Urban Survival Firearms - Urban Handgun

UrbanSurvivalSkills.com received the following question concerning Urban Firearms and handguns in particular: I am in a Survival Group of eleven people, 5 couples and one individual. We are all in white collar professions. Our group objective is to mutually support each other, either from different location if possible, or to band together at one of the group’s house. Four of us live in condos, three in apartments and two in stand alone houses. We have discussed how we can complement each other and have developed a “buy” list, limited to what each vehicle will hold.

We are concentrating on stocking food, mainly dry staples, mainly packaged dry meals and some canned goods. One of our couples does some shotgun shooting, but for the most part we don’t have any firearms. It is unrealistic to expect that each of us will buy a military rifle. We have talked about all of us buying handguns for protection, thinking that handguns for all and the couple shoguns we’ll have available should be good enough. Herein lies my questions: Should we try and standardize on one handgun? Or is it just sufficient for everyone to own a handgun regardless of being all the same. We are having a get together prior to Thanksgiving and I would like to broach this subject with the group. Thank you”.

UrbanMan’s response: It sounds like you are taking the lead to get a Survival Group organized. I commend you for that. This may become a dripping process, where you incrementally push the group towards prudent survival preparation.

I'll answer your question about standardizing your survival group’s handguns first. Yes, it would be prudent for all members of your survival group to possess the same handgun. Ammunition compatibility and the ability to interchange magazines (if it is a semi-automatic pistol as opposed to a revolver) is another advantage. The time needed to familiarize and train members on different handguns is also reduced. Having said that, the first rule of a gun fight is to have a gun. Therefore if survival group members already have a handgun, I would not think that buying new handguns to ensure standardization would not, repeat, would not be your first priority.

The second rule is not to bring a handgun to a rifle fight. You mentioned a couple survival group members having shotguns. You did not mention having any rifles. Handguns are a poor substitute for long guns and designed primarily as a secondary or defensive weapon. Shorter barrels, shorter sight radius’ and smaller cartridges at less velocity all make them ineffective at longer ranges. If you think that handguns will be sufficient because of the shorter engagement ranges of your present and planned urban survival environment then you are missing several points on long guns.

Having a long gun, meaning a rifle or carbine, shooting more powerful cartridges than a handgun allows you not only longer engagement ranges, but the ability to punch through soft cover like wooden walls, car doors, etc. Magazine fed long guns such as AR type rifles,.e.g..M16, AR15, M4, etc. provide detachable magazines with high capacities which would serve you and your survival group well if attacked by larger groups of bandits or mobs.

Long guns would also you to hunt and procure larger game animals. Maybe even the presence of a larger survival group equipped with long guns would make you appear to be a harder target and therefore may be a deterrent to being attacked. So when you say “It is unrealistic to expect that each of us will buy a military rifle”, you may want to consider at least a couple military type long guns within your group.

I hope you are “cross loading” you supplies and material, so that if one couple in your group does not make it to one of the houses if/when you re-locate and consolidate, then you won’t be missing key components of your urban survival equipment.

I also hope you are planning a Bug Out to a safe location outside of the urban environment for if/when that situation comes about and the need to leave develops. I hope I answered your question well enough. I did not list or otherwise suggest a standard handgun, as I think long guns are more important.

Urban Survival Equipment - Merrell Boots

UrbanSurvivalSkills.com received a comment on the Reader's suggestions for Survival Equipment: "Anonymous said...The Merrell Boots are great! I own a pair of the Sawtooths for the woods and I wear the Merrell World Guides during the day when working. I also have a pair of Danners, but never wear them anymore because the Merrell's hold up very well and are comfortable."

UrbanMan replies: Roger on your like of Merrell Boots. The Sawtooths have been replaced, by some, with several waterproof versions, but are still excellent boots. I also find them more comfortable than my Danners and other military style boots plus they don't scream military or police. This makes wearing 5.11 tactical pants alittle less eye catching.

Merrell makes a slew of different styles, suitable for many different Survival applications,....cold environs and wetlands as well.

Corruption as a Economic Collapse Precursor

A friend of mine sent me this Reuters article about Corruption getting worse and worse in the United States. We have all thought about this at one time or another,...hard not to when you read about Legislators voting things for themselves and at the same time burdening the People with tax increases or regulatory mandates. I submit to the readers that the last thing a government does before it collapses it to loot the treasury. Not only does this push us towards economic collapse with the waste and abuse, but could help set the stage for anarchy when the population gets mad enough.

U.S. Slips to Historic Low in Global Corruption Index

By Dave Graham

BERLIN (Reuters) - The United States has dropped out of the "top 20" in a global league table of least corrupt nations, tarnished by financial scandals and the influence of money in politics, Transparency International said on Tuesday.

Somalia was judged the most corrupt country, followed by Myanmar and Afghanistan at joint second-worst and then by Iraq , in the Berlin-based watchdog TI's annual corruption perceptions index (CPI).

The United States fell to 22nd from 19th last year, with its CPI score dropping to 7.1 from 7.5 in the 178-nation index, which is based on independent surveys on corruption.

This was the lowest score awarded to the United States in the index's 15-year history and also the first time it had fallen out of the top 20.

In the Americas , this put the United States behind Canada in sixth place, Barbados at 17th and Chile in 21st place.

Jointly heading the index -- in which a score of 10 indicates a country with the highest standards, and 0 as highly corrupt -- were Denmark , New Zealand and Singapore with 9.3. They were also at the top of the table last year.

Somalia scored 1.1. The watchdog group said its table was based on "different assessments and business opinion surveys carried out by independent and reputable institutions."

U.S. "INTEGRITY DEFICIT"

Nancy Boswell, president of TI in the United States , said lending practices in the subprime crisis, the disclosure of Bernard Madoff's Ponzi scheme and rows over political funding had all rattled public faith about prevailing ethics in America .

"We're not talking about corruption in the sense of breaking the law," she said. "We're talking about a sense that the system is corrupted by these practices. There's an integrity deficit."

Various financial scandals at state and city level had encouraged the impression that the regulatory oversight was weak and that influence could be bought, she added.

The index showed a number of countries -- including Iran -- climbing up the chart significantly from 2009, though TI said this could often be ascribed to the fact that different surveys were being used that offered no direct comparison to last year.

The fact that nearly three quarters of the countries scored 5.0 or less showed corruption was still a major global problem, said Robin Hodess, director of policy and research at TI.

However, the watchdog identified Bhutan , Chile , Ecuador , Macedonia , Gambia , Haiti , Jamaica , Kuwait , and Qatar as states where improvement had been made over the past year.

By contrast, it highlighted the Czech Republic , Greece , Hungary , Italy , Madagascar , Niger and the United States as nations where perceptions had deteriorated.

Urban Survival Gear and Equipment - Reader's Suggestions

UrbanSurvivalSkills.com received this PM on facebook: "Hey Urban Man, just wanted to drop you a note and tell you my latest acquisitions to augment my already well equipped Bug Out plan."

"I'm at the point right now that that I can slow down on my survival purchasing, so (as) I meander through the internet and Survival blogs, I pickup tips on new gear that people think they will find useful. I have over 12 months of stored long term food (long term) not counting a pantry which I could live probably two months on. I have all the guns and ammunition that I'll need. I have plenty of camping supplies such as sleeping bags, cooking equipment and things like that."

"I recently bought the following nice to have Survival items and thought you may want to comment on them:"

A Propane Tank Gauge. In case I come across abandoned propane tanks, so am offered some in barter, I can determine how much fuel is left in it. This gauge takes up a very small amount of room in a pack or my Bug Out Bag.

A Wireless Driveway Sensor. Uses a "C" battery for the sensor and 9 volt battery for the receiver and is good for 400 yards. Not only can I use this to cover an area to alert against intruders, it's portable so I can include this at my base I have.

A Truck Tent. My Bug Out Of Town Plan is shared by two of my friends. We all have pickup trucks available. I bought this truck tent, that fits into the bed of the truck, so we can set up sleeping accommodations at temporary sites and still be really mobile if we have to. I figure we'll never have more than a couple people sleeping due to having to post some guards, that's why I only bought one.

Merrel Moab Mids hiking boots. These are great boots! I traded my camouflaged uniform for some solid color pants upon your suggestions months ago. So these boots do not look like military or cop footwear and are really great hiking and climbing boots.

Portable Air Compressor. This uses a 12v battery like those cordless drills. I can recharge the battery through my vehicle or a wall socket. We'll also be taking pedal bicycles so we can use this to repair or air up bike tires.

Sheeps skin lined booties. It gets COLD where I am going. I wanted something that I can wear when sleeping but still able to get up and run or fight or whatever. Also I think they would come in handy for people sitting at a fixed site providing security for the rest of us.

When I first starting preparing. Some of my friends called me "Kanik the Wanderer" because I was buying all this camping and hiking stuff. Two of these friends are now in my survival planning group, but they still call me Kanik the Wanderer.

UrbanMan replies: Dear Kanik,....all great ideas. Never thought about a Propane Gauge, now I'm going to get one. I think any wireless, battery operated early warning devices are a good addition to your kit as well, especially if it is mobile enough to take with you during a hasty Bug Out. Thanks for the ideas.