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They Will Take Everything If You Don’t Stop Them: Ten Things You Must Do To Defend Yourself

Be Informed
July 13th, 2012
SHTF Plan - When the Shit Hits The Fan, Don't Say We Didn't Warn You.
Comments (307)
Read by 21,841 people

They will take everything if you don’t stop them.

At first glance a statement like this brings up thoughts of the government coming for all freedom seeking people. In actuality this is about your neighbors and those in your community that will ruthlessly mob up and literally storm your own home for what you have after a long drawn out disaster, perhaps sooner. It is a fact that most people in the United States, upwards of 99%, have little or NOTHING put away for emergenices. When chaos hits and a country’s infrastructure crumbles into powder, so does the nation’s ability to feed and sustain its citizens.

Self reliance and preparing for a rainy day or even for a full blown hurricane has become almost a taboo for many, and a total waste of time, money and effort for the others. While what a person does with their own money and time is their business, the same holds true for the person that sacrifices much to prepare for future mass disorder and total lack of purchasable necessities.

The main conundrum with the vast majority of the population is that they have come to totally expect everything provided for them by someone else, human or machine. This “serve me, as I am the only one that matters” attitude is more than an epidemic in the United States and many other countries. As individuals of ALL ages lose the basic skills of self reliance, and more importantly the desire to do any task for themselves, a ticking time bomb becomes more pronounced for when these services breakdown.

Various scenarios await the preparedness minded person in the event of a societal collapse.

The majority of the country has become totally reliant on daily shipments of food and other necessities. An oil emergency in the Middle-East, for example, can severely limit transportation of the goods that people depend on. A war that would rage on a half a world away would mean that supermarket shelves would be emptied. This would ONLY be regarded as a moderate hit to civilization until a regional war like this actually went global. Most people can only get by without a few days of food before “snap” reactions begin. Remember ONLY 1 to perhaps 1 and 1/2% of the people have stocked up for just such an emergency.

One of the most critical threats to be faced will be from those in your immediate vicinity – and those who have prepared will likely be forced to draw a line in the sand.

Most of us live around neighbors and are not, for the most part, living an isolated lifestyle. We usually have fair to good relationships with those that live around us.

This often leads to the misconception that these neighbors and those that live around our community would never just come and take what we have saved up to keep our family alive after a calamity. In some cases this is true. In most cases it is not. After a week of starvation and lack of access to food, most neighbors will gather together and head for any house merely “suspected” of having food. Unless those desperate individuals are stopped, they will ransack a home of everything that is in it like a hoarde of hungry locusts. It is called the irrational conduct of a mob mentality. An excellent example of this is how a person can be trampled to death by a herd of wild eyed shoppers desperate enough to get some electronic gadget at some super holiday sale.
Let’s look at a fictional prepper family named the Smiths that have 1 year worth of food for 8 people, along with food for their golden retriever and cocker spaniel dogs, their tabby cat, and their macaw bird. The Smiths are friendly people but have not told anyone about their stockpile. After a severe incident, call it an ecomonic collapse, war, Earth changes – it really doesn’t matter – the chain links of food being delivered are now gone.

Through casual conversations somehow a couple of neighbors have figured out the Smiths have food and have alerted others through the gossip channel. After almost 2 weeks without much food, no FEMA government trucks have come in to rescue, a crowd of almost 100 people have gathered around the Smith house. Similar size crowds have also collected around other people’s homes suspected of “hoarding” food. The Smiths have taken an unrealistic and idealist sentiment towards believing in the good nature of human beings and their community and have not stocked up much at all in self defense.

Grandpa Smith understands that trying to feed 100 people would dwindle their supplies quickly and decides to leave everything closed up and not answer the door. The Smiths find out how hunger will drive a civilized person into wanton rage and animalistic acts. Four members of the mob pick up a railroad tie and use it as a battering ram to knock down the front door. Then like a pack of sharks in a feeding frenzy the mob rushes in and takes everything the Smiths have including their food, blankets off the beds, the TV sets and computers, pots and pans, even the refrigerator is hauled out. Why does this happen? People in an erratic state of mind will grab everything they can, most riots prove this all too well. The last items to be picked clean are the family’s pets to the screaming pleas of their 9 year daughter not to hurt her dogs. Of course the dogs, the cat, and the bird are killed and cooked up for their meat. The Smiths are lucky that they too did not become someone’s meal.

The simple moral to this story is something most survival orientated people already know – that you must have self defense or you will lose what you have when someone decides to take it. The fact that so few prepare means that food is going to be even more scarce and totally sought after. The Smiths are hardly fictional and can be widely expected after a large scale catastrophe. Most people expect someone to have what they need ALL the time and they will flock towards that source and attempt to get it.

Fortunately for the self reliant family, those that live soft lives and allow everything to be done for them makes for a flabby, both in body and mind, person. Usually this type of person is a also a coward and even during irrational hunger spasms will backdown and retreat in the face of dying or being severely injuried. It is one thing to rush into a home with a mob like a pack of wolves with little resistance. It’s a completely different ball game to rush into a well fortified home watching those ahead of them in line being rapidly dropped one by one. Even with this said, self defense of you and your family and your lifeline in what you’ve stored up takes a host of different dimensions that vary significantly with each situation. There are some basics that can be vastly expanded on with each individual case. A term that can be used for this is “CONFRONTATIONAL AWARENESS”.

Here are 10 points to think about if and when you are faced with defending you and your own:

1. What type of self defense fits you the best? Some individuals can make very exotic improvised devices, but everyone that can legally own a firearm should have at least one, preferably many. The extreme number of firearms takes up pages, but everyone should have a firearm that can discharge as many rounds as possible without having to reload. A firearm that has some long distance range to it. A shotgun, call it a scatter gun, with at least size 4 buckshot up to triple ought 000. A handgun of course for close range engagement. The simple answer to which one is what is most comfortable with you personally and what you can afford. You want stopping power, but also to be able to at least slow down a lot of targets if this becomes an issue. Other weapons should also be added, such as bear pepper spray that can slow down or stop a large group of people rushing you. Knowing how to jerry rig various home made weapons adds to your security. Have extra ammunition for all firearms. Don’t depend on just one or two weapons for self defense, have back-ups.

2. Litigation. This is an extremely sticky point “IF” the society recovers. It should be remembered that (unfortunately) any act of personal self defense might have to be answered for. The state or country that you are in may or may not view the 40 people you shot “outside” your home as a legitimate threat, even if they had a battering ram and other weapons and total anarachy ruled the day and night. In other words, just because it may seem like the end of the world doesn’t mean that it actually is. Protecting you and your family could also mean carefully assessing your situation and not acting without discretional thought. You never want to be indicted with some mass murder charge should the world reestablish itself enough to prosecute you in the future. Checking out the laws of protecting yourself where you live before the world falls apart is an excellent idea and sound precaution.

3. Determine your boundaries. Where, exactly, does a threat cross that threshold in which you engage them? For some people it is a property line or at the front door - wherever this may be, know it. In some places a mob outside your door constitutes a deadly threat to your family. In some places you may actually have to be backed into a corner and the attacker may even have to possess a weapon for you to legally defend yourself. Know these legal parameters. For some people it doesn’t matter the legal consequences, and this can be a life saving measure taken to stop an attack before a group gets too close that you cannot stop. Establishing a point of no return is a good strategy so that you know where and when you must act to protect everyone.

4. Know the seriousness of what is happening. This is of course ties into the legal ramifications of defending yourself, but especially with just how desperate people will become to try and take what you have. Has the water been turned off? What about the power? Is there any food left in the stores? Are emergency supplies and other food being shipped in, and if so how often? Is there in town rioting? Are the masses of people roaming around looking for food? Have there already been homes attacked from mobs? The more you know about the threat evaluation the better you can prepare your defenses.

5. Know what is around you. This includes having some way of seeing a full 360 degrees around your home, up and down, and someone on watch duty most (or all) of the day and night. An ideal security preventative is to have some sort of observation tower, motion detectors, night vision, and anything else to give you advance notice of anyone trying to sneak in unnoticed. Hidden viewpoints throughout the home are a workable and important addition. Booby trapping your property has been an effective method used in warfare all through history as a means of stopping someone and alerting everyone. Dogs and other animals such as geese are often used as early warning systems. Always try to know what is going on for as far a distance from your home as possible.

6. Decide on your barriers. This brings to mind that raw stopping power of a projectile fired, launched, or even thrown towards you and your family. The standard home (mud and sticks) offers little protection against a bullet travelling at over 3000 feet per second. Consider how you might shield against radiation, and use the same strategy for self defense. The more mass the better. Many excellent materials are out there, but raw materials around the house such as dirt, sand, rock are certainly better than nothing as a shield. Taking advantage of underground levels of the home – because you can’t shoot through dirt – also offers good temperature control and isulation from the outside elements for people, pets and your supplies. Barriers also serve the purpose of slowing down or even stopping advances of individuals trying to come for you and your stockpile. Like many criminals, simple locks and anything that takes effort to break through can impede most individuals enough so they leave you and everyone else alone. The more obstacles you can place to make it as difficult as possible is in your best interests. You want to do everything you can to avoid a situation where you’re left with no other option but hand to hand combat.

7. Be ready to take a stand. Unfortunately many people feel that when the time comes that they can do anything it takes to survive. Yet some will “freeze up” when faced with pulling a trigger and blowing someone away. This is especially true after someone has actually shot one of the first of many individuals rushing in to take what they have and even hurt or kill them and their family. Hesitation is human nature and throughout our lives society has implanted into our psyche that killing someone, even in self defense, is wrong. This is why it is imperative for those in your survival group who have the responsibility of defending everyone to be willing to use those weapons if and when it becomes required of them. Training and practice will make it possible for you to more efficiently and effectively deploy your weapons on a physical and psychological level. There is a reason behind why the military trains and trains, not to just improve accuracy, but to make it mentally routine that a soldier will not vacillate in a life or death situation. The two words that best describe this is “mental toughness.” You must be able to reliably act to save yourself and your family.

8. Be prepared for unconventional attacks. Desperate people will do incredibly stupid and irrational acts that defy reason. If a mob discovers a well fortifed home with food in it, they might try to actually light the entire structure on fire. It doesn’t matter to the insane minds that all the food will be ruined inside; they only see and “think” that this will smoke everyone out. Someone may even get the “brilliant” idea of trying to collide a large truck into you home. The list is endless and depending on your unique circumstances, there are defenses against most if not all attacks. The aim here is to make the distance an attacker needs to travel to your home as long as possible and this is where barriers and booby traps play an important role. It is also passive protection in which someone can help protect their home with high water type bushes, plants, and trees that won’t burn easily. In many high danger wildfire areas homeowners will use fire retardants on their homes, as well as having quick means of extinguishing fires ready to use if the time comes. Help ready yourself by reviewing and thinking about the unconventional ways your refuge can be assaulted.

9. Remember you have the advantage. Mobs will often try to frighten and intimidate people out of their home and/or try to force you to divvy up all what you have. Don’t let them scare you. Those supplies are your lifeline, without them you will be reduced to almost the same level of those roaming around aimlessly that have not prepared. You have the upper hand in that they have to come for you in your own home – a dwelling that you are familiar with. All depending on how well fortifed your place is, anyone coming for what you have will have to get across all sorts of traps and physical hurdles, not to mention various weapons being discharged at them. Most attackers are also going to be depleated in body and mind from not eating, on top of already being out of shape flab bodies. These individuals usually are totally untrained in any type of combat or fighting, and that gives the prepper/survivalist a whopping upper hand. Time is also on the side of the hunkered down people, as a very hungry person will lose interest and go somewhere else easier to get at. They will also likely become too weak to pose any threat after more time. Long standoffs almost always favor those that have everything they need well stored up within easy reach and use.

10. Avoidance of any showdown. Everyone will be better off if neighbors and others decide not to storm your home for food and supplies. Concealment that you have anything is crucial. Remember that the very first “trespasser” that is shot at lets others know that you have something worth fighting for, use good discreation.

Convincing others that you have nothing and are just as “bad off” as they are will take some showmanship. Rundown looking property is one way to discourage many, as well as looking as much like a sick or dilapidated person as possible. Still one of the best ways to ward off hungry people is SMELL.

Out of the five senses, scent and smell will drive a starving person rapidly towards a possible food source, or very rapidly away from something that reeks. Horrid smells tell the brain to stay far away. Of course not telling anyone about what you have stored up before a disaster is essential. It is often very encouraging to “think” those living around you are all aboard with preparation, but in reality people are likely only telling you what you what to hear. It only takes one person to betray you and let everyone know you have a mini-supermarket ready to be picked clean. True trust in others must be carefully weighed. Remember this before letting anyone outside your family and survival group know that you are even interested in prepping, “most people are just TALK, too much talk, and are not on the side of the prepper (YOU!)”. There are good reasons why close to 99% of the population freely chooses not to prepare.

You always hope that you never have to fight off neighbors that have remained friendly and courteous towards you for years, but almost no one has faced what is coming. Insane cicumstances drive many civilized people into blinded insane savages capable of incomprehensible acts of desperation. It has to be remembered that by self sacrificing much, the prepper/survivalist has what they need when civilization implodes. Those who haven’t prepared have consciously decided to enjoy themsleves and waste much. In other words, someone that has taken the money, time, and effort to save for tomorrow makes what they have stored up, “worth it to defend”. Those that have not prepared don’t care if you and your family go hungry in less than a week, if they did they would have stored up supplies themselves. These individuals are going to expect you to “share” everything you have. This is why the prepper needs to be more than ready to defend themselves against those that will “try” to forcefully take your lifeline from you.


This article has been generously shared with SHTFplan readers by regular community contributor Be Informed. For previous discussions on emergency preparedness see his other articles How horrific will it be for the non-prepper? and The List: A to Z Survival for the Abysmal Times Ahead.


http://www.shtfplan.com/emergency-pr...rself_07132012

The Largest Natural Disaster In U.S. History: The Endless Drought Of 2012 Will Bake America Well Into August

Why is the heartland of the United States experiencing such a horrific drought right now? At the moment, approximately 61 percent of the entire nation is experiencing drought conditions, and this is absolutely devastating farmers and ranchers all over the country. Less than two weeks ago I wrote an article asking what would happen if these drought conditions persisted, and now we are finding out. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has created the largest natural disaster area in U.S. history. The USDA has declared 1,016 counties in 26 U.S. states to be disaster areas. The USDA declaration basically covered about half of the nation, and there is now no denying how horrible this drought really is. You can see a map of this disaster area right here. This endless drought is being compared to the nightmarish drought of 1988, and if it persists into August it could become perhaps the worst drought that America has ever seen. The USDA says that approximately 60 percent of all corn in the country is experiencing "moderate to extreme" drought conditions. If this drought does not end soon, the losses are going to be mind blowing. Already, it is estimated that farmers and ranchers have suffered billions of dollars in damage. How much worse can things get?
At the beginning of July many were hoping that we would soon see some rain and that we could still see a decent corn harvest.
Unfortunately, the drought has gotten even worse since that time. The following is from an article in the Chicago Tribune....

The whole of Iowa was classified as abnormally dry as of July 10 and 12.7 percent of the top corn and soybean producing state was in severe drought, up from 0.8 percent the prior week.
Harder-hit Illinois, the No. 2 corn and soy state, was 66.28 percent under severe drought or worse, up from 40 percent the previous week.
Severe to exceptional drought covered 80.15 percent of Indiana, versus 68.84 percent the prior week.
Conditions in Missouri also deteriorated, with 82.54 percent of the state in severe drought or worse, compared with 78.83 percent the week before.

That is not good news.
Posted below is the latest update from the U.S. drought monitor. As you can see, nearly the entire southern half of the country is extremely dry right now....

It is being projected that in some of the major corn growing areas as much as 60 percent of the crops could be lost.
Many farmers that had been desperately hoping for rain are now becoming resigned to the fact that their crops are not going to make it. The following is from an article in the New York Times....

"Corn is anywhere from knee-high to waist-high," Gonzalee Martin, agriculture and natural resources educator with Purdue University’s Allen County extension office, told The News-Sentinel. "Much of it has already tassled with no ears at all. Much of it’s going to be completely lost"

When your livelihood depends on the weather, an endless drought can be extremely stressful. Many farmers that had been anticipating a bumper crop this year are now faced with an utter disaster. The following example comes from CNN....

Now, as punishing drought grips the Midwest, Villwock, 61, walks his hard-hit 4,000 acres in southwest Indiana in utter dismay.
Where there should have been tall, dark green, leafy plants, there now stand corn stalks that are waist high or, at best, chest high. They are pale in color and spindly. Fragile. Tired.
Pull back an ear's husk and you find no kernels, he says. With temperatures rising above 95 degrees, the pollen starts to die.
"It's emotionally draining," he said. "The crop got out of the ground very well. We were so optimistic. But maybe a few of us were counting our eggs before they were hatched."

So is there any hope that things are going to turn around?
Unfortunately, things do not look promising right now. It is being projected that the Corn Belt will experience extremely high temperatures and very low rainfall all the way through mid-August. The following report comes from accuweather.com....

AccuWeather.com agricultural meteorologists are concerned that new and frequent waves of near-100-degree temperatures and stingy rainfall will further stress crops over Iowa, Illinois and Nebraska into mid-August.

When temperatures are very high and rainfall is very low, evaporation happens very rapidly. As accuweather.com notes, when the ground becomes very, very dry it can create a vicious cycle that feeds on itself....

Evaporation rates are very high into the first part of August. Soaking rain on a regular basis instead of a brief downpour is needed to be of benefit beyond a couple of days.
Turning things around in the Midwest as a whole will be a difficult task as dry ground tends to bring higher daytime temperatures, which in turn raises evaporation rates and so on.

So what does all of this mean for the rest of us?
It is going to mean higher food prices.
On Friday, the price of corn hit $7.50 a bushel.
It had been thought that the price of corn would only be about $5.00 a bushel this year.
At this point, the price of corn is up 48 percent since mid-June, and it could go a whole lot higher.
Some analysts are projecting that if this endless drought persists, we could see ten dollars for a bushel of corn and 20 dollars for a bushel of soybeans.
And yes, you will notice this at the supermarket.
In a previous article, I included a quote from a recent article by Holly Deyo about why the price of corn affects the price of so many other products....

Since 75% of grocery store products use corn as a key ingredient, expect food prices to skyrocket. Corn is also a staple in many fast foods. Corn is in ethanol and the main food source or chickens. In addition to this, maize is in many things that aren't obvious like adhesives, aluminum, aspirin, clothing starch, cosmetics, cough syrup, dry cell batteries, envelopes, fiberglass insulation, gelatin capsules, ink, insecticides, paint, penicillin, powders, rugs and carpets, stamps, talcum, toothpaste, wallpaper, and vitamins. That's just for starters...
This is a huge heads up for you to purchase corn-using products NOW before these conditions reflect in grocery goods. It will be a narrow window of opportunity.

This endless drought is also a complete and total nightmare for ranchers.
At this point, approximately 50 percent of America's pastures and ranges are in "poor" or "very poor" condition.
Back in June, that figure was only sitting at 28 percent.
So things have gotten a lot worse very quickly.
A lot of ranchers are selling off their cattle because this drought is making it very difficult to continue to feed them. The following is from examiner.com....

Rauhn Panting, with the University of Idaho, who works with ranchers and farmers, says, "We're going to run out of grass. It's going to be scary." Ranchers are being advised to vacate grazing lands, weeks and even months before when they usually have to leave.
Left with only two choices, feed or sell, many are opting to sell their cattle. The Torrington Stock Market in Wyoming, has recorded that 36,000 cattle were sold in May and June of this year. The usual average for these months is 5,500. Small ranchers, with 30-50 cow/calf pairs, are being hit the hardest.

So expect higher meat prices in the fall and winter as well.
This all comes at a really bad time. We are already on the verge of a global financial catastrophe. Agriculture was supposed to be one of the few bright spots in the U.S. economy.
Sadly, the U.S. is not the only one having problems with crops this year.
For example, in Germany farmers are actually experiencing a full-blown plague of rats.
Yes, seriously.
The following is from a recent Der Spiegel article....

Millions of field mice are overrunning the central German states of Thuringia and Saxony-Anhalt, much to the concern of local farmers. The rodents are devastating food crops, cutting yields by up to 50 percent. Getting birds of prey to hunt the critters didn't help, and now farmers want to be allowed to use a banned rat poison.

So why is all of this happening?
Why is nature going crazy all of a sudden?
Please feel free to post a comment with your opinion below....


The Largest Natural Disaster In U.S. History: The Endless Drought Of 2012 Will Bake America Well Into August

Going to the Extreme: Euro-Preppers Get Ready for the Worst *Video*

Mac Slavo
July 18th, 2012
SHTFplan.com
Comments (233)
Read by 15,075 people

It’s not just in the USA that a growing number of people are preparing for far-from-equilibrium scenarios resulting from economic or geo-political collapse.

Many Europeans have also taken note of the troubling signs all around them. In the following report, RT visits a man who wished to keep his name and location anonymous. Like many Americans, he is preparing for all hell to break loose and has spent the last few years gearing up his home and supplies for the worst.

Like most preppers and survivalist, he has modified his lifestyle to become more self reliant and less dependent on the grid and existing government infrastructure.

In addition to generating two thirds of his current energy consumption with wind and solar power, he grows his own food and raises cattle to supplement his diet in the event grocery stores run out of food or prices get so expensive in Euros that no one can afford to buy it.

As is this case for many of his like-minded counterparts in the United States, for this Euro prepper it’s not a matter of “if” the collapse happens – it’s only a matter of when. And when “when” finally happens, he’ll be ready for it.

The worst case scenario that we’re preparing for is a total collapse of the economy. There will be problems with food, electricity, water supply… so, I want to make sure we can wait out this time when money will be worthless.

There are no new steps, no new solutions on what to do about this whole situation. The rude awakening is coming. We all hope to postpone it, but eventually it’ll come.



The smart money in America and Europe is betting on a total implosion of financial markets and the economy. Even those of us who don’t have the riches or know-how to make money in stocks, commodities or precious metals in the event of such a collapse are taking steps to protect our wealth and insulate our families against scenarios where the world as we know it is transformed into madness and chaos.

We may not be able to buy leveraged contracts or commodity Exchange Traded Funds, but we do know how to buy low and sell high. And for many who have taken to putting away larder for hard times, this is exactly the investment strategy we’re implementing. A ten pound bag of rice today may cost just $10, but if the US dollar and Euro continue to lose value that same rice may be $20 or $30 just a few years from now. That’s a 200% return on investment if you pack that rice (or wheat, or corn, or any number of foods that last a lifetime) properly for long-term storage. The benefit of such a direct investment strategy: You have no counter-party risk, as you are in possession of the hard commodity at all times, to be consumed or bartered as you see fit.
As we noted in Green Acres is the Place to Be the economic crisis has forced many people who were once office workers or service industry personnel into more productive roles working their own farms or ranches. Many of these people came to realize too late – once their assets were wiped out and they lost their jobs and homes – that becoming more self reliant was one of the few strategies that could help them survive this crisis. For others, like the anonymous Euro prepper featured in the report above and the 3 million Americans who have taken their well being into their hands, getting ready before tragedy strikes is an investment and continuity of life contingency plan that will certainly payoff when hard times befall us.
Hat tip Pappy Slavo

Going to the Extreme: Euro-Preppers Get Ready for the Worst *Video*

Morgan Stanley: Prepare For The Largest-Ever Drop Off In Livestock Herds

World Braced For New Food Crisis