The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods

SurvivalBlog presents another edition of The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods— a collection of news bits and pieces that are relevant to the modern survivalist and prepper from “JWR”. Our goal is to educate our readers, to help them to recognize emerging threats and to be better prepared for both disasters and negative societal trends. You can’t mitigate a risk if you haven’t first identified a risk. Today, we look at gun statistics.

California Volcano Risks

Thanks to reader S.B. for suggesting this article: California is famous for earthquakes and wildfires—but don’t forget about its volcanoesJWR Adds:  Californians should visit the California “My Hazards” web page, and take a look at the hazards lists for their particular ZIP codes.

Gun Law Onslaught in Virginia

Colion Noir recently posted this commentary: Virginia turns Anti-Gun overnight with Bloomberg – Waste no time with gun confiscation SB16,18,64. Sadly, Noir is right. It doesn’t matter if the GOA and NRA are playing 3D Chess, if Mikey Bloomberg’s wallet is playing Tackle Football. He is simply out-spending them, and he has the mainstream media on his side. So please generously support the GOA, The Firearms Coalition (TFC), the JPFO, and State-level gun rights defending organizations such as Gun Owners Action League of Washington. Meanwhile, as a hedge, build yourself a private (no paperwork) battery of capable guns. Why? Because there may be no voting our way out of this. It has been aptly said that the ultimate votes are from the rooftops.

A New Hyper Glue

C.B. sent us this from Tech Xplore: New ‘hyper glue’ formula developed. A snippet:

“The team of chemists and composite materials researchers discovered a broadly applicable method of bonding plastics and synthetic fibres at the in a procedure called cross-linking. The cross-linking takes effect when the adhesive is exposed to heat or long-wave UV light making that are both impact-resistant and corrosion-resistant. Even with a minimal amount of cross-linking, the materials are tightly bonded.”

Horse Stolen and Slaughtered for its Meat

Spotted by reader Tim J.:  Florida horse stolen and slaughtered for its meat, sheriff’s office says.

The Bonus Baby Gift AR

This one was  sent by blog reader Todd B.: Semi-automatic rifle found inside baby shower gift bought at Florida Goodwill. Todd’s Comments: “My first thought is someone stashed an item in a place they thought was never going to be found, and the guy may be pretty upset when he asks his wife: ‘Honey, where is that box with the kids clothing that was in the closet?  You did WHAT???’

But other articles I read from the newspapers also suggest a concerning issue.   When the police arrived, whom the family called, they first checked IDs to make sure the people there had the correct permits to be in possession of a gun.  Then, a couple days later the department requested they turn over the gun.  I think they should have been allowed to keep it.”

China Requires Facial Scans

Chinese government forces people to scan their face before they can use internet as surveillance efforts mount. (A hat tip tp Krissy for the link.)

The ATF’s Staggering Gun Statistics

Linked over at the great Whatfinger.com news aggregation site: ATF: 423 Million guns in America, 1.2 per person, 8.1 Billion rounds of ammunition a year.. Here is a quote:

“America’s love affair with guns is only getting stronger.

New federal data shows that there are 422.9 million firearms in circulation, or about 1.2 guns for every person in the country.

What’s more, despite years of criticism of modern “assault-style” rifles such as the AR-15 and AK-47, there are a record 17.7 million in private hands, proving that it is the most popular gun around.

And last year alone, the arms industry produced 8.1 billion rounds of ammunition.”

JWR’s Commeht: Some other staggering figures are the number of detachable magazines that are in circulation, and the number produced for the civilian market each year. There are roughly 11 million guns made each year and more than 40% of those are semi-autos. I can safely estimate that there are three magazines produced for each semi-auto pistol, and 8 for each rifle. I any politicians thinks that they can “ban” 11+ round magazines, then they are delusional. Attempting to buy them up would cost taxpayers billions and ultimately would be a huge failure.

Tiny Woodlands are Important

C.B. sent us this from Phys.org: Tiny woodlands are more important than previously thought. The article starts with this:

“Small woodlands in farmland have more benefits for humans per area, compared to large forests according to a new study. The small woodlands, sometimes even smaller than a football field, can easily go unnoticed in agricultural landscapes. Yet, these small forest remnants can store more carbon in the topsoil layer, are more suitable for hunting activities and host fewer ticks than large forests.”

You can send your news tips to JWR. (Either via e-mail of via our Contact form.) Thanks!




17 Comments

  1. 8,100,000,000 rounds of ammunition produced this year, divided by 422,000,000 guns in circulation = 19 rounds per firearm produced this last year. Looks like they should increase production. My minimum is 6,000 rounds for every box fed magazine semi auto rifle.

  2. Todd,you mentioned in the baby article that other articles mention checking ID for proper permit.I don’t know what permit is required?Only that you are able to legally own a gun.
    I assume you just miss worded it?Not being snarky by any means.

  3. Re. ATF’s Staggering Gun Statistics

    “America’s love affair with guns is only getting stronger.”

    Or maybe America’s distrust of Washington is getting stronger.

  4. in regard to the “Baby Gift AR” – these people are shopping at Goodwill for a financial reason – they find a $400>>$1,000 (??) bonanza >>> would be interesting how close to confiscation that “police request” came to …..

  5. RE: the “Baby gift AR” — The photo at the top of the article is clearly staged. Why is there a pistol magazine (and associated box of ammo) in the picture? Were those items in the box?
    And I don’t see how the rifle fit in the box — a Mossberg 715T doesn’t disassemble into lower and upper receivers; so how did it fit?
    I also noticed how the “reporter” focused on the serial number, and how it can be traced – I think this was written to promote anti-ghost gun sentiment.

    1. Yes that photo was ‘staged’. FYI, though I don’t know this for sure but I believe JWR just takes open source photos from say, Google Image and uses them in his headings as eye candy or to attract. Since I don’t have a professional photographer on staff, I do the same thing in my articles.

      And kudos to both Montana Guy and Tunnel Rabbit (and the others), your statements are spot on.

      1. Sorry, I wasn’t clear. I wasn’t referring to JWR’s image; rather, the one at CNN. The link provided above went to a news station, ostensibly showing the opening of the box. Except it had already been opened. I see how it fit in (I guess).
        I still question the inclusion of the pistol magazine, ammo boxes, etc.

  6. The peewee Woodland article; = “Another benefit of the tiny forests is that they represent a lower risk of contracting a tick borne disease. This is because less tick larvae can survive in the dry and hot environments characterizing woodland edges.”

    According to the WideOpenPets site:
    “Chickens may be just as effective as guinea hens in controlling pests like ticks. As a benefit, chickens are very effective at finding and eating grubs and worms, snakes, moles, and mice. One of my roosters catches mice and tosses them up in the air and then swallows them on the way down.”
    ***************

    Me: = Watching a flock of chickens scratching about is more entertaining than watching television. … No matter how many times you watch the entire flock of chickens chasing after one grasshopper, you’ll still laugh every-time it happens.

  7. I wish someone would be kind enough to write an article to explain to those of us who are complete and total firearm novices, about how to get 80% lowers and uppers to make a complete, off-books rifle. I have a cheap AR 15 and would love to pack away parts to make complete and off-books rifles that would also be compatible – so they could all be used for parts if necessary. I did look into this enough to understand there are a lot of variables, and this is where I threw in the towel.

    So please, is there an article somewhere that would be simple enough for me to know exactly which grade of which component to buy from which place (or 3)? Completely basic instructions to build a completely basic AR 15? I personally would love a ‘Group Build with Survival Blog’, where we could all order our parts then build one step at a time – kind of a My First AR Build For Dummies?

    1. My personal favorite 80% lower provider is Tactical Machining in Florida. Just look them up. They have lowers for AR-15, AR-10, Ruger 10/22, and several pistol frames. You can buy completion kits from Palmetto State Armory (a site advertiser), Brownells, Midway, or any number of places.

      Be sure you understand your state’s laws on this, if you are in California, New York, or several other states these things are felonies once completed.

      Assembling a lower is relatively easy, there some very good YouTube videos on it for step by step instructions.

    2. Hey Nonya, there are many instructional videos and text-with-image instructions online on how to assemble an AR from parts. Start there. In other words, I suggest you buy a stripped lower (as low as $39.99) from one of JWR’s advertisers like Aero Precision or Palmetto State Armory and a complete parts kit from someone like Sarco (best price I’ve seen) and use the instructions online to build a basic AR. Not only will you learn the gun inside-out, but if you can successfully manage that process and build a gun that fires reliably, then you can consider taking the next step and learning how to do the same build with an 80% lower that you finish yourserf.

      On my first build, I put the disconnector spring in the bolt catch instead of using the bolt catch spring. (It’s still in there — and the bolt catch works, but I did have to source another disconnector spring.) I also found that the castle nut worked itself loose on the first trip to the range because I didn’t stake it in place. Best to learn simple lessons like that with parts you know work.

      After doing my first build with only an AR15 wrench, I went out and bought a whole set of specialized tools, including vice blocks and various punches. Made my subsequent builds much easier, faster and didn’t scratch the finish on my lower. After that first build, I felt comfortable experimenting with different barrel lengths, rails, gas blocks and other parts, built and AR pistol, etc.

      In any case, my advice is walk before you can run. Assembling a gun from parts isn’t that hard. Finishing an 80% lower requires even more tools and somewhat different skills.

  8. Weird, but. I just tried to go on Smith & Wesson to browse for Christmas Gifts and There site is “down “, no card transactions?
    Just letting ya know
    Hummmm

Comments are closed.