Another What If

JayG has a starting-over post that is pretty similar to most gunnies' ‘Lists’ if placed in a similar situation. Of course everyone personal taste preferences will make the lists look widely varied, but the bones of the lists will be the same ‘ol same ‘ol.

(And we gunnies love these types of what-if lists...)

I always say, if you have to start over or start from scratch you get one of each and a spare. So that’s a Shotgun, a Rifle, a Full Size Handgun, and a .22, and maybe a smaller Medium Caliber CCW Handgun. And then a backup for each. That’s 10.

But turn that around. Saying you are getting old and infirm and need to pare down. Say the Collectivist Libs win everything they ever wanted and manage to turn this country into a Socialist Paradise, but just never managed to get any political traction in the gun control department and so you have to move to your tiny Soviet style concrete apartment to live a life of servitude and drudgery. Say the zombies or an asteroid came and you are in a safe pocket where it is crowded and you are displaced and unemployed. Say you have to get on the World’s Collide Colony ship and take to the stars but where you end up will be an Earth like place and you’ll be in some fishing village there…

At any rate, the deal is, you look at your gun vault full of firearms and can only pick one because of space and money and portability reasons. And there is no prospect of acquiring more firearms ever again. Your life is the same as it is now pretty much, except you are a bit more impoverished and dislocated, but, you know, life goes on. You still gotta eat work sleep socialize, just out of a space smaller than a Hong Kong dormitory apartment.

Which, of all of your guns do you pick.

Everyone’s personal favorite will be different, naturally.

Some of you will choose a shotgun. It can do anything. You can hunt deer size critters or pigeon size critters with it, and you can defend your home with it very well.

Others will choose their favorite pistol so they can have it on their hip every waking moment, and under their pillow when they sleep.

Others will take the big rifle. When you need a rifle, nothing else will do, and to be without, then, could be a tremendous hardship.

A .22 is almost as versatile as the shotgun, and it can be more portable. The ammo CERTAINLY is.

And finally, others will take something that might not be the most practical but has great sentimental value.

What would I take? I dunno. I’m vapor locked on my choices. The Model 11 is a good shotgun, I’d love to hold onto the .45 or .357, and I LOVE the Garand. But I guess I lean toward the M1A the most. Soliders carried a rifle like that around with them all the time, so, with the sling, it’s got the “with me” thing in this conjectured disjointed world. It certainly works on everything, though it would be tricky harvesting squirrels, or navigating INSIDE my house in the event of a break in.

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The point of this thought excercise is not to prompt readers to post comments of their choice, though feel free to. It's to reinforce my understanding that there is no ideal firearm. They are role specific. The ones that try to go for a please-everybody generalist model find they can't do any one job well. Well enough. Can you imagine going through life with nothing but an M1 Carbine? I mean, it's certainly better than nothing, and cool in it's own right, but...

There is no one gun. There is no one caliber. The closest thing is a shotty 12 gauge, maybe. Or a .22, maybe. But that's not satisfying. And it all hinges on circumstance. "I live in the suburbs and there are bad guys around that rob people, I want a decent pistol" is different from, "I live in a developing country and there are bands of soldier like bandits roaming around spreading depradation, I want a decent rifle. And lots of friends." is different from, "I live in the middle of nowhere, I'm not a vegetarian, and there are few people about but quite varied types of game, from waterfowl to elk to everything in between, please hand me that shot gun and a variety of shells." is different from "I live in a lighthouse and need to shoo the zombie horde away from my front door by shooting them from the balcony, a .22 will do best."