Scott W. Wagner - The Gun Digest Book of Survival Guns: Tools & Tactics for Survival Preparedness

I t is clear there is a deep-running fear throughout a large portion of the United States population, one at a level unseen since the Cuban Missile Crisis days of the Cold War in the early 1960s, when I grew up. Although I dont remember actual duck and cover drills, which I think were phased out as being rather useless at the end of the 1950s, I do remember the crisis and people building personal bomb shelters. I remember that, while my dad didnt build us a bomb shelter, we did have extra food stored in the basement for an emergency (though Im not sure it would have been enough for our family of four). I also remember the myriad buildings designated as official Civil Defence fallout shelters that were stocked with food for the supposed long-term survival of as many people as was possible to fit inside.

This Civil Defence emblem could be seen posted on many buildings in the 1950s and 60s, identifying these places as bomb shelters.

Fortunately the bombs never fell, and the specter of nuclear war grew faint over time. But, while the concept of some form of preparedness waned, it never disappeared. When it came back, in 1992, it was due to the election of Bill Clinton as President, and this time the preparation carried with it a major focus on obtaining and stockpiling firearms and ammunition, particularly because of the 1994 Assault Weapons Ban; the concept of food storage and the reinforcement of the home didnt seem to be as much a part of that. The people who loaded up on guns were only in part thinking of armed resistance against the government, and an even smaller portion of that populace gave thought to what such a resistance might entail. Most of the other people were thinking about buying and hiding the guns they acquiredthats when the backyard burial and storage vaults first appeared.

What was also a part of the 90s preparedness movement was the appearance of unofficial militias for defense against government intrusion, a response against the perceived threat of big government. So not only did folks individually prepare, some also joined groups (or at least until they were turned off by some of the radical thoughts harbored by some of them). And while the election of Barack Obama as President fueled an even bigger rush to buy guns and ammoObama is often referred to as the largest gun salesman in the history of the U.S., with Bill Clinton running a close secondthere are new underpinnings to twenty-first century preparations. While there is still concern over government interference, it seems to me that the major concern is now our fellow citizens, those who will be motivated to rob, kill, and steal in order to survive due to a major societal and economic collapse of the type that is already starting to affect European nations staggering under a huge burden of unsecured debt. Or, worse yet, debt secured by Communist (yes, I said Communist) China. (You know, the same folks that send us poisoned dog food, lead-painted kids toys, and who slide counterfeit, defective, electronic parts for aircraft and our weapons systems through the military procurement channels.)