This prepper precept is common sense. It’s better to be home, rather than be a refugee in a shelter, but if you have to leave, you might not have time to pack a bag – have a Plan A and Plan B, C, and D
Plans fail, that is why we have emergencies and disasters. Things don’t always go as planned. That does not mean you should not have a plan because the very act of planning has value in itself – it helps identify problems, solutions, pitfalls, and resources.
But having a single plan is not enough. Have backups and options. You will thank yourself for it later.
Have Options, Rather Than Be a Refugee in a Shelter
These precepts are my creed, and having prepper precepts guides me when I face tough choices. A wise man once told me that when facing a moral problem, the right choice is usually the action you don’t want to take.
I am not a pollyanna person that is wishy washy or blindly follows rules, heck I have a little rebellious streak and love to know the WHY of rules, but I do respect and understand the need for law and know how vital it is for a society to have a moral code.
By knowing my beliefs in you can know how I will act. This is very important in times of stress. If you don’t want to read these each prepper precept individually, the completed list can be found here: Completed 27 Prepper Precepts.
When teaching firearms I spend the majority of the time teaching fundamentals, it’s not the coolest thing to talk about to work on but it’s the most effective at getting tight groups on target, and that is the coolest thing when it comes to range time. Fundamentals are the basics because they work. Once you master them you can adapt them to the situation. Today we are going to illustrate this by talking about shooting stance and one of the reasons progressive trainers’ teach shooters to utilize an aggressive shooting stance.
When watching shooters on the range I see a lot of them try to shoot while leaning backward. I make it a point to ask them why. Invariably there is a pause as they try to find a reason why they are leaning backward. It’s unstable, uncomfortable, and it puts a strain on your breathing. No shooters ever say this, but I suspect it’s a psychological thing. I think the new shooter leans back while firing to distance themselves from recoil, and lacking training to resolve this, it becomes ingrained in the shooter’s style.
Since the majority of firearm students are adult learners, and one of the main principles of adult education is that adults have to contrast what they know with what they are being taught simply telling the shooter to stand up straight may work in the short time, but it will not be internalized as a true change.
What you need to do is show the adult shooter why we want them to lean toward the target. We do this by SHOWING them the benefits. A good way of doing this is to have two lines of shooters (or just two if your training with a range buddy) face each other. Have the two groups face toward each other, and have one group act as shooters and have them lean backward and put their hands together to form the deadly finger gun. The other group is the aggressors; I normally have them raise an invisible knife over their head. Explain to the group that when the aggressors step forward to stab the shooters, the shooters should take a step back and fire their finger.
As an instructor the looks on the students faces is priceless. The shooters pause a second as they realize they have to shift their weight to step backwards because their center of gravity is over their heels. Next the shooters lean forward and the exercise is repeated. This time the students are able to easily move and shoot.
So now the student actually sees that there is a reason they stand in a certain position. By leaning aggressively toward the target the shooter is much more stable, and having a balanced stance allows them to move easily if needed. It also gives a psychological boost that is much more positive than leaning backward as if afraid of the gun.
Stay tuned for more fundamentals, and we will eventually get around to talking about the reasons for all the other shooting fundamentals…
If you are going to carry a firearm you need to understand the judicious use of force. If this term in new to you please watch the video. This is the topic I teach the most. It is essential to understand reasonableness when discussing the appropriate use of force.
According to Wikipedia Massad Ayoob is an internationally known firearms and self-defense instructor. He has taught police techniques and civilian self-defense to both law enforcement officers and private citizens since 1974.
He was the director of the Lethal Force Institute (LFI) in Concord, New Hampshire from 1981 to 2009. Ayoob now directs the Massad Ayoob Group (MAG).
More than that bio Mr. Ayoob writes some of the best firearm books on the subject of the legal aftermath of a self defense shooting. I widely quote his work in my classes, and recommend his books courses and videos to my students.
What I like most about Ayoob’s work is when he discusses the legalities of force. The use of deadly force for self defense is an extremely serious subject with extreme consequences for being wrong.
What is important is a person’s judicious use of force. Using the appropriate type and level of force at the right time is vital to both survival as well as ensuring continued freedom.
As a law abiding citizen I try to follow the rules, even if I don’t agree with them, or if they don’t make sense. However there are occasions when you should not follow the rules and the video should explain why.
This is a rant, I named my school the Shepherd School for a purpose, and that is because I believe, those of us that have families have the absolute obligation to protect our families. Some of us take that to the next logical step and use our skill to protect others. I am seeing a trend where instead of relying on our own common sense to protect us, we are relying on blind obedience to rules. We have stopped analyzing the motives behind the rules and that is causing problems.
Now, I have no problem with rules, I am definitely no anarchist – Without rules and the consequences of breaking rules we would be in a dog eat dog – might makes right world. And there is always someone stronger. Who would protect my home while I was at work? It would be the definition of a Without Rule of Law (WROL) Situation talked about so frequently on youtube. It seems to me that those advocating total anarchy are either naive, or planning on being the baddest guy in the room.
That said, I have a definite problem with overreaching rules. I do not need someone attempting to legislate my own common sense. I understand the need to protect society from the aberrant individual, but we have allowed the lawmakers to protect us against ourselves. The underlying thought is that you are not smart enough or responsible enough to protect yourselves, so we are going to dictate your actions for you. Congress is not my father, and I am not a child.
What makes it worse is that this legislation is often permanent, but the cause of the rule is not. This creates a log jam of rules on top of rules fixing problems that no longer exist. We have hundreds of thousands of pages of laws with more being added each year. It’s gotten to the point where they say things like “We have to pass the bill so you can find out what is in it”. I do not care what yoru political affiliation is or how important you think the an issue is, you should never accept a law that even the legislature passing the law does not understand.
When you look at writing a law, you should not look at what the law is purported to fix, you should look at the potential abuses of the law if it is enforced improperly.
Unfortunately, choosing for yourself is hard, taking responsibility for yourself is hard, watching the watchers is hard, and none of this is popular. Sometimes standing out and speaking up for what is right is considered deviant, and in the world we have allowed to be created being deviant for good is more suspect than being deviant for evil.
I just want to end with a favorite quote of mine.
“I will accept the rules that you feel necessary to your freedom. I am free, no matter what rules surround me. If I find them tolerable, I tolerate them; if I find them too obnoxious, I break them. I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do.” Robert A Heinlein
This entry into the prepper precepts list may make some preppers nervous. Buying gold is the “gold standard” of prepping.
Be balanced in what you buy. Gold is nice, but it’s used to buy stuff in the event money is worthless. With that in mind, it’s much cheaper to just buy the stuff now. A wheat grinder is $40 now, but how much do you think it will cost if everybody actually needs them to eat?
Be balanced in what you buy, you will need money, and you may need gold, but you will always need food, clothing, and shelter. Cash and other money is used to barter time for stuff. It may be a better deal just to have the stuff.
Financial preparedness is part of the total package. You can’t buy what you need if you can’t control your money. For that reason I recommend all preppers look into Dave Ramsey’s Total Money Makeover.
These precepts are my creed, and having prepper precepts guides me when I face tough choices. A wise man once told me that when facing a moral problem, the right choice is usually the action you don’t want to take.
I am not a pollyanna person that is wishy washy or blindly follows rules, heck I have a little rebellious streak and love to know the WHY of rules, but I do respect and understand the need for law and know how vital it is for a society to have a moral code.
By knowing what I believe in you can know how I will act. This is very important in times of stress. If you don’t want to read these precepts one by one, the completed list can be found here: Completed 27 Prepper Precepts.
