Arming the Neighborhood: What's YOUR plan?

[DAdams]

I live in a large retirement community/subdivision. I would think the 50/50 rule (armed/quasi awareness vs clueless) applies since these folks are from all walks of life but mostly engineers, teachers, "upper middle class" and retired.

I have gotten to know my immediate neighbors, about 8 couples and with the exception of one, none of them have anything other than a large kitchen knife. The guy that does have his stuff slightly together will be gone to his place in the mountains if there are problems, for what that is worth.

So that leaves me.

Some have even professed a fear of firearms although they admit they probably should get a mindset change. I imagine that attitude has changed since the world hasn't ended with Barry in office as many thought it might. Most of them I think voted Obama although the bloom is off that rose for most.

We were having a get together around our fire pit the other night and I brought up mutual security and emergency response and thinking about a group "plan". It was met with a total lack of comprehension even though I loaned them One Second After and A World Made by Hand and (a couple had seen the movie The Road) in hopes of raising their awareness. These peoples nightmare scenario is running out of martini onions so they viewed these books primarily as Sci-Fi.
The lack of drugs hit home since many of these folks are 65+.

Even the ex military guy who was a medic and said he wanted his role to be medic, I will keep that in mind.

Most of these folks are retired Midwest liberals who worked for large corporations, Big Three, 3M etc and have pensions and SS. They still think that order in world will be maintained in any event.

We are somewhat prepared for perhaps a "90 day event", since we dealt with the hurricane preparedness mindset living in FL or 20 years.

Beyond that when the power goes out, the water stops flowing and the sewage treatment pumps stop working the fun is over and the work begins. Guns and ammo will be the least of my problems here in Suburban East TN.

I will probably share what I have for as long as I can with our "clueless" neighbors because in the grand scheme of things what difference does thirty days make if it is indeed some nightmare scenario.

Hey neighbor, don't forget to clean out the refrigerator, fill up the bathtubs, put ice in the coolers, box the liquor cabinet and bring the onions a first aid kit, flashlights and batteries and come on over. We can sleep 12 and then out come the inflatable beds.

 

[Mainsail]

I really have to ask. Where is everyone planning to bug-out to? The roads will be jammed with most of the unprepared folks trying to get to government hand-out sites or camps. The rest will probably be looting their homes.

The most likely scenario is an economic collapse like the one in Argentina. Read THIS, it’s written by someone who lived through a real SHTF, not some glorified Hollywood Mad Max style version. Read his blog, and then compare what you’re doing to be prepared with what his real life experience has taught him. Frankly, I put a lot more stock in his opinion than some of the fantasies here.

What good are a safe full of guns if you’re so out of shape you cannot trot more than 20 yards before you keel over? What good is a pallet of ammunition (other than trading) if you’ve become so fat you need 15,000 calories a day just to keep your mood below homicidal?

 

[harmon rabb]

that's when i hand them the mosins

 

[Ragnar Danneskjold]

Mainsail, that link is going to hurt a lot of feelings.

 

[SuperNaut]

Mainsail is spot-on, the global SHTF scenarios are the realm of sci-fi (beloved sci-fi, but still fiction). Teh majick gunses aren't going to get you through. Where and how deep is your emergency food/water supply? Also pretending that you can barter G&A during a short-term SHTF scenario is pure silliness.

 

[Onward Allusion]

Amen. That's why *I* do. Of course, you'll have folks who'll get on their high horse about how irresponsible keeping firearms in your vehicle is... The thing is, one doesn't know who they'll run across in those types of situations. I don't think many of us has... It also amuses me when I read posts from people who'll state that their neighbors are on their own...etc...etc. They'll probably be some of the first to end up dead.

phoglund
Everybody who has posted is going on the assumption they will be home
when the emergency situation occurs. Most of us spend a fair amount of time away from our homes, often miles from our homes. Although some of us *cough*, keep firearms and supplies in our vehicles I expect most of our supplies are kept at home.
In the scenario where transportation is severely curtailed those of us at home may encounter folks who were prepared at home but are now on foot. Would you be willing to arm these folks...would you like to be armed if you ended up being one of these folks? If so...how would you tell?

That guy you turned away at gun point with words of disdain for his lack of preparedness being caught unarmed and untrained might be a grunt with 3 tours of combat that returned last week. He'd be pretty handy to have as a friend in troubled times.

 

[Onward Allusion]

An alternative

Rather than arming the neighborhood, get to know your neighbors and become friends or at least good acquaintances. If you hate your neighbors that much, you probably ought to move.

Case in point, I have an African American family next door that REALLY keep to themselves. I mean, it would be rare that they would even wave when they pull out of their driveway. I guess they don't feel too comfortable being the only African American family on our block.

Over the summer we had a power outage that lasted for 30 hours. Needless to say, the alarm system & all the security crap were pretty useless. I choose to stay home and work from home on my laptop. I saw the neighbor next door and he and his wife were getting ready to go to work but you can tell the concerned look on their faces. I approached them, re-introduced myself, offered to keep an eye on their home 'cause I was "working from home" and swapped cell phone numbers with them should anything weird come up. You should have seen their reaction... It was like I took a load off their shoulders.

NOW - whenever I see them, they make it a point to wave, say hello, and chat. The bottom line is that one small act of kindness will open doors. Guns are great but one's gotta sleep too. BTW, the guy next door turns out to be some financial manager with a MBA.

 

[parsimonious_instead]

Sky:

One of the lines in the movie; Wasurie The magnificent was complain how his enemies use cannons and weapons that spew indiscriminate death at long ranges and these weapons had no honor.

The sword and the rifle he used were honorable but since he had no cannons his enemies were not honorable

That was the filter through which the character saw something new and different.
To me, machine guns = suppressing fire and effectiveness against massed enemy troops.
Good artillery = interdiction and diminishing the effectiveness of a concentrated body of enemy troops.

They may look indiscriminate, but if used with skill they are anything but that...

 

[parsimonious_instead]

Onward: How did you keep the laptop battery going during the outage?

 

[Onward Allusion]

Car and UPS... for the car an inverter and 2 LONG cords hooked together from garage into my office - ran the car for about 10 minutes every hour with the garage door open. I didn't use it non-stop. I also had an extra fully charged battery. The UPS I already had in my office, so I disconnected everything from it and plugged in the laptop. Overall I was very surprised how long I was able to use the laptop. When I get the dollars together, I'm getting one of those natural gas powered generators. They run about $3K. I guess I will need to give up guns for a while for that.

I'll tell ya, it was a weird experience... no TV, Internet use sparingly thru my broadband wireless card (they suck power!). Couldn't open the fridge. No AC... no fans... It all sucked!

 

[DAdams]

Not to get off on an equipment tangent but a couple items that are often overlooked that should be in the stay at home emergency stash and come in handy in any event.....inverter 12 volt to 120 VAC and a batter powered scanner that monitors, police, EMS, Military, weather etc. And a couple 12 volt battery packs based on need/features.

 

[kamagong]

Arm strangers? Not me. I don't have that many guns to begin with, at the moment the number is down to seven. I have a 1911 for me and an AR, while the wife gets the other AR and the BHP or the other 1911. We'll keep the CZ 452 and Ruger 22/45 on hand as .22lr firearms would be worth their weight in gold in this situation. I don't want to sound callous, but I'm going to look out for mine first.

 

[Joe Demko]

The title of the thread should actually be "Forming an armed mob: What's your plan?"

At some point, probably sooner rather than later, order will be restored and folks will have to answer for their actions. I'd just as soon not have to explain what anybody else did with a gun that I gave him. Even if cleared of criminal charges, I don't need a civil suit on my hands. See, I'm a firm believer in trigger control and the best way for me to control the triggers on my guns is to make sure that my fingers are the only ones engaging them.

 

[Old krow]

The most likely scenario is an economic collapse like the one in Argentina.

I read it. Very informative. Thanks for posting that.

While I agree with what he said about dogs, because I love mine, if food prices rose to %200-300 owning (specifically feeding) Mastiffs would be very impractical. I'd be more likely to feed my neighbors to them as opposed to arming them, but I wouldn't suffer much in the way of home invasions.

I heard Army Ranger once say that in a true survival situation, perhaps not an economic collapse, one of the number one immediate dangers would be hypothermia.

 

[Iam2taz]

Just moved in to my neighborhood a few months ago. Not too long afterwards I was putting a safe in the house. It was too heavy for my son and I alone. Soooo... I asked the neighbor, who asked the other neighbor. Dang safe was very heavy! We got it inside and n#1 says to n#2, well its not quite a big as the two I have in my basement. N#2 says it the same model as his. We had a nice tactical discussion. If we are home, don't come down the cul-de-sac. Five of the seven homes are armed and in good shape.
N#3 is a deer hunter. N#4 is sort of a pain, but neighbor #1 says he can shoot very well.
If I am at work, it is a 3 minute scramble to get the wife and kid. We leave everything except our g.o.o.d. stuff. Load the 4x4 and hit the back roads to family in the hills. We have one large river to cross after that we can walk a couple hundred miles if we have too. I am looking for another weapon for my son! (Excuse to spend $$ and visit more gun stores!) Wife can shoot the shot gun and 9mm fairly well.
I guess the main points are: #1 Get to know your neighbors. I am blessed with solid gun owning neighbors, but I am not going to run to them. (Unless it is to help.)
#2 Have a plan.

 

[hill.country]

I really have to ask. Where is everyone planning to bug-out to? The roads will be jammed with most of the unprepared folks trying to get to government hand-out sites or camps.

...

The most likely scenario is an economic collapse like the one in Argentina. Read THIS

Thank you for posting this. It was a very interesting read.

That and phoglund's questions as to:

Everybody who has posted is going on the assumption they will be home when the emergency situation occurs.
...
In the scenario where transportation is severely curtailed those of us at home may encounter folks who were prepared at home but are now on foot. Would you be willing to arm these folks...would you like to be armed if you ended up being one of these folks?

were enough for me to hit the 'subscribe' button. Of course there are so many different scenarios that any 'blanket' answer is probably worth much less than a blanket would be. But I do wonder, if away from home when a major collapse occurred, transportation curtailed or prohibited (and enforced), and seeming how some seem to advocate shooting people who knock on their door, how would you try to convince others that you're an asset worth arming and/or protecting?

 

[jpwilly]

I have mine handy just in case they get the itch.

PS must be nice to have good neighbors! Wonder what that's like?!

 

[Ole Coot]

In my area I don't know of a home that isn't armed and in this area I would bet 99.9% of the households have firearms. As to ammo that is never talked about, enough to do me is the answer you'll get if you ask. As to my neighbors the only thing they might possibly need would be extra ammo and I have my doubts about that.

 

[Hatterasguy]

Nah I'm going to turn them into an army, and guns won't cut it, I'd need armored vehicles. Than I'm going to declare myself a war lord and work on making a little kingdom for myself.

 

[Sky]

Who was it that said, "Arm the guys to fight and die but leave the women with me"? Think it was some Chinese Emperor with 5000 Concubines? What a logistic nightmare!

 

[trigun87]

I don't think I will arm neighbors not comofortable placing a gun in the hand of an unexpereinced person even under my own supervision. I have been on my soap box telling friends,family,neighbors to prep for anything natural disaster,economic collapse. Most people live in fantasy land in which nothing bad can happen. So they dont get a generator,power inverter, extra food and water. In my opinon the basics; not even firearm related, so when they start starving after a couple of weeks Im turning the other cheek.

 

[22-rimfire]

I keep an inverter in my work vehicle for extended laptop use on the go. I need to make or pickup a portable desk for field use in my vehicle as well. Working on your lap gets old. I also have several generators and a substantial amount of extension cord length should the need arise to run things like the frig, freezer, computer, and a few lights (as needed). The inverters often don't sell very well in stores and you can find them on sale from time to time. The next step is to set up my home electrical system with a plug so I can plug the whole house into a generator with selective items being used.

I doubt there will be much significant bartering of guns and ammo in anything other than a total collapse which is not likely to happen. Will guns be more valuable with runaway inflation? Sure, as will everything else.

What I would choose to do with neighbors would depend on the situation.

 

[hardworker]

Short of zombie apocalypse or nuclear holocaust, I don't see how people are ever going to need to survive long term in the wilderness. And even then, the thousands of rounds of ammo saved up are going to be too heavy to carry unless it's for a 22 of some sort.

 

[dajowi]

The last thing that I would want is for half the neighborhood to know that I keep guns in my house. Although I live in a great state, where hunting, CC, OC, CIII are enjoyed by a large percentage of individuals, good neighbors or bad it seems that desecration is the best policy.

If there was some type of national catastrophe of the worst kind how many people live in homes that could endure some type of determined attack upon the occupants?

 

[Onward Allusion]

^^^^^^

Doesn't have to be a national emergency. A trucking strike, a shipping strike, or a destruction of a couple of major ports or transportation hubs and you'll have major problems like food shortages in cities in 1 week. Remember, it doesn't have to be SHTF or anything even close.

I remember when we got a really bad storm 2 summers ago and I went down to the local Home Depot for a backup sump pump - just in case. I guess I had a lot of folks in the area that already hit the "just in case" scenario and they really needed the sump pump 'cause the shelves were bare except for one in the hands of some guy in front of me. If it was a true SHTF situation and it was something important like antibiotics, I'm sure someone would have shot him in the head for it without blinking twice.

I would rather arm my neighbors (those that I know) and have them with me.