Gun Toting, Survival Prepping Pastor

I have a friend of mine who asked me to come along with him as he visited with his Pastor. The Pastor had a previous conversation with my friend, a member of his congregation, concerning buying and owning guns. Apparently the Pastor approached my friend because he knew my friend was a hunter. Like many people new to gun ownership, the Pastor was confused about the laws and what he had thought of as a "requirement to register guns" with the government.

We visited with the Pastor at his house with his family that included his wife and two children. Other than that, I’m not going to publish any other identifying factors for the Pastor for obvious reasons.

It turned out that the Pastor had struggled with the thought to own a gun for protection because he knew that it would be pointless to own a firearm without the will the use it if necessary. It was also apparent that, all on his own, this Pastor had arrived to the conclusion that times are going to be tough and if he wanted to be around to provide security for his family, or for others that he felt some sort of responsibility for, then he needs to get prepared.

I made sure that the Pastor understood that “brandishing” a firearm at a would be threat often only escalate the threat and I assured myself that the Pastor fully intended to protect his family by any means necessary. His words were to the effect,…..”I wholeheartedly believe in God and our place beside him in heaven. I would like my family to get there naturally and cannot bear the thought of them being victims because of my indecision. I will use a gun if need be.” Okay, fair enough.

After talking and showing the Pastor a couple of handguns, rifles and a shotgun, he settled on the plan to buy a .357 magnum revolver (so he can also shoot .38 Special) and a 12 gauge shotgun. We talked about the need for adequate instruction not only for him but for his family. I think he’ll most likely also buy a .22 LR rifle primarily for the training aspect but to also be able to employ another firearm during any collapse, and as well as the obvious small animal hunting capability.

While neither myself nor the Pastor are of the Mormon faith, we discussed the Mormon religion and their noted preparedness, especially stocking food. The Pastor war gammed with us about the establishment of a food pantry within his church to provide for church members who cannot provide for themselves, as well as stocking supplies and material such as cots, blankets, water, candles, battery and lanterns, etc. Boy, his church started sounding like a Bug Out location to me.

The ability to leverage many people’s efforts in any catastrophic situation is huge, but the price is being able to care for these people’s basic need as well,….food, water, shelter and security. With a church group serving as the core of a survival group, basic morals and beliefs, which may be a problem in an ad-hoc group, should not be nearly as large of a problem.

I also talked to the Pastor about having a plan in depth,…or PACE planning (Primary, Alternate, Contingency and Emergency), meaning having contingencies. Contingencies for safe sites,…for food storage,…for security and for route of movement and escape. I said he could set the example for his flock by having his own stock of emergency supplies at his home,…..food, water, medical items and survival equipment. And not to necessary advertise it. This would pay off if he could not get to the church for any reason, or if the church location ceased being a safe site.

We talked about having an alternative site to go to if things in the city became too unsafe. The Pastor mentioned that he had conducted a church camp for children at a Boy Scout camp about 4 hours away by car. The location ended up measuring about 170 driving miles away.  Close enough to use as a follow on Bug Out site, especially if you could go half way or more by vehicle. But the Pastor did not know what supplied the water at the camp, although there is a pond close by so natural water, basically a necessity for a long term Bug Out Site, was possible. So we discussed the Pastor finding out more about the camp including who owned it and/or could be possible having the same idea for a Bug Out site.

I told the Pastor that the idea of offering some basic CPR and medical training to his church, through the church, may be something he should consider.  Canning classes would also be something to be considered.

I committed to being a source for the Pastor for information and when he bought his survival firearms, to provide him with some basic training. Other than that I left him with some survival and preparedness sites listed on a notebook for him to research and read on his own, as well as the names/authors of a couple books to read.

If this country is destined to come out of a major collapse and re-build to any degree, good men and woman, with a strong moral foundation and belief system is necessary. I knew that survival prepping is becoming more and more mainstream, but to be able to assist an obvious good man who is looking out for others really made my week.

Debate on Survival Threat Groups

Since I posted the article on Racist Skinheads being a possible threat to survival in a infrastrucuture collapse, particularly a security decayed collapse environment, I have several comments posted and e-mail received debating, if in fact,  racists skinheads are anything to worry about.

My point in posting articles on street gangs, racists skinheads and other groups of fringe, radical or criminal elements as threats to our survival is simply that 1 - they are anti-socially and criminally prediposed, and 2 - are organized.

Organization is a big deal. Our survival in a post collapse world, from a inflationary/hyper- inflationary period to a full out infrastructure collapse, largely hinges on our ability to leverage teamwork. I applaud all of you lone survivors out there who plan and think you are going to "head for the hills" and live out of a Bug Out Bag, but the greatest majority of us need teams to survive.

That organization, from planning, to stockpiling, to providing security, to re-locating (Bugging Out) all accomplished by leveraging the resources and skills available from a group will make the difference.

Organization after the collapse will be much harder to do. Enter these organized threat groups. They are organized. Have chains of command and group rules. Have no reluctance to commit barbaric acts to continue their lifestyle. They probably have some useable common skills within their groups like mechanics, welding, electrical work, etc.  But their base skill is violence and lack of regard for human life.

During the precious first few days or weeks of a really giant collapse,...meaning a collapse where law enforcement and emergency forces are either over whelmed or otherwise ineffective,....these threat groups will be immmediately working to control more resources. Robberies, murders, home invasions, military armory thefts, etc., will skyrocket.

So again, yes all of these criminal groups, from common street gangs, to Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs to Racist Skinheads are threats to our survival especially those who choose to or be forced to "Bug In' in urban areas and adjacent suburban areas. The counter measures are knowing these threats, being prepared for security threats and having a survival team.

Motorcycles Good for SHTF?

Mikali wrote and ask my opinion on motorcycles for SHTF use: "Hello Urbanman. What do you think about off road motorcycles for during SHTF? I think they would come in handy doing all sorts of things and not just running the Bug out. We could use them for tac recons, hunting trips, etc. Just saying."

UrbanMan replies:There advantages and disadvantages to motorcycles in my opinion. The military uses motorcycles for scout platforms, to recon routes and such. Also to take communications gear to higher terrain that can’t be accessed with larger four wheel drive vehicles. Motorcycles in past conflicts have been used as messengers. In law enforcement, motorcycles allow for patrolling of remote or otherwise inaccessible areas, or to rapidly move to a subject(s) location.

These are what I think are the common disadvantages and advantages of motorcycles for use in the collapse.

Advantages

· High Mobility. Motorcycles because of their narrow width and high clearance are much more mobile than four wheeled vehicles including All Terrain Vehicles.

· Economic Fuel Consumption. Motorcycles are much more fuel miserly than the common four wheel car,….with the possible exception new of the VW Diesel Jetta, which a couple people have reported 50+mph miles per gallon!

· Speed. Motorcycles are very quick both in flat out speed, but agility as well. May save you butt in egressing from a threat.

Disadvantages

· Maintenance intensive. I hated owning motorcycles because of their intensive maintenance requirements. Maybe be easy for a motorhead, but not for me. When I had government maintenance workers maintain and repairing my bikes, I made sure to smooze them from time to time. When I used commercial mechanical support,…..well you paid through the nose. I include tires in this maintenance category as a disadvantage.  I have treid the green slime that you pump into tires to seal punctures, and that never worked very well for us.  The canned Fix-a-Flat actually worked better as it also provided air to inflat the tire. 

· Noisy. Motorcycles are noisy so they are hard to hear over. This takes away one of your best threat detectors and that is your hearing.

· Substantial Skills Required. Not everyone can ride a motorcycle. Most people can be trained, but how much time and fuel are you going to have for that.

· Can’t Fight very well from the Motorcycle when moving. You generally have to have both hands on the machine when you are moving. You may be able to operate the motorcycle for short periods of time with one hand if you can shoot a handgun or operate a radio with the left hand, as most throttles are on the right hand side of the handlebars, but when maneuvering in rough terrain this would be very tough.

In closing Mikali, I choose not to procure or maintain motorcycles for SHTF. A couple of the guy on my team have ATV’s which we may use for specialty purposes. We can more easily carry two people on an ATV with the possibility of the passenger engaging threats, at least with a handgun.

Should I Buy Gold for SHTF?

I recently had a friend of mine, not in my immediate survival group, but a prepper none the less, ask me if he should buy some Gold, and if so, should he buy one ounce rounds, or smaller weights. He had around $6,000 to spend. Part of his question was should he wait awhile as Gold and Silver prices seemed to be going down.

I told him that trying to time the market now would require some constant observation and some luck. Sure, Gold and Silver may yet go down more, in light of some good economic news the last few weeks, but that "good" economic news was really just "not as bad of news as usual".

I told him that while the Greece, Italy and Spain economic problems seemed to have leveled off, we will certainly see more bad economic news in the very near future. I told him to watch for more banks defaulting, instability in the U.S. and Foreign exchanges, higher U.S. deficit and national debt, worsening unemployment, lower oil imports, higher oil prices, higher inflation and downward spiral of the housing market all would be factors signaling a rise in precious metals.

This conversation was about two weeks ago and now we are seeing the following headlines:

World stocks fall amid economic reports from the largest economies forecasting a global downturn.

Job growth much lower than expected and fears of heightening unemployment amid reports that applications for unemployment benefits jumped to the highest level in nine months.

Housing gloom ahead as sales of previously owned homes fell 1.5 percent in May and are forecsted to be even lower in June and July.

Eurpoean leaders are trying to work out a solution to a spreading financial crisis across the European Union and global lessening confidence in a solution and the value of the Euro.

Major banks being downgraded. Moody's lowered the credit ratings of 15 major banks, including Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs, saying their long-term prospects for profitability and growth are shrinking.

So yes, the time is right to buy Precious Metals. However I would not put all of the $6,000 into Gold. I would spread it out with Silver bullion and maybe some junk silver as well. All this would depend upon how much precious metals I already had and any other holes or lack of essential equipment, material and supplies in my Collapse Preparation Plan.

Maybe one ounce of Gold, 4 one-quarter Gold rounds, $1,000 into Silver rounds and the rest in long term food maybe a good choice for my friend as I know he primarily focusing on survival guns and gear for SHTF and is well preparaed in that aspect.

Him having some viable precious metals for bartering and some long term food would also possibly benefit me as he is one of the families on a short list my survival group keeps of possible recruits or straphangers we would accept into our group as his ethics, morals and skills are known to us. Anyway, if you don't have very much or any precious metals at all, then what are you waiting for? An invitation? Okay, consider this an invitation.