Why We Prepare

What is the reason that we prepare?  What is our ultimate justification for what we’re doing?

If you watch “Doomsday Preppers” or some other show on TV, the answer would seem to be that it’s because we’re crazy.  They selected people and edited the clips to make them look crazy, which led to years of people laughing at preparedness.

This last year has changed the public perception of preparedness.

So, then, why do we do it?  

The ultimate reason, when you break it down completely, is FREEDOM.  We prepare so that we are SELF RELIANT and don’t have to trust anyone else to come to our rescue.  The evidence is clear in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, the midwest floods, and the Texas weather outages, that the government is going ride over the hill to save you about an hour after you’ve already died.

How does this view of being self-reliant match up with the Ultimate Tactical Handbook?

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.

Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves

Be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.

Galatians 5:1

Seems clear: Be self-reliant.  You are your own rescuer, protector, and provider.

When you look at the riots over the spring and summer of 2020, you will realize that the police are not coming to protect you.  In fact, the Supreme Court case of Castle Rock v Gonzales says they have no duty to protect you.  In Portland, when both the far right and the far left faced off in the streets, the Portland Police Bureau admitted that they were not capable of protecting the city when the two factions fought each other.  This will be more common in 2021, so be prepared to fend for yourself.

When people in New Orleans relied on the government to come to their rescue, they found that rather than feeding everyone, the government’s first response was to go door-to-door and seize 551 firearms, all of which were lawfully owned.  Then they forcibly relocated people to the SuperDome, where they were actually at greater risk.  There was a shortage of food & water at the SuperDome, and crime was rampant inside.  

So, again, relying on ourselves is good, but not merely good enough.  

Let’s say I lived in New Orleans, and I had stored up 120 days of food and water, I had secured my house, obtained personal protection firearms, and had my own generator.  Sounds prepared, right?

Well, on day 4, while I was getting ready to make lunch, our good friend General Russell Honore and his troops arrived at my house and demanded entry.  They flashed emergency orders, and seized my firearms for “security & safekeeping”, then declared that they were seizing my food and generator under the emergency order.  They then put me and my family in a truck and drove us to the SuperDome.

Did my preparedness help?

Inside the SuperDome, food and water began to run out and the National Guard began to ration it.  Recovered bodies from the surrounding area began to pile up, and in an emergency, live people plus a lot of dead bodies equals illness.  Three people died inside the SuperDome from various causes.  Does that sound like people you should rely on?

What does this mean for preparedness folks who live in a city and plan on “bugging in”?  I can’t answer that for YOU, but for me, if I had remained in the city, and the government showed up, I’d follow Galations 5:1 and not let myself be burdened with a yoke of slavery.  Relying on someone else to feed, house, and protect you is SLAVERY.

The best advice I can give is to have a plan that allows you to either hide yourself and your gear effectively, or a plan that allows you to leave undetected in a hurry.  The best of both worlds is to have hidden most of your supplies and have the means to leave quickly and hide for a day or two, until you can come back safely.

In Clay Martin’s excellent book on urban preparedness, Concrete Jungle, he describes how to do these things, and I highly recommend it (see link below).

If you plan on bugging in, you need to start NOW on Operational Security (OPSEC).  Telling the world all about your preparations will make you a target.  Many people think “My neighbors won’t take my stuff” or “My Facebook friends would never steal from me”.  Those people underestimate the power of hunger.  Hungry people, or people with children on the edge of starvation, will act very differently than they do now.  They may show up and demand food, or band together and take food.

Even worse, when the troops take them to a relocation camp, and offer them extra food in exchange for reporting “hoarders” or “people hiding guns”, people WILL report you, if they know.  

In preparedness, I see lots of people talking about how, after an event, when bugging in, they’ll fortify their house.  A fortified house looks like a fortified house.  When hungry people, or people intent on looting, see a fortified house, they think “there’s good stuff in there”.  It’s far better to make your house look unoccupied or unremarkable in any way.

I know, folks like us love to fly our American flag right next to the “Come and Take It” flag.  We are already seeing ANTIFA target houses flying either of those flags, so what do you think will happen post-event?  Oh, you’ll take it down then, after the event and when the WROL situation exists?  

What if I told you that the left is already preparing for mass violence, and recording addresses they suspect?  THEY ARE.

This last weekend, the Young Social Democrat Association had booths set up in Washington state.  There was literature on the tables about setting up “Community Emergency Response Teams”.  These teams would be comprised of armed personnel for “community self-defense” as well as medics.  Do you think you’re part of the community they’ll defend?  

It’s interesting that they avoided using the term “militia”, but an armed “community self defense” group is INDEED a militia.  

They told these groups to form and begin establishing “safe houses” and gathering information.  By gathering information, they mean identifying anyone who isn’t a radical socialist for “redistribution”.  Make no mistake, their preparedness plan is to seize your supplies and redistribute them to each other.  They are already forcibly taking over neighborhoods and buildings, and we aren’t even fully into a WROL situation.

Keep your bug-in location as low-key as possible, and if a WROL situation develops, take the same position as The Rooftop Koreans did, and be ready to defend your stuff.  

During the LA Riots of 1992, the Korean business community suffered the most loses.  Over 2,300 businesses owned by Koreans were destroyed (half of all property damage).  When they realized that the police wouldn’t be able to get help to them for over a week, the Rooftop Koreans banded together, armed themselves and began manning the roofs of their business.  For several days they exchanged gunfire with looters, but they didn’t lose anymore buildings.  Not a single Korean was charged with a crime.

Keep your preparations low key, have a way to hide them, and retain your ability to move out quickly, even if it’s only temporarily.  Retain also the ability to defend yourself.  

Operational Security means making sure that only the people who need to know are aware of your plans.  This applies to every area of life, not just preparedness.  Americans put a ridiculous amount of information on social media for everyone to see.  People brag about leaving for a two-week vacation, not realizing the OPSEC error in telling people that your home is now unoccupied and you are out of the country.

Make sure you keep your circle of people who know your preparedness plans small.  If you join a mutual aid group (see, I didn’t say militia or community self defense team), keep the group small.  You need enough people in your group to be able to band together and defend each other, but not so many that a full leadership organization is required.  Once you set up some type of large hierarchy, the potential exists for one person to force others to give things up.

Remember our goal, self-reliance and individual freedom.

But, every group needs leader, so what do we do?  We take a lesson from the military organizations of 1700s.  In the 1700s, and most of the 1800s, military units elected their officers.  In a small, 4-5 family mutual aid organization, that’s a simple and effective way to handle it.

In a WROL situation, there won’t be any “lone wolf” people after 30 days.  Find a group of like minded people and organize now.

I hope this helped you remember why we prepare, and gave you some ideas for be self-reliant.  Most importantly, I hope it inspired you to remember that we ARE a free people, and the government doesn’t really have the authority to tell us where we can go and how many of us can gather at once.

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