Let’s talk about what you really need to be prepared when it comes to weapons
A while back I did a post on my X account on this subject and it seemed to help a lot of people. So because that post seemed to help a lot of people I decided to do a larger piece to elaborate on the topic. First and foremost I’ll say I am far from a subject matter expert. There are a lot of people out there who truly are subject matter experts with qualifications that far exceed my own. That said I certainly have a heap of qualifications exceeding most the dumbasses out there slopping endless helpings of guntoober gruel to the masses for advertising dollars to tell you X brand is just as gud, become a delta tier operator with this one simple product, or if you don’t have $4500 super gun you just NGMI.
Though I don’t consider myself a subject matter expert I did for most of twenty years carry a firearm professionally. I won’t go over my full resume but I will say that I am a graduate of a police Academy, I’ve been to war twice and had an assortment of jobs here at home. Everything from working as a “bounty hunter”, to working security in “low income housing” (ghettos) to repossessing cars, inmate transport, working in a jail to all sorts of other mundane security jobs over the years to pay the bills. For most of my adult life a gun belt or a duty belt and often a long arm were part of my daily required assortment of tools for my work. On top of that I’ve spent my entire adult life working on, building and modifying my own weapons. I’ve built AK’s, AR’s and pistols. I’ve worked on every type of gun I own. Everything from complicated machining and riveting to simple assembly and paint jobs. If I want custom work done on a gun I own, I do it myself.
Now that we have the bonafides out of the way let’s get to the topic at hand. Let’s discuss how you pick the weapons you need for your own personal preparedness and self protection. This may hurt some feelings but the first thing I’m going to tell you to look for, is to look for manufacturers and models that have a proven track record and are being carried professionally by large military, police or state security organizations. The reason I tell you this is that in general in the firearms industry manufacturers that build their products for the professional end user have much better manufacturing standards and quality control. Often that product had to meet and exceed the standards of a government tender to begin with that demanded a certain quality of manufacturing and to meet certain expectations of performance. If their quality control starts slipping it’s very possible to lead to large lawsuits and losses of lucrative contracts. See the recent SIG P-320 lawsuits and the glut of brand new looking “police trade in” P-320’s that have flooded the market lately as an example. There’s often some politics involved in the selection process but for the most part these governments and organizations spend millions, if not tens or hundreds of millions of dollars for performance testing and evaluations on these products before making their selection. What results are made public from these test and evaluation program findings can be a good starting place for you to begin your search for your own personal product selection as they’ll give you a good idea of what products on the market are worth looking at.
The next thing I’m going to tell you is to start with your pistol and work your way up to buying a rifle. There’s a lot of reasons for that. There’s probably a lot of people out there who’d disagree with me and that’s fine. They have a different opinion but they aren’t wrong as a rifle is absolutely a necessity. We will get to that. However the society we live in for the most part people just don’t really go about their day in public with an AR strapped to their back. It’s not a common thing and it will draw a lot of ire and attention. Further It’s not convenient to carry a rifle, so most people just won’t carry it and it will just turn into a “truck gun”. What that means is that in general the weapon you will have access to most of the time at any point in your day to day life will be your pistol. It will be what’s on your body when an event occurs throughout your normal day to day life where you may need a firearm. When it comes to your pistol’s capabilities you should choose a firearm that is comfortable to carry, easy to conceal, acceptably accurate, reliable, simple to operate and will function even if it’s neglected, because most people neglect their carry pistols. Any good pistol should be able to be effectively be employed in low light environments. After all half of our 24 hour day is spent in the dark. The pistol doesn’t have to be expensive. In fact I’d recommend against an overly expensive Gucci custom pistol. When I look at the “lightening cuts” on the slides of these expensive custom pistols I cringe because all I see are places for dirt and lint to creep into the moving parts. Once you start tossing custom barrels, lighter triggers, custom guide rods, etc in there you’re just creating more failure points and reducing reliability. I’d whole lot rather keep the reliability of knowing that carry pistol will go bang every time rather than shave a fraction of a second off the shot timer. You want an F-150 here, not a Ferrari. Race guns have their place and this ain’t it. This is a gun you will be carrying every day. You’re likely going to come home from your long day at work tired and flop into bed or spend time with your family rather than meticulously clean your pistol of whatever dust or lint crept into it in preparation for the next day. I personally carry a simple Glock 19 with night sights because it fits this bill perfectly. Out of all the years I’ve owned it, as long as I kept a reasonable maintenance schedule, it’s never failed me. It’s acceptably accurate, reliable and comfortable to carry.
Now onto the rifles. While a pistol is a weapon you have on you in case a fight comes to you, the rifle is the weapon for if you’re planning to get into a fight. When it comes to what to carry in a fight, carry a rifle, accept no substitute. The rifle of course is everyone’s favorite topic online. There’s endless discussion about what’s the best brand, caliber and what Gucci accessories you need or you just NGMI. If you don’t have MLOK you a fudd, etc, blah blah bullshit. Again I’m going to hurt some feelings here when I tell you this. You don’t need a Gucci rifle. It doesn’t have to be super expensive. Sure you can go buy some Gucci DD, or HK, it’s your money, knock yourself out. But I’m writing this for normal people like me who have to live within a budget or answer to household six when it comes to purchases. You don’t need a shit load of Gucci accessories either. You need a reliable AR15 of reasonable quality. Sorry, but that’s just a fact. If you live in the United States and you want a rifle for serious preparedness, you need an AR15 platform rifle. Not only because the parts and ammunition are cheap and ubiquitous but because almost every training program in this country available to civilians is based on teaching the employment of the AR15 platform. Sure there are plenty of good rifles out there that aren’t AR15’s and once you have a simple basic bitch AR15 as a fighting rifle you can get some of those to play with as range toys. Knock yourself out. However your next stop after buying a good carry pistol should be a basic bitch, good quality AR15 because that is America’s fighting rifle and pretty much every respectable trainer with real world experience that’s worth a damn will be teaching you how to employ an AR15 when you go to their classes. The key here is buying a rifle from a respectable manufacturer with a good track record. Some of the best people to ask about this are instructors because they see what weapons from what manufacturers make it through their courses trouble free. They also see which ones break frequently. Sometimes instructors will have loaner guns, usually very basic and low cost rifles, that they can let students use to finish a course if their own rifle goes down hard. Ask them what kind of rifles they use as loaners. These rifles have usually had hard lives and can be a good starting point for when you buy your own. There’s plenty out there and these days you can get a pretty decent “entry level” basic AR15 from a reputable manufacturer for less than $1k. If you’re willing to spend $1k or slightly more you can buy some pretty amazing rifles and the market opens up pretty wide. You can even part a rifle together over time so you can build it up as funds become available by buying a good quality lower and upper receiver separately. As with the pistol the rifle has some basic requirements. It should be of good manufacture and reliable. It should be acceptably accurate. It should be light enough that you can employ it nimbly or with relative ease. You should be able to use it in a low light environment. While I consider a weapon light for a pistol an option because you always have the option of using a small high powered flashlight with a pistol, I believe a weapon light for a rifle is damn near a must.
On Gucci gear. In the world of people who professionally carry firearms there’s generally two categories. There’s the people that carry a firearm professionally. Meaning it’s part of their Job to carry a firearm but it’s not the primary focus of their job. This would be most of your law enforcement, most soldiers and security personnel. Then there’s those who employ their firearms professionally. This would be certain SWAT officers, Infantry soldiers, some special forces types. When they aren’t out there helping the enemy find the afterlife package appropriate for them they’re in a shoot house or on ranges training to help others meet their afterlife needs. These are usually the types of people you see carrying Gucci gear and weapons, because they need that. They need a rifle that can accommodate a bunch of accessories. They need very reliable and high speed optics, etc, because they want overmatched equipment compared to their enemies. The average prepper or personal safety aficionado doesn’t particularly need this tier of Gucci gear or equipment, but of course we all want it. So in general when I am Gucci gear shopping I look at what these guys are carrying as a starting point because I know these units and organizations don’t tolerate cheap low quality shit that will endanger their lives. Not too long ago when I finally broke down and built a “modern” AR that actually had MLOK etc I went and looked at what the rangers are packing these days and ended up building something very similar to a URGI. There’s plenty of Guntoob slop recommendations churned out for advertising dollars for this product or that but I’ve never been let down by just looking at what the actual pros are using lately. While the pros traditionally have been years behind the competitive shooting world in technology and trends what they use works and that gap is closing rapidly. The only recommendation I stress on Gucci gear is that if you don’t absolutely need an accessory mounted to your rifle, do without it. Your rifle needs to be light more than it needs to look badass.
Now to the most important part of this and probably the subject that is probably the least favorite in online discussions. Training. All of this cool gear is worthless without it. This will be cheered by some and hissed at by others but it’s just fact. None of this gear will be worth a damn to you if you don’t train. Seriously, save the money and take the kids to Disney or something because if you ain’t training this gear is a waste of money for you. When I say training I don’t mean plinking with the boys either. Sure that’s fun, but you need structured training. How do you know your rifle is reliable? How do you know that X accessory is worth a damn? How do you know your personal gear works for you and is fit for purpose? Because you’ve trained with it and put miles on your feet wearing it. You’ve actually taken it out on the range and worn that gear and put rounds through your weapons in training. If you’re spending more money on gear and accessories than you are in ammo and training you’re simply wrong and NGMI. If you can’t aim down your barrel for more than a couple seconds because your rifle is a heavy pig and you ain’t doing PT, you NGMI. If you can’t run from one point to another wearing your gear and carrying your weapon and then engage targets without stopping for a breather, you NGMI. There’s no substitute for this. You’re not going to find some product that’s going to make you proficient with your weapons. If you suck with iron sights an optic isn’t going to improve your poor marksmanship. The only things that will do that is PT and structured training. These days I’m getting old and having to accept the realities of my physical limitations. We all have to do that. However you should always strive to do better and become better because if you don’t you’re just going to end up a loot drop. Fortunately for you, since there was a two decade, multi-generational war recently there’s quite a few very experienced people out there who’ve actually been there and done that offering competent and reputable training these days. Furthermore gym memberships are cheaper than ever. All you have to do is do it.