Worse case, Level 4 zombie outbreak and subsequent Zombacalypes. THEN walking around with your rifle won't be weird. But, in my case, multiple Terrorist nuke detonation in DC and Baltimore along with other cities and also an EMP hit, is the next worse thing that could happen, and might be more likely than zombies. And even in that kind of nuke disaster, walking around with a long gun will get the askance glance from lots of folk. I'd expect to see people patrol with a rifle close to home or on their property, maybe, but not walking around in crowded public places.
And yet, in hunting season, thousands of people are openly bebopping about with long guns to hand. That ain't Wisconsin Avenue near NIH, tho. So CCW is a probable necessity even in bad times.
Farmer Frank also brings up a point in the Mogadishu battle. The US Soldiers were dropping their empty mags on reload and later were hurting when they needed to reload same from battlepacks of boxed bullets sans replacement mags. I asked some buddies what their SOP was in the 90s and they told me that they were instructed to shove the spent magazine into their shirt. But soldiers don't wear a shirt these days. Not one they can get to. They are wearing body armor. So I guess they DO need an empty drop bag. When you are shooting and scooting, the rattle of a bag of metal STANAG mags is no big deal wrt stealth. You just shot 60 rounds. You aren't going to be stealthy because of THAT, not because two empties are banging together. So only lose the mag when you are recruited into a super secret Gun-Ninja military unit, or when you are competing in run and gun competitions. And you only get to dump the mags when running from zombies as you probably won't have the rifle with you outside a home base static defense type scenario.
Can anyone contemplate a situation when the SHTF when having a rifle with you at all time, as a non soldier, will be socially acceptable in our current cultural environment?
Farmer Frank also brings up a point in the Mogadishu battle. The US Soldiers were dropping their empty mags on reload and later were hurting when they needed to reload same from battlepacks of boxed bullets sans replacement mags. I asked some buddies what their SOP was in the 90s and they told me that they were instructed to shove the spent magazine into their shirt. But soldiers don't wear a shirt these days. Not one they can get to. They are wearing body armor. So I guess they DO need an empty drop bag. When you are shooting and scooting, the rattle of a bag of metal STANAG mags is no big deal wrt stealth. You just shot 60 rounds. You aren't going to be stealthy because of THAT, not because two empties are banging together. So only lose the mag when you are recruited into a super secret Gun-Ninja military unit, or when you are competing in run and gun competitions. And you only get to dump the mags when running from zombies as you probably won't have the rifle with you outside a home base static defense type scenario.
Can anyone contemplate a situation when the SHTF when having a rifle with you at all time, as a non soldier, will be socially acceptable in our current cultural environment?
>>Can anyone contemplate a situation when the SHTF when having a rifle with you at all time, as a non soldier, will be socially acceptable in our current cultural environment?<<
ReplyDeleteSure. Just as soon we commonly see a threat as real. See the pictures of Uzi-armed Israelis in business attire in the 60s and 70s. Recall the European African settlers in Mau Mau days.
But what sort of threat would that be that would stymie our 3,000,000 man, very capable, armed force? It would have to be quite a massive hidden internal force intermingling with us.
ReplyDeleteWhen did the military get to 3 million? must be counting the reserves and the retirees. but I was going for carrying the long gun to, at and from the ranges - in the day that every county in the US has a fine public range that the folks are expected to use more than the golf courses. Kind of like the forward thinking Swiss.
ReplyDeleteThe stat is better stated as "3 million firearms (pistols/rifles) in military hands" prolly.
ReplyDeleteIf an EMP attack took out the the east coast, All the food would be gone off the store shelves in about 10 days. Toss in ground nukes in NY, DC and Atlanta.
ReplyDeleteThen you would see civs in the streets with long guns...
In a SHTF situation I'm hunkering down, but if I must go out I'd much prefer to bring a rifle.
ReplyDeleteI suspect that in such a situation I'd not be worried about getting askance glances from others.