I share the interest in preparation, but maybe not for the same reasons / scenarios.

I don't think the economic and societal collapse is a 4 year or even a 10 year horizon. Look at how long Greece, Spain, California, Detroit, et al have been limping along. I think it's possibly a 15-20 year event, but I still hold out hope for American ingenuity, dedication, and aversion to BS after accepting it for a long time.

I'm most worried about natural disasters that close down supply channels and law enforcement. Especially those that are unprecedented and result in massive, long term confusion......like Katrina, Sandy, or the huge earthquake that's possible in most regions of the US. With changing weather and the emergence of new surprises like Sandy, I wonder if there could be bigger, unimagined tornado systems.

Here in TN there's not much to worry about in the way of hurricanes or tsunamis or coastal phenomena like that. But tornados and the New Madrid fault are big. The New Madrid could knock out utilities, supplies, and law enforcement massively.

And I'm a huge fan of Walking Dead, George Romero, etc. I'm just not prepping for zombies, lol.

I share the interest in preparation, but maybe not for the same reasons / scenarios.

I don't think the economic and societal collapse is a 4 year or even a 10 year horizon. Look at how long Greece, Spain, California, Detroit, et al have been limping along. I think it's possibly a 15-20 year event, but I still hold out hope for American ingenuity, dedication, and aversion to BS after accepting it for a long time.

I'm most worried about natural disasters that close down supply channels and law enforcement. Especially those that are unprecedented and result in massive, long term confusion......like Katrina, Sandy, or the huge earthquake that's possible in most regions of the US. With changing weather and the emergence of new surprises like Sandy, I wonder if there could be bigger, unimagined tornado systems.

Here in TN there's not much to worry about in the way of hurricanes or tsunamis or coastal phenomena like that. But tornados and the New Madrid fault are big. The New Madrid could knock out utilities, supplies, and law enforcement massively.

And I'm a huge fan of Walking Dead, George Romero, etc. I'm just not prepping for zombies, lol.

I tend to agree, I don't see a collapse overnight, I'm more concerned with inflation and the cost of basics, or an actual volcano.We are way overdue out West, based on millions of years of data, many on the West coast are long past when they should have erupted.Then as you pointed out, fault lines, we have some that go every 10,000 years and many are 1000 years over due as well, not to mention Ca is still moving and the valley is slowly slipping under the Sierra Nevada mt range.Natural disaster come in all sizes including plague, and if one of those breaks out, I won't have to run to the grocery store at least.

.22, 12 guage, and a high powered pellet rifle are the basics. Pellet for relative silence and stealth but still good lethality / hunting, .22 for general defense (rifle anyways) and basic hunting, and the 12 guage for great versatility. The 12 ga can go from little birds to huge defense with buckshot, or stopping cars and bears with slugs.

Affordability is key here, too. You can find decent models for each of these for 150.00 each. A far cry from the ~1000.00 for some of the fancy weapons.

It's nice to play with the groovy 5.56/.223's. & 7.62/.308's........ or .357-.44-.45-.50 handguns, but 1000 bucks for a rifle or 500 for a handgun is a bit much, unless you just have the money to burn.

There is a nice ww1/ww2 7.62 Russian rifle, the Mosin Nagant, that goes for 100-150. Small capacity magazine, but there's your affordable big caliber rifle, if that's your thing.

Affordability of ammo is key, too. .22 / 12 ga / pellets are pretty light on the wallet. You can spend yourself into oblivion with those other boutique calibers.

And don't forget the knives.....if you have nothing else. Good quality knives can give you spears, bows, old style clubs and hatchets a la the native Americans. If we end up way back at the basics, well there you go. Not just for defense, but hunting and fishing too.

There's a lot of other fun little stuff out there too. Inexpensive bows and arrows (crossbows tend to get expensive like guns). Inexpensive stun guns that run on batteries, pepper spray (the bear spray things are crazy, pretty good for getting away from a whole mob), staffs and martial arts bo's are good if you take the time to learn their use and techniques (very effective and efficient defense for smaller / older people).

Hi quality slingshots are good weapons, if you can master them. Some good ways to avoid the registered / tracked guns is pellet guns, and creative ideas like flare guns.

Camping, hiking, hunting, fishing gear is gold.

Hope this doesn't all sound too survivalist, but I'm a staunch proponent of having enough weaponry to protect yourself and family. A real food / water / security breakdown turns to to anarchy and savagery in a minute, and guns and ammo won't last indefinitely, unless you're one of those hard core guys with a million rounds and years of food.

.22, 12 guage, and a high powered pellet rifle are the basics. Pellet for relative silence and stealth but still good lethality / hunting, .22 for general defense (rifle anyways) and basic hunting, and the 12 guage for great versatility. The 12 ga can go from little birds to huge defense with buckshot, or stopping cars and bears with slugs.

Affordability is key here, too. You can find decent models for each of these for 150.00 each. A far cry from the ~1000.00 for some of the fancy weapons.

It's nice to play with the groovy 5.56/.223's. & 7.62/.308's........ or .357-.44-.45-.50 handguns, but 1000 bucks for a rifle or 500 for a handgun is a bit much, unless you just have the money to burn.

There is a nice ww1/ww2 7.62 Russian rifle, the Mosin Nagant, that goes for 100-150. Small capacity magazine, but there's your affordable big caliber rifle, if that's your thing.

Affordability of ammo is key, too. .22 / 12 ga / pellets are pretty light on the wallet. You can spend yourself into oblivion with those other boutique calibers.

I bought a mosin Nagant at Big 5 in mint condition for little over a 100 bucks, and the gun shop down the road had Russian surplus ammo in lead sealed containers, 1000 rnds for about 60 bucks, which turned out to be armor piercing.

Even though I can afford it, I see no reason to spend a lot of money on a single weapon, when I can buy three for the same price as one nice brand name.It's not like I'm putting thousands of rounds through them anyway.

That's awesome, lol. For 160 bucks, you're set up for the big one ! Two great buys that would be huge in the disaster / anarchy scenario. They've got big cans of Russian ammo at Academy Sports now. The salesmen say it's OK, apparently it dirties up your weapon more than the high-end stuff. But that's a lot of security and peace of mind for not much money.