Slow Burn vs. Flashpoint Event: 2 types of disaster, 1 type of prepping?

[Weedygarden]

This is the truth. When you keep adding a little here and a little there, pretty soon, you have more than you could have imagined. I keep lists of what I have and think would be good to have. I just keep hitting on the things I think I need more of and what is on sale. When a person is first starting out in preparedness, you need almost everything and need to focus on certain basics. Once you have your basics, you can add things that will provide more comfort. If you start with beans and rice, you can later add spices, freeze-dried veggies, meat and dairy. If you have oil lamps, wicks and fuel to burn in them, you can add solar and other high tech items.

Yes. Start with basics and then build on them, improve what you have, and increase quantities. Keep at it.

Unless you have an endless amount of money!

 

[The Lazy L]

The biggest problem with "slow burn" events is that people become accustomed and apathetic to them. The abridgements of our first and fourth amendment rights and the gun control laws are like this.
If you look at all the changes in one lump sum it is apparent what is happening but when they are spread out over 50 years it seems less of a violation. We are losing our republic and a "democratic" socialism is coming.

If in 1792 the government said it was banning how many musket balls or limiting how much powder a citizen could carry in public, survivors of said government would be quickly joining their British counterparts.

Below is a history of firearms laws according to Al Bore's Internet. Taken one at a time over a period of time could seem "reasonable".

1791

On Dec. 15, 1791, ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution — eventually known as the Bill of Rights — were ratified. The second of them said: “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”

1934

The first piece of national gun control legislation was passed on June 26, 1934. The National Firearms Act (NFA) — part of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s “New Deal for Crime“— was meant to curtail “gangland crimes of that era such as the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre.“

The NFA imposed a tax on the manufacturing, selling, and transporting of firearms listed in the law, among them short-barrel shotguns and rifles, machine guns, firearm mufflers and silencers. Due to constitutional flaws, the NFA was modified several times. The $200 tax, which was high for the era, was put in place to curtail the transfer of these weapons.

1938

The Federal Firearms Act (FFA) of 1938 required gun manufacturers, importers, and dealers to obtain a federal firearms license. It also defined a group of people, including convicted felons, who could not purchase guns, and mandated that gun sellers keep customer records. The FFA was repealed in 1968 by the Gun Control Act (GCA), though many of its provisions were reenacted by the GCA.

1939

In 1939 the U.S. Supreme Court heard the case United States v. Miller, ruling that through the National Firearms Act of 1934, Congress could regulate the interstate selling of a short barrel shotgun. The court stated that there was no evidence that a sawed off shotgun “has some reasonable relationship to the preservation or efficiency of a well regulated militia,” and thus “we cannot say that the Second Amendment guarantees the right to keep and bear such an instrument.”

1968

Following the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, Attorney General and U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., President Lyndon B. Johnson pushed for the passage of the Gun Control Act of 1968. The GCA repealed and replaced the FFA, updated Title II of the NFA to fix constitutional issues, added language about “destructive devices” (such as bombs, mines and grenades) and expanded the definition of “machine gun.”

Overall the bill banned importing guns that have “no sporting purpose,” imposed age restrictions for the purchase of handguns (gun owners had to be 21), prohibited felons, the mentally ill, and others from purchasing guns, required that all manufactured or imported guns have a serial number, and according to the ATF, imposed “stricter licensing and regulation on the firearms industry.”

1986

In 1986 the Firearm Owners Protection Act was passed by Congress. The law mainly enacted protections for gun owners — prohibiting a national registry of dealer records, limiting ATF inspections to once per year (unless there are multiple infractions), softening what is defined as “engaging in the business” of selling firearms, and allowing licensed dealers to sell firearms at “gun shows” in their state. It also loosened regulations on the sale and transfer of ammunition.

The bill also codified some gun control measures, including expanding the GCA to prohibit civilian ownership or transfer of machine guns made after May 19, 1986, and redefining “silencer” to include parts intended to make silencers.

1993

The Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act of 1993 is named after White House press secretary James Brady, who was permanently disabled from an injury suffered during an attempt to assassinate President Ronald Reagan. (Brady died in 2014). It was signed into law by President Bill Clinton. The law, which amends the GCA, requires that background checks be completed before a gun is purchased from a licensed dealer, manufacturer or importer. It established the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS), which is maintained by the FBI.

1994

Tucked into the sweeping and controversial Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, signed by President Clinton in 1994, is the subsection titled Public Safety and Recreational Firearms Use Protection Act. This is known as the assault weapons ban — a temporary prohibition in effect from September of 1994 to September of 2004. Multiple attempts to renew the ban have failed.

The provisions of the bill outlawed the ability to “manufacture, transfer, or possess a semiautomatic assault weapon,” unless it was “lawfully possessed under Federal law on the date of the enactment of this subsection.” Nineteen military-style or “copy-cat” assault weapons—including AR-15s, TEC-9s, MAC-10s, etc.—could not be manufactured or sold. It also banned “certain high-capacity ammunition magazines of more than ten rounds,” according to a U.S. Department of Justice Fact Sheet.

2003

The Tiahrt Amendment, proposed by Todd Tiahrt (R-Kan.), prohibited the ATF from publicly releasing data showing where criminals purchased their firearms and stipulated that only law enforcement officers or prosecutors could access such information.

“The law effectively shields retailers from lawsuits, academic study and public scrutiny,” The Washington Post wrote in 2010. “It also keeps the spotlight off the relationship between rogue gun dealers and the black market in firearms.”

There have been efforts to repeal this amendment.

2005

In 2005, the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act was signed by President George W. Bush to prevent gun manufacturers from being named in federal or state civil suits by those who were victims of crimes involving guns made by that company.

The first provision of this law is “to prohibit causes of action against manufacturers, distributors, dealers, and importers of firearms or ammunition products, and their trade associations, for the harm solely caused by the criminal or unlawful misuse of firearm products or ammunition products by others when the product functioned as designed and intended.” It also dismissed pending cases on October 26, 2005.

2008

District of Columbia v. Heller essentially changed a nearly 70-year precedent set by Miller in 1939. While the Miller ruling focused on the “well regulated militia” portion of the Second Amendment (known as the “collective rights theory” and referring to a state’s right to defend itself), Heller focused on the “individual right to possess a firearm unconnected with service in a militia.”

Heller challenged the constitutionality of a 32-year-old handgun ban in Washington, D.C., and found, “The handgun ban and the trigger-lock requirement (as applied to self-defense) violate the Second Amendment.”

It did not however nullify other gun control provisions. “The Court’s opinion should not be taken to cast doubt on longstanding prohibitions on the possession of firearms by felons and the mentally ill, or laws forbidding the carrying of firearms in sensitive places such as schools and government buildings, or laws imposing conditions and qualifications on the commercial sale of arms,” stated the ruling.

 

[lonewolf]

I prepare for anything and everything up to and including the collapse of civilisation, which has happened before and will again.
I'm prepping for a basic some would say simple off grid/no power lifestyle .

 

[SheepDog]

I really like the way that sounds... "...simple off grid/no power lifestyle."
I feel compelled to remind you that there is no "simple" lifestyle. It is a lot of work that requires a number of people to pull together in order for it to work.
It will include farming, animal husbandry, canning everything, a protected water source, and people to guard the rest for security. It will largely depend on favorable weather and a good climate.
I would ask how you plan on protecting your animals, crops, and the people you have with you. If you are alone you may find it impossible to produce and process the food you need. You will also need at least eight hours of sleep, at which point a five year old girl can kill you and take what she wants.
Being prepared means putting up with the complexity that comes with having other people to help.

 

[Sourdough]

I am "NOT" looking for trouble.......but your post is not valid 100%. It is more valid where one might encounter another human. It is substantially flawed relevant to living in a remote location with few if any other humans.

I do understand your point, however few on this forum have ever gone weeks or months with zero human contact.

Side Note: When people debate the relative pros vs. cons of being a solo survivor or joining a group for survival, they always bring up that you must have 24 hours guards, and a solo survivor must sleep, therefore he is going to be attacked. Again only valid if there are other humans. If no other humans sleep like a baby, don't need guards.

I really like the way that sounds... "...simple off grid/no power lifestyle."
I feel compelled to remind you that there is no "simple" lifestyle. It is a lot of work that requires a number of people to pull together in order for it to work.
It will include farming, animal husbandry, canning everything, a protected water source, and people to guard the rest for security. It will largely depend on favorable weather and a good climate.
I would ask how you plan on protecting your animals, crops, and the people you have with you. If you are alone you may find it impossible to produce and process the food you need. You will also need at least eight hours of sleep, at which point a five year old girl can kill you and take what she wants.
Being prepared means putting up with the complexity that comes with having other people to help.

 

[SheepDog]

I understand that you believe that if you are far enough from other people that it is unlikely that you will have to deal with others.
That is just your bias though. There are obviously people who know where you are. A large group of raiders might be able to find you through others that know you.
There are always records and those records will be available to disreputable folks. Your drivers license is a public record that follows you everywhere. Your postal address is another public record.
Your IP address is traceable to your physical address. Trails to and from your habitat, along hunting, trapping and fishing routes can lead others to you.
Even without those markers it is possible that someone will find you quite by accident. You may live out your life without anyone ever knowing you are there. It is more probable that you will be found.
My "normalcy bias" tells me that I am too easy to spot to stay "lost to obscurity". I have a group of people who will work with me to stay alive, healthy and educated. It takes a certain footprint to manage that.
That footprint is easily spotted from satellite photos or any number of records for purchases, licenses and government data. I know I cannot hide even 75 miles from the nearest highway so I prepare for unwanted visitors along as many routes as possible. All my buildings are designed to withstand most common methods of assault and most anything nature can throw at them. We have fallback areas and good food storage areas that are relatively safe from prying eyes. Since no fortress is immune from attack we have methods and strategies in place to stay alive and healthy.
I plan on being around to restart the republic after the fall.

 

[Caribou]

VP's current situation is unlike what most here have experience. Trying to track him down would be quite a bit harder than most here. Nobody is totally secure from the golden hoard but VP comes close.

 

[SheepDog]

I can accept that there are a few folks who can and do live unnoticed by the rest of the world.
I doubt you will find many on the internet though.
When you go black, and I did for a period of about three years, you are unknown.
I had no bank accounts, no credit cards, No driver's license, no car and no home that was connected to me in any way.
I lived unseen after moving two states away and stayed that way for three years. I was actively being searched for and succeeded in disappearing.
I am once again public with a home and property in my name. My wife doesn't share my name, for her own safety. Three of the children I raised have different last names for their protections and the records of the name changes have been sealed and are missing from the records - that took a bit of help. The next place I buy will never belong to me. It will be purchased by a trust and the trust will always own it.I will be listed as the "keeper" of the holding and will get an annual salary for which taxes are previously withheld. At that point I will go gray.
Still, my footprint will be too large to hide, so I will have the help of my family and two very close friends.
My bias tells me that it is impossible to hide from everyone.

 

[Sourdough]

I understand that you believe that if you are far enough from other people that it is unlikely that you will have to deal with others.
That is just your bias though. There are obviously people who know where you are. A large group of raiders might be able to find you through others that know you.

I have gone six months and never see a human. A "Large Group" of raiders would need one Super Cub (PA-18-150 ) for each member to fly into Alaska wilderness. I go on "personal" hunting trips that last 6 weeks and never see a human. I live 16 weeks straight in the wilderness when guiding hunters. Besides there would be zero reason for anyone to waste time attempting to find me.

This guy was my neighbor: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Proenneke Thirty-Five years ago.

People just can't grasp how big Alaska wilderness is. When I was ferrying planes back and forth to America, I was always amazed how far you could fly and not see a single sign of a human.

 

[SheepDog]

I am familiar with Mr. Proenneke. He died in California, right?
He built a great place to live and you can still visit it as an historical monument in one of the Alaska Parks.
I think I would have liked him.
There were a few people who knew where he lived and got provisions dropped in by plane.
As I recall he had some problems with poachers that he reported to the authorities. That tends to lend credibility to the notion of being found by accident.

 

[Caribou]

I used to run an air ambulance in Alaska. We typically took a Cessna 206 or 207. We wouldn't see any lights for a half an hour and sometimes an hour unless somebody was running across the tundra I. the middle of the night and we spotted their headlight. I serviced an area the size of Oregon but without a road system. There were close to three square miles per person.

 

[Sourdough]

My bias tells me that it is impossible to hide from everyone.

I think those quiet drones with thermal cameras would be my biggest problem. But unless I did something pretty horrific , I don't think the government would spend six dollars looking for me. I get my phone and internet by microwave.

 

[lonewolf]

I lived for 12 years off grid, grew my own food, shot my own meat, and lived alone all that time, I was brought up as an "only" child and learned to be at peace with my own company.
its not being alone that's the problem. its other people .