[Mr. 16 gauge]

What type of event are you planning to survive? And for how long?

If a man-made or natural disaster wiped out all electric power in the USA, More than 90%of the population would die with the next several weeks. No gasoline, no refrigeration, no food or medicine distribution, no communication, no hospitals, cholera outbreaks from all the unburied corpses, polutted water, etc.

Interesting that this thread should resurface on the 5th anniversary of hurricane Katrina hitting New Orleans.

Survival can be a long term or short term thing....I've heard it said that we are 9 meals away from anarchy, meaning most people only have 3 days supply of food in their homes.
If Katrina taught us anything, its that one must depend on one's self, and not an outside agency or the kindness of strangers, if one is to survive a disaster. There were a few folks who didnt want saving, IIRC....they had food & water and were doing O.K.
Don't forget the foolishness of folks like Ray Nagel, who wanted to confiscate everyone's firearms after the disaster. MOLON LABE!!!!...esp. in this scenario!
We (my family) are reasonably prepared....we have canned, dried, and home canned goods, a supply of water for drinking and washing, medicines, a radio, a fair amount of camping gear, candle lamps, a wood fireplace and a fair amount of wood, and each other. Not to mention several firearms and a very large amount of ammo. When I tell people this, the kiddingly say "Hell, we'll come over to your house". My reply is always the same....."Don't! You'll only get a bullet for your trouble." The act surpised and horrified, but I mean every word. I did what I did for my loved ones in the event of a disaster....not to keep the whole neighborhood functioning! If someone else doesn't have the fore sight to do that for himself and his family, that's his loss!

If it ever got that bad, very few of us would survive, no matter what firearms we owned.

I disagree......If you have the necessary supplies, you'll survive. Firearms will prevent unscrupulous people from taking what you have and leaving you to rot!

No gasoline, no refrigeration, no food or medicine distribution, no communication, no hospitals, cholera outbreaks from all the unburied corpses, polutted water, etc.

If I have isolated myself from all those incidents, I have little to worry about now, don't I? As far as medications go, I have a good supply, but even if I run out, there are several cases where you can survive w/o it. Hypertension meds are a good example.....there are a lot of folks who quit taking their meds (for various reasons) and still manage to hang on. Same with oral diabetic meds, heart meds, ect.

What I would worry about more than other things is the remnants of "society" coming out of the cities ..especially in the east and west coast areas. They will be organized and will come for what you have and have no doubt...they will be organized.

Respectfully, I disagree.....they will not be organized & it will be "mob rule", and they will prey on their own in their own neighborhoods; I feel they will stay in areas that they are 'comfortable' with. This is what happened during the riots in the 60's in Detroit and Watts, and in New Orleans when Katrina hit. I lived through the Detroit riots....everyone was afraid of mobs coming to the suburbs, but it never happened; the rioters prefered to prey on each other. (which is a good reason to have a 'black rifle' or two as well as a slug gun & some buckshot handy).

Lets hope and pray it never gets to that point.......