Personal Protection/Emergency Preparedness/Survival
Okay so I am going to try this again. I teach firearm courses and attend training, regularly, on my own dime & time. I am interested in hearing other experiences for concealed carry, self preservation (gardening, hunting, fishing), food preservation, emergency medical response, first response, etc. Im wanting to specifically touch on topics such as anything related to emergencies, crime, self sustaining lifestyle, realistic "zombie apocalypse" survival ideas, etc.
Active self protection is a youtube channel ran by former law enforcement and security who cover basics and advanced topics. They show real videos of real crimes being committed from all across the globe, and hey, bet you'll even find one with an armed thug robbing someone in Europe (because it does happen). WARNING: These videos are not for the weak hearted. They do show deaths of the bad guys and the good guys. Sometimes both sides. These videos are for purely educational purposes. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsE_m2z1NrvF2ImeNWh84mw
For instance, I am not sure about many other locales, but my hometown has a program that is sponsored by FEMA called CERT. Community Emergency Response Team. If your city has it, it is free to attend and trains civilians in search and rescue, first aid/response, fire prevention,etc. It covers a diverse curriculum of helpful knowledge.
Comments
Being a vigilante is illegal here, firearms are illegal here, and living in a city we don't have the room to grow our own veggies.
On the other hand, I know very few people worried about armed crime, natural disasters, or zombie apocalypses where I live.
What about your food stocks? How do they look like?
Most law abiding firearm owners are not vigilantes. We have a rich tradition of protecting our own from bullies of all sorts which is referred to here as "Stand Your Ground" or "Justified Force".
That's unfortunate that you cannot arm yourself even for sport. I'm jealous that you don't have to worry about such things. Your police must have a lot of vacation time. Unarmed people like to break into homes here and assault sleeping individuals or steal their property. Armed people do it too, but it's scary enough to know any stranger is capable of coming in the door at any moment and potentially hurt my loved ones. I don't live in a horrible area, but it certainly isn't a utopia. It has a rich crime rate. Most of our firearm homicides are caused by thugs with illegal firearms.
As far as food stocks go, not bad at all. I lost my job last year and while applying for dozens of places in various industries, I was able to keep myself alive and well fed for months eating the food I had previously stocked up on. When I began my current job a while back, I started adding back to the stock. Small preparations definitely end up coming in handy when you least expect them to.
Oh and I quoted "zombie apocalypse" satirically in the original post because it is a metaphor for any violent crime that can occur to you or another, or things such as natural disasters, vehicle accidents, falling from a roof, etc. All require some knowledge of first responder experience to handle the situation appropriately. More drastically speaking, civil unrest or riots can ultimately require some other survival skills.
Yah man! Its scary to know that some people will break into your house but hey,atleast they wont have guns.
I'm all for knowledge, but guns are not included in that for most of us, europeans. You have to understand it's really a matter of different cultures, we too have our share of crime and abuse but we've stopped trying to combat them by arming ourselves. Education and welfare are the main tools that we try to use to protect society today. It's a delicate balance between freedom and safety. Again, understand that for most of the europeans, people who own guns are criminals, hunters or police.
We recently had a law proposal here to allow off-duty police officers to carry their gun, but there's alot of protest because most people don't like the idea of unidentifiable people, even police, being armed outside of their official functions.
There arent many european studies around, as europe has one of the lowest gundeaths in the world, but this one is half decent, Firearms and Violent Deaths
in Europe
There are some intresting correlations but I'll let you drawn your own conclusions and now let's drop the gun part.
I'm curious, what did you stock up on that you could live on it for months? Didn't go to the store for months during that period? Do you grow anything yourself? Even more intresting, do you have a community supply of emergency rations and equipment?
To end on a light note, Ned's noble bomb shelter
I've been a fan of gardening but often lack the space in the urban environment and I don't enjoy the hobby enough to invest in municipal garden space. In the past I've done well with tomatoes, jalapenos, and I've had basil that's grown like crazy.
growing up we used to have a garden where we grew Potatoes, tomatoes, herbs, rhubarb, snow peas, pears, apples, plums, currants and so on.
now i have a herb garden where i grow for food purpose
ive been always interested in gardening but then i realised that i have to deal with snails,frogs and stuff..nope
@Cpl. Murray at my next apartment I've got space for a nice herb garden. Can't wait to get some things planted! Rosemary, some chives, but it's all gonna have to wait until after the big winter hits. The growing season in Canada is pretty rough.
Growing up we used to grow squash, rhubarb, pumpkins and zucchinis in the back. Some of them would get to be absolutely insane in size. Harvest time led to lots of "loaf" i.e. pumpkin loaf, zucchini loaf, or rhubarb loaf.
Dealing with the snails and such ain't so bad and the frogs keep the bugs away which is nice to have if you have a water feature or the like (can be a breeding ground for mozzies). I'm a fan of dragonflies so having those would be cool.
Back on topic though - I don't know what I would do without a well stocked herb garden/spice rack. What's the point of living in a post-apocalyptic zombie wasteland devoid of society and culture if you can't at least have some fresh rosemary, marjoram or thyme. I'll be damned if after killing the hockeymask wearing cannibals I can't eat the last can of dog food without a pinch of Himalayan Pink salt and wash it down with a good Malbec.
Regarding food preservation I've always had a passing interest in pickling things but I feel that may be too hipster even for me. That being said I would love to make kimchi someday. Closest I've come to real food preservation I think was a grape I dropped under the couch one summer, by the time we moved two years later it was a raisin.
2Lt that is some awesome info there. I plan to start my garden next year since Ive finally got my own nice sized yard now. I plan to focus on tomatoes, onions, and green bell peppers, maybe basil since you've got me thinking about herbs.
Matsazuka. You must not have read my entire post. There are armed individuals in this world who illegally arm themselves, or even just pick up a hatchet or hammer to do their bidding.. And yes there is a difference in cultures. However when it comes to a gun fight with a criminal they dont care about the law. So now theyve got a gun and you dont. Whats your next move there, hot shot? Going to take them out with your video game m1 garand? Or run into a corner with no where to go? This is my reason behind talking about this subject. Please for the sake of this thread, if you do not have anything constructive to add to the subject, then please let others comment first. If you cannot carry a firearm that does not mean you cannot carry a pocket knife. If so, what kind of knife do you have? Brass knuckles are illegal here but other countries allow them. Clubs, bats, anything used for bludgeoning is a good tool to have beside your bed in case the night thugs start walking your streets. Besides personal protection, this thread is also pertained to any form of self preservation. So if guns are not your thing, please post what it is you are interested in protecting yourself with. Leave the gun related comments to people who either work with them, own them, or actually have an interest in them. We dont need posts of people just saying "I dont agree with you"/sarcasm without any formidable solution to a firearm.
Verbruggen. I was able to survive on white and brown rice, green bell peppers (only a dollar per week, very inexpensive), wild green onions (from the park), squirrel or rabbit meat from hunting, catfish or blue gill from fishing, mulberries from the park trees, when I cooked I bbq'd using wood rather than coal which is more expensive, and for breakfast I would eat toast and farmer's market locally grown eggs which were priced at $.50 a dozen which I traded for 12gauge ammunition. I've also traded a cb radio for more .22 ammunition when I was out of it for my hunts. During this time I was able to come by extra funds by using the barter system, and craigslist was very handy. Trading items I no longer used. I've traded a $40 co2 bb gun for a $100 tablet, tablet for $300 worth of fishing equipment, half the fishing eqmt for $150, the other half of fishing eqmt I either kept or sold also for computer parts which lead me to build a computer and sold it for $150. This is just a small example of how you can turn a paperclip worth item into a treasure. You just have to know how to hustle. In German, my name Cramer means merchant, or barterer. Turns out not much has changed all these generations of my ancestors. Haha And yes europe does have low amounts of gun deaths. But that is also because they are socialists who do not allow guns to citizens at all, leaving them unable to defend themselves when multiple attackers wielding blades enter their home. Difference in culture is correct, we here prefer to protect ourselves rather than call someone else to do it after the crime has already been committed. Also, look into how most american gun crimes are committed with illegal weapons that were given to cartels through programs such as the white house's Operation Fast and Furious gun grab. Like ive said, most american gun owners are law abiding, respectful, good people. The bad ones get their guns by purchasing from the black market. Anyway, other than guns, for the europeans maybe you guys should consider arming yourselves with pepper spray, or tazers. These are less lethal and can over power a larger attacker. (If one more person says they have no reason to protect themself because of their homeland being so much of a utopia, then I will call bullpoop. You simply havent been living long enough to know the dangers in this world.) America has a lot of dangers, such as 15 person unarmed thug gangs who attack innocent individuals; these are the individuals who do not carry firearms for if they did theyd be able to protect themselves with justified deadly force. Have to remember just because they dont have guns doesnt mean 15 guys wont beat you to death. Its happened, often.
Also I am an officer so I see crazy stuff on a daily basis. I suppose if you spend most of your time on your computer you wont see the ugly evil faces this world has to offer.
Over to food, every spring I pick a huge jar worth of mulberries and mushrooms from the public parks. The mulberries can be used to create some really good homemade jam. The mushrooms are amazing when deep fried, almost like fried chicken.
Also, another topic to be added is martial arts. I practice wing chun but have also learned some wrestling, jiu jitsu, and boxing. Each style can be useful in a different situation. If you like fighting or just want to defend yourself with your fists, consider taking up multiple fighting styles.
Some sources for thought:
Czech govt is now warning their citizens to stock up and make any preparations for possible disaster.
http://zahranicni.ihned.cz/evropa-slovensko/c1-65409390-jidlo-na-deset-dni-voda-na-pet-nemecka-vlada-vyzve-obyvatel-aby-si-vytvorili-zasoby-pro-pripad-nouze
The united states has been doing it for years. (Pentagon's official "Zombie" Plan is called Conplan 8888. It is a martial law/resource control document that lays out each step the govt should take in such a scenario. This includes riots, civil unrest, flood, tornado, hurricane, etc.
http://www.cdc.gov/phpr/images/Zombie_Poster_highres.pdf
Active self protection is a youtube channel ran by former law enforcement and security who cover basics and advanced topics. They show real videos of real crimes being committed from all across the globe, and hey, bet you'll even find one with an armed thug robbing someone in Europe (because it does happen).
WARNING: These videos are not for the weak hearted. They do show deaths of the bad guys and the good guys. Sometimes both sides. These videos are for purely educational purposes.
[LINK TO INAPPROPRIATE CONTENT (VIDEO) REMOVED]
Yep, that's enough. Your attitude toward others is not appropriate. Combine this with the pseudo political agenda related to fire arms and the links to content not appropriate here (and a lot of other places) this thread is closed.