Recently in Survival Category

I've been noticing a bunch of search engine hits for these, so I thought I'd point out a post I published last December.

Two of my rules are "Always be prepared" and "You never know." Why do you have to always be prepared?

Because you never know.

I don't have a Mossberg Just in Case shotgun, but these appear to be decent kits.

The Great New Orleans Gun Grab by Gordon Hutchinson and Todd Masson should be a must-read for all gun owners, not only because of the troubling issues it portrays but because it can help get people into the right mind-set for the aftermath of a natural disaster on the scale of Hurricane Katrina.

I knew a lot of what went down in the streets of the flooded city in late summer 2005, but my eyes were bugged as I read this book. Really, events should shock and outrage all Americans, not just gun owners. Anyone who owns a home and anyone who believes in personal liberty should be deeply disturbed by what government officials did (and did not do) during a huge disaster that should not have been completely unexpected.

After the hurricane hit and the levees were breached and overtopped, the city was cast into general chaos. Many people had been unwilling or unable to leave, and without power or assistance they were left to fend for themselves. Some, realizing how things were going to unfold, had a change of heart and decided to make a run for it.

A couple of families banded together, and two women were quite disturbed that one of the men had brought some firearms with him. As they loaded the van they would use for their run for safety, a band of looters approached down the street. The man gave his 12-year-old son, familiar with guns, a rifle.

“Stand here,” he ordered, placing him at the rear of the van. “Guard us."

He left the boy, the rifle held at port arms across his chest, a young conscript in the Katrina War. He went to the front and out into the Street, checking the situation. He then went back inside.

The van pulled into the street, and three looters ran up, sloshing through the water, surrounding the front of the van, cursing, yelling for everyone to get out. The one on the passenger side stood against the door, pushing his head and upper torso through the window, almost climbing into the front seat. He twisted left to see who was in the van, saw the women in the middle seat. He then looked past them through the rear window, at the boy at the back of the van with the rifle.

His eyes bugged out, he stuttered a second, then blurted: “Is that a real gun?”

The women in the rear seat, new converts to the gun culture, snapped a quick and loud answer: “You bet your ass it’s a real gun!”

They made it out of the city safely.

The book covers a number of people, areas, and situations. LeRoy Hartley and his family rode out the storm, but the days following Katrina were tough and he had his family leave town for safety. He stayed behind with his dog Buster to protect their home from the looters that had already threated them several times.

This is the first I've ever heard of this: Guns confiscated after KS tornado

Greensburg, Kansas:

The tornado happened at 9:46pm on Friday evening, May 4, 2007 and they were forced to leave within a couple hours of it, being given no time to collect themselves or assess the damages or even try to pick up anything such as guns and valuables. Ed Klummp, Police Chiefs Association, testified at the House committee hearing with a position opposing The Emergency Powers Act and said the evacuations were so they could search for bodies and shut off gas and power and that the evacuation was for the safety of the residents. I have been told by a reliable source that the electricity was shut off prior to the tornado striking and the gas was shut off within a few hours after. It would seem that the evacuation was not necessary in light of that information.

With homeowners removed from their property, the fun began:

Many guns and other valuables such as jewelry have gone permanently missing and have never been recovered. There were some houses that were not destroyed and were in tact and habitable. Those folks did not want to leave but were forced to do so. When they returned they found their houses had been broken in to and all of their guns missing. One gentleman reports that when he went to claim his guns, taken from his secure home, they were returned to him in damaged condition. They were not damaged by the tornado. They were locked up in his home and illegally confiscated.

He was not alone:

When people first came to collect their guns they were asked for proof of ownership such as receipts and serial number lists and they had to fill out a 4473 and get a NICS approval before they could claim their guns. No one had paperwork, receipts, or lists of serial numbers because it had all blown away. Later into the process they quit demanding these items and asked only for a list with make, model and description of the firearm. In one case, in the collection trailer, a gun case was claimed by one man who had a very nice trap shotgun in it and when he opened the undamaged and closed case, he found not his nice BT99 but another damaged gun that did not belong to him. That $1500.00 BT99 has never turned up.

Even if only a quarter of the claims are accurate, this is unbelievable.

Unfortunately, "unbelievable" is only a figure of speech and not a statement of actual disbelief. Sadly, it sounds all too familiar. We're way past the point where law enforcement agencies get the benefit of the doubt in situations like this.

The Poor Man's Arsenal

Let's say I can tell you about a basic three gun battery that will have you equipped to handle most any survival situation. Most of what we buy are things we want, not need, once we separate the wants from the needs, wise and frugal choices can be made with regard to survival firearms. The three firearms I suggest are low cost, reliable weapons that will serve you well when tshtf.

Check out his suggestions.

Kim du Toit:

At my age, I think that if I had to do some kind of walking with a long gun in a SHTF situation, I’d take an M1 Carbine and and a couple of extra 15-round mags. Those 45 rounds would have to do. If I had to walk around with an AK and four 30-round mags, I’d probably keel over from exhaustion before I got to the end of the block.

I've been thinking of making an M1 Carbine my next purchase.

Police took one person's pistol and smashed it on the curb? Police said that they didn't have time to write receipts for firearms that they were confiscating? Police knocked around a little old lady because she had an unloaded .22 handgun?

Yes they did.

House Bill 2811, meanwhile, has been introduced in Kansas. If passed, it would prevent the State of Kansas from confiscating or registering any lawfully owned firearms during a declared state of emergency. Other states, including Wyoming and Pennsylvania, are looking at similar legislation.

And then there's New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin, simply known as The Idiot, and Police Superintendent Warren Riley, the Idiot's Henchman, demonstrating that they don't know how to handle guns, only steal them:

I wonder if those are government weapons or if they're smiling so much because they're freebies from the Great New Orleans Gun Grab.

Retired Russian TP-82 Survival Pistol

The fact that Russian cosmonauts are packing heat is suddenly big news. It's nothing new.

It's part of their survival kit. Soviet/Russian spacecraft parachute down to land, and their accuracy isn't terribly great. They've apparently replaced a specialized survival weapon with a standard pistol due to expired ammunition for the specialty gun, but I don't see any reason to get all uptight about it. A few years back I was wondering if they were still carrying them up to the International Space Station. I wouldn't expect them not to.

This is much ado about nothing.

Good discussion in the comments at Say Uncle.

UPDATE: Image and link via Armed and Gregarious.

UPDATE 2: More on the TP-82, including some good pictures, at Steve Johnson's Firearm Blog.

Includes this tidbit:

The removable stock can be used as a machete.

In Popular Mechanics: How to Survive in the Wild for 72 Hours: I'll Try Anything

It starts

Night is falling, and we’re lost. Somewhere in the canyon lands of southern Utah, I'm trudging across a seemingly endless sagebrush plain, and the twilight gloom is thick. My group of 14 hikers has been on the trail for 5 hours, and our delight at the majesty of the red rock landscape has long since given way to grumbling about hunger and sore feet. As the first stars start to twinkle, the question arises, "Okay, now what?"

Though not strictly a gun-related topic, I think that wilderness survival is a subject that most gun owning readers have at least a passing interest in. Remember, the term "wilderness" includes the wild rural areas of Utah, but it also includes the woods where you hunt deer, urban sprawl where the predators are more dangerous than those in rural Utah, and just about anywhere after the shit hits the fan.

Having a few things ready can help. Having a plan is crucial. Having enough basic knowledge to ad lib when necessary is key.

I am going to add a 'Survival' category to GunPundit. Photo by Ian Parker.