Family Preparedness

Prepare for what?

This is America, what could happen here? America has come through hard times before. America is resilient. We have won and or endured a Revolutionary War, The War of 1812, a Civil War, World War One, The Great Depression, World War Two, The Korean War, The Vietnam War, The Cold War, the invasion of 40 million illegal aliens, attacks by Muslim Terrorists, the battles in Iraq and Afghanistan, rampant drug abuse, political assassinations and political corruption on a massive scale. To date we have survived all of these things and more.

Why worry now?

Let us look at some of the dangers our Nation currently faces. The Federal Government is 14 trillion dollars in debt. We struggle to simply pay the interest on the debt, let alone the principle. The administration is on track to increase that debt by several hundred percent over the next few years. Most of our state and local governments are also in financial trouble with many near bankruptcy. Pension plans are failing which will leave those too old to work with no financial support.

The United States Military, Police Departments and Fire Departments are becoming less professional as they compromise their standards in order to qualify, hire and enlist a sufficient number of “protected class” recruits including Muslims. Tens of millions of illegal aliens are draining our social services and taking jobs from Americans. In California 1 out of every 6 emergency hospitals went bankrupt in a single year and closed their doors due to the cost of treating illegal aliens.

These trespassers are also committing crimes all out of proportion to their numbers. They have reintroduced diseases into the United States that our Nation had eliminated decades ago. Illegal aliens kill approximately 4,400 Americans every year by murder and/or drunk driving. Approximately the number of U.S. servicemen killed during more than eight years in the so called war on terror. (Some estimates exceed 9,000 American deaths at the hands of illegal’s each year.) Recent polls confirm that a majority of Mexican Nationals support the takeover of our South Western States by population. The Mexican government refers to these states as part of Mexico. La Raza** is calling for a violent revolution and the overthrow of the United States Government.
**MEChA and the La Raza movement teach that Colorado, California, Arizona, Texas, Utah, New Mexico, Oregon and parts of Washington State and Southern Utah make up an area known as “Aztlan” — a fictional ancestral homeland of the Aztecs. As such, it belongs to the followers of MEChA. All these areas in the United States should surrender to “La Raza” once enough immigrants, legal or illegal, enter to claim a majority, as in Los Angeles. The current borders of the United States will simply be extinguished.

Reconquest of the Western U.S. will not end with territorial occupation and secession. The final plan for the La Raza movement includes the ethnic cleansing of Americans of European, African, and Asian descent.

As Miguel Perez of Cal State -Northridge’s MEChA chapter has been quoted as saying: “The ultimate ideology is the liberation of Aztlan. Communism would be closest [to it]. Once Aztlan is established, ethnic cleansing would commence: Non-Chicanos would have to be expelled — opposition groups would be quashed because you have to keep power.”

American labor unions are aligning themselves with Communist and Muslim organizations around the world, supporting open borders, a one world government and the destruction of Capitalism.

There has been a steady increase in terrorist attacks in the United States, committed by Muslim Americans. The Middle East is moving toward a Caliphate. Once created the Caliphate would likely cut off our supply of oil. Without oil we could not operate our Army, Navy or Air Force, leaving us vulnerable to attack and at the mercy of our enemies who have no mercy.

Ten dollar a gallon gasoline would double or triple the cost of food and other goods virtually overnight. Our strategic oil reserves are being distributed by Obama so that he can claim a political victory should gasoline prices drop. Those oil reserves are for the use of our military in time of war, not for gaining political capital and buying votes. This is dangerous and perhaps traitorous activity

Our children have been taught to believe in a Progressive philosophy by the “government school system” for generations. (Note: There are no such things as Public Schools, only Government Schools and Private Schools). Our Government Schools no longer educate but instead they indoctrinate which is the inevitable goal of all Government Schools. Recent polls indicate that many college students cannot accurately describe our system of government or name the Vice President of the United States.

Iran is on the verge of obtaining nuclear weapons. North Korea has nuclear weapons, is working hard on long range delivery systems and has been conducting Electromagnetic Pulse tests. The Taliban is poised to take control of Pakistan and its nuclear arsenal.

A failure of the power grid caused by a solar storm or an Electromagnetic Pulse attack could plunge us into the early 1800s where we would remain for 10 years or more. Most predictions indicate that such an event would result in the death of 70 to 90 percent of all Americans.

Half of the world is involved in riots of some sort. “The coming Insurrection” seems to have begun. We believe that we are witnessing the opening scenes of a worldwide uprising.

We see civil war in Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Libya and elsewhere and assume that it could not happen here. Remember that 618,000 Americans were killed by other Americans during the American Civil War. No foreign army has ever killed as many Americans in war as Americans have. The division between Americans at the time of the Civil War was far less than it is now. Incidentally, the taxation and regulations imposed by King George was nothing compared to that which we are currently forced to bear.

During the 20th Century approximately 1 million American civilians died as a result of being murdered by other Americans. More than all the wars in the 20th Century combined.

America could handle most of these problems one at a time or even two or three. All of these dangers coming at us at the same time may become insurmountable, even for our great Nation. To believe that we will survive all of these threats and others and do so without violence between the competing factions seems increasingly unlikely.

With very few exceptions, the politicians we have elected to guide our Nation are making every one of these problems worse, not better. Average citizens are now living in fear of our government and more and more see our politicians as their enemy rather than protectors.

The reality of sharing what you have.

Have you ever heard a friend or neighbor say, “I am so glad that you are storing food and water? I know where I will go if civilization breaks down.” Will you elect to share your supplies with those who have ignored warnings to prepare, despite the fact that they have been told for 70 years or more to store food and supplies?

We have heard people in California say that if things go bad they are heading for Utah because, “Everyone in Utah, including the church, has stored food.” How much food has the LDS church stored in Utah? We have been told that there is not nearly as much food as many believe and that it would not last long if things really turn bad. I remember reading that only 10 percent and some say only 7 percent of Utah families have actually stored food as the LDS Church recommends.

Numerous family members and friends have told us they plan to leave California and head to Utah if things fall apart. Like many people in other parts of the country, they believe that whatever happens, they will be safer in Utah.
We have assured these folks that under such circumstance travel will not be possible. There will be road blocks and pirates will be everywhere. Furthermore, Utah’s supplies would not sustain an army of refugees for even one week. We have told them repeatedly,” plan to survive in place.” “Make your own preparations.”

How long would YOUR food supply last if you shared it with all of your neighbors who have elected not to store food? How quickly would your food be consumed if you gave only one meal to each person in your neighborhood? There are six hundred people in our neighborhood. We could not feed all of them. Not even for one day.

If during an emergency you shared your two years supply of food with nine neighbor families your food would be gone in 2.4 months. If a two years supply of food was required in order to insure the survival of your family, you and your neighbors would all starve together, 21 months before the emergency was over.

This is the classic case of having a full life boat which is just barely able to stay afloat while others still in the water ask to be pulled into the life boat. There are dozens of people in the water. It is obvious that one more body will sink the boat.
What do you do? Do you pluck one more person out of the water thus sinking the life boat and everyone in and out of the boat dies? Do you row away thus saving your children and listen to the cries of those freezing and drowning in the water?

What if someone in the water tries to climb into the boat and it begins to be swamped with water? Do you watch as this person sinks the boat and then watch your children drown in the freezing water or do you prevent the person from swamping your boat? These are tough questions that we need to consider before the need arises.

What if the ship’s crew had warned everyone to enter and launch the life boats? You and others complied but many decided it was not necessary and failing to heed the warning they ended up in the water? Will you allow them to capsize your life boat? Your neighbors have been warned for years to prepare for hard times. Most have failed to heed the warning.

There are more than enough life boats for everyone but only if they are being used. What you should have done was to convince others to man the life boats as you did, before they found themselves in the freezing water. Help them to help themselves and assure them that you will not be able to pull them from the water if they fail to heed the warning. Encourage responsible behavior. Do NOT be an enabler of irresponsible behavior.

Your stored food and water are your life boat. Your firearms and ammunition are your life boat. Will you share such things with those who have decided not to prepare. By doing so, you will allow them to swamp your life-boat and drown your children.

As a SWAT hostage rescue instructor, one of the hardest things to teach SWAT Officers is the proper order in which they must protect life. Experience and common sense tells us that an Officer cannot save the hostage or protect anyone when he is dead. The Officer is the only hope for saving the hostage. The Officer may rescue dozens of hostages during his SWAT career. He must however, be alive to do so. This philosophy has resulted in the rescue of hundreds of hostages and the loss of very few SWAT Officers or hostages. You cannot help anyone to do anything unless you are alive.

Israel has a National policy which is very similar. They will not negotiate with terrorists and if you are taken hostage you are considered “already dead.” The Israelis will not promise to rescue a hostage. They only promise that the terrorists who took the hostage will receive swift justice.

So what does all of this have to do with you? Compassion and generosity are wonderful but at what point will they cost you your life. You cannot help anyone when you are dead. You cannot protect and care for your family after you have starved to death as a result of helping others who have refused to help themselves. You must be alive to help others.

While one family sacrifices many things in order to be able to feed and care for their children during an emergency, their neighbor spends his money for vacations, expensive cars, dining out, etc. When things become difficult the neighbor who did not prepare believes that he is somehow entitled to someone else’s food. Sharing your supplies may well mean that there will not be enough stored food for anyone to survive a crop failure or other long term catastrophes.

You may be a kind hearted person who would prefer to starve to death along with your neighbors rather than protect your own property. That is your decision to make. Will you make the same decision for your children who cannot decide for themselves? What purpose will be served if your family starves along with your neighbors?

The unprepared are going to starve anyway because they were too lazy, too selfish or too cowardly to face the future and prepare for it. Whether or not your loved ones survive is largely dependent on your preparations and the decisions you have made to protect your family and your property.

Will you allow your children to starve to death to prove that you are a good person? Being a good person is convincing your neighbors to prepare before the time for preparations has passed. If your neighbors believe that they can come to you for supplies and that belief has kept them from obtaining and storing their own food, water and firearms, you have become an enabler and you must correct that situation.

You must convince your neighbors that you do not have sufficient supplies to support them and then encourage them to store their own supplies. Volunteer to help them and show them how to get started. That is real compassion and caring. Teach them how to help themselves. Offer to accompany them on shopping trips and explain to them what they need to acquire.

People need to understand that during hard times, barter, not begging will be the order of the day. Everyone must prepare. Anyone who elects not to prepare and cannot contribute to his own survival may well find himself on his own. One of our neighbors foolishly believes that he will trade his services as a “guard” for food. Many people in the neighborhood who have stored food plan to volunteer for such duty. Why would they pay an unprepared person to do what they and other prepared neighbors can do for themselves. This is a short sighted plan. Everyone needs to prepare!

Anyone who has studied history has some idea about the dangerous times which are coming to America. Yet most Americans continue to avoid making preparations. We were recently told by a friend that he was considering making preparations to face a long term emergency but doing so would require him to admit that such an emergency was actually possible. To admit that such things were possible was simply too frightening to contemplate and so he decided to do nothing. How many others have failed to prepare for emergencies for the same reason?

We are thus reminded of people who refuse to go to the Doctor because the doctor might find cancer or some other horrible illness. How short sighted is this kind of thinking? Is it not far better to get regular checkups and detect problems early while they can still be treated and the patient may be cured? We have known several friends and relatives who failed to see a doctor until it was too late for treatment because they were afraid that the doctor might find something!

We have heard many people say, “I do not need to store food, I have stored guns and ammunition.” What is the implication? When there is little/no functioning law enforcement, they intend to take what they need from those who have stored food but who have no means to protect it.
While you struggle with the morality of protecting and defending what is yours, others face no such moral dilemma when planning to take your property from you leaving you to starve or perhaps killing you in the process.

Have you considered what you will do about the gangs of looters who will not be interested in sharing? Are you so naive that you believe you can bribe looters with a meal? These criminals will be after everything that you have including your lives? By many predictions cannibalism could become common. You and your loved ones may be seen as nothing more than an additional source of food.

Obtaining a firearm during an Insurrection will be very difficult.

As a young police officer in 1970 or 1971 I was assigned to work an area in the San Fernando Valley which had been largely burned out by fire. Hundreds of homes were destroyed and many others were damaged.

As we patrolled the area, a desperate citizen ran from his fire damaged home and stopped us. He explained that he was staying in his partially burned home to protect what property he and his family had left. He told us that he was very frightened because he had seen looters stealing property from other homes in his neighborhood.

He asked me to give him a gun so that he could defend himself and his property. He said, “I know that you have a back up gun and a shot gun in addition to your service revolver. Please loan me one of your guns. I could be killed by looters.”

How would you have responded? I explained that I needed all of my guns. I told him, “You have had a lifetime to arm yourself. A lack of preparation on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part. My guns are my tools. They each serve a different purpose and I need them all. Even if I had a gun that I was willing to part with, how do I know that you would not accidentally shoot yourself or allow someone to disarm you and steal my gun? Perhaps you should have considered preparations to protect yourself before the need arose. You stayed here to protect your property even knowing that you had no means to do so. You need a better plan. I had little patience for such people then as now.

Some people think that one of their neighbors who own several guns will loan or give them a gun when trouble starts. Most people who own multiple guns consider them tools, each suited to a specific task. Such people are not likely to part with any firearm willingly.

A gun owner who is professionally trained knows that to give a firearm to an untrained person is wasteful. A gun in the hands of an untrained person is almost useless in a defensive situation. Asking to borrow a gun would be like someone asking, “I do not know how to play a violin, but I have agreed to play one in a concert tonight so would you please loan me yours?” Would you loan this person your family heirloom? You would be a fool to do so. The violin would be of no use to this untrained person and it might be lost, stolen or damaged.

Just as the violin in the hands of an untrained person is almost useless, a firearm in the hands of an untrained person is almost useless. An untrained person may be involved in an accident or have his gun taken away from him by a criminal. He may well shoot the wrong person by mistake.

Everyone thinks that they know how to fight with a gun. In fact very few people have any accurate knowledge about how to defend themselves with a firearm. People who are not Professionally Trained with firearms tend to base their knowledge of self defense on myths, old wives tales and misconceptions.

The average American has received most of his firearms training from watching actors who have never attended professional firearms training and in fact have never even fired a real gun in their life. Anyone who is well trained in the defensive use of firearms already owns guns and does not need to borrow them. Anyone trying to borrow a gun is very unlikely to know how to use a gun properly.

If there is a breakdown in civilization and you ask a neighbor to give you a gun, and he has one that he is willing to part with, what would you offer in trade? Under those circumstances what would a firearm and a hundred rounds of ammunition be worth? If someone does have a gun to trade during an emergency, they might expect a six months supply of storable food or a 4 wheel drive truck for one gun and some cartridges.

If your plan is to go to a friend or neighbor and acquire a firearm during a widespread emergency, you had better expect to pay a hefty price. Worse yet, you may find that your friend is unwilling to part with one of his guns for any price.

The morality of protecting what is yours.

Why were horse thieves hanged in the old west? Because a man left afoot may well die. Stealing his only means of transportation might have left him at the mercy of the elements, bandits or hostile Indians.

If looters steal your food supply, your water or your firearms, during a long term emergency, they may well be pronouncing a death sentence upon you and your family. This assumes that they do not kill you while stealing your food.

Knowing that we were Police Officers, that we were always armed and that we owned firearms, several neighbors in California made statements similar to this. “If things really fall apart we know where to go to get guns and ammunition.” Our answer was, “Get your own guns. You spend your discretionary money on new cars, vacations, ski trips and gambling in Las Vegas.
We have sacrificed to achieve a degree of preparedness. On what do you base your belief that you are entitled to our property? You need to rethink your plan.”

Divine intervention.

A good friend of mine was helping his neighbor tile his kitchen. Ron had warned the neighbor several times to make certain that the pilot light on the stove was shut off. The neighbor assured Ron that he had turned off the pilot light. As Ron helped his neighbor apply the highly flammable glue to the wall in preparation for the tile there was an explosion and the kitchen burst into flames.

Ron called 911, reported the fire and then grabbed a hose and began to fight the fire. Ron asked for the Lord’s help as he fought the fire and tried to save his neighbors home. Ron was burned, lost his eye brows and hair but was able to contain the fire until the Fire Department arrived. Ron was able to save his neighbors home.

During all of this, Ron’s neighbor ran to the driveway, dropped to his knees and prayed for God to save his home. Ron asked for the Lord’s help in fighting the fire, while his neighbor asked and waited for a miracle, doing nothing else to help himself. Perhaps Ron was the miracle that his neighbor sought? What is the lesson here? We do God’s work? God works through us? God helps those who help themselves? People can do great things with God’s help?

If prayer alone would bring us all that we desire why should we strive to do anything for ourselves? We believe that God guides and inspires us. Those who believe that God will not let anything bad happen to them because they are not deserving of such things do not know history. Millions of people have gone to a horrible death praying for Gods help. While you pray for God to be with you, prepare and plan to help yourself and your family to the best of your ability and perhaps the help that you seek will be found.

Conclusion:

If you do not believe that an emergency such as an economic collapse is in the near future you have not been paying attention. We hope that this article will cause you to reflect upon your families preparations to deal with a variety of emergencies.

If you are among the few who are prepared both physically and spiritually we suggest that you evaluate your ability to protect your family and your supplies from those who have not prepared.

This does not mean preparing to shoot your neighbor who asks for a meal.

This means being able to repel gangs of organized looters who would take all that you have and to convince your neighbors to prepare as you have prepared while there is still time.

We strongly suggest that you do everything that you can to convince your friends and relatives to store their own supplies so they will not be knocking on your door and asking you to decide between feeding your family and feeding them. The best way to avoid dealing with hungry neighbors is to convince others to prepare before the emergency. We would all do well to remember the Boy Scout Motto; “Be Prepared.”

All men are created equal in the eyes of God and in the eyes of the law. What each of us makes of our opportunities is in large measure based on our decisions.
The preparations that we make to see our families through the next several years may be the most important decisions we ever face.

We will conclude this article with the following blasphemy which was a popular expression among Cowboys in the old “American West.”

“God made man, Sam Colt made men equal.” For the sake of your loved ones, make certain that you are equal to the task which may well confront us in the near future. Prepare for the worst and if we are spared such tribulations your efforts have only served to bring you and your loved ones confidence and peace of mind.

TO BE UNPREPARED TO PROTECT YOUR FAMILY IS TO BE IRRESPONSIBLE!

Larry and Stacey Mudgett