Other “Stuff”:
- Key Points: There’s more to readiness than an arsenal. The first thing you need after getting your weapons picked out is accessories. Train as you fight, so if you want a red dot on your pistol, get it. An LPVO on your AR? Go for it. Set up your kit the way you would want to run it if your life or the lives of those you loved depended on it. Now that you’ve got all the cool toys, spend at least that much on ammo and actual, real-deal, certified training. Don’t just jump on YouTube and watch what the latest moron with a GoPro and a Glock is doing, actually seek out trainers that are associated with groups like the IDPA, USPSA, Modern Samurai and others. They are out there, and they will set you up for success. This is the most dangerous part of readiness - having a tool and no clue how to properly utilize it. Once you’ve got a good handle on your weapons, there are alternatives and other force multipliers you can invest time and money into. I’m not going to go super deep here, but just throwing out a few options.
- Melee: Everyone needs a knife. A fixed blade DUF knife (Duty, Utility, Fighting) is great, a folding “daily-driver” is important too. Never leave home without a knife. Discoveries like fire and inventions like the wheel set mankind up to be the rulers of our planet, but the knife was in that list too. Similarly with tomahawks or hatchets, bats, clubs, hammers… do not be ignorant of the value a melee weapon can bring as both a weapon and a tool. Always look for quality as there are few things more heartbreaking and damaging to morale than having your knife break when you are skinning a deer or your hatchet snap when you’re splitting firewood.
- Bow: One of the most primitive ranged weapons is the bow. Our ancestors used bows to take down large game, hold off dangerous predators and fight wars with tens of thousands of soldiers engaging in combat. They did it all with a stick and a string. In the modern era we have Compound, Long, Recurve, Cross, and probably a few other types that I’m not thinking of (there’s even a rig to make a sling-shot bow). Compound bows have cams that multiply your power and therefore your range and lethality, long bows that allow for a more traditional approach, recurve bows that can be broken down or restrung as needed, and crossbows that are almost like shooting a single-shot, silent rifle at short range. The quiet nature of a bow combined with its immense lethality makes for a strong case of why you should probably have one in your kit for a major event that requires survival. Hell, even Rambo leaned on the bow in his time of need!
- Plate Carrier/Helmet: It’s all fun and games to get dressed up and cosplay some Tier-1 heavy hitter at the local range, but the necessity of it is something worth discussing. Do you need a Plate Carrier and Helmet in your kit? Need? No. You really don’t. The circumstances of a 2-way range that result in you standing in the open to exchange gunfire are incredibly slim. We are beyond natural disaster, likely beyond civil unrest. We are now talking about a full-on war. With that being said, you have money and you want it? Cool. I will concede the “better to have and not need” line of reasoning when it comes to anything related to readiness and post-even survival, so… Get AR500 steel plates to run when you’re doing your combat rolls and obstacle courses. They are heavy as hell but durable. If you really and truly believe you’re facing an event where you might be taking fire, get ceramics to switch in, lighter but less durable. You crack them while training and they won’t work when you (might) need them. The helmet? Same deal, get a bump helmet for playing in and a ballistic for fighting.
- Night Vision/Thermals: Dude… Predator was sick, wasn’t it!? Night Vision Optical Devices, or “NODs” are those cool green-world (sometimes white-world) devices that let you see in the dark as clear as day with no dependency on external light sources or moon phases or anything. You just walk around and scope-out your surroundings, dropping in undetected on anyone nearby… if you read this far and haven’t gotten the joke yet, we need to talk. If you got the joke, we can be friends. The fact is that Night Vision, and even Thermals, have major tactical limitations. If there’s no moon and you’re standing in a field or you’re in a house with no light sources at all, NODs aren’t a gateway to the world of sight. They’ll help, but you’ll need something more, like an IR light. Even Thermals, which could be argued to be more useful in certain scenarios, have limitations as well. These are cool to have, and if you’re knocking out a 4 second Bill Drill daily and have mountains of food, water, medical supplies and ammo (yes, in that order) then sure, go grab some, but the situation post-event where these are the difference between life and death is very slim. And let’s not forget that if something knocks out all tech and you don’t have these tucked away in a Faraday bag… yeah…
- Suppressors: Got some money burning a hole in your pocket? Need another expensive addiction? Want to give Uncle Sam $200 for no real reason while you wait for a year to take something home that you purchased? Have I got a piece of gear for you! Suppressors (NOT SILENCERS) are a device that attaches to the end of a weapon's barrel and redirects the gasses to help reduce the sound signature. Yes, it makes it quieter, but other than some very specific cases (Subsonic .300BLK or .22LR) it is not going to go full on James Bond and make your weapon sound like a stapler. Suppressors are gaining in popularity as more and more brands find ways to introduce them at affordable prices and offset the required $200 tax stamp you have to pay (yes, for each one), but also because they help those of us that shoot regularly preserve our hearing as best we can. With all of that being said, this is probably one of the last pieces of gear I would recommend most people get, not because it’s not incredibly useful or because I don’t think it would be worth its owner’s weight in meat after a massive event, but because it’s expensive, a major hassle, and for the average person the money would be better spent on supplies or training elsewhere.