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The Very Best Gun for the Beginning Prepper

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So here’s the deal. The first gun that a new prepper ought to get should be one that makes practice as easy as possible. Shooting is fun! But you won’t realize that until you do some. That first firearm should be inexpensive, both in initial acquisition and in the cost of ammunition. It should be something that you – and your other family members – can shoot with minimal training.

It should be a handgun.

Now a lot of the gun aficionados thought I was leading up to a .22 caliber rifle. And yes, every prepper should have one of those, if for no other reason than to have a rifle available to loan to a friend during a zombie attack, thereby allowing you to keep the much better defensive weapons for yourself.

There are a lot of sound reasons for a “handgun first” policy. Here are a few:

Dimensions. Try carrying a long gun concealed. You’ll walk like Frankenstein. Handguns allow you to carry concealed practically anywhere on your body, and concealed or not, when holstered they keep your hands free and allow your body to move naturally. If you are working around the compound and not in a elevated DEFCON, that means that you won’t be having your long gun, the one you so carefully leaned against a barn wall while you fixing a fence, fall over into a pile of bovine end product (as mine almost always seem to do). If something is easy to carry, you’re more likely to carry it. Simple.

(Read more from “The Very Best Gun for the Beginning Prepper” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Saddle up, Folks, It’s Time to Become a Prepper

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Here is one of the most recent reasons why you should prepare. Use this article as an example of why your family and friends should also become preppers:

There is only one major reason governments all across the world have either already begun, or are planning to remove, higher-denomination paper currency from circulation. It has nothing to do with stopping drug deals or hampering terrorism. Surprisingly – at this point anyway – it also isn’t about actually gaining further control over the citizenry.

It’s about economics. For all intents and purposes, every government on earth is at best broke, or more likely saddled with massive debt. So aside from printing more money, what’s a hungry oligarchy to do?

Simple: force everyone into a cashless society … and then take the money they need directly from your bank account rather than picking your pocket . . .

Having supplies, food, guns and ammo is fantastic … assuming you know how to use them. However, if you never do figure out how to clean that gun, start that fire, fix that wound, purify that water or grow that crop, don’t worry. It’s still pretty sweet … for the folks who will be using all that stuff after you head off to the pearly gates to yell at St. Peter. (Read more from “Saddle up, Folks, It’s Time to Become a Prepper” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Governor’s Plan for Emergency Food Stockpile Hits Bump

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Alaska’s plan to stash stockpiles of emergency food in case the state is cut off from supplies by a disaster has hit a bump.

The state Department of Military and Veterans Affairs this week canceled its solicitation for proposals after receiving just one response, which was rejected. Department procurement officer Jolund Luther said Friday that the company that responded could not come up with a performance bond, which would have ensured the project was seen to its completion if the contractor went bankrupt or out of business.

Jeremy Zidek, a spokesman for the state’s emergency preparedness division, said officials remain committed to the plan and will look for ways to improve the solicitation before moving forward again.

Read more from this story HERE.

Forget Solyandra Solar! Try a Urine Powered Generator

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What have you built lately? 14-year-olds Duro-Aina Adebola, Akindele Abiola, Faleke Oluwatoyin, and 15-year-old Bello Eniola have created a urine powered generator.

Here’s how it works:

•Urine is put into an electrolytic cell, which cracks the urea into nitrogen, water, and hydrogen.

•The hydrogen goes into a water filter for purification, which then gets pushed into the gas cylinder.

•The gas cylinder pushes hydrogen into a cylinder of liquid borax, which is used to remove the moisture from the hydrogen gas.

•This purified hydrogen gas is pushed into the generator.

•1 Liter of urine gives you 6 hours of electricity.

If this doesn’t motivate you to go out and start thinking about how you can really make an impact, then I don’t know what will.

Read more from this story HERE.

Surviving Economic, Societal Collapse: Your Biggest Enemy May Be … You

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I think it’s safe to say with some conviction that in the year of 2012 the concept of survival prepping is NOT an alien one to most Americans. When National Geographic decides there is a viable market for a prepper TV show (no matter how misrepresentative of true preppers it may be), when Walmart starts stocking shelves with long term emergency food storage kits, when survivalism in general becomes one of the few growing business markets in the midst of an otherwise disintegrating economy; you know that the methodology has gone “mainstream”. There is a noticeable and expanding concern amongst Americans that we are, indeed, on the verge of something new and unfortunate.

Is it the big bad hoodoo of the soon to expire Mayan Calendar? For a few, maybe, but for the majority of us, no. That jazz is a carnival sideshow designed to make the prepping culture appear ridiculous. We don’t need to believe in magical prophecies to know that there is a catastrophic road ahead; all we have to do is look at the stark realities of our current circumstances. It does not take much awareness anymore to notice looming fiscal volatility, social unrest, the potential for unrestrained war, and the totalitarian boldness of our government. I’ll take the wrath of Quetzalcoatl any day over the manure storm that is approaching us currently.

With some estimating a count of 3 million prepper families and growing in the U.S., the motto of “beans, bullets, and band-aids” is finding a home amongst legions. However, being closely involved in the survivalist movement during the past six years and speaking with literally thousands of preppers, it has become clear to me that we still have a long journey ahead of us before we can claim true efficiency and mastery.

Sadly, having a stockpile of food, weapons, and some slick tactical gear is not enough to ensure a high likelihood of survival, at least not in any of the social collapses that have occurred in the past century around the world. It’s a start, but only just…

There are a number of detrimental weakness to the survivalist movement and considerable holes in prepper knowledge that must be addressed now while we have the time and relative safety to do so. The greatest threat to the common survivalist is not economic collapse, roving bandits, Blackwater mercenaries, or predator drones; those dangers are a piece of cake compared to the threat of an overblown ego, which will get a man killed faster than the most sophisticated smart bomb. If we cannot accept that there is always more to learn, and room to improve, we have been defeated before we have begun.

Read more from this story HERE.

Worried About Calamity? Here’s a Shelter That Carries the Price Tag of a New Truck

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Paul Seyfried, co-owner of Utah Shelter Systems, says underground structures at Utah Shelter Systems range in size from about 256 to 500 square feet, and they come with ventilation systems, wood-based flooring, bunk beds and a wiring system with light fixtures.

Lights run off of batteries that last two to three weeks, hopefully long enough to get through the worst of a calamity. If the batteries run out, a home generator could be used to recharge them, and generators cost about $1,000.

The cost starts at about $51,800. “We want the price to be about that of a new, well-equipped truck,” Seyfried says. “It sounds like a lot of money, but you sure see a lot of pickup trucks driving around on America’s roads.”

Other options, such as additional bunk beds, dehydrated food and other items to stock the room can be purchased separately, he says.

Consumers generally pay 50% of the shelter’s cost upfront to purchase materials, Seyfried says. It takes about six weeks for a fallout shelter to be built, and at about that point, the client pays the remainder of the money, he says.

Read more from this story HERE.

Video: Preppers Shall Inherit the Earth

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For Alaskans who are almost completely dependent on daily flights from the lower-48 for most essentials such as food and medicine, failure to “prep” borders on insanity.

Given the increasing economic instability of the U.S., all Americans should be taking steps to provide for themselves and their loved ones in case of economic and/or natural calamity.

Although the narration leaves something to be desired, this video gives a good background on the potential crisis and the unconventional steps many are taking to prepare.

Remote Alaska to Stockpile Food, Just in Case

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Photo credit: Christie 13

Alaska is known for pioneering, self-reliant residents who are accustomed to remote locations and harsh weather. Despite that, Gov. Sean Parnell worries a major earthquake or volcanic eruption could leave the state’s 720,000 residents stranded and cut off from food and supply lines. His answer: Build giant warehouses full of emergency food and supplies, just in case.

For some in the lower 48, it may seem like an extreme step. But Parnell says this is just Alaska.

In many ways, the state is no different than the rest of America. Most people buy their groceries at stores, and rely on a central grid for power and heat. But, unlike the rest of the lower 48, help isn’t a few miles away. When a fall storm cut off Nome from its final fuel supply last winter, a Russian tanker spent weeks breaking through thick ice to reach the remote town.

Weather isn’t the only thing that can wreak havoc in Alaska, where small planes are a preferred mode of transportation and the drive from Seattle to Juneau requires a ferry ride and 38 hours in a car. The state’s worst natural disaster was in 1964, when a magnitude-9.2 earthquake and resulting tsunami killed 131 people and disrupted electrical systems, water mains and communication lines in Anchorage and other cities.

“We have a different motivation to do this, because help is a long ways away,” said John Madden, Alaska’s emergency management director.

Read more from this story HERE.

GOP Congressman prepper: 80% of Americans should relocate due to threats

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Deep in the West Virginia woods, in a small cabin powered by the sun and the wind, a bespectacled, white-haired man is giving a video tour of his basement, describing techniques for the long-term preservation of food in case of “an emergency.”

“We don’t really think of those today, because it’s so convenient to go to the supermarket,” he cautions. “But you know, you’re planning because the supermarket may not always be there.”

The electrical grid could fail tomorrow, he frequently warns. Food would disappear from the shelves. Water would no longer flow from the pipes. Money might become worthless. People could turn on each other, and millions would die.

Such concerns are typical among “survivalists,” a loose national movement of individuals who advocate self-sufficiency in the face of natural or man-made disasters, gathering online or in person to discuss the best ways to prepare for the worst.

What is atypical is that the owner of this cabin is Roscoe Bartlett, the longtime Republican congressman from Maryland. Over the past two decades, he has developed a following as one of the country’s premier proponents of preparedness against impending doom, even urging the more than 80 percent of Americans who live in urban areas to relocate.

“There are a number of events that could create a situation in the cities where civil unrest would be a very high probability,” Bartlett predicts in “Urban Danger,” a documentary that features the cabin tour. “And I think that those who can and those who understand need to take advantage of the opportunity when these winds of strife are not blowing, to move their families.”

Bartlett, 86, is a patent-holding scientist, an engineer and a farmer. He has also become one of the country’s most endangered Republicans.

Read more from this story HERE.

Colorado fire evacuees targeted by criminals

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Last week we wrote an article about 10 Disturbing SHTF Threats that most Preppers Haven’t Prepared For. While checking out the news on the Wildfires in Colorado, I stumbled on a story that reenforced some of what I wrote last week.

As some evacuees from the Waldo Canyon Fire in Colorado were allowed to return to their homes yesterday, many found their homes looted and burglarized. So far at least 22 families near Waldo Canyon have reported that their homes have been burglarized. The number is expected to climb as more evacuees are allowed to return to their homes.

The evacuated homes weren’t the only criminal targets. Police in Colorado Springs have confirmed that as many as 60 vehicles have also been burglarized at nearby evacuation centers and hotels.

Another one of the topics that we discussed last week was the dangers posed from criminals pretending to be Law Enforcement Officials. During a catastrophic event we suggested that you would likely see criminals preying on the innocent by pretending to be either police officers or military officers.

It seems this scenario may have happened during the Colorado Springs Fire. Colorado Springs police have arrested at least two men in separate incidents, where they found the men impersonating a firefighter, at the Waldo Canyon fire. Both men were found behind fire lines pretending to be firefighters.

Read more of this story HERE.