud gun shots and without risking any team members in a shootout.

I hope that this helps everyone think more outside the box when considering their preparedness plans. Be as aggressive as possible without being reckless. Remember the basic concepts and think, move, and fight like a predator.