A company called III Arms has just received ATF approval to manufacture firearms. Setting up a gun manufacturer is just a small part of III Arms’ plan, which is to establish a completely self-sufficient community in the mountains of Idaho.

It will be called “The Citadel” and include a walled urban center—10 feet thick by 20 feet high and four miles long—surrounded by rural plots for farming. It is, to turn a phrase, a planned prepper community.

Despite being armed and armored, the Citadel isn’t being made to defend its people from military or government action, rather, it’s intended to be a safe haven for forward-thinkers to weather a social, economic or environmental collapse. It is at the leading edge of anti-establishment living, but it “is not designed to withstand any direct .mil or .gov attack. Nor is the Citadel, in any manner, attempting to provoke any government entity,” according to the project FAQ.

Hmmm. So…theyre not attempting to provoke any government entity. But when they get their 07 FFl they proudly display it and the one-finger-salute. Now, I hate the ATFE as much as the next red-blooded guy. heck, I betcha I hate them even more. But I would call that ‘provocative’. Sure, it’s perfectly legit…heck, I bet you could call your gun company ATFESUCKSDONKEYBALLS LLC. and make an AR called the WACO-15 and ATFE would have no choice but to sign off on it as long as you crossed all the t’s and dotted the i’s. But it it smart? I’m gonna say no. Sure, the satisfaction quotient will be off the scale, but that doesn’t mean its a good idea.

There’s a little bit of heat in the discussion thread in the previous post, so let me clarify – I think the notion behind this ‘Citadel’ project, having a community of like-minded individuals working together, is a great one. More power to you. But I think the scale that they want to do it on is unworkable. Historically, the only societies that functioned on a large-scale like that had either an intense religious belief holding them together or an oppressive government forcing them to work towards common goals. (And while you could argue that the current government is oppressive enough that it is forcing people to band together in a case like this, that isn’t how meant it.) So, as far as I can tell, the only large examples would be religious cults and dictatorships…not the kinda place I want to be.

I do think something like this could work, but on a much more scaled down version. I’d like to be wrong, but this is sounding more and more like a Johnstone ‘Out Of The Ashes’ Tri-States fantasy.