If there’s anything that COVID has shown us, it’s the fragility of our medical system. Early on in the pandemic, before we really knew what we were dealing with, health officials started calling for lockdowns so that the hospitals wouldn’t be overrun.

That first lockdown was extended over and over again, but the hospitals were able to keep up with the number of COVID patients coming to their doors. Later, when the second surge of cases came, they didn’t do so well and they haven’t done any better with the third surge that is still going on as of this writing.

Part of the problem was capacity. Hospitals are businesses and they are built to handle the number of cases they expect to receive. Empty hospital beds, just like empty hotel beds, don’t generate any revenue; so hospitals can’t afford to just have a few hundred extra rooms and beds, “just in case.”

The Pandemic

Another piece of the puzzle was that during the first surge of the disease, hospitals all but shut down for anything but COVID, sending other patients home and canceling other services, especially elective services, to make room for COVID patients.

But that had its own price, as people didn’t receive the medical help they needed for other ailments. Eventually, the hospitals had to stop that policy as it was affecting the health of patients who were not getting the services they needed.

That, in turn, led to the shortage of hospital beds in the second and third surges of the disease. As cases started rising again, hospitals were taxed to their limits, trying to take care of their patients. More and more people with COVID were sent home to recuperate, saving the beds for only the most severe cases.

Keep in mind that I’m talking about a disease that kills only two percent of the people who come down with it. As of this writing, just shy of 13 percent of our total population has been diagnosed with the disease. That means that only 0.2 percent of the population has died of it.

What would happen if a more easily transmitted and more deadly disease swept across our country? Would we see something like the Black Plague, where medical people were abandoning their posts out of fear for their own lives? Would we see a total collapse of our medical system?

What Should We Each Do in Such a Case?

As a society, we have become perhaps a bit too dependent on our medical professionals.

I don’t mean to malign them in any way, but we expect to go to them for every little problem, seeking an answer.

Yet that wasn’t possible through most of world history and even today there are large parts of the globe where people rarely go to doctors. They either treat family members at home or possibly end up dying.

How do we make sure that we don’t die, should we be faced with a medical collapse? Our first actions can have much to do with whether or not we will be counted amongst the survivors.

Gather Medicines

If our medical community collapses, one of the biggest impacts will be that we won’t be able to get prescriptions from our doctors. According to the latest estimates, something like 60 percent of Americans takes a least one prescription medicine for some sort of chronic disease.

While I’m sure that not all of those chronic diseases are life-threatening, I’m also sure that a good percentage of them are. As soon as it even looks like a medical collapse is about to happen, it only makes sense to get your doctor to prescribe extra medications so that you can stock up.

But it shouldn’t stop with just those medications that are needed for chronic conditions. Without the ability to go to the doctor or hospital, people will be treating themselves. That will cause pharmacy shelves to go bare of both prescription and non-prescription medicines quickly.

Beating the rush is about the only way to ensure that you will have those medicines on hand, even if that does add to the shortage.

An important part of this is stocking up on common antibiotics if you can. There are a lot of infections and diseases for which doctors prescribe antibiotics. We need to be ready for those, having the meds on hand for them. Fortunately, a few antibiotics will take care of most situations.

Build a Family First-Aid Kit

Illness won’t be the only thing to be concerned about in the wake of a medical collapse; injuries are a very real issue as well.

I’m not talking skinned knees and minor cuts here; I’m referring to the more major injuries we can receive from an axe, chain saw or gunshot wound, as well as broken bones that can happen while working or through an accident.

There’s actually a lot we can do in these cases.

Unless it is a serious enough injury where a doctor is actually needed, first-aid will often be sufficient, allowing the body to heal itself.

Proper first-aid is even more essential, stopping the blood flow, cleaning the wound and preventing shock. Without that, the patient might not even make it to competent medical care.

While it is at least somewhat possible to use makeshift first-aid supplies, if those aren’t organized together in a kit, precious time could be wasted, while a family member is losing blood. Better to have a kit ready, with everything organized in such a way that it is easy to find. That way, your chances of saving a life are better and you might not need that doctor.

Self-Isolate

If the medical collapse happens because of another pandemic, then the most logical thing for any of us to do is to self-quarantine, regardless of what the government says. I realize the lockdowns weren’t popular, I didn’t like them either.

But back in 1819, when the Spanish Flu hit, people self-quarantined if someone in the family came down with the disease. They didn’t need to be ordered to do so, they just did.

But that’s not really what I’m talking about. The best defense against any disease is to isolate yourself from anyone who might be a carrier of that disease. Since it is common for people to be infectious for a couple of days before there are any overt symptoms, there’s no real way of knowing who might be contagious and who might not be.

Therefore, the only true protection is to isolate yourself from everyone you can, ensuring that they can’t transfer a disease pathogen to you.

Take Vitamins

I’m not really a fan of vitamins. Perhaps that’s because my mother was big on vitamins and she overdid it when I was growing up. Nevertheless, I readily admit their usefulness in protecting the body, especially in how they can help fortify the body’s immune system.

Garlic is one of the most amazing substances there is, being an antiviral, antibiotic and antifungal all rolled up in one. My wife and I started taking garlic capsules as soon as we heard that COVID started. Other great natural antibiotics include oregano, ginger, honey, and turmeric.

In addition, we started taking vitamin C, vitamin E and zinc, all of which fortify the immune system. If medicines are scarce, we’ve got to use what we can and fortifying the body’s immune system, so that it can overcome any infection seems to make sense.

Learn About Herbal Medicines

Speaking of garlic and vitamins, I’ve become more and more of a believer in herbal medicines as I’ve grown older. Modern medicine is actually an outgrowth of herbal medicine, with the big pharmaceutical houses artificially reproducing chemical substances they find in nature, which have curative properties.

They have to do that because they can’t patent something that they find in nature. But if that’s the case, then wouldn’t the substance found in nature actually be better?

The big problem with herbal medicines is that it is inexact science. If you need a pharmaceutical medicine for blood pressure, the doctor writes a prescription, detailing what medicine, how large a dose and how often to take it. But with herbs, all you can find is something like “These herbs can help with blood pressure, make a tea out of them and drink it.”

No dosage, no frequency, just do it. That doesn’t make most people very comfortable.

At the same time, pharmaceutical medicines can be concentrated, when compared to herbal medicines, allowing them to be more effective. Since we have no idea how much garlic to take, so as to equal the antibiotic strength of any of the common antibiotics on the market, herbal cures may not seem to be as effective.

But if a medical crisis ever comes that’s serious enough, the only medicines we might have access to are those herbal cures. So regardless of their failings, they’re something we should endeavor to learn about, just in case we need to use them.

Lose Weight

Finally, there are a number of common chronic medical problems which are directly associated with being weight. We have an obesity epidemic in our nation today and it is one of the prime contributors to why so many people are taking prescription medicines on a regular basis.

If we can lose enough weight, it will help eliminate problems with high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes and high cholesterol. Considering that medicines for those conditions might be difficult to come by during a medical crisis, then losing weight, even though a starvation diet, is a better option than having a heart attack.

Forward thinkers are always ostracized. It has been that way throughout history. Preppers are no different. We just ought to be thankful we are not living in the time of Socrates, or else we would be lining up for the hemlock.

From large scale civil unrest to the one of an EMP generated by the sun, it’s clear that preppers have been way ahead of their time. These topics were once deemed “paranoid”, or “delusional” but all of the sudden names in pop culture and even world governments are paying attention to these types of threats.

One such threat seems to be leading the pack and has shown up in many recent government reports. FEMA in particular seems to be concerned about the threat of a geomagnetic storm that would emanate from the sun and cause massive power outages across the planet.

A once classified FEMA report has surfaced and goes in depth on the level of preparations and concern that they have for a storm of this magnitude.

Understanding Reports and Unpublished Documents

The government buys ammo, writes and drafts lots of reports and documents that never really see the light of day. Now, we must be smart about that bit of information.

It’s important to take a look at these for what they are. There is a lot of research and science that goes into creating these drafts and reports. They are not a bunch of made up steps and stats.

However, some of these reports are also never going to be acted upon. That means, though the report may contain some very effective information, it’s not going to affect law or protocol in any way.

To be completely clear, what we have here is an unpublished document that was written by FEMA. It contains some very important information that confirms the government’s understanding of the EMP threat posed by our own sun.

The title of this unpublished report is very telling.

Mitigation Strategies for FEMA Command, Control and Communications During and After a Solar Superstorm

FEMA and NOAA’s Geomagnetic Storm Timeline

There are many takeaways from this classified FEMA report, but the geomagnetic storm timeline is the core of this document. This timeline shows that this report was put together with a tremendous amount of research and a focus on following the solar superstorm, from its start as a sunspot all the way crashing into the earth’s atmosphere.

G Minus 5 Days

This is the first spotting of the large sunspot on the surface of the sun. The focus is on large, complex magnetic fields on the surface of the sun. From this point we would have a 5 day window to prepare, but it would be very hard to determine the threat at this point.

G Minus 17 Hours

At the launching of a massive CME we are left with just 17 hours to prepare. Radio, radiation storms and geomagnetic storm warnings and watches are also issued at this point.

G Minus 16 hours 40 minutes

The solar radiation storm arrives at this time and we lose 15% of our satellite fleet due to solar panel damage. There could be greater loss and efficacy issues with GPS.

We would have about 20 minutes notice before this happened. “We” doesn’t necessarily mean you and I would hear anything.

G Minus 15 minutes

CME arrives at the NASA ACE Satellite.

There is no going back from this point. This is basically the point when we have an EMP on our planetary doorstep.

0 Hour

Services Interrupted

At the heart of the EMP fear is the loss of services. We all know that once shipping stops things get ugly fast. When the food and medicine are no longer being shuttled around the nation, people get hungry and desperate.

Water systems will also be affected by an EMP. Much of the process that cleans your water is governed by computers and machine systems. Those go away, too!

In this report they discussed something that was very interesting in terms of communications and infrastructure. It is called the “Cascading Loss of Last Mile Telecommunications over Time”. It’s a terrifying look at how over the span of 8 days all communications will fall, starting with communications from home telecom lines.

The diagram below offers up a telling scenario where this cascading loss takes its grip starting at the residential level and working its way through to the Central Office.EMP Recovery

The infrastructure needed to tackle EMP recovery is expensive and hard to make. That’s the deal. We are talking about things like oil cooled transformers that are 60,000 a piece and require special equipment to move around.

Special equipment that will likely not be EMP proof!

Recovery from an EMP is something of a pipe dream if we are honest and if the whole nation is affected. Maybe the military could bring up sections of the grid at a time, or maybe not. However, it really is more of a countdown on human life.

The survival of our society will depend on how many people die in the time it takes to recover from that EMP.

What to Make of all This Reporting?

There are two big takeaways from all these documents coming to light, research being done and even Donald Trump bringing the threat of an EMP to the forefront.

#1. People are Paying Attention

While we can all agree that our bloated government is full of people looking for a way to bide their time and get another day closer to pension, this keeps coming up. Grid down situations are a concern in the halls of government. I don’t think we can deny that.

Even the most cynical of us must agree that without electricity it gets much harder to collect taxes.

How far they will go to take action against an EMP threat is another thing entirely. However, we also have to be honest about our responsibility in this.

We the people cannot bray about small government all day and then complain that they aren’t 100% prepared to assist the public following a total grid down situation.

#2. A Prepper’s Responsibility

The second and more important takeaway from this report is that we have a responsibility to prepare and get as many others prepared as possible.

A widespread grid down situation is going to kill anyone who is not prepared for it. It’s even going to kill tons of people who are prepared for it. Now is the time to take action and make your action known. I really believe that us, preppers, can influence the world positively.

People might seem put off by the message but, trust me, they go home, and they think about putting up their own food and being ready for when disaster strikes.

The prophet Isaiah warns us that in the last days God is going to “turn the world upside down.” He declares, “Behold, the Lord maketh the earth empty, and maketh it waste, and turneth it upside down” (Isaiah 24:1).

According to this prophecy, sudden judgment is coming upon the earth, and it will change everything in a single hour. Within that short span, the whole world will witness fast-falling destruction upon a city and a nation, and the world will never be the same.

If you are attached to material things — if you love this world and the things of it — you won’t want to hear what Isaiah has prophesied. In fact, even to the most righteous of God’s people, what Isaiah says might seem unthinkable. Many would surely ask, “How can an entire world be stricken in one hour?”

If we didn’t believe the Bible is God’s pure Word, few of us would take Isaiah’s prophecy seriously. But Scripture makes it clear: in a single hour, the world is going to change. The church is going to change. And every individual on earth is going to change.

The apostle John gives a similar warning in Revelation. He speaks of destructive judgment coming upon a city and nation: “In one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her…. For in one hour so great riches is come to nought” (Revelation 18:8, 17).

In Isaiah’s prophecy, the city under judgment is cast into confusion. Every house is shut up, with no one coming or going. “The city of confusion is broken down: every house is shut up, that no man may come in” (Isaiah 24:10). The entire city is left desolate: “In the city is left desolation, and the gate is smitten with destruction” (24:12). All entrances and exits to the city are gone. The passage indicates that a fire has come, a blast that has shaken the very foundations of the earth (see 24:6).

We who live in New York City know something about this kind of scene. When the Twin Towers were attacked, the ominous fires and smoke could be seen ascending to heaven for miles. Recently, New Yorkers panicked as a mass of steam erupted from below a city street. People ran in all directions screaming, “Is this it? Is this the end-all attack?”

Today, multitudes of secular prophets are saying a nuclear attack is inevitable. The target they mention most often is New York, but it could happen in any major city: London, Paris, Tel Aviv, Washington. Neither Isaiah nor John names the city upon which destructive judgment falls.I don’t intend this message to frighten anyone.

Let me make clear at this point: I don’t intend this message to frighten anyone. Paul tells us that as disciples of Jesus Christ, we have already passed from death into life. We who call on Jesus as Lord should be confident that no matter what happens in this world, his shed blood saves and redeems us.

Therefore, we are not to fear any newscast, but rather to be attentive to what the Lord is doing in the world. Like many people, I hear grievous reports that make me want to tune everything out. But the truth is, God moves in the midst of such times, and through them he speaks warnings to all who would hear his voice.Isaiah’s prophecy points clearly to our generation.

I believe, along with many eminent Bible scholars, that Isaiah’s prophecy points to the last days. By that, I mean our present time. In short, sudden judgment is coming, and Scripture strongly indicates it is now at the door.

At this point you may be wondering: “How can we be sure we’re the generation this prophecy points to?” We can know by two reasons that such judgments are imminent:

1.A growing number of prophets warn of an apocalyptic disaster at the door. When I use the word “prophets,” I speak not just of those in the church. I’m talking also about “secular prophets.”

There are several precedents for secular prophets in Scripture. God used Assyria as his rod of correction with Israel. And he appointed King Cyrus as his servant to assist Israel: “(The Lord) saith of Cyrus, He is my shepherd, and shall perform all my pleasure” (Isaiah 44:28).

Likewise today, God uses secular prophets to send warnings. These become “his prophets” for a season. And their prophecies can be harder than those delivered by believers. The message I’m writing here is mild compared to the prophecies being delivered by all manner of secular voices. Just check your newspaper or radio reports.

“Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets” (Amos 3:7).

2.Sudden destruction comes when the cup of violence overflows. Sensuality, perversion and greed are running rampant throughout our society. Yet, when God sent the Flood upon the earth, it was because of a worldwide eruption of violence: “The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence” (Genesis 6:11).

Right now, there are numerous wars and bloody uprisings taking place around the globe. Yet foremost in my mind is the violence being waged against children worldwide:

• I think of the sexual violence of pedophiles. Children all over the world are being raped, kidnapped and forced into enslavement in the global sex trade. Recently, a pedophile in the U.S. was discovered running a web site that advises other pedophiles on the easiest places to pick up children. There is no law in place to stop this man. The world’s largest church denomination has spent hundreds of millions of dollars to settle the claims of those who were molested in childhood by clergy. Tell me, how long will God endure the pitiful cries of children who are molested by those who would represent Christ?
• Thousands of children in Africa are being slaughtered in tribal wars, hacked to death by machetes. Young boys — even those under ten years of age — are enlisted into tribal militias and forced to murder men in initiation rites.
• Here in the U.S., the blood of millions of aborted babies cries out from the ground.
• Reports of school murders no longer shock many of us but continue to terrorize our children. We may grow hardened to such reports, but God’s heart is grieved by them.

I tell you, there is no worse violence than the brutalizing of children. Heaven is crying out, “Woe, woe! Your judgments have no cure.”1. In one hour, God is going to change the whole world.

A sudden cataclysmic event will strike, the first of the final judgments of God. This great event will cause the earth to reel. And Isaiah says that when it hits, there will be no place to escape: “The lofty [proud] city, he layeth it low…even to the ground; he bringeth it even to the dust” (Isaiah 26:5). “The inhabitants of the earth are burned” (24:6).

Once this happens, utter chaos will erupt. All civic activities will stop, and society will descend into massive disorder. Government agencies will be helpless to restore any kind of sanity. No state troopers, no national guard, no army will be able to bring order to the upheaval.

You well remember that when the Twin Towers were destroyed, help poured into New York from all over the world. An army of people came to assist in whatever way they could. But the scene in Isaiah’s prophecy is different: this calamity is clearly beyond humankind’s capacity to respond.

Once this judgment strikes, it will devastate the economy. Rich merchants will stand by watching in torment, weeping and mourning, as they face bankruptcy. In an instant, all the wealth they amassed will be reduced to nothing. John describes the scene: “The merchants of these things, which were made rich by her, shall stand afar off for the fear of her torment, weeping and wailing, saying, Alas, alas that great city… For in one hour so great riches is come to nought” (Revelation 18:15–17).

Overnight, all buying and selling will cease. Every restaurant and bar will be shut down, and all drinking and music making will end. Indeed, every trace of mirth and delight, joy and gladness, will vanish: “All the merryhearted do sigh. The mirth of tabrets ceaseth, the noise of them that rejoice endeth, the joy of the harp ceaseth. They shall not drink wine with a song…. The mirth of the land is gone” (Isaiah 24:7–9, 11).

Yes, this is a picture of gloom and doom. But it is not my prophecy. This word was given by the Holy Spirit of Almighty God, to be delivered by his righteous prophet Isaiah. Even the secular world is preparing for it to happen. Billions are being spent on homeland security in the U.S., England, Europe and Israel. Why? Military experts warn that a world-impacting terrorist attack is sure to come.

You may ask: “Why would the whole world change, if a nuclear attack occurs in just one city?” It will happen because of the fear of retaliation. If a rogue nation sends such an attack, you can be sure that within hours that nation will be wiped out. Consider the plan Israel has in place, known as the Samson Option. The moment a nuclear warhead is launched against them, within moments Israel will unleash nuclear missiles to devastate the capital cities of all enemy states.

The world has become a ticking bomb, and time is quickly running out.2. In one hour, God is going to change the church.

This hour of devastation will suddenly change churches, whether they are alive or dead. Isaiah writes, “There shall be the shaking as of an olive tree” (Isaiah 24:13). The image is of God shaking an olive tree after it has been picked of fruit. In short, he’s going to shake everything that can be shaken, sparing nothing. It will be a time of cataclysmic destruction and overwhelming darkness.

So, you ask, “What about God’s people in the midst of all this? What will happen to the church?” Isaiah gives us an incredible word about what will happen with believers.

In the midst of the terrible shaking, a song will be heard, and its sound will grow steadily stronger. Suddenly, in that darkest of hours, a worldwide chorus of voices will sing praises to the majesty of God: “They shall lift up their voice, they shall sing for the majesty of the Lord, they shall cry aloud from the sea” (24:14).

Do you get the picture? There will be panic everywhere. Men’s hearts will fail them for fear, as fires belch smoke seen for hundreds of miles. Disorder and chaos will reign on all sides. Yet amid the devastating fires and calamity, the world will hear a glorious song being sung: “Glorify ye the Lord in the fires, even the name of the Lord God of Israel… From the uttermost part of the earth have we heard songs, even glory to the righteous [One]” (Isaiah 24:15–16).

A holy remnant is going to awaken, and a song will be born in the fire. Instead of panicking, the people of God will be praising his awesome majesty. Imagine it: in the darkest hour of all time, a collective voice will rise by the millions out of every nation, not in fear or agony, but in joyful praise to the Lord.

How will this happen, you ask? In one hour, God is going to regenerate and restore his church. Dry bones will shake and rattle, and the righteous will be awakened, as the Holy Spirit calls multitudes of lukewarm believers back to their first love. In his mercy, he’s going to rouse those who have neglected him, ignoring his Word, avoiding prayer, perhaps even contemplating divorce. Suddenly, their souls will be flooded with pangs of remorse and godly sorrow. And many will fall on their knees, crying out in repentance.

There will be a revival of glorifying God’s majesty. And the song of this revival will be heard from the uttermost parts of the earth. East, west, north and south — from Arab lands to China, Indonesia, Africa and all parts of the earth — a glorious song will rise up from the midst of the fires. In one day’s time, those who survived the fires are going to be singing a new song throughout the world.Isaiah 25 tells us wonderful miracles will come in this time, as “God makes all things new.”

All around the world, the Lord’s people are going to “feast” on his Word: “In this mountain shall the Lord of hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined” (Isaiah 25:6).

“And he will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering cast over all people, and the veil that is spread over all nations” (25:7). Right now, in this time of prosperity, the world’s masses seem to be covered with a veil, unable to see the truth of Jesus Christ. But when God rises up to shake the world through judgment, the shrouds covering the minds of billions will be cast aside. The veil of darkness will be removed, and many will see the Lord in his glory. The Holy Spirit won’t force Christ upon these opened eyes and hearts; rather, a remnant is going to rise up from among them.

I believe the darkest shroud-coverings today are over the eyes and hearts of youth worldwide. This is especially true of college-age students, whose faith has been bombarded for up to four years. Over that time their minds have been indoctrinated by godless professors in classrooms where belief is attacked, mocked and scorned. Now these young men’s and women’s faith has been shipwrecked. They leave college convinced God is dead.

But in one hour of devastation — nuclear, economic and social — all such hypocritical veils are going to fall away. Those same professors who mocked them will realize, as they face the possibility of death, a choice must be made: “What about eternity? Is there life after death?” They’re going to look for someone to explain to them all that’s happening.

When the song is sung, it’s going to be heard by young people from every walk of life, from every nation under the sun. Many will harden their hearts and curse God at the sound of this song, but multitudes of others will join in singing of his majesty.3. In one hour, God is going to change us as individuals.

In a single hour, the focus of our lives will be changed. We’ll no longer obsess about our own adversities and troubles. Suddenly, so many things that we held dear will no longer be of any value to us. Why? In that hour, everyone will be in the same boat:

“It shall be, as with the people, so with the priest; as with the servant, so with his master; as with the maid, so with her mistress; as with the buyer, so with the seller; as with the lender, so with the borrower; as with the taker of usury, so with the giver of usury to him” (Isaiah 24:2).

The sudden judgment that comes will not be a respecter of anyone. Rather, it is going to touch all who are within the realm of its fury. Presidents, kings, the world’s richest and most famous — all will tremble just like the poorest of the earth. And this cataclysmic event will bring to naught every idol, purging iniquity and tearing down all false altars:

“By this [the calamity] therefore shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged; and this is all the fruit to take away his sin; when he maketh all the stones of the altar as chalkstones that are beaten in sunder, the groves and images shall not stand up [be left standing]” (Isaiah 27:9).

The world’s most prominent idol is money, and right now America is facing a monstrous financial disaster. Investors are scrambling to move their money out of high-risk funds, and mortgage companies are going bankrupt. One recent financial headline read, “Abandon Ship!” Everyone is selling and nobody is buying. Many households are in a panic, as overnight their lives are changing. I think of the president of a multi-billion-dollar hedge fund, who recently put up for sale his 142-foot yacht and his sixteen-bedroom mansion in Aspen, Colorado. His fund had dried up virtually overnight.

The day is coming when sports will be the last thing on people’s minds. I have nothing against sports, but soon there will be no more 250-million-dollar deals for athletes, when so much of the world is starving. All idols will come crashing down, crushed to dust, and the playing field will be leveled. The richest and the poorest alike will face the same conditions.

It will all happen within a day. “When they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape” (1 Thessalonians 5:3).Why such apocalyptic warnings?

You may wonder: what good can come of these prophetic messages? Why should anyone have to live under such anxiety?

I remind you, Jesus warned Jerusalem of sudden devastation to come upon that city. It was going to be burned to the ground, with over a million people murdered. Christ explained his warning: “I have told you before it come to pass, that, when it is come to pass, ye might believe” (John 14:29). He was saying, in essence, “When it happens, you’ll know there is a God who loves you and forewarned you.”

Paul calls such warnings “light,” insights that expel darkness. He says, in short: “You are children of light, because you know what’s coming in the future. So, when destruction comes, and there’s panic all around, you will have the calm of the Holy Spirit. Something will quicken inside you, and you’ll remember, ‘God warned me.’ This prophecy isn’t a message of wrath to God’s people, but a wakeup call to begin preparing.”

“God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him” (1 Thessalonians 5:9–10). Paul is speaking here of a time of possible destruction. Therefore, he says, “Comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye do” (5:11).

In this day of prosperity, nobody wants to hear a message like Isaiah’s. I certainly don’t want to hear it. But we cannot ignore it, because it is here at our door. In such times, Paul says, when we have knowledge that sudden destruction is coming, we are not to tremble or sorrow as the world does. Instead, we are to comfort one another in faith, knowing that God rules over every aspect of our lives.

“Be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation” (5:8). Paul instructs, “Arm yourself with faith. Build up your belief now, before the day comes. Learn your song, and you’ll be able to sing it in your fire.” “Glorify ye the Lord in the fires, even the name of the Lord God of Israel” (Isaiah 24:15).

This is the hope of our most holy faith: our Lord causes a song to come out of the darkest of times. Start now to build up your holy faith in him, and learn to praise his majesty quietly in your heart. When you sing your song, it will strengthen and encourage your brothers and sisters. And it will testify to the world: “Our Lord reigns over the Flood!” ■

We do a lot of talking about electrical power in the prepping and survival community: specifically, how we can survive without it. But surviving without electrical power isn’t the only way that we should be concerned about it. Electrical power production can be dangerous in and of itself, especially when we talk about things like nuclear power.

There are plenty of statistics around, which show just how safe nuclear power is. But there are also some rather spectacular examples of accidents involving nuclear power plants.

While nuclear power is safe, when all those safety measures fail, the results can be catastrophic. All anyone has to do is mention nuclear power and people instantly remember the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster of 2011, the Chernobyl disaster in 1986 and the Three Mile Island accident in 1979. Those aren’t the only reactor accidents, by the way; but they three of the top five.

We currently have 60 commercially operated nuclear power plants, containing a total of 98 nuclear reactors. Surprisingly, the state of Illinois has the most, with a total of 11 operating reactors. A total of 12 states generate more than 30% of their power through the use of nuclear power.

In addition to these, there are another 39 smaller nuclear reactors which are not used for the generation of electrical power, but are housed in research facilities. These reactors produce radioisotopes for nuclear medicine, as well as being used in training and as laboratory tools. Some are working on developing new technologies, seeking to make nuclear power even safer for use.

Our fleet of nuclear power plants is aging though, with the average age being 39 years. That’s fairly serious, when we consider that they have been designed to last a mere 50 years. The oldest of those plants entered service in 1969, putting it over that 50 year threshold. That’s only one of four which have already surpassed their expected service life.

On the other end of that scale, there is only one nuclear power plant which is less than 20 years old. Thanks to environmental activists, it is extremely difficult to open nuclear power plants, even though it is one of the cleanest forms of energy production there is.

How Much Risk is There?

In today’s day and age, the big question isn’t so much how many reactors we have or whether they are inherently safe, but whether anyone could make them unsafe. Stories abound about hackers trying to break into our electrical grid, including our nuclear power plant. There’s even one story about some foreign power hacking into one of our nuclear power plants and taking control of it for several hours.

The potential damage that could be caused by someone taking control of one of our reactors is definitely something to be concerned about. Can you imagine the panic that would occur if one of the recent ransomware attacks that have hit our country were to have been aimed against one of our nuclear power plants? Or how about if the pilots who flew those airliners into the twin towers on 9-11 had aimed for a nuclear power plant instead?

The truth of the matter is, with people who are willing to do anything, including putting their own lives on the table as gambling chips, our nuclear power plants are vulnerable to attack. While I have been assured that the computer controls to those plants are not tied into the internet or any other network, making them supposedly impervious to hacking, all it would take is one unscrupulous worker accepting a bribe to make them vulnerable. There are also many ways in which a direct attack on one of the plants could be catastrophic.

Our big question isn’t whether something could happen to a nuclear power plant, but how bad it would be and whether or not we should be concerned. That will vary for all of us, depending on how close we live to one of those plants. Even the 19 states which don’t have a nuclear power plant could be at risk of fallout, if a plant were to be destroyed upwind of them.

Nuclear Emergency Planning Zones

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has established two different types of emergency planning zones (EPZs) around every nuclear reactor in the country. The closer in zone is called the “plume exposure pathway EPZ” and extends about 10 miles in every direction around a nuclear plant.

The big concern in this case, is the inhalation of airborne radioactive contamination. The farther zone is called the “ingestion pathway EPZ” and is concerned with food and liquids which might become contaminated and then ingested. This zone extends roughly 50 miles around the power plant.

As the power plants are constantly monitored, with extensive redundancy in the monitoring methods used, the NRC expects to be able to issue warnings and alerts should any unexpected radiation escape from one of our nuclear power plants.

But there is ample reason to question these EPZs, based upon past nuclear accidents. Japanese officials weren’t able to determine a proper safe zone from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station. As a compromise, they set a distance of just 30 km, with the first 20 km being a mandatory evacuation zone and the following 10 km being voluntary.

Many organizations, including the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) came out saying that 30 km wasn’t far enough. Several countries, including the United States, recommended that citizens visiting Japan keep a minimum of 80 km away.

Yet radiation from that accident spread from four of the six reactors, contaminating the Pacific Ocean. That radiation, as well as airborne radiation carried by air currents reached the western coast of the United States, killing a considerable amount of marine life.

What About Explosion?

One of the big questions about nuclear power plants is whether or not they can explode. This has been a popular theme in science fiction and even a few movies; but in reality, a nuclear power plant cannot produce a fission explosion. The nuclear fuel is too dilute to form the critical mass necessary to produce a chain reaction, leading to an explosion. So at least we’re all safe from that.

While we don’t have to worry about a nuclear explosion from the reactors, that doesn’t mean any of us are safe. The Fukushima accident was created by an earthquake that caused a tsunami. Other similar disasters could cause similar results at literally any other nuclear reactor, anywhere in the world.

Are You in Danger?

Whether or not you are in danger from a nuclear power accident depends mostly on your proximity to a nuclear power plant. Fortunately, this information is public and easy to find. All you have to do is search online for nuclear power plants and you can find the information, either in map form or in list form.

Check the location of nuclear power plants in your state and in neighboring states if you live near the state’s border. If you are outside the 50 mile zone, about the only way that you could be affected by a nuclear power plant catastrophe, would be if someone blew the plant up with a large enough bomb to cast nuclear material into the atmosphere, creating fallout. Other than that, you’re safe.

If you live within the danger zone, I’d recommend having an emergency evacuation plan in place; one which will take you far enough away to keep your family safe. That plan has to be one that you can put into place quickly, so that you can beat everyone else who might be evacuating as well. Don’t stop for anything, including driving back home to pick up your bug out bag. This is the type of disaster where it’s best to take action first, and then do the analysis later.

That means you have to have a supply cache somewhere outside the EPZ, so that you will have basic supplies to use if you find yourself forced to evacuate. I’d recommend establishing it at or near your survival retreat, either at the home of a friend or in a rented storage unit.

What About Fallout?

If someone actually manages to blow up one of our nuclear power plants, sending nuclear material into the upper atmosphere, then the abovementioned EPZs won’t really matter all that much. They weren’t done with that scenario in mind. Nevertheless, if you live within the 10 km zone, I’d still bug out.

The bigger, more difficult question will be about fallout. Where fallout occurs, how long it lasts and how far it extends all depend on the weather. The National Weather Service will be monitoring that, in conjunction with other government agencies. You can be sure that the government will be providing constantly updated information about that.

Evacuation isn’t necessarily required due to fallout, although it isn’t a bad idea. But you can do just as good sheltering in place, in your basement (assuming you have a basement). The fine particles of radioactive material that are fallout won’t penetrate below the ground. So as long as you are in your basement, you’re fairly well protected.

Depending on the situation, you might have to shelter in place for as long as 30 days. That means having enough supplies and other essentials stored in your basement, for your family to survive that long.

You’ll also need such things as bathroom facilities and a means to cook food. Essentially, you’ll need to plan on living in your basement, as if it were a bunker.

When disaster strikes your city and you are away from home, one of the best things you can do to survive is to become what is called the gray man. No, being a gray man doesn’t mean wearing gray clothing. It primarily means three things: blend in with the crowd, steer clear of confrontation, and avoid being detected by dangerous people.

So, how do you become a gray man? Here are ten tips:

1. Wear Neutral Colors

First, stick with neutral colors for your clothing This means avoiding both bright colors (yellow, red, orange, pink, etc.) and tactical colors (black, camouflage, etc). Bright colors will make it insanely difficult for you to hide, whereas tactical colors will also stand out and make people think you’re a threat.

Examples of neutral colors include dark blue, dark green, gray, or brown. A simple dark-colored T-shirt and pair of jeans is an excellent example of clothing that will blend in nicely with any crowd.

2. Don’t Wear a Hat

You may believe that wearing a hat is wise because you’ll be keeping your face partially covered (especially if you look down). However, if you look around you, you’ll also see that the majority of people do not wear hats.

Furthermore, the authorities will be on a close lookout for suspects after a disaster or catastrophe has taken place, and they’ll zero in on anybody who’s wearing a hat because they know that could mean you’re trying to keep your face covered.

3. Avoid Eye Contact

Don’t make eye contact with anyone while you’re on the move. This only increases the chances of them confronting you, and even if they don’t, at the very least they will remember you, but being a gray man means that you can slip in and out of a public location without anyone even realizing you were there.

4. Don’t Walk Too Fast

You don’t want to walk too slowly, but you don’t want to walk too fast either. This will especially make you an obvious target for authorities such as law enforcement units; for example, if a bomb has recently gone off in town and they see you running away from it, that will immediately arouse suspicion and they will give chase.

5. Keep Your Valuables Hidden

If you have any valuable items on you such as jewelry, electronics, money, and so forth, keep those items hidden at all costs. Not doing so makes you a prime target for looters or robbers in a disaster scenario who will take advantage of the situation to rob innocent people.

Granted, this can be more complicated if you have a backpack or a messenger bag of some kind over your shoulders (this signals to people that you could have a computer or even weapons with you), so be sure to have the straps firmly around your shoulder and one hand on the pack at all times.

6. Don’t Take Pictures or Record Video

It can certainly be tempting to take pictures or record video during a disaster. You could submit the footage to major news stations or upload it on YouTube and potentially get thousands if not millions of views.

Nonetheless, taking pictures or videos of a disaster is not something a gray man would do as it automatically makes you stand out. Remember, if you have any electronic devices on you, keep them hidden.

7. Stick To Areas Of Cover

The gray man always travels by sticking close to areas of shadow or cover where they can hide at a moment’s notice. Don’t walk out in the open where you are clearly visible to anyone and everyone. Rather, stick close to buildings or natural foliage, but do it in a way that looks natural. Don’t skulk around, quickly moving from way hedge to another. That will just make you stand out even more.

8. Avoid Choke Points

Choke points are any location in a city that will become highly congested with people and traffic during a disaster. They will be the most dangerous and chaotic places thanks to a possible combination of law enforcement units, angry mobs and looters, and swarms of desperate people.

Examples of choke points in a disaster scenario include bridges, tunnels, intersections, stadiums, public parks, grocery stores, sporting goods stores, restaurants, gasoline stations, police stations, hotels, train stations, airports, and even churches.

9. Analyze a Street Before Continuing

The gray man never directly walks down a new street without first inspecting it. Closely observe a new street or block with extreme caution before continuing down it. Again, don’t walk too fast or else you’ll stand out to any law enforcement or dangerous people that are present.

10. Don’t Let Your Guard Down

Finally, just don’t let your guard down. You must be on high alert for potential threats and practice situational awareness. Examples of situational awareness skills include reading the people around you (without staring at them), always identifying at least one exit route before entering a new building or area, and being prepared defend yourself in the event that someone confronts you.

As you can see, anyone can be a gray man and it’s really easier than you think. Becoming a gray man is all about blending in with your surrounding environment, and you can do that if you know what to wear, how to act, and where to travel.

By successfully applying these tips in a disaster scenario, your chances of avoiding detection from the authorities and gangs alike will go down significantly.

Dealing with this subject has been quite difficult for me. Both the concept of the state stripping you of everything and the SHTF concept have as many backgrounds as diverse interpretations, so trying to approach this from a single point of view is a complicated task.

In my country, Venezuela, after 20 years of “revolution,” we have bottomed out and learned to live in situations we never imagined (so much so that I was able to write an article on survival techniques I never imagined myself using on daily basis).

It’s not that the governments before Hugo Chavez were much better. But there was a much more stable political and economic situation with access to the international market.In 1999, when Chávez’s government was instated, oil prices were the highest in Venezuela’s history. The newly born Communist policy in the country was hardly felt and had very few repercussions on the professional citizens who lived on a monthly salary

That’s probably why those first few years didn’t really feel like something was taken away from us. In addition, the newly elected president had a 60% popular approval rating and promised endless opportunities for the neediest people.

One of the first economic policies was the implementation of exchange control, currently in effect. Any operation with foreign currency was managed by the state. Later came the control of the prices of basic products, which caused the disappearance of those items and initiated a black market that is also very much in force to this day.The real problem began in 2004 with the accelerated decrease in oil prices that translated into a lower income for the government. Remember that we are talking about an oil-reliant country.

The decay was soon seen in many aspects. There was no longer maintenance on public roads, and public services failed often until reaching the point of constant failures of electric service, even for days.

The public health situation is also getting worse and worse. As a health professional, I have seen this deterioration for the last 10 years.

I am an oncologic breast surgeon. In Venezuela, breast cancer is the main cause of death from cancer in women. However, in the hospital where I work, the most important hospital in Caracas, there are no basic services for this issue. No chemotherapy, the radiotherapy equipment has been inoperative since 2015, and surgical procedures are suspended every week.

For me, as a doctor, it is frustrating not to be able to help my patients in any way. Just last week two breast cancer patients who were going to the operating room were suspended for the fourth time in a row. This time the anesthesia machine was failing.

The purchasing power of the Venezuelan citizen also decreased. It seemed to have happened from one day to the next, but if you look at the political situation since 1988, the decline took a long time; all that was left was to hit rock bottom.

Finding ourselves in extreme situations makes our defense system act in a primitive way. This means activating the fight or flight response at any time within any context—and yes, the state takes advantage of that.

The state will rip you off, but it doesn’t happen all of a sudden. There are a lot of logistics; it takes a long time to develop the kind of policy that makes citizens totally dependent on the state.

You start by losing something unimportant, like some kind of monetary bonus now given to you as government-run grocery store credits, and you end up losing your freedom and all kinds of rights, including freedom of speech and protest, but these issues are so extensive that they require an article of their own to explain them properly.

The state has taken charge, with great success I must say, and you are now living in fear of the so-called public authorities, meaning police and military police, since they serve as pro-government forces of repression.

Many of us have lost the incentive to go out and protest. We did it for more than 10 years. However, I have seen the evolution of the manifestations before and now.

I remember 2003 when repression was minimal, almost non-existent. Today many friends who still have the strength to continue have gotten gas masks in order to defend themselves from the hundreds of tear gas grenades used by the authorities that should be defending people.

In any public protest, savage repression is a constant. That violence is what we Venezuelans have become used to.When there is no public or social security, when the devaluation of the currency is occurring on a daily basis, and when you don’t know if the bakery on the corner is going to be broken into tomorrow, at that moment, the debacle has already occurred.

Defending oneself from these kinds of problems is as difficult as trying to explain them. Many have chosen to leave and seek a future in other countries. That way the state even strips you of your own country by causing you to become self-exiled.

I don’t blame them. We all have more than one family member or close friend who has been kidnapped or stolen from violently, and sadly, all we can say is “You should be thankful you weren’t killed”.

Personal security becomes a problem of epic proportions, to the extent that going out on the street is considered a risky activity—a risk to which, unfortunately, you have to get used to in order to live a normal life.Living in that state of continuous stress in which your rights are violated, in cities where, despite paying high taxes, everything seems to be in ruins, is part of that hopelessness that the state achieves in the individual.

Living in a place where a good monthly salary fora top executive, for example, does not reach $100 a month, is not easy, especially taking into consideration that a basic shopping list for a family of four can cost up to $140 monthly.

So the mismanagement of incompetent and corrupt civil servants results in the deep separation of three social classes: extreme poverty, which represents more than 80% of the population and is totally dependent on the government; the working middle class, which manages to subsist through one or two basic incomes plus the economic help of family members abroad; and those who do business with the government and can live in a very comfortable, ideal world that has nothing to do with reality.

Of course, there are exceptions to this, and some people have high incomes without being involved in dubious businesses.

It is sad to see how fourth-level professionals, trained in the country, must leave in order to provide for their families.

I know it is not a unique situation in the world—it has happened and will continue to happen—but it is very different to read about it than to see it sitting in the front row or even being the leading character.

Nowadays it is the common denominator, and more and more qualified professionals and technicians step into the international airport in search of a better quality of life.That’s why there is a whole generation that has no kind of roots in their country and only waits for the opportunity to leave.

I think the worst part of all this is the desolation sown in all of us. It seems to be an endless story, with the political disqualification of opposition leaders, political prisoners, and many more vexations.

Writing all this is not easy, but it makes me reflect. It is an exercise in introspection. Without a doubt, the state strips you of everything in its eagerness to stay in charge. That’s the way they do it.

There comes a point at which the only thing in your mind is to know if you will return home alive. Everything else is secondary. At that point, the state has already massacred you internally. You can never be the same again. I’m sure I am not.

Even if you are a person who is not involved in politics, an “apolitical” citizen, in this state of anarchy, you have to fix your position.

As Desmond Tutu said, “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.”

Ever since the first wolf-packs starting living on the outskirts of human settlements more than 15 000 years ago, man and dog have shared the struggle for survival. The reason the relationship endures to this day is that it’s highly mutually beneficial.

A man alone is vulnerable, exposed and lonely. Add a dog, and the man is in a better position.

This article will explore the reason why you should get a dog for when SHTF. I will mention the criteria against which you should judge breeds and suggest a few solutions depending on your circumstances.

Many medieval castles had stables and also kennels. Estate owners would employ kennel masters to oversee the dogs and their training. They were used for hunting, pest control and protection.

This tells you all you need to know about why dogs are great. But also, that training and leadership are important.

It’s A Dog’s Life

The right breed could help you in your mission to survive. Dogs provide the following benefits for survival scenarios:

• Early warning system – Highly developed sense of hearing and smell

• Companionship – Dogs are loyal and love their owners

• Danger Detection and Elimination – Snakes and other threats;

• Pest Control – Rats, monkeys, bucks and even other humans that may be raiding your vegetable patch or food stores;

• Defence and Guarding – When you are attacked, dogs will help fight and protect the pack;

• Hunting and Herding – These are specialized uses, but dogs are better at this than most humans will ever be;

• Heat – On a really cold night, snuggling with a dog could keep you from freezing;

• Threat Evaluation – If your dog doesn’t trust someone, you shouldn’t either.

Hear No Evil, Smell No Evil

No human can hear or smell as good as a dog can. It’s physiologically impossible.

If you take your dog for a walk down the street, what you don’t realise is that she can hear the conversations inside houses AND smell what the family is having for dinner. In vivid detail!

You can harness their heightened awareness of their surroundings to your benefit. Dogs become agitated when they hear or smell something out of the ordinary. When patrolling your surroundings or when you are scouting, keep an eye on your dog.

Your dog’s body language will alert you to possible threats or points of interest and generally help you to avoid stumbling across other humans when you are trying to keep a low profile.

Guarding versus Protection

The fact that dogs can hear people approaching, even on foot, long before you can, is part of what makes them great “animal alarms”.

This, in combination with a breed that has a strong guarding instinct, gives the human owner a very powerful early warning system. Not just against other humans, but also animals that may want to eat your supplies.

Be aware that there is a difference between guarding and protection.

Some breeds will warn owners, but retreat at the first sign of a serious threat.

Other breeds may attack on sight, without giving a lot of warning upfront.

I once had a bulldog that would charge anything strange, but never barked, even while she was on the attack.

She scored really high on protection and courage but was useless as a guard dog. I would only become aware of the danger when she launched her offensive.

The objective of guard dogs is to eliminate the element of surprise.

Intelligence

Many conversations about dogs turn to how intelligent a specific breed is. I always make fun of this saying that I don’t need a dog to do my thinking for me. Or, I point out that even the smartest breeds have trouble with calculus.

So when it comes to family pets and just generally having fun with dogs, intelligence need not supersede temperament. Dogs that are fun, obedient and like spending time with the family are more important than math geniuses.

But, in an SHTF scenario, a dumb dog will not only hold you back but would be a potential danger to you and your family. Intelligence, when combined with courage, protective instinct and physical ability, will be a life-saving combination.

Temperament

This is a strange word, as it refers to character and personality, but also to other mental and emotional characteristics that are often difficult to quantify.

Characteristics that I would all class under temperament include such things as aggression, obedience, sense of humor, willingness to cooperate, courage in the face of extreme danger and willingness to die for the pack. Also, independence, initiative, patience and restraint.

These characteristics are not that rare, and many breeds exhibit them amply. But, there are even more breeds that do not. Keep in mind, that in SHTF, the mathematics of survival will be unforgiving. Second place means death. If you are overly emotional about animals, it could kill you and your family.

For instance, I like Boxers. I think they are whacky, funny and have a well-developed sense of humor. But a Boxer will be one of the worst choices for an SHTF dog.

Selecting for temperament should be done according to the same brutal math that all other choices are made when survival is at stake. Being overly sentimental and thinking that your faith in an unsuitable animal will magically change the animal, is naive and quite frankly, could be deadly. If she’s not “almost perfect”, walk away.

Dogs should be viewed as survival tools. I am not saying they are disposable. We love them very much, for their companionship and as valuable and contributing members of our group. But dogs are frontline defence, and when fielded, we must be able to depend on them to do their jobs.

Temperament and ability will carry the day. Nothing else. Your choice of dog needs to reflect this understanding.

Control

This has nothing to do with a dog sitting when you give the command or faithfully waiting before he eats his food.

Can your dog keep quiet when the garbage truck is doing its rounds? Can your male dog ignore the musky scent of a bitch in heat if commanded to? Will your dog sit patiently and wait while the neighborhood cat is walking right in front of it?

If not, your animal is a liability.

During one discussion on SHTF dogs, someone asked about a Pitbull. Which, I must add, is one of my favorite breeds. But let me ask you this.

Could you control him if an opposing dog acted confrontationally? And if a fight did break out, would he let go on command?

Pitbulls are like large calibre firearms that can shoot a single deadly shot. Employ them accordingly. If this suits your SHTF strategy, go for it.

If however, you want an animal that can face a foe or retreat upon command, maybe you should opt for something else. Reality folks.

I live in South Africa, at the foot of the Magaliesberg Mountain Range. I have often taken dogs for long hikes in the mountain. Certain breeds will bravely attack a troop of baboons. Even if you yell at them to come back. They are like missiles that have locked onto a target without an “abort” button.

I have lost one dog in such a situation, and have friends who have similarly lost dogs. As the owner, you are ultimately responsible for your dog. Using the wrong breed for the wrong job is a hard-learned lesson.

If you don’t have control, you are placing yourself and your dog in danger. You have been warned.

Body Language and Pheromones

Dogs don’t overthink situations.

If they see a stranger whose body language looks suspicious or if they smell fear or anxiety on a stranger that may indicate ill-intent.

Dogs don’t think, “Ah, he’s probably just nervous and I need to trust others, etc.”

If your dog doesn’t approve of someone, you shouldn’t either. I am not saying shoot that person on sight. I am saying, don’t let them near you.

Keep the dog around, and between you and the person or situation. Don’t turn your back. Don’t let them feed your dog any treats.

Breeds for SHTF

I will briefly mention a breed and just a few pros and cons of that breed.

Belgian Malinois

There is a reason the Navy Seals use these dogs. But they need a strong owner and are highly energetic, so you will need to spend some time with them, burning off that energy. You will need to train them. If you are not familiar with dogs, you will need to get professional advice on this.

Similar breeds are German Shepherds and Dobermans. Fast, agile, intelligent, loyal. They are precision instruments and should be handled as such.

I would include Rhodesian Ridgebacks here as they are great homestead dogs and fearless hunters.

Bull Mastiff

Their loyalty and guarding prowess are well known. They were used to guard diamond mines in South Africa.

If you know anything about the crime situation in SA, including the vast area’s some of the open cast mine’s cover, you will appreciate the fact even more.

They are very loving and loyal family members. They are on the large side and may require a bit more food than some of the other breeds mentioned.

Similar breeds are Rottweilers, Boerboel, American Bulldog. These are not precision instruments like those mentioned above but can be trained to a high level of obedience. Especially the Rottweiler. In this category, I would opt for the Cane Corso, they are awesome dogs.

Australian Cattle Dog

They are highly intelligent, extremely loyal and make excellent companions. You will need to train them.

They do not pack as hard a punch as the other breeds but make excellent herding dogs. Similar breeds include Collies, Border Collies and Poodles.

I am going to include Labradors here, although they maybe deserve their own category. I am not a fan of Labradors as they become food-obsessed. Go and read on this, it’s genetic and can become unpleasant around mealtime.

Siberian Husky

All sled dogs are highly suited as SHTF dogs. They have been selected for generations to run all day, guard the camp, and assist with hunting, taking down large animals.

They are not well suited to hot climates, so don’t keep one if you live in a hot and humid climate.

Similar breeds include Alaskan Malmute’s, Finish Spitz and quite a few others.

Honorable Mention

Small lapdogs like miniature poodles and small terriers and Chihuahuas could be good to have for pest control and as noisemakers.

Their smaller stature has them feeling vulnerable, and as such, they are very alert. This could be to your advantage.

But they also tend to bark at everything, so you could up at all hours, for no good reason at all. They eat very little.

Man’s Best Friend

There you have it, folks. I would set up my team in the following way. My dream scenario would be having a pack of Cane Corse for heavy-duty homestead defence. Every child would have an Australian Cattle Dog following them around.

I would have a Belgian Malinois sleeping next to my bed, and that would be the dog I take ranging, scouting and hunting.

Everybody’s selection would and should differ. Dogs need to fit your temperament and that of your family. Happy training!

I grew up in upstate New York. The beautiful rolling hills, the Great Lakes. The lovely farm country. I would never go back if you paid me millions of dollars. Never.

But for the better part of a decade I have resided well south of the Mason-Dixon line. In fact, when I spoke to a relative a short time ago from New York State, they were shocked I didn’t sound like a Yankee, or even speak like one. “You’ve gone native,” they told me. Which is well and good in my book.

New York is about as liberal/progressive of a state as you can get. It’s a state that does not honor life, the sanctity of marriage or gun rights. It taxes its residents to death, does not value homeschoolers and has no more respect for Almighty God than does Richard Dawkins. Since I have left, the New York government has only worsened.

For many of us who homestead and farm on a small scale, we also raise families, own firearms, go to church and desire a quiet life lived in peace. Sadly judging by the moral and political climate in some places in North America, we often have to leave the place we call home in order to find these things. I believe there are still good places out there to put down roots and farm and raise your children, while other places in the USA have gone quite authoritarian.

Here are four areas in the United States for those seeking fair land prices, less government involvement, a religious friendly atmosphere, low taxes, and a place friendly toward gun owners.

South

The land of cotton has changed much in the past half century, but the area is well-known as a bastion of conservative and Christian values in the USA. The land is good for agriculture and there are many homesteaders and small-time farmers who have flocked to this region over the past two to three decades from all over the USA and Canada.

My pick for the southeast:

Tennessee. The state’s motto of “Agriculture and Commerce” speaks of the beautiful and lush farmlands — and low taxes. There is no state income tax in Tennessee. Gun freedoms are very good, and in fact after a recent shooting, Tennessee’s lieutenant governor urged people to go and get their handgun carry permits. No such thing as an “assault weapons ban” or magazine restrictions exist in the Volunteer State. Land prices are expensive toward the Blue Ridge Mountains, but Middle and West Tennessee land prices are affordable. Homeschooling conditions are great for families.

Southwest

Texas. Don’t mess with the Lone Star State. A conservative government, coupled with excellent gun laws, makes Texas one of the top places to live for the small farmer or homesteader. While not as fertile as some states, ranching is big business in Texas. A farm on the Edwards Plateau will provide your family with water from the aquifer with the same name. In the more fertile east, row crop farming as well as vegetable growing does reasonably well.

With the end of the recent drought, Texas received more rainwater this year than it had in seven years. Beware of buying land near the Mexican-US border and stay away from the more progressive cities like Austin or Dallas. Most Texans value liberty and independence, a great thing for the homesteader or farmer.

West

Idaho and Wyoming. Both of these states tie for the best places to live out west. Excellent gun laws, conservative government, a fierce independent spirit, and excellent farm country make these Rocky Mountain states ideal for the homesteader/farmer. Rich soil is available, and land prices are cheap. If you want to be away from people, this is the perfect place for you. You want to hunt and fish? This is the ideal location for the sportsman, with teeming populations of deer, elk, pronghorn and even bison. Idaho is the more temperate state, whereas Wyoming is known for its brutally cold winters.

Northeast

New Hampshire. The last bastion of any freedom in the Northeast is the Granite State, but even this state is slipping slowly toward the liberalism that has transformed the Northeast. If you must live in the North, New Hampshire or perhaps the north woods of Maine are really the only two viable options I see.

You might be living in one of America’s deathzones and not have a clue about it
What if that were you? What would YOU do?

In the next few minutes, I’m going to show you the U.S. Nuclear Target map, where you’ll find out if you’re living in one of America’s Deathzones.

The prophet Isaiah warns us that in the last days God is going to “turn the world upside down.” He declares, “Behold, the Lord maketh the earth empty, and maketh it waste, and turneth it upside down” (Isaiah 24:1).

According to this prophecy, sudden judgment is coming upon the earth, and it will change everything in a single hour. Within that short span, the whole world will witness fast-falling destruction upon a city and a nation, and the world will never be the same.

If you are attached to material things — if you love this world and the things of it — you won’t want to hear what Isaiah has prophesied. In fact, even to the most righteous of God’s people, what Isaiah says might seem unthinkable. Many would surely ask, “How can an entire world be stricken in one hour?”

If we didn’t believe the Bible is God’s pure Word, few of us would take Isaiah’s prophecy seriously. But Scripture makes it clear: in a single hour, the world is going to change. The church is going to change. And every individual on earth is going to change.

The apostle John gives a similar warning in Revelation. He speaks of destructive judgment coming upon a city and nation: “In one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her…. For in one hour so great riches is come to nought” (Revelation 18:8, 17).

In Isaiah’s prophecy, the city under judgment is cast into confusion. Every house is shut up, with no one coming or going. “The city of confusion is broken down: every house is shut up, that no man may come in” (Isaiah 24:10). The entire city is left desolate: “In the city is left desolation, and the gate is smitten with destruction” (24:12). All entrances and exits to the city are gone. The passage indicates that a fire has come, a blast that has shaken the very foundations of the earth (see 24:6).

We who live in New York City know something about this kind of scene. When the Twin Towers were attacked, the ominous fires and smoke could be seen ascending to heaven for miles. Recently, New Yorkers panicked as a mass of steam erupted from below a city street. People ran in all directions screaming, “Is this it? Is this the end-all attack?”

Today, multitudes of secular prophets are saying a nuclear attack is inevitable. The target they mention most often is New York, but it could happen in any major city: London, Paris, Tel Aviv, Washington. Neither Isaiah nor John names the city upon which destructive judgment falls.I don’t intend this message to frighten anyone.

Let me make clear at this point: I don’t intend this message to frighten anyone. Paul tells us that as disciples of Jesus Christ, we have already passed from death into life. We who call on Jesus as Lord should be confident that no matter what happens in this world, his shed blood saves and redeems us.

Therefore, we are not to fear any newscast, but rather to be attentive to what the Lord is doing in the world. Like many people, I hear grievous reports that make me want to tune everything out. But the truth is, God moves in the midst of such times, and through them he speaks warnings to all who would hear his voice.Isaiah’s prophecy points clearly to our generation.

I believe, along with many eminent Bible scholars, that Isaiah’s prophecy points to the last days. By that, I mean our present time. In short, sudden judgment is coming, and Scripture strongly indicates it is now at the door.

At this point you may be wondering: “How can we be sure we’re the generation this prophecy points to?” We can know by two reasons that such judgments are imminent:

1.A growing number of prophets warn of an apocalyptic disaster at the door. When I use the word “prophets,” I speak not just of those in the church. I’m talking also about “secular prophets.”

There are several precedents for secular prophets in Scripture. God used Assyria as his rod of correction with Israel. And he appointed King Cyrus as his servant to assist Israel: “(The Lord) saith of Cyrus, He is my shepherd, and shall perform all my pleasure” (Isaiah 44:28).

Likewise today, God uses secular prophets to send warnings. These become “his prophets” for a season. And their prophecies can be harder than those delivered by believers. The message I’m writing here is mild compared to the prophecies being delivered by all manner of secular voices. Just check your newspaper or radio reports.

“Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets” (Amos 3:7).

2.Sudden destruction comes when the cup of violence overflows. Sensuality, perversion and greed are running rampant throughout our society. Yet, when God sent the Flood upon the earth, it was because of a worldwide eruption of violence: “The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence” (Genesis 6:11).

Right now, there are numerous wars and bloody uprisings taking place around the globe. Yet foremost in my mind is the violence being waged against children worldwide:

• I think of the sexual violence of pedophiles. Children all over the world are being raped, kidnapped and forced into enslavement in the global sex trade. Recently, a pedophile in the U.S. was discovered running a web site that advises other pedophiles on the easiest places to pick up children. There is no law in place to stop this man. The world’s largest church denomination has spent hundreds of millions of dollars to settle the claims of those who were molested in childhood by clergy. Tell me, how long will God endure the pitiful cries of children who are molested by those who would represent Christ?
• Thousands of children in Africa are being slaughtered in tribal wars, hacked to death by machetes. Young boys — even those under ten years of age — are enlisted into tribal militias and forced to murder men in initiation rites.
• Here in the U.S., the blood of millions of aborted babies cries out from the ground.
• Reports of school murders no longer shock many of us but continue to terrorize our children. We may grow hardened to such reports, but God’s heart is grieved by them.

I tell you, there is no worse violence than the brutalizing of children. Heaven is crying out, “Woe, woe! Your judgments have no cure.”1. In one hour, God is going to change the whole world.

A sudden cataclysmic event will strike, the first of the final judgments of God. This great event will cause the earth to reel. And Isaiah says that when it hits, there will be no place to escape: “The lofty [proud] city, he layeth it low…even to the ground; he bringeth it even to the dust” (Isaiah 26:5). “The inhabitants of the earth are burned” (24:6).

Once this happens, utter chaos will erupt. All civic activities will stop, and society will descend into massive disorder. Government agencies will be helpless to restore any kind of sanity. No state troopers, no national guard, no army will be able to bring order to the upheaval.

You well remember that when the Twin Towers were destroyed, help poured into New York from all over the world. An army of people came to assist in whatever way they could. But the scene in Isaiah’s prophecy is different: this calamity is clearly beyond humankind’s capacity to respond.

Once this judgment strikes, it will devastate the economy. Rich merchants will stand by watching in torment, weeping and mourning, as they face bankruptcy. In an instant, all the wealth they amassed will be reduced to nothing. John describes the scene: “The merchants of these things, which were made rich by her, shall stand afar off for the fear of her torment, weeping and wailing, saying, Alas, alas that great city… For in one hour so great riches is come to nought” (Revelation 18:15–17).

Overnight, all buying and selling will cease. Every restaurant and bar will be shut down, and all drinking and music making will end. Indeed, every trace of mirth and delight, joy and gladness, will vanish: “All the merryhearted do sigh. The mirth of tabrets ceaseth, the noise of them that rejoice endeth, the joy of the harp ceaseth. They shall not drink wine with a song…. The mirth of the land is gone” (Isaiah 24:7–9, 11).

Yes, this is a picture of gloom and doom. But it is not my prophecy. This word was given by the Holy Spirit of Almighty God, to be delivered by his righteous prophet Isaiah. Even the secular world is preparing for it to happen. Billions are being spent on homeland security in the U.S., England, Europe and Israel. Why? Military experts warn that a world-impacting terrorist attack is sure to come.

You may ask: “Why would the whole world change, if a nuclear attack occurs in just one city?” It will happen because of the fear of retaliation. If a rogue nation sends such an attack, you can be sure that within hours that nation will be wiped out. Consider the plan Israel has in place, known as the Samson Option. The moment a nuclear warhead is launched against them, within moments Israel will unleash nuclear missiles to devastate the capital cities of all enemy states.

The world has become a ticking bomb, and time is quickly running out.2. In one hour, God is going to change the church.

This hour of devastation will suddenly change churches, whether they are alive or dead. Isaiah writes, “There shall be the shaking as of an olive tree” (Isaiah 24:13). The image is of God shaking an olive tree after it has been picked of fruit. In short, he’s going to shake everything that can be shaken, sparing nothing. It will be a time of cataclysmic destruction and overwhelming darkness.

So, you ask, “What about God’s people in the midst of all this? What will happen to the church?” Isaiah gives us an incredible word about what will happen with believers.

In the midst of the terrible shaking, a song will be heard, and its sound will grow steadily stronger. Suddenly, in that darkest of hours, a worldwide chorus of voices will sing praises to the majesty of God: “They shall lift up their voice, they shall sing for the majesty of the Lord, they shall cry aloud from the sea” (24:14).

Do you get the picture? There will be panic everywhere. Men’s hearts will fail them for fear, as fires belch smoke seen for hundreds of miles. Disorder and chaos will reign on all sides. Yet amid the devastating fires and calamity, the world will hear a glorious song being sung: “Glorify ye the Lord in the fires, even the name of the Lord God of Israel… From the uttermost part of the earth have we heard songs, even glory to the righteous [One]” (Isaiah 24:15–16).

A holy remnant is going to awaken, and a song will be born in the fire. Instead of panicking, the people of God will be praising his awesome majesty. Imagine it: in the darkest hour of all time, a collective voice will rise by the millions out of every nation, not in fear or agony, but in joyful praise to the Lord.

How will this happen, you ask? In one hour, God is going to regenerate and restore his church. Dry bones will shake and rattle, and the righteous will be awakened, as the Holy Spirit calls multitudes of lukewarm believers back to their first love. In his mercy, he’s going to rouse those who have neglected him, ignoring his Word, avoiding prayer, perhaps even contemplating divorce. Suddenly, their souls will be flooded with pangs of remorse and godly sorrow. And many will fall on their knees, crying out in repentance.

There will be a revival of glorifying God’s majesty. And the song of this revival will be heard from the uttermost parts of the earth. East, west, north and south — from Arab lands to China, Indonesia, Africa and all parts of the earth — a glorious song will rise up from the midst of the fires. In one day’s time, those who survived the fires are going to be singing a new song throughout the world.Isaiah 25 tells us wonderful miracles will come in this time, as “God makes all things new.”

All around the world, the Lord’s people are going to “feast” on his Word: “In this mountain shall the Lord of hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined” (Isaiah 25:6).

“And he will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering cast over all people, and the veil that is spread over all nations” (25:7). Right now, in this time of prosperity, the world’s masses seem to be covered with a veil, unable to see the truth of Jesus Christ. But when God rises up to shake the world through judgment, the shrouds covering the minds of billions will be cast aside. The veil of darkness will be removed, and many will see the Lord in his glory. The Holy Spirit won’t force Christ upon these opened eyes and hearts; rather, a remnant is going to rise up from among them.

I believe the darkest shroud-coverings today are over the eyes and hearts of youth worldwide. This is especially true of college-age students, whose faith has been bombarded for up to four years. Over that time their minds have been indoctrinated by godless professors in classrooms where belief is attacked, mocked and scorned. Now these young men’s and women’s faith has been shipwrecked. They leave college convinced God is dead.

But in one hour of devastation — nuclear, economic and social — all such hypocritical veils are going to fall away. Those same professors who mocked them will realize, as they face the possibility of death, a choice must be made: “What about eternity? Is there life after death?” They’re going to look for someone to explain to them all that’s happening.

When the song is sung, it’s going to be heard by young people from every walk of life, from every nation under the sun. Many will harden their hearts and curse God at the sound of this song, but multitudes of others will join in singing of his majesty.3. In one hour, God is going to change us as individuals.

In a single hour, the focus of our lives will be changed. We’ll no longer obsess about our own adversities and troubles. Suddenly, so many things that we held dear will no longer be of any value to us. Why? In that hour, everyone will be in the same boat:

“It shall be, as with the people, so with the priest; as with the servant, so with his master; as with the maid, so with her mistress; as with the buyer, so with the seller; as with the lender, so with the borrower; as with the taker of usury, so with the giver of usury to him” (Isaiah 24:2).

The sudden judgment that comes will not be a respecter of anyone. Rather, it is going to touch all who are within the realm of its fury. Presidents, kings, the world’s richest and most famous — all will tremble just like the poorest of the earth. And this cataclysmic event will bring to naught every idol, purging iniquity and tearing down all false altars:

“By this [the calamity] therefore shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged; and this is all the fruit to take away his sin; when he maketh all the stones of the altar as chalkstones that are beaten in sunder, the groves and images shall not stand up [be left standing]” (Isaiah 27:9).

The world’s most prominent idol is money, and right now America is facing a monstrous financial disaster. Investors are scrambling to move their money out of high-risk funds, and mortgage companies are going bankrupt. One recent financial headline read, “Abandon Ship!” Everyone is selling and nobody is buying. Many households are in a panic, as overnight their lives are changing. I think of the president of a multi-billion-dollar hedge fund, who recently put up for sale his 142-foot yacht and his sixteen-bedroom mansion in Aspen, Colorado. His fund had dried up virtually overnight.

The day is coming when sports will be the last thing on people’s minds. I have nothing against sports, but soon there will be no more 250-million-dollar deals for athletes, when so much of the world is starving. All idols will come crashing down, crushed to dust, and the playing field will be leveled. The richest and the poorest alike will face the same conditions.

It will all happen within a day. “When they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape” (1 Thessalonians 5:3).Why such apocalyptic warnings?

You may wonder: what good can come of these prophetic messages? Why should anyone have to live under such anxiety?

I remind you, Jesus warned Jerusalem of sudden devastation to come upon that city. It was going to be burned to the ground, with over a million people murdered. Christ explained his warning: “I have told you before it come to pass, that, when it is come to pass, ye might believe” (John 14:29). He was saying, in essence, “When it happens, you’ll know there is a God who loves you and forewarned you.”

Paul calls such warnings “light,” insights that expel darkness. He says, in short: “You are children of light, because you know what’s coming in the future. So, when destruction comes, and there’s panic all around, you will have the calm of the Holy Spirit. Something will quicken inside you, and you’ll remember, ‘God warned me.’ This prophecy isn’t a message of wrath to God’s people, but a wakeup call to begin preparing.”

“God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him” (1 Thessalonians 5:9–10). Paul is speaking here of a time of possible destruction. Therefore, he says, “Comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye do” (5:11).

In this day of prosperity, nobody wants to hear a message like Isaiah’s. I certainly don’t want to hear it. But we cannot ignore it, because it is here at our door. In such times, Paul says, when we have knowledge that sudden destruction is coming, we are not to tremble or sorrow as the world does. Instead, we are to comfort one another in faith, knowing that God rules over every aspect of our lives.

“Be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation” (5:8). Paul instructs, “Arm yourself with faith. Build up your belief now, before the day comes. Learn your song, and you’ll be able to sing it in your fire.” “Glorify ye the Lord in the fires, even the name of the Lord God of Israel” (Isaiah 24:15).

This is the hope of our most holy faith: our Lord causes a song to come out of the darkest of times. Start now to build up your holy faith in him, and learn to praise his majesty quietly in your heart. When you sing your song, it will strengthen and encourage your brothers and sisters. And it will testify to the world: “Our Lord reigns over the Flood!” ■

Do you know how to survive a gun fight?

Here’s the situation: some people want your stuff, or they just plain out want to kill you. Whatever the cause of the escalation might be, all you’ve got is a gun lying on the ground next to you. What shooting techniques and tactics would you use and how would you survive a gun fight?

So first, you’ve picked up the gun, pulled out the magazine and checked how many rounds you’ve got spare. This is all while rounds are flying over your head and bouncing off things around you. But they’re not hitting you because you’ve already ducked behind cover to figure out your tactics right?

Let’s just say that if there were a group of people firing at me, my first thought would be to get out of there as quickly as possible, regroup with some gun-savvy would-be John Wick volunteers and come back. One big tip that might help, in a gunfight, 3 on 1 is better than 1 on 3. So work with those odds and round up some friends who would be worthy of a gun fight and are up to scratch with these 14 things to remember to survive a shootout.

1. Have yourself a merry little sidearm pistol

Weapon fires weapon stops. This is a thing they teach to soldiers in initial weapons training. They teach this because guns are not like a weapon in Call of Duty, in a real gun battle they stop. You could fire one shot and the weapon might not automatically reload because you have a chunky piece of metal 5.56 jacket jammed in your ejection port.

Now while any good shooter might pull out the magazine, cock the weapon and give the gun a right old nudge and shake just to free up the jam, you’re not going to do that. In an immediate jam, you are going to sling that weapon (everyone should have a good adjustable sling) and whip out your pistol to keep firing.

You might have seen John Wick make his way through a soiree of larger weapons before working his way down to his pistol range, that’s because when you’re in the heat of a shootout, using your next loaded weapon is quicker than fixing a jammed gun, or doing a magazine change.

That pistol is your merry little backup present when the first one wasn’t good enough. It is loaded and ready to dump out the 15-30 rounds you might be carrying in your glock magazine.

In this case, you’d probably use this secondary weapon to work your way through a pistol fight while you find cover and get your boomstick back into the game.

For a demonstration on the quick sling of the primary to secondary weapon, we can look no further than to the training given to Keanu Reaves to become John Wick by Taran Tactical for this one:

2. Know where your ejection port is

While we all love the John Wick films and other great shooting movies, those films aren’t always that accurate. Especially when it comes to bullet casings. Every weapon has an ejection port. Out of that comes the bit of bullet that never leaves the barrel of a gun. It’s called a casing and it is damn hot.

The first reason you should know where your ejection port is would be in the case above where your weapon jams up. Most of the time it’s going to be a bullet that hasn’t been struck properly and has not fed into the gun correctly, you will see this stuff up in the ejection port. It is about this time that if you are only carrying one gun, you should know how to fix a weapon jam pretty quick.

The second reason, and one quickly learned by shooting beginners, is that some weapons have ejection ports that can fire hot bullet casings onto your skin causing a nice little bullet tattoo to be burnt into your skin. Generally, the ejection port is on the right side of the weapon, so when your would-be volunteer buddies in the gun fight are on your left you are going to get sprayed with burning hot bullet casings.

What should you do about this? Suck it up. They’re on your side and you’ve got bullets coming at you. But if you’re like this lady with a bullet casing down the top, you’re probably going to be burning.

3. I shoot, you run

If you are not shooting you should be running. Tell your buddies in the gun fight the same thing. Try to synchronize it. If you are retreating, one person shoots while the other runs, repeat this until you are in your abandoned building, bunker hideout.

This works the other way, in the attack. If you have sized the enemy as being reasonable for your capacity and you decide to attack, shoot in their direction while your buddy runs. Let’s hope he is smart enough to figure out he should do the same.

The process of your buddy shooting while you run is called ‘covering’. This is why you hear that great term, covering fire.

This gunfighting technique also referred to as ‘fire and movement’ and if you’ve been in the military you’d cringe just hearing these words as that is a lot of the combat practice in the field which turns to elements in urban training.

When you are making those shots, sure, rounds placed near an enemy’s position is going to keep them pinned behind cover, but make sure you control your breathing, which in turn helps with your aim. The military uses a method called Box Breathing for this. Learn it and use it as it is a great way to de-stress and take control of any given situation.

4. Keep your eyes on three things at the same time

While you are ducking, diving, and firing well-aimed shoots in your gunfight survival, there are three other things (I know, it’s a lot) that you should be paying attention to: the guys shooting at you, your buddy, and possible cover. These three things are the only things you should be looking at. You should be watching where your enemy is, where you last saw them or where they sound like they are shooting from. You should be watching this because when your buddy is moving, this is where you are shooting.

You should be watching your buddy and listening out for his gun. If he is shooting, you move, if you don’t hear any shots from him, that probably means his weapon is jammed or he is just plain useless. In some cases that uselessness can also cause a jam – be warned.

On top of this, you should always be looking for the next place you are going to move to. If you are in a retreat, this is basically putting solid things behind you, if you are attacking, this is stuff in front of you. Always be looking for covering spots. Why? Because the next point is why.

5. I’m up, he sees me, I’m down

This is what you say when you run. As soon as you take your first step you should say to yourself: “I’m up, he sees me, I’m down”. This is enough time to move, and not allow your enemy to take a steady aim and kill you. If you run longer than this, anyone with a sense of aim can take a quick sighting and put some metal your way and possibly land a hit. So don’t let it happen.

When the phrase says ‘down’ this doesn’t just refer to dropping to the ground, it is whatever you deem a safe place to fire from. If it is a wall or over the front of a car, use it as cover and shoot while your buddy moves.

You can see how these guys from Polenar Tactical work in unison to provide covering fire for their buddy running. Eventually, this would get you close enough to the enemy to grenade them, or get closer to get your buddy in a flank.

This phrase is something that is regularly repeated in initial combat training for a lot of the world’s forces. It is taught for the reason which is to keep you alive. But this will fail you if you don’t adhere to the next part, which is once you are down, move for an extra few meters. Why? Next point.

6. Don’t be a rabbit

Ever seen a rabbit in the grass? It bends down to eat, pops its head back up and bends down again. You give your friend a nudge in the arm and say “check out two meters left of that tree, there’s a rabbit”. And before you know it, the rabbit has popped his little head up in the exact same spot. Boom, if you were the rabbit you would be dead. The same will happen in a real gun fight.

In a shootout, if you see someone running you are going to aim at their last seen place and wait until they pop out to shoot them. So with the principle mentioned before, once you leave the visibility of your enemy whether it be behind a car, wall… or whatever, move and crawl a few meters before popping up to shoot. Make sure that movement is lateral to the enemy. Think of it as getting out of the X.

In an urban environment, this can only work so well as you might be behind a car or a single-spaced object with very little crawl distance. Make do with what you can but remember the idea of the rabbit popping up in the same place.

7. Be aggressive and quick

Let’s think about some animals at the top of the food chain. All of the ones that I can think of are aggressive and quick in their attack and you should be too despite whether you are attacking or retreating. Why? When you are covering fire you only have a certain amount of bullets to do so (You are hoping that we picked up a gun with a full mag when we found it at the start).

Taking a gun fight slow and steady will result in getting shot. Bullets move fast and you need to as well. If you are ever unfortuante enough to find yourself in the midst of a real gun fight the number one rule is to be aggressive, confident and quick.

Part of being aggressive is also being on the offensive. When it comes to surviving a gun fight, when you maintain the offensive with your buddy (hopefully more than one) you are overwhelming your enemy with so much precise force that they cannot handle the pressure and start making mistakes and panic. This puts you in control and control is the key to winning.

8. Plan like it’s the last thing you ever do

Yes, it could be the last thing you ever do. Getting shot is no field trip and it can result in a massive loss of blood and death. So what are you going to do? Well, you should already have your answer for that. Plan, plan, plan.

It could be anything from attacking with your buddy up until you can run a flank, or it could be to sit and fire a few shots in the enemy’s direction to probe and find out what sort of guns they have (let’s hope for your sake they don’t have mounted heavy belt-fed weapons). Whatever you do, have a plan and a backup one if that fails.

When it comes to gun fights, there are a huge amount of tactics that can be employed, they all depend largely on the area where you are fighting, such as urban gun fights in buildings, apartments and tight streets, or in the wilderness in forests, jungles or wide open planes. All of these have their setbacks, exposure points, and weaknesses. The only way to win a fight is to think logically and exploit those weaknesses against the other team.

I recently wrote a post about a tactical way of thinking using situational awareness. The theory of the OODA loop was developed by a military tactician and is something you should use to diagnose, dissect and win your gun fight. The OODA loop is explained in-depth in the post on situational awareness but for an overview, it stands for:

• Observe your enemy
• Orientate how they are acting and what you can do to counter and win that action
• Make a Decision on the best course of action to take
• Carry out the Action.
• The loop then continues back into the observation phase.

9. Be fit for a gunfight

By this, we don’t mean you should start doing pushups in the middle of a two-way range. This is a preparatory thing and is a big part of prepping for when the sh-t hits the fan. Fitness is important in a gun fight for three main reasons:

• It keeps you confident with a level-head and tactical thinking mindset
• It gets you from point A to B quickly and efficiently
• It allows you to make a steady aim after just sprinting for your life

If you are not fit, get started by working with high-impact interval training.

10. Get creative when looking for cover

Cover isn’t just a place to hide, it’s also a place to shoot rounds from to try and land a hit on your enemy as well as to suppress the enemy for your buddy to gain some ground. Part of this involves the flexibility and creativity that many special forces soldiers use in their field office. Chances are your gun fight is going to be in an urban environment which means you are going to have vehicles, houses, fences, garden hedges, windows and anything else at your disposal. Whatever you have got, use it.

Navy SEAL Rich Graham teaches various methods like this at his Tactical Carbine course. While this video was intentionally about muzzle awareness from a concealed position, you can see how he uses the tray of a truck as a covered firing position.

Remember that whichever position you find to fire from, make sure you can build a solid firing position to aim, control your breath and control your weapon so that you can make more accurate shots. These are simple military marksmanship principles and greatly improve your aim ability to end a firefight with a well-placed shot when coupled with breathing exercises taught to soldiers. For those that find they need to take time to line a good shot on the range, there are courses developed online such as the Spec Ops Shooting Course that teaches you how to shoot faster while still maintaining the same accuracy. When it comes down to it, shooting quick, and accurate is the most important shooting technique you can ever master.

Experts predict that an EMP strike that wipes out electricity across the nation would ultimately lead to the demise of up to 90% of the population. However, this figure begs an important question: if we were able to live thousands of years without even the concept of electricity, why would we suddenly all die without it?

11. Bring a knife to a gun fight

You have probably heard something along the lines of “don’t bring a knife to a gunfight”, but that is completely wrong. A knife is a piece of equipment every tactical gun fighter should have on their kit for a number of reasons. One of them is that a knife something you can grab in close combat when everything else fails.

Remember how we said you should have a merry little sidearm? What if you have spent all of that ammunition getting to the enemy and it comes down to a test of strength between the two of you? No, that’s not going to happen. You’ve got a fixed-blade knife ready to use in combat.

What type of knife should you be using? That’s up to you, but as far as cool gear goes, you can’t go past the legendary US Marine Ka-Bar knife.

12. If you are entering a gunfight in a car, shoot, then get out and shoot some more

Cars are bullet magnets, and you are pretty well exposed if you are sitting in it (unless of course, you are in the US President’s Beast), so you are going to need to get out of that thing quickly. But while you are getting out, you could be sprayed with metal.

To leave a car in a gun fight (assuming it has stopped) you should:

1. Fire some shots at whoever is shooting at you (this will divert their attention from shooting you to ducking)
2. Open the door and hold it open with your foot (some doors have a kickback)
3. Lead with your gun out the door aiming at the enemy and fire shots while leaving the car
4. Position yourself so that the vehicle is in between yourself and the enemy

Here is a demonstration on executing a quick departure from a car under fire from Tactical Rifleman:

13. Don’t forget your chest rig

Okay, so if you are in a gun fight, chances are you were probably looking for one and did not run away at the first sign of a shot. This means you are a hardened individual ready to eat lead, shoot with precision, advance towards an enemy and make them quiver with fear from your dominant fighting skills.

All of this means you probably already have something like a Condor Recon Chest Rig and the sweet sidearm carrier the Condor Tornado Tactical Leg Holster. You are a dangerous gunfighter by the looks of it. And with this gear you can carry more magazines, have the smaller working space between the quick draw of your magazines to the loading port of your rifle and handgun and you can also fasten the previously mentioned US Marine Ka-Bar knife to the molle on the rig.

If you are are anything of a military buff, you have probably heard of the film Lone Survivor, the film adaptation of the amazing story of war hero Marcus Luttrel. The film’s immensely real adaptation of military tactics, weapons drills, and equipment was very real. In saying that, the specialist Rhodesian Recon Vest (RRV) chest rig the character wore in that film is also a very popular option for many military professionals and security workers.

14. Don’t get in one, but if you have to, win.

Remember how we mentioned the OODA loop in Number 8? Well if you can see an opportunity to de-escalate an issue then take it. Peace is a much better approach for all parties than exchanging fast and hot bullets.

If there is a peaceful option to take, then take it. But if there isn’t then god speed.

In writing this article, I also encourage anyone who is interested in weapons, in general, to promote gun safety to anyone you know who is about to touch a weapon otherwise you might end up being injured by one of these unsafe people. While this post might sound light, guns are no joke and are meant to be taken very serious when working with and around them.

I hope you enjoyed this post. Give it a share with the buddies you would expect to back you up in a fight!

Guns have been referred to as “the great equalizer,” and there’s no weapon which can come close to them in that regard.

A lot of the popularity of firearms is due to the fact that anyone can use them effectively, not only the strong and agile. The young, the old, men, women and child can take up firearms in defense of home and family and do so effectively.

But what do you do if you can’t use a gun – or if you don’t have a gun — to protect yourself?