Stack it high, stack it deep?

A recurring thread with preparing is guns, guns and more guns. 

As you might expect we have a thought or two on that.  Guns and other means to protect yourself are necessary, please don't believe they're not.  When Rule of Law collapses, civility shows just how thin a veneer it really is and people's selfish "I Want That!" nature comes roaring back in full force.

A lot of preppers start with guns and while that's not necessary a bad thing in and of itself, do they stop with guns is a concern.

If all you have is a gun, then everyone else becomes a target when you're hungry, or your family is hungry.   I don't know any parents personally that would watch their children starve to death if there was something they could do to prevent it, even things that they wouldn't dream of doing if it was simply themselves starving.

And yet there are preppers who have stockpiled thousands and thousands of rounds of ammo, guns of every size and shape and calibre.  I constantly worry just how much food they have set aside.  How much water.  How many seed collections.  Manual tools to plant those seeds and the skills and knowledge to do so.

From a realistic viewpoint everyone should consider just how many altercations that involve deadly force they honestly believe they'll survive.  And that's assuming you can see the threat coming and prepare and react to it.

I've said it before and I'll repeat it again and again.  I'm a better than average shot with a weapon, I have had a lot of practice with them for decades and have fired those thousands and thousands of rounds.  I've particpated in hundreds upon hundreds of hours of simulated combat in multiple environments using paintball and airsoft style weapons. 

If I were lacking in any moral depth and had no respect for human life or personal property, your stuff would be my stuff.  You wouldn't hear the bullet that nailed you as you were out hoeing your garden, or filling your water jug, or just looking out your window.

And I stress again, any asshat with a decent rifle with a scope can take you down in this fashion.  And in America there are millions of decent rifles, with scopes.  They don't have to be a great shot, they just have put those crosshairs over your chest and squeeze the trigger.  And your awesome tacticool rifles and pistols and shotguns are completely worthless.

So yes, I strongly believe, in the strongest possible terms, that you should have weapons to defend yourself or you should buy lottery tickets.  Because your chances of winning the apocalypse without them is about as good as your chances of winning the lottery.

But don't stack it high and deep because your chances of ever needing those thousands of rounds and living to use them is about the same.

Additionally, don't be one of those people with 20 different weapons, all of which load differently, function differently, shoot different calibres and in general have to be learned 20 times over. 

Buy multiples of the same weapons depending on your needs for your family or group.  This drastically simplifies your training requirements and makes it easy for everyone to be familiar with them all.

One pistol, one shotgun, one rifle in standard common calibres for defense and a pistol/rifle in 22LR for hunting small game.

That's our thinking and our plan.

Please prep responsibly.