Widespread riots now in my country. My thoughts on riots.

SHTF School ^ | 2/7/14 | Selco

[Kartographer]

Like I said before, situation can change from good to bad quickly. Especially when people are tired of whats going on. In my country 40% of people have no jobs, widespread corruption, prices are expensive for almost everything. There are now riots in several cities in my region here, spreading all over the country.

I have been in riots before, and also been in riots that lead into the full scale war we had, so there are few things that I want to explain you about riots:

[trisham]

LOL!

[grania]

don't go anywhere near Walmart in times of crisis

Not only WalMarts. I would avoid anything near the bus route from "downtown". I would avoid anything where exiting would involve being part of a large group of people heading to one door.

I was in the middle of a riot that just happened out of nowhere, Boston Common, summer 1968. It was a beautiful summer day, most people were just enjoying walking through the park. Something just happened (who knows what?) and the underlying tensions of that summer erupted from nowhere. It was something I'd never want to experience again. It would be much worse today, with so many people armed, not all legally and responsibly.

The other thing is, learn to identify the signs. Three or more people milling around with no purpose is probably a situation best avoided.

Am I overly cautious? You better believe it. That summer of 1968 situation and my years of urban substituting has educated me about how little it takes for a situtation to get out of control.

[EternalHope]

If you just woke up to the fact that you may have to rely on YOURSELF for your own protection, then you may be thinking about buying a gun.

By all means do so. But you will find the cost of ammunition has skyrocketed, and you may not be able to find it at all.

Just having a gun is not enough. You must know how to use it, and you must practice. In today’s United States that may not be possible simply because of the cost and lack of availability of ammunition.

So what to do? Get something cheap you can practice with.

A .22 used to be a good choice for inexpensive practice, but no more.

There is an inexpensive practice alternative: Realistic, high quality, pellet guns and high quality BB guns.

You can buy BB pistols than look and weigh the same as their “real” equivalent. Many of the higher quality BB pistols have been designed specifically as an alternative for practice with their equivalent hand guns. The kick is much less, of course, but they function similarly and even have blow-back slides. They are accurate enough to help you learn how to hit something, and they are quiet enough to shoot in the garage or basement without waking the baby.

Pellet rifles have come a LONG ways as well. Many better pellet rifles will cost as much as a hunting rifle but the ammunition is still very inexpensive. You can actually afford to shoot them. The more powerful ones have almost as much energy as a .22 rifle, are MORE accurate, and can be used for hunting small game. Many of them have built in silencers and can be fired without disturbing the neighbors.

Lastly, practicing with them is FUN!