Homes For Heroes Is Tackling America’s Veteran Housing Issues

Written by Wild Bill on The Prepper Journal.

Editors Note: A guest post from Chrissy McDonald to The Prepper Journal. Published under my name because I am adding my 2 cents at the end. As always, if you have information for Preppers that you would like to share and possibly receive a $25 cash award as well as be entered into the Prepper Writing Contest with a chance to win one of three Amazon Gift Cards  with the top prize being a $300 card to purchase your own prepping supplies, enter today!

A note about our author in her words: “This is personal to me because my grandfather, father, two uncles, and three brothers have all served in the military with many relatives going in to law enforcement or becoming firefighters.”

Between 2016 and 2017, the number of homeless veterans increased by 1.5 percent. This means that our military men and women who put their lives on the line to protect and serve America now make up approximately nine percent of the homeless in our streets. This matched the rise in overall numbers living without a home. For the men and women that we consider our heroes, it seems like they are facing an increasingly harsh reality when they return home from serving. In June, 2017 the government announced plans to halt one of the country’s major homelessness programs aimed at veterans, and faced a major outcry from politicians and civilians alike.

In the face of increasing hardship for our heroes, there has been an organisation that has rapidly become a household name and trusted resource for our military men and women. Homes for Heroes has quickly risen to become one of the nation’s fastest growing charities, and a highly rated one as well. Launched after the 9/11 attacks, the national non-profit has expanded to 49 states across America and has shown its support for veterans in a number of ways. Here are some of the ways the organisation is helping to combat veterans homelessness.

Building Homes for Heroes

Homes for Heroes has announced its goal for 2018: to gift a home every 11 days. Its longer term goal is to house 200 veterans with homes by 2020. Judging by the past two years, it is certainly on its way to achieving that goal. For the past two years, Homes For Heroes has provided 57 homes to injured veterans and their families.

The Foundation

Through the organisation’s foundation and support of programs like the AREAA Housing Assistance Program, Homes for Heroes has granted over $400,000 to deserving veterans and their families. In December 2017, Homes for Heroes also donated $5,000 to the AREAA Education Foundation that will go towards helping veterans with housing repairs, amendments and any down payment assistance. The program has been praised by many including Illinois senator Tammy Duckworth who stated, “Your efforts and generosity, not only benefit the men and women who have served our country, but you are an example of leadership for the next generation of Americans”. The organisation also supports and promotes self sufficiency for those injured veterans readjusting to their life changing injuries and life after serving.

The collaboration with local businesses and other non profits continue to be seen with corporate organisations Chase and Madza joining forces with Building Homes for Heroes in September to assist three veterans during Military Appreciation Day. Two of the families were awarded new Mazda vehicles and allowed to choose a car of their choice. 

Hero Rewards

As of 2017, the Homes for Heroes network has grown to include over 2,200 affiliates across 49 states. Since its launch over 10, 000 heroes have been helped with reduced fees and red tapes when purchasing a home through the Hero Rewards Program. The 25 percent reduction in fees and donations from clients are funneled into the Foundation, essentially helping more heroes in need.

Homes for Heroes continues to find new ways to say ‘thank you’ to the men and women who serve the country during its time of need in Iraq and Afghanistan. The organisation is proud to have achieved its goal of one home every ten days in 2017 and 93 percent of its income goes directly to its causes.

Editor’s note: How does this help Preppers? Well, while it still doesn’t answer the open question of “just how do you REALLY make arrows off the grid” it is along a subject line that permeates our current news. And the comments following are from some research and seeking to know exactly what the business model is behind this enterprise because we, as Preppers, respect our veterans, a lot of us are veterans, and want to see them given a helping hand when needed.

Be clear, realtors view this as a for-profit business. That is an opinion that is prevalent on the web site Active Rain which is a real estate blog. I don’t buy it but leave it up to you to research. CharityNavigator states the following:

“Building Homes for Heroes has received a perfect 4-star rating from CharityNavigator, the nation’s largest charity evaluator and independent watchdog for nonprofit organizations. Building Homes for Heroes was also awarded a perfect score of 100 in the category of Accountability and Transparency.” – Wikipedia defines this group as “An American independent charity watchdog organization that evaluates charitable organizations in the United States.Wikipedia”. It is a 501(c)(3) business headquartered in Glen Rock, NJ.

 

So is it or isn’t it a charity? The affiliates are real estate agents who have signed up for the program as a promotional advertising method. They agree to provide a 25% discount on all transactions associated with the home sale to Homes for Heroes in exchange for using their branding and advertising. This is what they are in most states, from their website “Hero Rewards offers are limited and/or restricted in Alaska, Kansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi.” I believe this to be more a matter of state regulations on real estates transactions, for example Texas allows agents to reassign commissions as they deem fit. 

From Active Rain: Where do they make money? They charge the “affiliates” $120 a month. Yes, that’s $120 a month, just to be called an affiliate. That gets you NOTHING! Let me also explain that Homes for Heroes will remind you over and over that they are not a lead generating company. That further means that you could be paying that $120 a month each and every month throughout the year, and never get a Hero referred to you. This is simply the reality of the business. They are straight forward about what they do and are providing a service to Veterans, but like every other prepper, I like to look under the hood and kick the tires. So just another consideration when you might be transacting real estate.

I will go one step further on the vein, I am currently trying to sell a home and was not aware of this organization. I have opted for a flat-fee realtor to represent me and it is working just fine…so far. The business model of giving away 6+% of your home value (3% on each side of the transaction) is really an amazing thing. Does the documentation change in difficulty on a real estate sale of a home priced at $122,500 vs one priced at $855,490? Maybe the extra ink to print numbers with a larger footprint, but toner and ink prices aren’t that high.

My realtor recommended not putting a restriction on “the going rate” in my listing for the buyers agent because “most agents will pass on showing your home unless they get the full commission, their brokers insist upon it.” I see it as a selling point if I am a buyer as I can tell the seller the agents fee for both ends of the transaction are $6,000, total, as opposed to 6% of say $300,000. Keeping $12,000 of what was your money in the first place is NOT a bad thing. This model is catching on so look for the large brokerages to start copying the DNC on negative information generation. I will shut up now as I wait to see if the buyer on my house, sold in one day, really thinks I am going to pay for a whole new roof for THEM to live under. I admit that I did not budget that into my pricing.

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The post Homes For Heroes Is Tackling America’s Veteran Housing Issues appeared first on The Prepper Journal.

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What Did You Do To Prep This Week

Good morning everyone… It’s another wonderful but chilly morning here on the Cumberland Plateau aka “The Redoubt Of The East” but that’s okay because in a few short weeks we will be into spring with warm air and sunshine.

I’ve got so many projects planned… oh so many projects that I had to make a notebook with my to-do-list of projects that I want and need to get done. Sadly, I keep adding several new projects each week to my to-do-list so I’ll probably never get it finished because I’ll finish one project and add two more.

But I’ve...

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Smith and Wesson 642 Review – Is It Still A Viable Option For Concealed Carry?

By Firearms Review Editor Bill H

In the gun world, like life, the simplest solution is usually best. For many years, the go-to gun for concealment, carry, and home defense has been the double action revolver chambered in .38 Special. Smith and Wesson is probably the best-known revolver maker and has set the standard to which others are compared. Their line of two inch barreled, five shot, “snub” .38s is still a solid seller many years after their introduction. Sometimes called the J-frame, Smith and Wesson’s designation for this size revolver, they are also available in other calibers...

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How To Dispose Of Old Or Worn Out Firearms

Even if you buy a good quality gun and take proper care of it, a gun is still a tool. As such, it will eventually wear out or be damaged to a point where you can no longer use it without putting a lot of money into repairs.

Once a gun reaches this point, and you have decided not to repair it, you can do one of two things – Keep it or get rid of it. If you choose to keep an old, or worn out firearm, it may be possible to turn the parts into something else once the weapon has been deactivated.

Regardless of what you choose to do with the gun, you should always do the following:

1. Unload and visually inspect the firearm to ensure that no bullets are in the gun.
2. Record the serial number of the firearm and take pictures of it for your records.
3. Check with your local and state law enforcement agencies to see if the have any programs or restrictions.
4. Give the gun a good cleaning.  An old firearm that is clean will usually sell or trade better than a dirty crapped up one.  If you decide to repurpose the gun, it will also be much easier if you start off with clean metal.

Legal Issues You Should Address.

If you are turning firearms in to the police, start off by reviewing the guidelines about what kinds of guns are legal or not yet banned in your state.  For example, if you have semi-automatic rifle in a state where they are banned, you may need to wait until there is an amnesty program.

In a similar fashion, if you wish to surrender a machine gun that is no longer functional, you will need to review federal guidelines and amnesty programs for these weapons.  It will also be in your best interest to discuss these matters with a lawyer if you are determined to get rid of the weapon.

Before you turn a weapon in, make sure that you know the history of the gun.  The police or sheriff departments will run the serial number on the weapon to see if it is stolen.  If the firearm turns out to be stolen or you can’t legally own it, thus surrendering it could cause you to wind up in prison.  If you still want to get rid of the firearm, talk to your lawyer to see what can be done.

Regardless of the weapon type or its status, it may still be possible to legally turn in a firearm as long as it is fully deactivated.   A deactivated firearm is made permanently inoperable, and is therefore no longer considered a firearm.

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Technically speaking, since the gun no longer fits the definition of a firearm, according to the BATF, it is no longer subject to firearms related laws. For complete information and definition of Deactivated Guns, refer to 27 CFR Section 478.11.

As with any other law, contact a lawyer and make sure that you are aware of all changes in legislation that can lead to you being accused of a crime.

Aside from avoiding problems related to the gun type, it is also important to consider your gun ownership status.  In this case, if you aren’t supposed to own a gun, turning one in without an amnesty can get you arrested and convicted of a felony.

By the same token, if you plan to sell or give the gun to someone else, it is important to make sure they can legally own a gun.  Make sure you review all current laws in your state and get legal advice before assuming that your planned transaction is legal as well as the method by which you plan to proceed.

Where to Get Rid of Unwanted Guns

Surrender the Gun

To Your local Police or Sheriff’s Department During an Amnesty Program.  If you have firearms and ammunition that you no longer want to keep, turning them in to your state or local law enforcement is the easiest option.

Before you just walk into the police or sheriff’s office call them on the non-emergency phone line and describe the situation.  Depending on the policy of the station, they may ask you to walk it in, send officers to pick up the weapon, or schedule an appointment to bring it in.

Most amnesty programs melt down the firearms and keep very accurate tracking records. This is done so you can check to confirm that the guns you turned were actually destroyed.

Turn it in at a Gun Buy Back.

Depending on where you live, there may be enough money and interest in buying back guns via a community program.  Usually, there are no questions asked at these events, which makes getting rid of an old, useless gun quick and painless.  You will also get some cash for each gun you turn in, or other incentives that may be of interest to you.

Donate it to Training Programs.

There are many groups that use firearms to train with and have small budgets to buy training weapons and ammunition.  If you feel that the firearms maybe misused, have it deactivated first.  Deactivated firearms can be used as training or demonstration aids, however they cannot be used for any kind of live shooting.

Donate it to a gun Smithing school – When a gun is no longer useable, there is a chance that a gunsmith can still restore it.  Student gunsmiths will not only be able to meet this challenge, they will learn a lot in the process.  In addition, if the weapon happens to be rare, or of interest to a local gunsmith, you may want to give it to him or her to repair for their own use.

Private Sale.

In most states, it is still legal to sell a firearm to someone else via private sale, or through a gun auction.  As long as the buyer can legally own a gun, you can try this method.

Sell to a Gun Shop.

Even though you may think the gun is not worth fixing, a gun shop may still be interested in using it for parts. They may also have contacts with various manufacturers or other people that may be interested in the gun.  Just be sure to get all of your paperwork in order so that you have proof of how you disposed of the gun.

Once the gun is accepted by the gun shop, it is up to them to follow any applicable laws.  If the gun winds up in the wrong hands at some point in the future, at least you can prove that you sold the gun legally and were not part of what happened after that point.

Donate or Sell the Weapon to a Museum.

Before you part with an older gun, make sure you do a careful research on the serial number. You never know who may have owned the gun, or what role it played in a historical incident.  If you find something of historical interest that fits into a relevant museum collection, they may be willing to buy the gun from you.

Video first seen on Gunscom

Even if the gun is not operational, it is the historical value of the piece that matters.  In this case, the museum may be willing to pay more than other market venues, and then simply write the cost off their taxes.

Deactivating a Gun and Repurposing It

Before you deactivate a gun, look it over carefully to see if there are any parts that can be sold.  For example the grips, sights, or other parts may still be salvageable and of interest to someone else.  Take these parts to a gun store, or try to sell them through some other means.

When it comes to the receiver, do not forget that someone with an FFL license must handle the receiver transaction and transport.

If you are not able to get rid of the gun or do something with the parts, then you may decide it is best to make sure weapon can no longer be repaired or fired. From there, you can choose to do any number of other things with it. In order to deactivate most guns, you will need to do the following:

• Weld the action closed.  Once the action is heated and fused in this manner, it loses its tempering.  It can no longer be safely fired even if someone tries to open up the action and make it operable. The gun will more than likely explode when fired.
• Weld the barrel to the action.
• Hammer a tight fitting steel rod down the barrel, and then weld it into place at the muzzle end. This will effectively destroy any rifling and make the barrel completely useless.
• If you have a Class 3 weapon, the laws are very specific about additional steps you will need to take.  For these weapons, you will need to use a gas ax to make them inoperable.

Once the gun is deactivated, you can do whatever you want with it.  For example, if the gun has some kind of sentimental value, you can turn it into a paperweight.  Alternatively, you can mount in on a plaque, a lamp, or even a wall hanging.

Depending on the gun type and the size of the parts, you may also be able to turn them into jewelry or key chains.  For example, if you deactivated a revolver, you may want to take the trigger or something else to fashion into something wearable.

Some people also incorporate deactivated gun parts into sculptures representing completely different subjects.  Since many of the parts of the gun are made from good quality metal, you can fashion large, outdoor sculptures as well as smaller ones designed to stay inside.

You may also want to donate the gun to an art club or some other venue that will use them for this purpose.

If you happen to be skilled in metallurgy, and have a forge on hand, you can also shape the metal parts into something else. In this case, you might want to make a knife or something else that would have survival value.  Do not forget that you will still have to harden the steel in order to get as much use as possible out of whatever you decide to make.

What About Having a Gun Melted Down?

If you want to be totally sure that your firearms are destroyed forever, take them to a foundry.  The firearms will be cut up and melted down as you watch as long as you make arrangements to this effect.

Unless you are watching, there is a chance the weapon will  simply be cut up, stored in a barrel, and melted down when there is enough scrap to make it worth while to the foundry to start a smelting run.

Disposing of old or worn guns can be complicated because of legal guidelines.  Once you clear these hurdles, you may still be unable to find a buyer, or even someone that will accept the gun as a donation.  Under these circumstances, there isn’t much you can do other than repurpose it or sell off the parts.

 

This article has been written by Fred Tyrell for Survivopedia.

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Hardscaping Projects for Your Backyard

Written by Guest Contributor on The Prepper Journal.

Editors Note: Another guest post from Valknut79 to The Prepper Journal. As always, if you have information for Preppers that you would like to share and possibly receive a $25 cash award as well as be entered into the Prepper Writing Contest with a chance to win one of three Amazon Gift Cards  with the top prize being a $300 card to purchase your own prepping supplies, enter today!

Your home should be your castle. For all the talk in the preparedness community about bugging out and heading for the country, unless your home is under direct attack, it is a far better plan to attempt to stay at home. It’s where your food supply is, it’s where your clothes and your tools are, and hopefully you have a solid, dependable roof over your head.

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The fall and winter is usually the last time that you’d think about your outdoor areas, but it’s the ideal time to start planning for what you can do this spring and summer to help improve your home’s preparedness plan. Here are some great features to consider when creating your plan:

Food & Water Storage

Your backyard might not be the first place you think of when you start considering food and water storage, but it’s actually quite convenient.

The ideal food storage idea you can have in your backyard is a root cellar. If you’re creating a big one, you simply need to dig a large hole, build supports for the wall, and set up some form of ceiling with an air flow, add an entrance, and you have a walk-in storage solution for many of your vegetables that will keep your produce cool for the season.

Smaller root cellars can be as simple as burying a cooler in a shady spot, or digging a hole and covering the area with something. These are not the greatest or largest solutions, but they’ll work in a pinch.

Putting a survival cache in your own tree is also an option. PVC pip can be used to create an airtight seal that can contain anything you think you might need in order to survive. What’s nice about the cache is that in case of a fire, flood, or home invasion, at least you’ll have something you can use to get you through a tough time.

For Water Storage, a cistern is an excellent solution. Cisterns are usually buried under your lawn, but could be free-standing. In either case, this is something you likely will want to have professionally installed, as mistakes could lead to thousands of gallons of water flooding your property. Either way, these large storage tanks take much of the guesswork out of storing water for an SHTF situation, and are made large enough that they will be useful as water for people, plants and cleanliness.

If not a large cistern, then how about a rain barrel connected to your gutter system. When well managed, rain barrels are a great method of securing a source of water for your survival garden at least, and for your family in a pinch.

You could also consider installing a pond or large fountain, which would be the most scenic water storage choice, although likely the least practical for usage, as the water would require a more significant filtering and cleaning process before use.

Living Space

This past summer, when considering my preparedness plan, I noted that one thing we really needed was a redundant way to cook our food. We have gas appliances in our home, and I have a propane tank attached to the grill outside, but otherwise, we had no dedicated space or method for cooking. We solved this by putting a firepit in our backyard, along with a simple firewood storage box to keep nearby. Now we have a dedicated cooking area that will last as long as we keep getting branches from our trees (in other words, forever).

 

We ended up using our firepit so much that I installed a pergola, a few garden trellis walls, and a patio stone floor, and now we have almost a “room” outside where we can cool off, warm up, or camp out quite easily with minimal equipment. I’d feel comfortable out there with just a blanket if the weather permits.

My wife and I also like to adapt the kid’s stuff towards preparedness in some way. Our daughter’s play area includes a triangular set of trellises, and during the summer months, we plant pole beans around them to create a kind of teepee. Her tire swing and treehouse are built into our sugar maple, which we tap annually for syrup. She also has a small playhouse with a few built-in planters outside and a living roof that has a few herbs growing on top.

If you have the space for a shed, you could easily build one of those as a guest house, useful for storage, and if it’s far enough away from your main home, an easy bug out location on the premises in case of fire, flood or other catastrophe.

Food Growth & Gardening

Of course, in an SHTF situation, your backyard will serve as your grocery store. Raised plant beds are easy to install in any grassy area, and are perfect for growing all manner of veggies. Simply purchase the wood or bricks you wish to use, and lay them out in the area you choose. Build the wall at least four to six inches deep, and you’ll have enough soil to grow a bunch of different veggies in. If you want to go the extra mile and put landscaping fabric underneath, that may help control weeds, but it’s not necessary, and many people (myself included) have had mixed results.

In addition to raised beds, you can consider creating miniature greenhouses. Build a box with a glass or plastic lid that can be easily raised or propped open so you can work in it, and ensure that that area gets plenty of light. During the winter months, you can plant a large number of vines or crops in these mini greenhouses that can provide fresh foods year round. This is also an ideal spot to start your seedlings in spring.

Once the end of the growing season hits, you’ll be very thankful if you created a compost pile where you can get free dirt and fertilizer. Enclosed three-bin systems are very easy to build, and provide the easiest long-term plan for gathering compost, but a simple garbage can purchased from the hardware store can function as a tumbler. Some people I know don’t even have bins, they simply have a pile covered with a tarp or wrapped in chicken wire. Compost is excellent for growing crops and a good way to reduce the amount of garbage you throw away every week.

In case you don’t have a lot of room, there’s still plenty you can do to garden. It’s possible to grow fruit trees in large pots, or if you have even a little room for planting in ground, you can maximize space by growing vine plants like cucumbers, pole beans and squash on trellises. Espalier is a method of growing a fruit tree next to a wall, and is ideal for creating a smaller fruit tree that actually makes very large and wholesome fruits in a small area. Arbors also work for maintaining a small tree in a controlled area. This method works best for pear plants and apples. It’s easy to grow many veggies in pots as well.

If you have the space and the equipment, there is no better “greenhouse” solution than a Walipini. A Walipini is a dug out section of earth that is enclosed with a clear plastic or glass roof. Underneath, you have a 12-month greenhouse that can help your plants endure in any climate. A traditional greenhouse is an option as well, but may not offer the 12-month guarantee of a Walipini.

We got most of our ideas for our backyard from two sources – Pinterest and our local botanic gardens. Both of these options offer a wide variety of alternative options for growing plants, and their hardscapes are not only beautiful, but often have tutorials attached.

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Simple Facts About Survival Uses For Your Pee

Usually speaking, when it comes to prepping and survival, pee is not the hottest topic debated in the community. However, in an outdoors survival situation, one should take advantage of any resource available, including one’s urine. The question is, can you leverage urine as an efficient survival tool?

This article is aimed at emphasizing the practical uses of urine from a very realistic perspective. Rest assured: after finishing reading this article, you won’t become a pee-drinker.

To tell you the truth, so we get over the pee-drinking issue from the beginning, urine per se can be used as a survival-beverage, but only in absolutely desperate situations, when the danger of dehydration is that bad it puts your life at imminent risk and there’s no other option (you don’t have any water nor any means to procure water in a timely fashion).

Even if there are religious sects in countries like India which advocate drinking one’s pee (once a day for religious/mystical reasons), you should not make urine drinking your creed, even if those pee-drinkers in India don’t seem to suffer from adverse effects.

India aside, there are many survival stories about folks drinking their own urine to survive in extreme situations. In the vast majority of those cases, folks were stranded with no water available or trapped under various materials/collapsed buildings, pinned under boulders etc.

However, if you ask me, it’s not clear if people who drank their own (raw) pee survived because they did that or in spite of it.

Joke aside, the real answer to the question of whether drinking urine is a good idea in a survival scenario is to treat urine (a waste product by definition, filled with toxins and stuff like that) like seawater or contaminated water.

The thing is, NASA itself is well known for taking astronauts’ pee (and sweat) and recycling it (as in distilling water from urine) into pure water to drink when in space. It’s funny to mention it, but even Bill Gates took a sip of pee taken from the sewer and purified into potable water.

The issue about drinking “raw urine” to survive, besides its grossness,  is that it will actually accelerate dehydration, because of its toxic-waste content (pee is body’s way of flushing out excess salts, minerals and various toxins). The lesson to be taken home about drinking your own (raw) pee is that it will dehydrate you the same way drinking sea-water will. It’s a lose-lose scenario.

Another old belief which has some traction in survivalist circles is that you can rinse a wound with urine, due to the myth that a healthy person’s pee is sterile. Regardless of ancient folk tales, urine is not sterile, hence never pee on an open wound (I’ve heard a lot of so-called survivalists advocating that).

If you don’t have clean water, let the blood flow flush it.

Moving on with our story, since every one of us carries a free supply of pee at all times, learning its survival uses can be very useful, especially for outdoors enthusiasts. Here’s what can you actually do with your own pee to improve your chances of survival in a SHTF scenario:

You can distill water from urine.

Since pee is about 95% water, you can distill it into pure drinking water using an improvised distiller to separate the 5% bad stuff from good stuff. Even if pee is hardly my first choice as a water source, if you don’t have any other options, your urine may become a life saver.

Now, how can you distill water from urine? Well, think along the lines of solar water collection techniques, i.e. solar stills and the like. For example, if you have a plastic sheet available (and you should have one in your survival kit), all you have to do is to dig a hole in the ground, but be careful to pick a spot exposed to sunlight.

Then you put a clean container right in the middle of the hole, with the plastic sheet over it. The pee must be poured in the area around the container. Put a small rock in the center of the plastic sheet right above the container, thus making a small dip.

This dip will work as the condensation/distillation point. Remember to secure the plastic sheet with rocks on each corner so the sheet does not touch the sides of the hole, i.e. it stays suspended. During the day, the heat  from the sun will make the water from the urine evaporate, while the plastic sheet will collect the clean-water vapors, and condensing water will drip inside the container. Here’s a video.

If you’re a big Bear Grylls fan, check out this video with him demonstrating how to procure clean water from urine.

Finally, here’s another one that will teach you how to build a simple solar water/pee distiller for survival by using 2 plastic/glass bottles and some duct tape (an essential item in your survival kit).

Besides drinking, one’s pee can be used to keep cool or warm, depending on the situation. If it’s too hot and you don’t have water to spare, you can wrap a wet towel (as in you pee on the towel) around the back of your neck to keep you cool.

The evaporating pee will draw heat away. In extreme cold, you can pee inside a plastic bottle and keep it under your jacket, thus improvising a personal warmer of sorts. This is a pretty smart way to save body heat.

If you know your chemistry and geology, you can use pee to make gunpowder. This is not a joke; here’s a dude, Cody Reeder respectively, who actually did it and immortalized his experience on YouTube. To make gunpowder, you require charcoal, potassium nitrate and sulfur.

Burning wood will provide you with all the charcoal you need. Certain rocks are rich in sulfur, also elemental sulfur is easy to find around hot springs and volcanoes. Urine is the secret for getting potassium nitrate.

Another interesting factoid about urine is that it can be used for softening leather, as the urea decays in ammonia over time. Finally, you can start a fire with urine, provided you have a plastic/glass bottle available and enough (fairly clear) urine. Just read my article about how to start a fire using your pee.

I hope the article helped. If you have other ideas, questions or whatever, feel free to express yourself in the comments section below.

This article has been written by Chris Black for Survivopedia.

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Introduction to ABC and NBC Survival

Each Time A Male Withdraws, what Direction To Go

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How to Keep Bees: A Beginner’s Guide to Backyard Beekeeping

by Prepared Grammy

I have only been a beekeeper for about four years, but I vividly remember wanting bees when I was five years old. My grandma would take me to get honey from a beekeeper in town. I would walk to the hives and watch the bees while my sisters were too scared to get out of the car. Freddy, the beekeeper, would warn me that I was going to get stung, but I didn’t care. Bees fascinated me. He would teach me a little something every time we bought honey, and he’d save some honeycomb for me. I loved chewing the comb.

I realize that not everyone is as fascinated with bees as I...

Read the whole entry... »

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How To Find And Use Quartz For Survival

When the body of Otzi the Iceman was discovered frozen in the Italian Alps, a window opened, and that window gave us a glimpse of survival EDC (Every Day Carry) in 3200 BCE.

It was one more step to understanding that if we want to better master any survival skills, we must roll up our sleeves and learn the basics.

BLUF (Bottom Line Up Front):

• Even throwing smaller rocks at larger ones produces usable fragments sharp enough to prepare dinner with or scrape hides, so do not make this more complicated that necessary getting started.
• Finding varieties of quartz is not difficult in most of the world. If you find a rock that is common and scratches glass, chances are you are holding some type of quartz.
• Quartz crystals are like naturally occurring handle drill bits. Set one in a spindle and you are in the primitive hole drilling business.
• The time to learn flintknapping and other first skills is before you find yourself in a survival situation.

 Quartz as a Survival Resource

Maybe Otzi was one of your ancestors. According to granddaddies of primitive survival like Larry Dean Olsen, Dave Wescott and David Holladay, even if Otzi wasn’t a relative of yours, everyone living today has ancestors who used stone tools.

They teach that primitive skills are really “first skills” and are the foundation upon which modern survival skills are built. Just as studying the origins of science gives us powerful insight into everything built on top of them, if we want to understand survival skills, we must roll up our sleeves and learn the basics.

Once you can survive with only what the earth provides, you will be that much more effective with modern tools, the resources available to you in built areas or with what others have left behind in the wilderness.

Otzi’s equipment tells us a great deal. While he carried a copper axe with a two-foot haft carved from yew and a narrow head, he also carried a knife with a flint blade mounted to an ash handle, an antler tool for flint knapping and arrows tipped with flint, so he had tools of copper and stone.

Forgotten Techniques Of The Old West

One of the most interesting pieces of gear to me was his fire kit, in which flint also played a role. The extreme hardness of flint enabled Otzi to use his knife to strike iron pyrite in much the same way flint and steel is used to start fires.

His flint knife was his ‘striker,’ iron pyrite was his ‘steel’ and charred tinder fungus was his ‘char or char cloth.’

Survival Uses for Quartz

Here comes the next question: how many uses can quarts have if used for survival?

• Fire Striker – The extreme hardness of quartz enables it to be used to strike sparks from iron pyrite.
• Edged Tools – Quartz-based rocks can be worked into a variety of shapes and produce serviceable cutting tools and scrapers.
• Projectile & Spear Points – Arrows and atlatl (spear thrower) darts penetrate deeper and cause greater blood loss when tipped with projectile points which is crucial for hunting medium and big game and for use against predators or two-legged varmints.
• Quartz Tipped Hand Drills – Drilling precise holes can be a real chore without modern tools. Hardwood drill bits can be tipped with quartz, quartz crystals or small crushed crystals can be used as an abrasive compound to polish or abrade a hole in any softer material which, in the case of quartz, is most other abundant naturally occurring materials. Hand, bow or pump drills can be used to drive the drill bit.

How to Find Quartz

Since quartz in one of the Earth’s most abundant minerals, it is not particularly hard to find. Quartz is composed of silicon dioxide and all silicates are derived from quartz, making up around 12% of the earth’s crust.

Quartz is a crystal and crystals are not much good for knapping tools such as knives since they fracture along faces, producing edges that are not sharp enough to work with effectively, but quartz crystals do make effective drill bits. Tools knapped out of quartz crystal are beautiful, but with few exceptions, they are sharp or durable enough to be very useful.

For flintknapping tools, more homogeneous rock that can be flaked into very sharp edges is needed. Two cryptocrystalline varieties of quartz that both have wonderful properties for flintknapping are flint and chert.

Flint and chert are fine-grained sedimentary rocks composed of cryptocrystalline or microcrystalline silica, so depending on its origin, it can contain microfossils and/or small macrofossils. Flint and chert have a similar, fine-grained appearance and both can vary a great deal in color and both form in nodules.

Telling them apart is more relevant to geology than survival since they are both good for the same things, but flint typically has a lighter colored crust around nodules of flint, whereas chert does not. Quartzite can also be suitable.

Strikers for Flint and Steel

I wouldn’t be caught dead without a zircon ceramic bead on my person that is a wonderful striker for ferro rods or flint and steel and can also shatter tempered glass such as the side and rear windows of cars, but even if I’m turned loose with just the skin on my back, I know I can find a rock to use as a striker.

Any rock or mineral of 7 (softer than hardened steel) or harder, on the Mohs Scale of mineral hardness, will serve in the role if striker. The Mohs scale uses a simple test to determine hardness which is that harder materials can visibly scratch softer materials, but the reverse is not true.

If you can scratch glass with a rock (which is a, you have your striker. On the Mohs Scale, iron is a 4, steel is 4-4.5, obsidian or volcanic glass is a 5 and manufactured glass is 5.5 and quartz is a 7. Since quartz is harder than steel, it can be used to flake hot sparks from steel.

Quartz is the hardest natural material that is easy to find, which gives it great utility. Flint and chert produce sparks reliably enough that they have been used as the mechanism of ignition for the many types of flintlock firearms since at least the fifteenth century.

Flint and Chert Nodules in Limestone and Sandstone

Nodules of chert can often be found embedded in limestone and sandstone. To get at them, you will need to break away the limestone or sandstone using a hammer rock or a large or by dropping the sedimentary rock containing flint or chert nodules on an anvil rock.

For flintknapping, the best rock is brittle and uniform in structure with the fewest possible flaws. Since chert and flint are so fine-grained, they are better than crystalline quartz if available. Tap rocks that you think might be suitable with a hard object. Candidates that strike a higher note are typically better material.

In a survival situation, you may have to do whatever is necessary to save lives, but if you find chert cores surrounded by flakes and chips, realize that they are part of an archeological site and should be left undisturbed if you are training.

Quartz Deposits

In the Southwest Desert, white veins of quartz are often visible in mountainsides and hills, sometimes at a considerable distance, which can save a lot of leg work, so scan hillsides. Veins of quartz may yield crystals or pieces that are more homogenous looking without grains and the fewest possible flaws.

They will be milky in color, often milky white and I have found many quartz and chert projectile points, and pressure flakes from the manufacturing process used to make them, hiking the desert Southwest. When you find a rock that produces good pressure flakes or small, controllable chips when struck, as opposed to shattering, you are in business.

Quartzite

Quartzite is a metamorphic rock formed from quartz sandstone by exposure to heat and pressure. The surface can be grainy, glassy and speckled by the grains of sand that were fused to make quartzite or may feature elongated crystals that are fused together.

Quartzite it very hard and angular. There is quartzite along the Wasatch Front of the Rockies, in the Appalachians, Idaho, Arizona, Wisconsin, Minnesota, South Dakota, South Eastern California and Central Texas.

How to Make Survival Tools

It is a mistake to overly complicate the construction of stone tools when starting out. Making basic stone tools is literally as simple as striking two stones together. If you use the right type of stone, throwing smaller rocks at larger ones produces useable fragments capable of basic tasks like preparing game, processing plants and scraping hides.

video first seen on Wannabe Bushcrafter

From this humble starting point, you can begin improving your technique, but that is all you need to get started surviving.

Quartz Crystal Hand Drill

Putting an eye in a bone needle or fishhook, creating a divot in a bearing block or hearth board for a fire kit, putting a hole in a seashell, an antler button or piece of turtle shell are all examples of challenges faced in primitive tool making.

A quartz crystal-tipped hand drill is an effective tool for any of these tasks and is capable of drilling neat holes.

Constructing this tool is very simple with the right shape of quartz crystal. Just construct a suitable spindle and sand the business end flat on a rock. Drill a socket in to the flat face of the tip of the spindle by hand using the crystal.

Fire harden the spindle. Then glue the crystal in place using the best glue available. If you have hide available, hide glue will work best. If you do not have easy access to materials for hide glue, pitch will due in a pinch.

Flintknapping

Flintknapping is the art of making flaked or chipped stone tools. The key is to control the way rocks break when struck or pressure flaked.

Modern flintknapping was largely researched and revived by a man named Larry Dean Olsen back in the 60’s and 70’s. Olsen divided stonework techniques into: pressure flaking, percussion flaking, pecking or crumbling and abrading. I recommend you read Mr. Olsen’s book titled, Outdoor Survival Skills and tap into the primitive skills community before you learn pressure flaking.

Since the scope of this article is limited to quartz, percussion flaking is most effective to produce flakes and blanks from quartz which are then refined through pressure flaking. Flint, chert and quartzite are varieties of quartz that can be suitable for flintknapping.

With glassy rocks, such as jasper (a gemstone variety of a type of quartz called chalcedony with a hardness of 6.5-7) and obsidian, percussion flaking using a punch and hammerstone is effective. With flint and chert, pressure flaking is effective.

Flintknapping is dangerous and I do not recommend you take your first crack at it in a survival situation. Cutting yourself will turn an already lousy situation even more dire in a hurry. In a survival situation,

I recommend sticking to the very basics and breaking smaller rocks on larger ones to produce the few cutting tools you need to feed yourself if you are out so long it becomes necessary unless you are already an experienced flintknapper.

Flintknapping Tools and Materials

I will list flintknapping tools and their purposes, which will teach you much of what you need to get started training, but you are not going to learn what you need to know in one article.

• Core – A nodule or rock suitable for flintknapping and too large to be suitable as a blank.
• Flake – Flakes are smaller convex pieces of stone knocked or flaked off larger cores or blanks with a hammerstone.
• Blank – A flake being worked into a tool.
• Hammerstone – A hammerstone, antler baton (strike with area where the antler joined the skull) or billet (dense cylindrical stone) used in percussion flaking. A good hammerstone is a dense round stone that fits your hand.
• Anvil Stone – A larger dense, but softer stone, upon which the stone to be worked is placed and worked.
• Punch – The tip of an antler with a flat base that is struck with a hammerstone to produce percussion flakes.
• Limestone or Sandstone Slab – Used for abrading and grinding stones softer than quartz.
• Pressure Flaker – An antler tool used to pressure flake stone, typically approximately a foot in length. Alternately, a piece of bone or tooth can be socketed into a wooden handle. A pressure flaker should have a chisel-shaped point to secure purchase on the stone blank.
• Fine-Tipped Pressure Flaker – A fine tipped pressure flaker for precise flaking such as the notches on projectile points where they will be lashed to the shaft of the projectile.
• Pad – A pad of leather, bark, moss or similar material used in conjunction with a pressure flaker. The pad protects the palm, heel of the hand and fingers from the stone being worked.
• Protective Equipment – Flakes can be surprisingly sharp, so gloves and hide or similar material to protect your hands and legs is needed. I also recommend wearing eye protection. You should also work in a well-ventilated area.

This article has been written by Cache Valley Prepper for Survivopedia.

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What About BOB?

Written by Guest Contributor on The Prepper Journal.

Editors Note: A guest post from SignalSergeant to The Prepper Journal. As always, if you have information for Preppers that you would like to share and possibly receive a $25 cash award as well as be entered into the Prepper Writing Contest with a chance to win one of three Amazon Gift Cards  with the top prize being a $300 card to purchase your own prepping supplies, enter today! 

Let’s start with the basics!
Congratulations! You made it this far, and you have decided to take the first step towards disaster preparation and, perhaps, a little peace of mind. No matter how far you decide to ultimately take your disaster preparedness, the one piece of gear that you will always keep close at hand will be your 72-hour pack, commonly known as a “Bug-Out Bag” (BOB).

Important: Each family member should have their own bag! This includes pets. Your Chihuahua or Pomeranian obviously won’t be able to carry their own pack, but you don’t want to have their kibble mixed in with your powdered eggs, so make a separate bag for your fur babies.

Build or Buy?

The first BOBs that my wife and I put together were completely DIY. We scrounged around the house and garage, looking for any serviceable backpack, and then we put together our own checklist of items. We compiled the checklist from multiple sources, using common sense as a filter. We purchased all the items at Walmart and local dollar stores. The backpacks themselves were leftovers from when our kids were in school. If a pack is tough enough to survive a few semesters with a teenager while loaded with books, it will probably survive almost anything. We still have those packs, several years later (although we check the contents and replace the food items on a regular basis). Look for backpacks made from sturdy Cordura nylon, with heavy stitching and reinforced seams. If you don’t have any backpacks lying around, and you can’t afford new high-quality packs, then look at what you do have. Most households have small travel bags or perhaps hard-sided carry-on luggage (the kind with wheels and the telescoping handle). While not ideal, anything is better than no BOB at all.

 

Recently, we purchased a couple ready-made 72-hour packs from an online retailer. We were disappointed in the materials used in the backpacks, and many of the “survival” items were of such poor quality that they would never survive the first use. While I’m certain that good quality, ready-made BOB’s are out there, buyer beware! If you go the ready-made route, look for reviews and do your homework. Remember, if you need this BOB in an emergency, your life and the lives of your loved ones may literally depend on it. Also, no matter how good a ready-made solution is, you still must flesh it out with your own personal items such as medications, specific first-aid items, socks, undergarments, etc.
Key takeaway: If you are willing to put some time and effort into it, you can build your own bag/kit with better quality items, and have it tailored to your own specific needs.
You have a pack, now what do you put in it?

I mentioned customizing your pack with items specific to you, your climate, and your medical needs. With that said, there are a few broad categories of items that are universal.

Food
I will cover food in detail in another post, but for now, look for food that has a long shelf life, sturdy packaging, won’t attract vermin or breed bacteria, and is easy to prepare. You can find suitable food items in the camping section of most stores. Meals Ready to Eat (MRE’s) are good, although they are heavy and take up a lot of space. Remember, you’re looking for emergency fuel for your body, not gourmet meals.

Sanitation

Don’t become ill from ingesting microbes carried on your hands. Make sure your BOB contains a small amount of toilet paper, travel-size bottles of hand sanitizer, and baby wipes. Include some basic hygiene items such as a toothbrush and toothpaste. I have spent a few weeks at a time in the field with the military, and sometimes being able to brush my teeth made me feel almost as good as a hot shower. Cleanliness is not just a good idea from a health standpoint, it can also boost your spirits. Note: A change of socks and underwear is also recommended.

Survival Items
These are the basics: Water, fire, shelter, first aid, and knives. Yes, I said “knives”, plural. Knives are incredibly versatile and useful, and they are also easily lost, sometimes broken, and often stolen by the unscrupulous. Water is first on the list for a reason: You can survive for 3 weeks without food (granted, 3 MISERABLE weeks), but only about 3 DAYS without water (depending on climate). Also, have multiple sources for starting a fire. Waterproof matches, butane lighters, or those magnesium fire-starters are all excellent choices. Shelter, at a minimum, should consist of a metallized emergency blanket. A basic first aid kit is a good starting point, but look at augmenting it with additional bandages and antibiotic ointment. Include a good quality first aid manual along with your medical supplies. Another key item is a “survival radio”. These emergency radios are powered with a hand crank and do not require batteries. A quick look on Amazon yielded several in the $20 price range. Just look at the reviews, and pick one that is both compact and durable.

Personal Protection
Your bag should include one or more self-defense items WITH WHICH YOU ARE COMFORTABLE. Pack a loaded firearm if you are: 1. Proficient in its use, 2. Know how to maintain it, and 3. Know how to keep it safe. I do not advise anyone to purchase a firearm if they are not willing to master all three of the above skills. I will go into selection of a personal defense weapon in detail in another post. If a firearm is not an option, then consider pepper spray, a machete, or whatever you are comfortable with, but don’t spend a lot as someone who has mastered all three will be taking them from you, along with anything else of yours they might want. Also, communication is an important form of security. Pack a spare cell phone, charger, solar-powered recharger and a backup copy of emergency contact numbers if possible. And a radio, a ham radio, and know how to use it.

Entertainment
We used to joke that war consists of long periods of soul-crushing boredom punctuated by brief moments of abject terror. The same could be said for survival situations. Boredom can be an even bigger issue if you have kids. It’s important to have some form of distraction for mental health purposes. Items that are easy to pack include: A deck of cards, small notebooks and pencils, a paperback book, iPod and ear buds, and a handful of Sharpie markers.

Conclusion
Consider the above to be the bare minimum. However, this is a great start! You will gain confidence and peace of mind by having supplies and a solid plan in place. Finally, there is safety in numbers! Include your friends and family in your plans, and help them with a little preparedness of their own. We all have health insurance, car insurance, and homeowner’s or renter’s insurance. Don’t you owe it to yourself and your family to have a little disaster insurance?

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Serial Killers Without Guns

Everyone has heard the oft-repeated mantra of the left that “guns kill people.” Likewise, we’ve all heard the snarky responses that have been made to that, such as the ones about spoons making people fat and people having defective guns, because their guns have never killed anyone.

My personal collection of firearms falls into this category, as the only thing they’ve ever killed is a bulls-eye in a target. However, even though I’ve never fired a shot in anger, my guns have stopped two crimes, just because I showed that I was not an easy victim to take advantage of.

The reality is, killings happen and guns are often the tool that the killers use. There is no question that the modern gun is the most efficient weapon available to the average person, whether being used in the offense or the defense.

While our military forces have even more efficient weapons that pistols and rifles, these are denied to the public by their high price and laws restricting their ownership.

So, modern killers often use guns, simply because guns are efficient tools of war. But that doesn’t make guns killers. People are the killers and some percentage of our population has been killing their fellow man since Cain first realized that he could use a rock to bash in his brother Abel’s head (or however he did it). Cain didn’t have a Glock or an AR-15 to use; he probably didn’t even have a bow and arrow, so he used what he had at hand.

The problem isn’t the gun. As others have said before, guns are merely tools, no more able to commit crime than hammers are. And considering how many times I’ve hit my thumb with a hammer over the years, I’d say that hammers have a higher rate of hurting people than guns do.

But like the hammer, the gun can be used for good, just as it can be used for bad. As a weapon, it is as useful in the defense as it is in the offense. We can’t forget the neighbor who grabbed his personal AR-15 and ran to the aid of the people who were being killed in the Sutherland Springs shooting.

3 Second SEAL Test Will Tell You If You’ll Survive A SHTF Situation

Had it not been for some judicious marksmanship on the part of that hero, many more people might have been killed. The church was apparently only the killer’s first intended target, as proven by the huge quantity of ammunition he was carrying.

Every day, criminals are thwarted by good guys carrying guns. Some of those good guys also have a badge, but many more do not.

It has been proven that most gun-related crimes involve the use of guns that are purchased illegally; either on the black market or through what are known as “straw purchases.” While this doesn’t cover all murders, simply enforcing the existing laws on the books would greatly reduce gun-related crime.

That’s not to say that it would reduce crime though. Criminals are criminals and if they don’t have guns to use, they will use whatever weapon they can find. Criminals didn’t suddenly appear when guns were invented; they practiced their “profession” long before that time.

Guns just became their weapon of choice for the same reason they did for hunters; they’re easier to use.

Mass Murder and Weapons

The very same day that the Sandy Hook shooting happened (in 2014), a knife-wielding thug entered a school in China, killing more children than Adam Lanza did. But this wasn’t the worst knife attack in China that year, on March 1, 2014, 10 men, armed with knives, entered the Kumming train station, killing 29 and wounding 130 others.

Mass murder is mass murder, regardless of the weapon used. It is a horrendous event, regardless of who does it, where they do it, who the victims are or what weapon they hold in their hand. Yet it is guns that receive all the press, not because they are more deadly, but for political reasons.

Anything can be used to kill others, especially in the hands of a skilled individual. Martial arts weapons started out as tools, not weapons. They became weaponized in China, because the Japanese didn’t allow the Chinese to own swords. So they figured out how to use what they had.

This isn’t the only historic reference we can make to the use of tools as weapons. Many of the melee weapons used in the Middle Ages were tools as well, especially the “battle axe” and the “war hammer.”

While there were versions of these tools which were crafted specifically to be used as weapons, the majority of the peasantry merely used what tools they had at hand. Both axes and large hammers make effective weapons, if you don’t have anything better to use.

Hands and Knives

The same is true of murderers. Some of the most infamous serial murderers in history didn’t use guns. Jack the Ripper, for example, used knives on his victims; cutting their throats and then mutilating their bodies.

Since the killer, who is believed to be a man, had a distinct physical advantage over his female victims, so a knife was clearly sufficient for his needs.

The Green River Killer, Gary Ridgway didn’t even need a knife in his own version of Jack the Ripper’s murder spree, he strangled them to death. Early on in his killing career he did this with his hands, but as he became more proficient, he used a ligature (a cord of some sort, used as a garrote).

Still the most prolific serial murderer in American history, Ridgway has been convicted of murdering 48 separate women, and the actual count is suspected as being over 90. His killings resemble those of Jack the Ripper in that most of his victims were sex workers and runaway teenagers, who he committed sexual acts with both before and after murdering them.

Medicines

Perhaps one of the most bizarre serial murder cases is that of Niels Hoegal, a German male nurse. While actively working in a hospital, fighting to save his patients’ lives, Hoegal was also killing them, and apparently doing so for the thrill of it. The thrill wasn’t of killing them, but of rescuing them from death; a death that he himself inflicted.

Hoegal’s weapon of choice was a heart medication called Gilurytmal. He would give patients an overdose of this medication, so that he could impress his colleagues by resuscitating them. But he was not successful in all cases, many died.

Apparently that was of no concern of his, even though he fought to save patients lives daily.

While this killer was only convicted of two murders, two attempted murders and one count of serious bodily harm, it is believed that he killed over 100 people over a six year period of time. The only reason why there are so few convictions is that most of his victims were cremated, making it impossible for forensic investigators to prove whether he killed them or not.

Cars, Trucks and Explosives

To those who think in terms of weapons, anything can be a weapon, even things that are not designed for the purpose of killing. Cars and trucks were designed for transport, yet many die from vehicle accidents. In 2016 (the last year for which complete data is available at this time) there were over 40,000 people who died in vehicular accidents.

When you take into consideration the percentage of these which were caused by drugs or alcohol, it is impossible to state those were merely “accidents.”

But vehicles can be used intentionally as weapons as well. Car bombings are not uncommon, especially in the Middle East, where terrorists have turned the car bomb into a fine art. Cars and trucks make it easy to transport the explosives, as well as providing extra shrapnel when the bomb goes off.

But vehicles can be used as weapons, even without the explosives. On December, 19, 2016 a terrorist drove a truck into a Christmas Market in Berlin. This act claimed 12 lives, including that of the driver the truck was stolen from, as well as an additional 56 others who were injured.

This violent act was clearly intended to be an act of war, motivated by ISIS and perpetrated by a failed Tunasian asylum seeker.

Another such example is Nice, France when in 2016 a cargo truck was driven in a crowd of people resulting in 86 people dead and 458 injured.

While serial killers who operate over years can claim high numbers of victims, perhaps the worst mass murders are committed not by firearms, but by explosives. This only makes sense, as explosives give the killer more bang for the buck.

They can kill more people in a single “shot” than would be even remotely possible with a firearm. This makes the actual number of victims dependent largely on the occupancy of the building at the time the bomb goes off.

The Oklahoma City Bombing in 1995 killed 168 people and injured more than 680 others. While the destructive force of the bomb was aimed at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City, a total of 324 other buildings, within a 16 block radius were damaged, some to the point of destruction.

One would think that such a massive explosion would require special methods and materials, and in fact, some special materials were used. But the vast majority of the explosive force came from common materials which are readily available, using formulas which have been readily available in open-source material since long before the internet made it possible to find them in seconds.

The Bath School Massacre

Then there was the Bath School Massacre of 1927, long before mass murderers became media celebrities. At that time, it was apparently possible to buy dynamite over the counter, without the restrictions that are in place today.

The killer, Andrew Kehoe, bought these in small increments, in various locations, over several months, eliminating any suspicion that he was buying them for nefarious purposes.

Those explosives were used to create four separate explosions, one of which did not detonate. The first was at his farm, using firebombs to destroy the house and outbuildings before attacking the school. But even before that, he started his killing spree, murdering his own wife a couple of days before setting off the explosion.

The planning of the operation, purchasing the explosive and planting them in the school took months. As a member of the school board, he had ready access to the school, allowing him to carry the explosives into the basement and prepare his bomb there.

The explosion of the bomb under the north wing of the school killed 30 people, mostly children, and injuring another 58, some of whom were maimed for life.

A second explosion was triggered by the killer a short time later, exploding his truck, which he had filled with explosives and shrapnel. Kehoe, the school superintendent and a few others were killed in this explosion.

The only reason more people were not, was because there were few people near the truck at the time.

A third bomb, consisting of 500 pounds of explosive, had been prepared in the south wing basement, which for some reason failed to detonate. Had it exploded, the casualty count would have been much higher and the building would have been completely destroyed.

Conclusion

It is clear from these examples that murderers, even the mass murderers of today, don’t need guns to accomplish their purpose. When people set out to kill others, they will find a way, no matter what. Making gun ownership illegal would do nothing more than make it harder for law-abiding citizens to defend themselves from these criminals.

Even within the realm of gun-related deaths, the statistics aren’t as clear as the gun control crowd would like to make it seem. The New York Times, arguably the most liberal newspaper in the country, reported that “more than 60 percent of Americans who die from guns die by suicide; but that fact is often overlooked” in their October 8, 2015 issue. If they are able to recognize this fact, why can’t others?

Again, eliminating gun ownership won’t stop suicide. There are more suicides committed by drug overdose every year, than there are involving firearms. That’s a rather amazing statistic, when you consider that 80% of suicide attempts involving a firearm are successful, while only 3% of suicide attempts involving drugs are.

So the actual number of attempted suicides by drugs is astronomical.

Do guns make it easier for people to commit suicide? Yes, they do. But again, the problem isn’t the guns, it’s the mental health of the people who commit the suicide. If access to guns was blocked, the only ones who that would stop are the impulsive suicides.

Maybe that’s a worthwhile goal, but it’s not worth taking away everyone’s Second Amendment rights to accomplish it.

Once again, if someone really wanted to commit suicide using a firearm, they could find one, even if guns were illegal. Criminals can buy guns in any country in the world, even those with the most restrictive firearm laws. If they can’t, it doesn’t take a whole lot of skill to craft a homemade single-shot gun that shoots shotgun shells. So criminals would have guns, but law-abiding citizens wouldn’t.

What the left really wants is one of two things, neither of which is beneficial to society and severely restricts our freedom. The first is to eliminate the physical laws which allow firearms to operate. That way, there would be no more guns.

Those who wish for this are the ones who don’t want firearms around, because they are afraid of them. It is a fear-driven argument, which has no basis in logic. I know people like this and they can’t articulate their reasons beyond, “I don’t like guns.”

But it is the other group that is ultimately the more dangerous. They want to concentrate all guns in the hands of the government. This has happened in various places and various times through the history of guns.

Each and every time it has led to a totalitarian government, where the common people didn’t have any rights at all.

These people are the politicians, bureaucrats and their lackeys. They want control and they want to take our freedom away from us. That’s what makes them dangerous and that’s what the Founding Fathers gave us our Second Amendment rights to protect ourselves against.

This article has been written by Bill White for Survivopedia.

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