[AiNt-RiTe-Acres]

It’s not a venture any sane person would desire but as a prepper it’s a necessity. Personally I help anyone I can, most especially if they ask and I have the ability. Unfortunately there are those who are subject to ask with violence. All we can truly do is work to perfect a skill we hope to never use.

[LocalPrepper]

👍

[JerseyGiantChick]

Agree but be careful not to be to busy helping out other people, if they did not prepared and were lazy laughing about us that do. They make good feed and compost, but best is staying out such confrontations.

[Ark-Rose95]

I purchased a hand gun last year, my husband has not taught me how to use it yet, guess I need to try to find a handgun class so I can learn to use and clean my weapon. I think in an SHTF situation, self preservation would kick in, then regret, but all situations are different so one never really knows how they will react until they are in the situation. Being prepared is the most important step.

[LocalPrepper]

👍

[Bix]

Yes, find a firearm class and learn to use it. It could be the difference between life and death. And once you have learned to use it, keep practicing with it until it becomes an extension of you. You have to do something about 250 time to develop lasting muscle memory. So if god forbid you ever have to use you weapon, you won’t have to think about it. You’ll just react with appropriate force.

[Myst]

That’s a loaded question for sure! There are so many scenarios possible – when I do start hearing the news of what’s going on, my head spins with possibilities, all fear based. My first reaction would be to try to work with someone first, do my best to help when I can, but – I know how people are, and how hungry or scared people can be. I am also aware that I’m one of those who tends to react calmly to emergencies, staying rational and apparently thoughtful…. up until the emergency is over and my own reactions catch up. I don’t panic easy, and I consider that a good trait – believe me, it’s been tested by Life.

If it comes down to it, and I’m left with few other choices, yes, I absolutely would protect what we have here, or even myself if on the road. That sort of thing is never an easy decision or choice. But an important one. I no longer have small children to protect. But I do still place value on my own life, and the lives of those few up here on the mountain with me. If the time came, I might hesitate – just long enough to decide. For me, the choice is already made. And if you are approaching me with harmful intent and see me ‘packing’, the first choice is yours. If you see me raise a barrel, now it’s my choice and you better hope you’re faster at leaving than I am at squeezing a trigger.

[Hippocrates_Garden]

No one knows what they will, or will not do until the actual situation arises.

No one knows how it will affect them, unless and until it happens.

For me, at this moment, If I feel the need to use lethal force, it is because one or more people have put me in that position, against my will. So, they made the decision, not me, this is just the immediate feedback for their choice.

Having, for a short time, been a part-time LEO for a city just outside of Memphis, I completed the “part-time officer training” (which I felt gave us just enough information, training, and such to be really really dangerous), I did also complete the pepper spray portion of the program. The main thing I learned there, is how I react to pepper spray (in this case, “FOX” which is both pepper and CS gas), I know I have only a very few seconds before I’m incapacitated, leaving me in the same situation as if I’d been shot with anything more than a flesh wound, thus, based on experience and training, if someone points a can of spray, it is 100% equivalent to any projectile-based weapon, and the response is the same.

I’ve also been a nurse, a hospice nurse, and assisted in loading both my teenage sister into an ambulance, after she was killed in a farming accident, being hit by a train, as well as my grandmother after her passing, and numerous non-family members, being present as they were dying, at the moment of death and responding immediately after a patients demise at home under hospice care. My experiences don’t hold a candle to long time Medics, cops, and military, but I do have first-hand experience with death, so perhaps, that gives me a bit of confidence in how I’d handle it, though in none of those cases was I instrumental in their untimely demise.

While I may understand why, in a SHTF situation others may feel the need to use force to get something, then, as now, the best chance of meeting that need, is to ask. The worst thing that would happen is denial. Don’t ask and… well..

• This reply was modified 3 months, 2 weeks ago by  Hippocrates_Garden.

[JerseyGiantChick]

Sorry for you loss, you had to go true a lot.

I have my own experience as a kid dealing with the passing from my parents and some terrible accidents, it is traumatizing but you can not run and hide away from it and you must deal with it.

Also the terrifying dreams coming before the scary events, years dreams coming true a blessing or curse still do not understand.

Please stay save and use weapons wise to protect yourself and others.

[BiggKidd]

Sorry you had to go through this. Glad it didn’t get worse.