Let’s be careful out there

Originally published at Notes from the bunker…. You can comment here or there.

“If you cant take a little bloody nose maybe you ought to go back home and crawl under the bed. Its not safe out here, its wondrous with treasures to satiate desires both subtle and gross; but its not for the timid.” – Q

I’m guessing that I don’t need to tell you that the world isn’t a safe place. That isn’t necessarily a bad or good thing, it’s just the way things are. Most folks, like me, who live in a quiet world of doing the same things every day, seeing the same people, and dealing with the same problems, get pretty insulated from the rest of the world.

Other folks, like military, police, paramedics, firemen, etc., go the other way. The typical day for them puts them dealing with the things that are exceptional and completely out-of-the-ordinary to folks like myself.

My point is that its easy to get complacent and forget that there really are people out there who don’t care about your safety, don’t care about your rights, and do see you as an opportunity for some personal gain (or entertainment) at the expense of your safety and security. In short, sometimes we forget there really are bad people out there.

These are, to be sure, stressful times. That’s not just good old-fashioned survivalist paranoia talking, either….this is fact. And it’s looking like more folks are reacting to stress in a bad way. In the latest cases, by shooting up places, killing total strangers, and then killing themsleves (or getting themselves killed.)

In Starship Troopers, theres this quote about people who go nuts and commit horrible violence, “I suppose he was one of those pathological personalities that you read about – no way to spot them. Well, if there was no way to keep it from happening once, there was only one sure way to keep it from happening twice. Which we had used.”

A lot of times you can’t tell whose gonna go sideways and shoot up the schoolyard but you can make darn sure they don’t do it a second time. Of course, a minimum amount of equipment is required along with a maximal amount of determination and fortitude. Talent and skill would go a long way too. But more than anything else, being armed is the biggest thing.(“Why do you carry a pistol?” “ Because carrying an AK all day is awkward and makes driving difficult.” )

Running and locking yourself in a basement or hiding under a desk is certainly a better option than getting shot down, no matter how you look at the equation. Certainly the best, easiest and safest option when someone comes through the front door flinging bullets is to simply go out the back door and let your tax dollars take care of the problem. After all, isn’t the whole point of being a survivalist to survive? But most people, myself included, would probably have some issues with just saving our own skins and letting defenseless others get killed if we had the means to respond aggressively and decisively. “Aggressively and decisively” is gunspeak for “draw your gun and shoot the bad guy”.

My point is, as things are getting weird around us with the economy making a lot of people nervous theres going to be more cases of disgruntled people taking things out on their families, ex-employers and us innocent bystanders. Folks are scared and uncertain, who can blame ‘em? Guys are going home to a wife and three kids trying to explain that theres no work to be had and it might be time to go live with the in-laws until things get better. Some folks cant handle that. They think somehow the better alternative is to drown the kids in the tub, shoot mom and then themselves. I suppose once you commit yourself to a course of action like that its pretty easy to think “Heck, in for a penny in for a pound…might as well head back to the office and shoot that damn manager and supervisor too.” Next thing you know, its on CNN.

Some folks just can’t handle the stress…some feel that they’ve been ‘unfairly’ singled out and persecuted…some are just gonna be downright pissed and not care anymore. Either way, its apparent that things are becoming simply more and more unstable out there and leaving the house in the morning with the trusty sidearm and a spare mag may not be the ‘paranoid thinking’ that youre friends tease you about. Its a more dangerous world out there today than it was yesterday. Tomorrow it’ll probably be more dangerous. So….be prepared.