Defense and Compassion

Being intentionally burned out by fire seems to be the biggest
threat to anyone trying to defend their own house. I think the
danger of being purposely burned out, somewhat lessens for those
living in apartment complexes. However, that is a complete different
subject.

Another great danger might be that one overestimates the protection
many houses might give from gunfire. Much of modern day weaponry can
and will indeed penetrate the walls of many houses, leaving its
defenders vulnerable.

As we are preparing for a social break down and desperation during
or even after a Flu Pandemic we must assume that looters, marauders,
gangs, or bands of other criminals, might be well armed and will not
hesitate to use their weaponry to kill. Even simple other desperate
folks might be well armed and band together in groups.

Buckets full of sand are a great idea. So are sandbags. Both can be
used to fortify your house to protect against bullets and shrapnel,
as well as a fire extinguisher especially for gasoline (Molotov
Cocktails). Ready to go and connected garden hoses should be a must
and fire extinguishers strategically placed throughout the house
will add to your fire protection. Depending on your roof, have a
ladder and fire fighting materials at the ready on or for your roof.
Fires do not only get started by enemies.

Chicken wire on the windows is a good defense against thrown objects
like Molotov Cocktails, grenades, explosives or simple stones. Black
Out Curtains like those used in war time cities at night, will
darken your house from the outside, so it wont be so obvious to
passerby's (even distant one's) that you might have electricity and
lights.

Secure and camouflage your own gasoline and propane supplies. Small
storage sheds locked with padlocks could serve to store gasoline and
propane. Metallic Dog Cannels covered with plastic or fabric tarp is
another good solution, allowing the gasoline fumes maximum
ventilation. Gasoline stored and covered in dug out holes or ditches
in the ground is another solution. Whatever it is, make sure the
gasoline and propane is stored far enough away from the house and
camouflaged and will not easily ignite your house in case of fire or
explosion.

Should your house or compound be overrun, and you managed to escape
with your life, have some food, water and supplies stashed away and
hidden, or possible buried in the ground, so you can survive. Maybe
even retake your plundered and looted house. However, also consider,
depending on your house, food and supply set up, the invaders who
displaced you from your property might not just move on and
willingly give up the place you set up so carefully for many months.

In general don't store all of your food, water and other supplies in
one place. Hide, camouflage or bury as good and as much as you can.
Leave enough easy to find food and supplies for possible intruders
to find, who will hopefully vacate with their "loot" instead of
searching for more.

A further consideration for you is if it is better to hide,
camouflage and look poor, not having anything, or to deter,
discourage and scare. Barbed or Razor Wire around your house for
instance, would definitely discourage, but it would also tell anyone
there is something worth getting.  Boarding up your doors and
windows will make your house much more secure, but also it will
advertise there is something worth getting. I think every individual
has to answer and find a solution for themselves here, all according
to their individual situation and/or neighborhood.

Another most important consideration needs to be given as to when
and how to use your weaponry. Will you first fire warning shuts and
when. When you shoot, will you shoot to kill ? When do you feel
justified to shoot or shoot to kill ? What actually is the legal
situation in pandemic self defense ?  What does the law allow us to
do ?  Knowing of the spiteful nature of humans, only a dead attacker
is an attacker we are safe from of any reprisals. Will the Police or
National Guard kill or arrest looters and marauders, or those who
kill them ? Answers to this might wary from State to State, County
to County, or even City to City.

Bigger families or groups can defend themselves more sufficiently
against attacking groups or gangs, than single people or small
families can. Consider teaming up with relatives or friends and
invite them to join you for the duration of the pandemic.
 
Have a good selection and variety of weaponry available to defend
your house or compound and train all of your family members to be
able to use it. For instance: Semi-Automatic Rifle or Assault Rifle,
Pump or Semi-Automatic Shut Gun, and a high powered Hunting Rifle.
45Cal and 9mm Pistols and 357Mag Revolvers as back up. Knifes, Axes
and even Bow and Arrows are useful additions. If you can get your
hands on more powerful stuff like Fully Automatic Machine Guns, Sub
Machine Guns or Assault Rifles, more power to you. Whatever you do,
have plenty of ammunition for your weaponry.

Inform, encourage and help your neighbors to prepare now and strike
alliances with your neighbors to defend and help each other. Set up
a communication system and plan and meet regularly with your allied
neighbors before a pandemic. You might even want to consider to set
up a neighborhood watch. Consider making the first contacts
carefully and anonymously. You don't want an entire unprepared
neighborhood to know that you are the only prepared person in a
pandemic.

Remember, not even the Government thinks they can help adequately.
There might be severe Food, Water and Energy shortages. Desperation
might be great. People, neighbors, relatives, friends, strangers,
sick, contagious, adults, teenagers, children, orphans, and
criminals will be trying to survive. Desperately. And we cannot
blame them for it, if they themselves prepared or not.

Nobody really deserves to starve or see their families, relatives or
friends starve to dead or in such great misery. But we and our
families who prepared, even the most compassionate ones amongst us,
cannot really do much to help, even if we wanted to.

Sharing our food supplies and survival gear with desperate people
needing help, will simply not leave enough food for ourselves, and
not make much of a difference to the desperate ones. There simply
will not be enough food and supplies for everyone.

Some suggested to have some food and supplies, intended for donation
to desperate. While this is a good and most compassionate idea, and
even makes sense in making a "friend" by helping out, then making
an "enemy" by turning someone down, there still are important
considerations to make.

Do we really know how long the situation will continue and are we
sure we will have enough food and supplies for us and our
families ?  If we give some food and supplies to strangers, what
will we give to our relative friends and neighbors ? Will the
desperate folks return for your friendliness on a regular basis and
turn into an "enemy" the first time you turn them down ?

Personally, I think the time to help is now. Not then. By informing
and encouraging our relatives, friends, neighbors, and even the
masses. Spread the word at the workplace, in churches, clubs,
communities, supermarkets and your neighborhood bar.  However, I
would suggest to do most of the informing and educating anonymously,
as even those who will laugh at you now, will remember where to get
the goodies later on.

Informing them now, will help them, will help you, and will help all
of us.

"Give a man a fish and you will feed him for a day. Teach a man to
fish, and you will feed him for live."

Blessings,

Mister E.

Excellent points!!!

I still am not 100% sure what I will do when neighbors begin to stop by asking for food and water. (Most of my family lives far away, so i doubt they will come to me for help) I have made up several boxes of food, water, and supplies to provide to neighbors if they are desperate. Unfortunately, these boxes only contain enough supplies to last a few days, maybe a week at most.  
I have considered what was  said in earlier posts ---will neighbors continue to come to me for their supplies after what I have given them runs out? Will they become "enemies" if I tell them I can no longer help them? should I be using the food I have designated for others to help my own family instead?? These are all excellent questions and ones that I do not have the answer to.
Personally, I do not feel that I can turn away some of my neighbors if they come to me for help. I have become good friends over the years with several of them, and a few of them even have small children at home. I just don't think I could turn away someone with starving children.  Like I said earlier, the boxes of food that I do have will not last for long, but I feel like it is better than nothing at all.
I guess I can not say with any certainty what i will do until the situation arises .  I will just continue to make my own preparations, and if I have extra time or money, continue to purchase things for neighbors as well. I can always use the food and water that I have prepared for others for myself or my family if I decide that is what is best at the time.

If anyone else has any opinions on this topic, please post them! I am very interested in others thoughts on the subject and wondering if anyone else is "preparing for others". 

Those were some really great responses to my first posting. I think I’ll like it here a lot.

 

While there really isn’t too much of a defense to Firebombing the, situation as Bruss has pointed out is even worse for those in Apartment complexes. Although it seems practical to keep everyone in “shouting distance” of the house, it is not feasible to do so 24/7, as SophiaZoe suggests. Our very best defense to Firebombing is probably a gasoline shortage.

 

Another great defense not only against Firebombing is of course well prepared neighbors, in a well prepared neighborhood, maybe even with Neighborhood Watch or some kind of alliance. I think Jackson made some very good points.

 

However, I think the time to help your neighbors is NOW. Before an outbreak. As Jackson is rather close to his neighbors, and even has some food packages prepared for them, it should not be too hard to talk to them and inform them about the upcoming pandemic.

 

Maybe pick up some food items on sale for the neighbors, and present them with a box or two and an informational flyer or brochure about the upcoming pandemic. The CDC brochure for instance would work just fine: http://www.pandemicflu.gov/plan/pdf/Individuals.pdf

 

Maybe even invite your closest neighbors over for a survival meal dinner preparation. A great chance to show off some survival food and demonstrate some survival tips. Inform them properly about the upcoming dangers and maybe even lay the foundation for a defense alliance.

 

Or simply print up some flyers and distribute them anonymously in the neighborhood. Just don’t forget, even those who laugh at you now, will remember where you live when the time comes.

 

Whatever it is you choose to do. However you plan to help and share. Whatever effort or money you wish to donate to charity. The time to do it is NOW. It is NOW when you still can make a difference. It is NOW when your efforts can still multiply.

 

I’m gonna search for a posting I made to this subject and poste it as a new topic. But now, that I now there is interest, I think I have a few things to dig up on my computer.

 

And with that I am stepping off my soapbox. For now

 

Blessings,

 

Mister E.

You all have great points to ponder.  I remember in Vietnam, during the war, the currency was gold leaf.  I'm sure during WWII, many a life was bought with the international currency - GOLD.  So, in addition to having food on hand, a nice bag of gold might come in handy, especially if you're running from your burning home and  your stash of food.

The only thing you can do is give no sign that you have any food at all hiding it.  Keeping a small fake stash that can be stolen . My hope is that the public plans around this with food distributation sites schools open for warm shelters  with generators   The  general public can not defends itself otherwise .   We are all smart independant people and like to think  of ourselves as resourceful and yes we can probally buy our way out of any situation but we still need there to be plan around distribution of food for the unprepared.  There is no way around it we will have Katrina type stadiums.  my argumentis even a bad plan isa plan.

I will sleep better the day Bush anounces that there will be food distribution sites and place set up for warmth and safety. MY imformation  is that its not a shortage of food but a distributation of food that will cause the starvation .     

i never thought of Matches.  I am going about my business very quietly so no one knows we have any food except family.

Maybe we will take our trailer and go camping.  Good idea

My girlfriend and I live in a elderly/ disabled housing complex in a small rural town.  Since it is a small town and we live next tto a senior citizens center / nursing home, we do expect to face some porblems. However,, we feel safer than most ciitzens in urban areas. The city owns the utiltiy and we have no major probems with our neighbors. They are mostly older ladies in their 70's and 80's . we do have plenty of water and I am not wwithout weapons. 

 

Watch out for little old ladies in wheel chairs, they can be mean!!