Guys how long of practice did it take you to have an average of 4 LD/ month (throughout a year)?
I'm trying to practice LD since I was 20. Now Im 40. I have been on and off practice many times in my life and now it's been since 4 months ago that I started and covid quarantine helps. But still the last month I've had 0 LD and the previous one 4 LD.
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Texas is by and large a solid-state for knife owners, thanks in part to significant revision of their legal code governing knives that saw significant restrictions reduced or eliminated entirely a few years back.
Overall, Texas does not spend a great deal of time defining what knives are legal or illegal based on their class and features except one: The length of the blade.
But before you cry foul, you should know that the blade length restriction is quite generous and uniquely applied only to specific locations, giving rise to a category of knife known as a location-restricted knife in the state.
It is a bit disappointing that a state as pro-2A as Texas has any sort of restriction like that at all, but the good news is that there is no other categorical ban on knives by type, action or feature.
You can carry any kind of legal knife, but you want to openly or concealed and will only need to worry about taking a large blade into specific locations. You’ll also be happy to know that Texas has strong preemption statues that keep the state laws the standard throughout the entirety of the land.
It is not as hard to understand as it sounds, and we will get into all the details that you need to know just below.
What You Need to Know
What Kind of Knives Can I Own?: Any kind of knife.
Can I Carry a Knife Concealed Without a Permit?: Yes, any kind of knife that meets blade length requirements by location. See below.
Can I Carry a Knife Concealed With a Permit?: Yes, any kind of knife that meets blade length requirements by location. See below.
Can I Carry a Knife Openly?: Yes, any kind of knife that meets blade length requirements by location. See below.
General Ownership
Texas does not ban outright any particular category of knife, nor any knife based on its features or action.
The only category of knife that you should concern yourself with in Texas is what they define as a location-restricted knife, which simply is any knife with a blade measuring more than 5 ½ inches in length. Any such knife with any features that has a blade a longer than 5 ½ inches is a location-restricted knife.
If one is under the age of 18 years old and not in their home or on their property or in their vehicle they may not be in possession of any location-restricted knife.
For anyone over the age of 18, you may not possess a location-restricted knife in one of several places that we will detail later. This is a surprisingly long list for Texas.
The only other categorical restriction of bladed implement that might be of concern are tomahawks which have their own restrictions that they follow, some of which are distinct from knives. Because they are not knives and defined separately in Texas, they are beyond the scope of this article.
Finally, Texas does have a statewide preemption statute that will ensure you do not run afoul of any varying local laws that might exceed the state’s law when it comes to restriction of knives.
Concealed Carry, No Permit
You may carry any kind of legal knife on or about your person in Texas without benefit of a concealed weapons permit.
Concealed Carry, With Permit
Texas does not make any distinction when it comes to the concealed carry of knives whether you have a permit or not.
Open Carry
Texas allows you to open carry any otherwise legal knife at anytime and anywhere. Do be advised that open carrying a location-restricted knife into one of the eponymous restricted locations is grounds for a violation.
Texas does not care how you are carrying a knife; they only care about whether or not you are carrying a location-restricted one into a restricted location!
Prohibited Places
Texas emphasis on location-restricted knives is definitely a bit quirky, but it is not difficult to understand.
As stated above, any knife of any type, make or action, no matter whether or not it is carried openly or concealed, no matter whether or not it is carried with or without a permit, that has a blade measuring longer than 5 ½ inches is contained in the category of location-restricted knife.
As anyone would likely surmise, that means there is a corresponding list of restricted locations that you cannot carry those knives into.
A partial list of these locations includes courtrooms, courthouses, any airport past the security checkpoint, any penal institute, within more than 1,000 feet of a penal Institute, any school, any sporting event be it professional or scholastic, any hospital, any nursing facility, any church, any temple, any amusement park and any polling place.
It is worth clarifying that just because you cannot carry a location-restricted knife into these places does not necessarily mean you cannot carry a knife that is not location-restricted, though you should be very clear on what rights the owners and operators of these places have to decide what is and what is not allowed on the premises.
Assessment
Texas is overall an excellent state for knife ownership and the carry of the same. Texas does not ban outright any particular category of knife based on its features, action or any other salient characteristic, choosing instead to broadly categorize knives into location-restricted or non location-restricted groups.
Any knife that has a blade measuring longer than 5 ½ inches is barred from being carried openly or concealed onto the grounds of certain installations. Besides this somewhat strange restriction, Texas is an excellent state all around, and strong preemption laws mean you will not be second-guessing what you can and cannot have as you move about the state.
Important Texas State Statutes
Sec. 46.01. DEFINITIONS.
(1) “Club” means an instrument that is specially designed, made, or adapted for the purpose of inflicting serious bodily injury or death by striking a person with the instrument, and includes but is not limited to the following:
(A) blackjack;
(B) nightstick;
(C) mace;
(D) tomahawk
…
(6) “Location-restricted knife” means a knife with a blade over five and one-half inches.
(7) “Knife” means any bladed hand instrument that is capable of inflicting serious bodily injury or death by cutting or stabbing a person with the instrument.
…
Sec. 46.02. UNLAWFUL CARRYING WEAPONS.
…
(a-4) A person commits an offense if the person:
(1) intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly carries on or about his or her person a location-restricted knife;
(2) is younger than 18 years of age at the time of the offense; and
(3) is not:
(A) on the person’s own premises or premises under the person’s control;
(B) inside of or directly en route to a motor vehicle or watercraft that is owned by the person or under the person’s control; or
(C) under the direct supervision of a parent or legal guardian of the person.
(b) Except as provided by Subsection (c) or (d), an offense under this section is a Class A misdemeanor.
(c) An offense under this section is a felony of the third degree if the offense is committed on any premises licensed or issued a permit by this state for the sale of alcoholic beverages.
(d) An offense under Subsection (a-4) is a Class C misdemeanor.
…
Sec. 46.03. PLACES WEAPONS PROHIBITED.
(a) A person commits an offense if the person intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly possesses or goes with a firearm, location-restricted knife, club, or prohibited weapon listed in Section 46.05(a):
(1) on the physical premises of a school or educational institution, any grounds or building on which an activity sponsored by a school or educational institution is being conducted, or a passenger transportation vehicle of a school or educational institution, whether the school or educational institution is public or private, unless:
(A) pursuant to written regulations or written authorization of the institution; or
(B) the person possesses or goes with a concealed handgun that the person is licensed to carry under Subchapter H, Chapter 411, Government Code, and no other weapon to which this section applies, on the premises of an institution of higher education or private or independent institution of higher education, on any grounds or building on which an activity sponsored by the institution is being conducted, or in a passenger transportation vehicle of the institution;
(2) on the premises of a polling place on the day of an election or while early voting is in progress;
(3) on the premises of any government court or offices utilized by the court, unless pursuant to written regulations or written authorization of the court;
(4) on the premises of a racetrack;
(5) in or into a secured area of an airport; or
(6) within 1,000 feet of premises the location of which is designated by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice as a place of execution under Article 43.19, Code of Criminal Procedure, on a day that a sentence of death is set to be imposed on the designated premises and the person received notice that:
(A) going within 1,000 feet of the premises with a weapon listed under this subsection was prohibited; or
(B) possessing a weapon listed under this subsection within 1,000 feet of the premises was prohibited.
(a-1) A person commits an offense if the person intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly possesses or goes with a location-restricted knife:
(1) on the premises of a business that has a permit or license issued under Chapter 25, 28, 32, 69, or 74, Alcoholic Beverage Code, if the business derives 51 percent or more of its income from the sale or service of alcoholic beverages for on-premises consumption, as determined by the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission under Section 104.06, Alcoholic Beverage Code;
(2) on the premises where a high school, collegiate, or professional sporting event or interscholastic event is taking place, unless the person is a participant in the event and a location-restricted knife is used in the event;
(3) on the premises of a correctional facility;
(4) on the premises of a hospital licensed under Chapter 241, Health and Safety Code, or on the premises of a nursing facility licensed under Chapter 242, Health and Safety Code, unless the person has written authorization of the hospital or nursing facility administration, as appropriate;
(5) on the premises of a mental hospital, as defined by Section 571.003, Health and Safety Code, unless the person has written authorization of the mental hospital administration;
(6) in an amusement park; or
(7) on the premises of a church, synagogue, or other established place of religious worship.
(b) It is a defense to prosecution under Subsections (a)(1)-(4) that the actor possessed a firearm while in the actual discharge of his official duties as a member of the armed forces or national guard or a guard employed by a penal institution, or an officer of the court.
…
Sec. 46.06. UNLAWFUL TRANSFER OF CERTAIN WEAPONS.
(2) intentionally or knowingly sells, rents, leases, or gives or offers to sell, rent, lease, or give to any child younger than 18 years of age any firearm, club, or location-restricted knife;
…
(c) It is an affirmative defense to prosecution under Subsection (a)(2) that the transfer was to a minor whose parent or the person having legal custody of the minor had given written permission for the sale or, if the transfer was other than a sale, the parent or person having legal custody had given effective consent.
And 46.15:
(a) Sections 46.02 and 46.03 do not apply to:
…
(3) is engaging in lawful hunting, fishing, or other sporting activity on the immediate premises where the activity is conducted, or is en route between the premises and the actor’s residence, motor vehicle, or watercraft, if the weapon is a type commonly used in the activity;
A well is a vital water resource that is absolutely necessary if you plan on living anywhere that does not have access to copious amounts of above ground freshwater or municipal water systems.
Humans have been digging and drawing water from wells pretty much forever, and though we have it down to a science one thing about the process has not changed: It is an awful lot of work and typically a significant investment in both time and resources.
In the interest of being truly prepared for long-term survival, as well as potentially saving a few bucks over a professional well excavation and installation, some folks seek to dig a well themselves. We can all admire their industrious spirit, but:
How much does it cost to dig your own well? Assuming you know how to properly install your own well, and can rent a drill rig to handle the excavation, you can DIY install a well for anywhere between $3,000 and $6,000 depending on the length of time you must rent the drill rig and the associated expense of all necessary parts, components and equipment.
This figure can vary greatly depending on your local terrain, and on any special requirements for installing a working well safely, and some installations, like a shallow sand point well, might be achievable for only a couple of thousand dollars.
In the remainder of this article we will look at some of the predominant costs and expenses associated with installing a well so you can come up with your own estimate, and draw your own conclusions before you commit to doing it yourself.
Shallow Well vs. Deep Well
Your choice of a shallow well versus a deep one will largely determine the viability of a DIY well install, and also how much it is going to cost you all the way around.
Shallow wells only go down to a depth of 50 feet or less, though they are often less productive and more vulnerable to contamination compared to deep wells, if your property supports the installation of a shallow well they are nonetheless a worthwhile choice if you don’t need a ton of water or are limited by what you can perform yourself reliably.
Deep wells, as you might expect, are wells that go deeper than 50 feet, and some can go thousands of feet down in quest of water.
Most deep wells that go farther than a couple of hundred feet are usually beyond the reach of amateur well diggers, and even if you are capable they are going to be very expensive if only owing to the cost of components.
Excavation Costs
Expect $12-$30 per linear foot. The excavation of the well hole itself is often the single biggest procedural expense, and is completely dependent upon the type of machinery required to penetrate the soil and reach the aquifer the well is going to draw from, how long it is in operation, and how deep the well must go.
The average depth of a residential well in the United States is about 150 feet, so computing that against our typical drilling costs we come up with a result of $1,800 to $4,500 just for the excavation!
This can certainly save you some money over a front-to-back professional installation if you are confident that you can install the well casing and the rest of its needed components yourself.
For many folks, this might actually be an ideal way to save a little money since the drilling operation is complicated and fraught with peril.
Soil Composition
One factor you cannot change except by selecting a different digging site is the quality and composition of the soil on your property.
Some soils are much easier to dig than others, and certain places might have an awful lot of rock, dense clay, or other obstructions throughout them which can make digging slow, laborious and more costly, both in time on the job and in broken drill heads.
If you have a reliable geological survey for your parcel, you can adjust your estimated price of installing your own well based upon how difficult the soil is to dig.
Soil that is easy or moderate in density could save you anywhere from 15 to 30% right off the top in total expenses, where rocky or extremely dense soil could increase costs by a factor of 90% to 160%!
And that doesn’t even take into account additional expenses from broken tools and other curveballs that will surely crop up as a result of trying to install a well and such tough soil conditions.
Well Casing
The well casing is a critical and integral component to any modern well. It functions as the inner wall present in the well hole, both reinforcing it and helping to protect the water source from contamination. Modern well casings are typically made of PVC or steel in a variety of diameters and, as you might have guessed, the material selection plus the diameter will dictate the expense of this part.
The most common well casing formats are 4 inch PVC, 6 inch steel and 8 inch steel. Steel is drastically more expensive than PVC, with the big bore 8-inch variety being very spendy.
A 50 foot length of PVC well casing (installed) will run you about $1,700, a 100 foot length about $3,400 and a 150 foot length around $5,250. Contrast with steel well casings, of which the larger 8” diameter variety runs between $4,400 and $12,200 for the same lengths! That is quite a difference!
DIY or professionally installed, you’ll always have to include a well casing for a safe and functional well.
Other Parts, Odds and Ends
Modern wells must have a few other components that primitive wells lack, things like wiring systems, pumps, pressure tanks and more. Depending on the quality of the water that you are able to tap with your well, you might need a purification or softening system additionally.
Deep wells in particular are fairly notorious for having water that is so contaminated with minerals it is hardly fit to drink or use for washing due to hardness.
The pump is the most obvious component that you will need to install for a modern well, and that will require electricity. A suitable pump for a shallow well installation can run anywhere between $250 and $1,000.
A pump for a deep well is far more costly, starting anywhere around $500 and topping out at $2,500. Then add in little odds and ends like wiring, costing between $50 and $1,250, a pressure tank at around $400 and various controllers at anywhere from $50 to $70.
Odds and ends like seals, switched and caps will cost anywhere from $100 to $200 all total.
Conclusion
The excavation and installation of a well is within the realm of possibility for a DIY project, and will run anywhere from $3,000 to $6,000 by the time you account for all expenses and the necessary components.
These are significant savings over the average cost of professional well installation in most parts of the United States, but one should be cautious to budget for mishaps, unforeseen circumstances and the broken parts for drilling equipment.
Even so, the rising costs of well installation are seeing more people roll up their sleeves and dig their own wells using a variety of methods. Make sure you sharpen your pencil, and review the costs presented in this article before breaking ground!
Holistic preparedness is equal parts skill-building and material preparation. If you have been prepping for any length of time, you have no doubt acquired a fair bit of gear already, and probably have a laundry list of more gear and additional provisions that you have yet to obtain.
No matter which way you slice it, you don’t want to be forced to live solely off of your wits and what you can scavenge or gather; your margin for failure will simply be too slim.
But no matter how diligent you are there is no other way to square it: there is just an awful lot of stuff to buy if you want to cover all of your bases!
And no matter how thorough your research, how careful your inventory and how particular you are when assembling your needed supplies and vital gear, there are just going to be a few things you overlooked. That is just the way of things!
Some of these items will be smack-your-forehead obvious when you think about them while others might seem inconsequential, even though they could be vital for covering a vulnerability you fail to plan for.
That is where we come in. In this article we will provide you with 10 commonly forgotten items that will further your survival cause. Maybe it slipped your mind, maybe you didn’t think you would need it or maybe your circumstances don’t make it totally mandatory.
Regardless, I’m confident you will come away with a different opinion when you read this article as I make a case for each of these items. We will get into the list below the break.
Before You Buy, Consider Your Specific Requirements
It seems like everything comes with a disclaimer these days, and the advice I’m going to share with you regarding these commonly forgotten survival items is no different. But before you take me out to the woodshed for being wishy-washy, hear me out.
One of my biggest and most urgent pet peeves all around but especially in the context of discussing personal readiness and survival strategy is the complete failure to include context in the advice given.
The context of one’s experience, challenges and solutions is really what determines whether or not the lessons or the advice received are viable.
Put another way, what works for me may not work for you, and vice versa. Funnily enough, I also hate the common refrain of “it works for me!” When someone is challenged on their gear selection or procedures because it is much of the time an intellectual cop out.
But before I get too far off track, it turns out that there might be a grain of truth in that assertion. My solution for my problem might be subpar or even ill-advised for your problems.
I guess I’m just taking the long way around to say that the items on this list below might not fit into your survival plans at all, and you should not make a knee-jerk reaction and buy them just because some guy on the internet asserts that you should.
Don’t get me wrong, I am willing to bet that they will, in fact, be helpful because I see them forgotten about so much of the time in my travels.
Okay, disclaimer over let’s get on the list!
#1. Repair Materials and Tools
Consider it a helpful reminder that whatever disaster you are facing, whether it is man-made or natural, you might not be grabbing the kids and your gear before hopping in the car or hiking off to head for greener pastures.
Your best bet for surviving a situation of any duration could be to just hunker in place, taking advantage of what support network you have, as well as an intricate knowledge of the terrain and surrounding area.
But, because we are preparing for disasters of all kinds, it stands to reason that our home, whatever it is, might very well be damaged or even partially destroyed by whatever event took place.
Instead of just saying “tough” and living with it why not repair the damage, even if only to a journeyman standard? If you do nothing else keeping the wind and rain out of your domicile will go a long way towards keeping it habitable.
For this reason it is definitely a good idea to stock up on basic construction materials and the tools needed to put them to use. You don’t need to be a proper contractor or anything like that to affect rudimentary repairs.
Consider adding a good stash of high-quality building materials to your stores, things like common stock sizes of boards and plywood, common electrical wiring, all kinds of fasteners, plastic sheeting or heavy plastic panels and lots and lots of construction adhesive.
Throw in some duct tape and common hand tools, and you’ll be well on your way to making repairs to your home should they be needed.
#2. Lubricants
It never fails that lubricants and other vital fluids that keep machinery running are chronically omitted from most preppers’ get-lists. Pretty much any machine more complicated than a pencil sharpener requires a certain amount of lubrication, both for normal operation and for the prevention of corrosion.
When lubricants are not added or changed at the prescribed maintenance intervals, efficiency starts to go down, and certain machines that go through a lot of lubricant will need more or less constant re-lubrication.
Take firearms, for instance. Even using the best oils and greases known to man, carrying a gun in the field or even just carrying it around your home on your hip in a holster means that that gun is going to require far more frequent lubrication than the one sitting patiently in your safe.
If you are carrying outside, and especially doing so in inclement weather or other hostile conditions, you’ll need to re-lubricate perhaps as much as once a day in order to assure good function of your firearm.
Lubricants are items that are highly dependent on complex and interwoven architectures of commerce for production, and that means the longer a grid-down survival situation goes on the smaller and smaller the available “pool” of lubricants will become.
You might not be able to locate and obtain them for long, and that includes the common “knowledge” of extracting it out of stalled or abandoned vehicles. Remind yourself that everyone else will have the exact same plan as you do…
Prevent this unhappy occurrence by stocking up on both general purpose and specialized lubricants.
#3. Bleach
Bleach is an outstanding survival item, and one that I scratch my head over when I think about how many preppers that I personally know omit this incredible chemical resource from their stockpile.
In fact, the amount of bleach that most people have is whatever they happen to have handy for doing laundry, and nothing else. Believe me, bleach is good for far more than just laundry, and if you are not familiar with its many survival uses, get ready for a quick class on the topic!
I have little doubt that you already know bleach is a very powerful disinfectant, and can be used straight or diluted we’re cleaning up all kinds of nasty biological hazards, including human waste.
It also makes a dependably potent hand-sanitizing wash for reducing cross contamination after using the bathroom, handling a dead body or some other equally unpleasant task.
But perhaps the most standout quality of good, old-fashioned regular bleach is its capability to disinfect water.
That’s right: Regular, scentless, plain bleach can be reliably and easily added to suspect water sources in order to disinfect them of bacteria and viruses.
If the water is particularly dirty or murky, it should be pre-filtered (at least as good as you can), but once that is done all you’ll need to do is add a small amount of bleach, agitate the water and give it a little time.
In fact, if you are disinfecting a couple of gallons of water, you will need a surprisingly small amount of bleach, and that means a comparatively small supply of it can go a very long way indeed.
Do keep in mind though that bleach loses its effectiveness over time, and exposure to oxygen is one of the chief culprits. Any opened bottle of bleach definitely has a ticking clock as far as that shelf life is concerned, but even unopened bottles will go stale over time.
Long story short, you’ll just need to remember to rotate your bleach supplies like your food or any other perishable good. Small price to pay for such an inexpensive, multi-talented and critical item if you ask me!
#4. Hand Pump, Liquid
You’ll have plenty of cause to obtain whatever vital fluids you can from wherever you can get them during a long-term survival situation. It could be water, it could be fuel, it might be something else, like oil or another lubricant mentioned above.
The point is you won’t always be able to dip your bucket in some gigantic swimming pool-size reservoir of whatever fluids you need. Things might not be bad enough for you to go through a significant amount of effort to get them, but then again they might be, and no contortion or exertion could be too great a cost to pay.
This is where you will need the right gear to efficiently and safely collect whatever liquid you are trying to get. That means you will need a manual hand pump suitable for collecting liquids.
With the right nozzles, enough tubing, and a little bit of room to apply some elbow grease, you’ll be able to draw a fuel out of a vehicle without crawling under the car to puncture the tank or slice the fuel lines, draw water out of a puddle or small depression without having to mop it up with a rag, and extract oil or other fluids directly from their tanks without resorting to the old dipstick squeegee method.
I will tell you one thing; it sure beats trying to siphon gas or highly questionable water directly from the source by mouth using some medical tubing.
It should go without saying, but make sure you don’t cross the streams on this one: If you just used a pump to nab some gas out of a stalled and abandoned vehicle don’t turn around and use that same pump to draw water right out of a pond. Cross-contamination is a thing, people!
#5. Fire Extinguishers
I know preppers who are getting ready for all kinds of disasters, from the mundane to the absolutely insane. Tornadoes, hurricanes, avalanches, super volcano eruptions, magnetic pole reversals, alien invasions, zombie uprisings, machine takeovers, gamma ray burst events, and everything and anything else you can think of.
But one thing that continually surprises me is how many people have failed to prepare for one of the most common and most devastating disasters that can personally befall them: A simple house fire.
A house can go from burning with a small fire to a raging conflagration in less than two minutes, and a house fire will be one of the most common threats in the aftermath of all kinds of natural disasters.
It is the very summit of insanity to forgo having the one, right tool that can help you put out that fire before it turns into a blaze that will consume your home and everything and everyone in it. I am of course talking about a fire extinguisher.
Bottom-line up front and no exceptions: You need ABC-rated fire extinguishers strategically placed inside your home, and make sure they are the largest that you and your family can handle effectively when seconds count.
Unless you are dealing with some really exotic stuff in your home, like flammable metals, a common residential fire extinguisher will handle everything you can throw at it until the blaze reaches a certain size.
Even if it is too late to save your house from a fire, your extinguisher might clear a path for you and your family to escape or buy you time for first responders to arrive, assuming they’re coming.
If you do not have modern, serviced fire extinguishers in your home you are wrong. Fix it!
#6. How-To Guides
You might be a switched on, experienced and knowledgeable prepper or you might not be. But one thing you can probably count on is that you won’t be able to count on trusty Google when the sky turns dark.
The internet is nothing short of miraculous, and we all benefit from having the sum of the world’s information at our fingertips riding along in our back pockets but the longer a situation drags on the more likely it is you’ll be deprived of this virtual Library of Alexandria. That is where paper manuals, guides and how to books come in.
Even if you are a prepper who has been around the block more than once and knows all the relevant survival skills and associated crafts inside and out, it won’t hurt you to have some general survival manuals handy, as well as guides and technical instructions for more complex subjects.
This way, when you are facing a task that is a little bit outside of your area of expertise or one that has some interesting challenges associated with it, you won’t be forced to resort to figuring it out on the fly or via trial and error.
With the right book and a little time spent pre-gaming the task, you can avoid repeated, demoralizing failures.
Even though the internet might be down, don’t discount the value of electronic storage, especially in this era of extremely efficient and compact solar chargers that can keep your electronics juiced up totally independent of the modern power credit.
You might be a bibliophile like me and adore traditional, bound paper books, but their weight and bulk makes all but the leanest or the most essential non-starters for mobile preppers.
Contrast this with any sort of e-reader or tablet which can hold a literal library’s worth of books for less than a pound and change in weight.
It is the rare prepper that you will encounter who has not acquired or has no plans to acquire defensive implements as part of their preparations. There are just no two ways about it: threats from other humans will oftentimes be a significant component of a major SHTF event, especially as services and supplies vanish or dry up.
You must be prepared for dealing with them, and that means acquiring weapons and the skills to use them. Near the top of this list, guns, knives and other lethal weapons.
But there is one defensive weapon that too many preppers overlook or ignore, one that deserves a spot in their tactical toolbox: pepper spray.
No matter who you are and no matter what kind of challenge you are facing, it generally behooves you to have more options available for dealing with a threat than just a gun or a knife.
Consider that guns and knives are always lethal force, no matter how they are employed. You might very well be facing a threat that does not justify the use of lethal force. It might justify the use of defensive force, but not necessarily lethal defensive force.
One option you could employ in response to such a threat is good old-fashioned fists and feet, but coming to grips with an attacker in any capacity is rarely the best option if we can avoid it.
Pepper spray is one of the only ranged defensive tools that also happens to be non-lethal, or more properly if you want to be pedantic less-lethal.
Used against the average person, pepper spray has a very high chance of knocking the fight out of them thanks to a combination of excruciating, searing pain, and a nearly totally involuntary spasm of coughing, mucus production and other physiological effects.
Assuming your attacker has the mettle and the gumption to continue the attack they will be hard-pressed to do as well as they could normally. Pepper spray is so affordable, so effective and so available there is no reason not to have a good stash as part of your survival kit.
I highly recommend everybody carry a personal-sized canister that can go with them wherever they go, and if you are planning on sheltering in place, definitely consider obtaining one of the larger riot sized canisters so you can deal with crowds.
#8. Antibiotics
Any disaster or emergency in any form is so often the very stuff that injuries are made of. You also should not expect that the typical first responders in the form of EMTs and paramedics will be able to arrive in order to save you or someone in your group should they become injured.
You also shouldn’t count on being able to head down to the local clinic or emergency room to seek treatment on your own. As the saying goes, you have to become your own first responder during an emergency.
It stands to reason that the majority of preppers will have some medical supplies and even some medical training. Unfortunately, most of these medical kits, from the basic to the intricate, will not have any antibiotics in them.
This is a major shortcoming that you must correct. Infections and illnesses that we treat as trivial annoyances or inconveniences today have only been rendered so because of the life-saving power of antibiotics.
Less than a century ago several of the diseases that we take completely for granted today often had life-altering or life-threatening consequences.
Even if you don’t get sick, minor injuries might take on an entirely new and a grave consequence when you consider the likelihood that the cut on your hand received from a piece of broken glass or that simple puncture wound you got from a rusty nail on your thigh might now be the opportunity that bacteria needs to get into your body, and make its way into your bloodstream.
That can spell certain death in the aftermath of an SHTF event, if you lack antibiotics to counter it.
Unfortunately, obtaining antibiotics is not as simple as buying a big bottle of acetaminophen or ibuprofen off the grocery store shelf.
Potent and effective multi-threat antibiotics like ciprofloxacin are commonly encountered in serious medical kits for use in austere environments or battlefield treatment, but you will have to talk to your doctor and explain your plans to him in order for him to hopefully grant you a non-essential prescription to get the pills you need.
Also, keep in mind that antibiotics don’t last forever; you’ll need to rotate them along with any other perishable items according to their shelf life.
Don’t be dismayed by the expense, effort and aggravation necessary to obtain potent and effective antibiotics for your survival medicine chest; they are beyond worth it!
#9. Personal Documents, Credentials, Titles Pkg.
If you are prepared for the worst, good on you, but it might perhaps be putting a wagon ahead of the horse if you assume that whatever disaster scenario you are facing completely obliterates every cog and every gear that makes modern life “go”.
Sure, it is easy and perhaps a bit fanciful to assume that whatever society-toppling event occurs will see the social order reset, and every survivor operating under the law of the jungle where you only have what you have and keep it if you can protect it.
It might yet come to that, but then again it probably won’t, and that means it would behoove you to have all of the credentials, documents, titles, diplomas, certificates, deeds and statements that are attendant to your life as it was.
Administration is what makes modern society run; there is no other way to say it. That means if you are going to prove that you are who you say you are and you own the things that you say you own you’ll need the right paperwork with the right signatures and the right stamps. You should be thinking about things like mortgages, deeds, bank accounts, passports, driver’s licenses and so forth.
It stands to reason that originals and electronic copies of these that have been databased at the relevant institutions could, in fact, be damaged or wiped out, which means it is your responsibility to have backups on hand and usable.
For this purpose, you should create your own backup file of all relevant documentation for yourself and your entire family. You can create analog copies or digital, both have advantages.
If you decide to create paper copies, make sure you weatherproof them, and store them in a secret and secure way among your bug-out supplies so that they will go with you when you need to evacuate.
If you create digital copies, place them on a flash drive with secure encryption so that you do not literally hand the bad guys your entire identity on a silver platter should they steal it.
#10. Liquid Fuels and Stabilizers
I don’t doubt that most preppers have a plan to store a little bit of extra gasoline or diesel to use when things go bad, but I know for a fact that the majority severely underestimate just how much fuel they will need in order to make it out the other side, and also what is required to safely store that fuel properly so it is usable when they need it.
From gasoline powered tools and automobiles to generators, fuel is going to be awfully important and in high demand during any grid-down situation.
Even if fuel is still in production, disruption of transportation, dispensing facilities and other required secondary infrastructure is going to see local supplies dry up rapidly in your area.
It is best to assume that the only gas you have is what you have on hand, so you had better make sure it is usable.
Here is where most people go wrong when it comes to storing gasoline: modern gasoline only has a usable lifespan of about 6 months, and that is if it is pure gasoline!
Most gas you get from any pump has ethanol in it, and thanks to the meddling government-mandated inclusion of this crap gas containing it has a lifespan that is even shorter, around 3 months.
This is hell for rotation, and if you want to increase the usable lifespan of your gas in a meaningful way, you’ll need to add a blend-specific stabilizer additive.
Bottom line: you will need far more liquid fuel than you think, and in a major scenario it will be intensely coveted.
If you need to ration your gas stores, there is a significant chance the duration of the event could exceed your fuel’s shelf life, so it is a good idea to keep fuel stabilizer and long-life additives on hand so you don’t lose your now precious resource.
Conclusion
Chances are you have already been buying or otherwise obtaining plenty of gear as part of your survival plans, but even if you are very diligent, even if you have made a list and checked it twice there is still a good chance that you have overlooked at least one or two essential additions.
Take the time to review the list above and make sure all of your most critical vulnerabilities are covered.
Hey my friends! Its been a while since i have last posted :)
Minutes ago i was re-reading a short text from a natural lucid dreamer and this last sentece caught my attention
" For me, the point of the exercise isn't about how long... it's in fact focused on how it feels to be awake and how it feels to dream. Knowing that difference subconsciously is what makes natural lucid dreamers natural. They just know what dreams feel like "
Then it occured to me one could try focus more attently on the memory of this dreamy feeling for the purpose of MILD, along with other visualizations and affirmations included in the technique
Just a thought !
Cheers guys
via Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views - Attaining Lucidity https://ift.tt/38tm6Er
Missouri is a state that is generally permissive when it comes to knives and knife ownership, but one with troubling restrictions that create two sets of standards for carry depending on whether or not you have a concealed weapons permit.
Also the state law covering switchblades is entirely dependent upon federal regulations on the same, never a good standard when it comes to state law.
Despite this, you will have plenty of leeway when it comes to knife selection and carry even lacking a permit, and even though we see the usual “ordinary pocketknife” definition pop up we at least get a blade length restriction to accompany it.
Still, things are not sunshine and roses for knife carriers who lack a concealed weapons permit in the state of Missouri, and we highly recommend you get one if you are planning on carrying anything more intimidating than a folding Buck knife, or a Swiss Army knife.
We will give you just the facts in the sections below.
What You Need to Know
What Kind of Knives Can I Own?: Any kind of knife. Note: Switchblades, butterfly knives and assisted opening knives have questionable ownership status in Missouri.
Can I Carry a Knife Concealed Without a Permit?: Any “ordinary pocketknife” with a blade 4” long or less.
Can I Carry a Knife Concealed With a Permit?: Yes, any knife that you may legally possess.
Can I Carry a Knife Openly?: Yes, any knife that you may legally possess.
General Ownership
Any kind of knife is legal to own in the state of Missouri, with the possible exception of switchblades.
Included in the definition of knife is dagger, dirk, stiletto and bladed hand instrument, qualified as being capable of inflicting serious physical injury or death through cutting or stabbing.
Used throughout the chapter, the word knife does not include any ordinary pocket knife with a blade that is no longer than 4 inches.
With that opens automatically by pressure applied to a button or other device located on the handle. Also included in the definition of switchblade knife that opens or releases from the handle or the sheath by the force of gravity or the application of centrifugal force.
In all likelihood, butterfly knives are included by virtue in the definition of switchblade.
Later statutes make it clear that any person commits an offense if they knowingly manufacture, transport or possess a switchblade knife it’s done in violation of federal law.
This is not much help, since the Federal Switchblade Act of 1958 is extremely dense and difficult to interpret.
Therefore I cannot advise you’ll have a happy outcome if you are ever arrested and in possession of a switchblade knife and by extension an assisted opening knife or butterfly knife.
Concealed Carry, No Permit
Without a permit you may carry any knife that is defined as an ordinary pocket knife with a blade measuring 4 inch or less.
Even with the prescription on a blade length to assist us, it will be up to an arresting officer, a judge or a jury whether or not your folding knife is an ordinary pocketknife or not, so choose carefully when it comes to appearance and features if you do not have a concealed weapons permit valid in Missouri.
Concealed Carry, With Permit
If you are fortunate enough to have a concealed weapons permit issued by or valid in the state of Missouri, you can carry any other kind of legal knife you desire, beyond an ordinary pocket knife.
You still may not possess a switchblade or any other knife falling under that definition, but you do gain significantly more leeway when it comes to the style of knife you are allowed to carry, and where you are allowed to carry it.
Open Carry
You may open carry any kind of legal knife in the state of Missouri.
Prohibited Places
Missouri is notable for its long list of prohibited places when it comes to the carry of weapons, knives included among them.
With few exceptions, you may not carry your knife:
into any police or sheriff’s department,
to within 25 feet of any polling place on Election Day,
into any juvenile detention facility, prison, or jail,
into any courthouse or courtroom,
into any meeting of a governing body, general assembly or committee unless you are a member,
into any place that dispenses alcohol for consumption on premises,
into any place where the carry of firearms is prohibited by federal law,
into any school,
into any childcare facility,
into any gambling facility,
into any gated amusement park,
into any church,
into any sports arena or stadium that seats 5,000 people or more,
or into any publicly-accessible hospital.
Assessment
Missouri is an alright state for knife owners and the carry of knives, but there are definitely two sets of standards for people who have, and people who lack a concealed weapons permit.
Even for those lacking a concealed weapons permit it is far from the most restrictive state, but a fairly dodgy definition of ordinary pocketknife means you’ll always be walking on eggshells.
As distasteful as it is considered obtaining, a concealed weapons permit is mandatory if you want smooth sailing while carrying a knife in Missouri.
571.010. Definitions. — As used in this chapter, the following terms shall mean:
(…)
(12) “Knife”, any dagger, dirk, stiletto, or bladed hand instrument that is readily capable of inflicting serious physical injury or death by cutting or stabbing a person. For purposes of this chapter, “knife” does not include any ordinary pocketknife with no blade more than four inches in length;
(…)
(15) “Projectile weapon”, any bow, crossbow, pellet gun, slingshot or other weapon that is not a firearm, which is capable of expelling a projectile that could inflict serious physical injury or death by striking or piercing a person;
(…)
(20) “Switchblade knife”, any knife which has a blade that folds or closes into the handle or sheath, and:
(a) That opens automatically by pressure applied to a button or other device located on the handle; or
(b) That opens or releases from the handle or sheath by the force of gravity or by the application of centrifugal force.
…
571.020. Possession–manufacture–transport–repair–sale of certain weapons a crime—exceptions–penalties.
1. A person commits an offense if such person knowingly possesses, manufactures, transports, repairs, or sells:
(…)
(6) Any of the following in violation of federal law:
(…)
(d) A switchblade knife.
…
571.030. Unlawful use of weapons — exceptions — penalties.
1. A person commits the offense of unlawful use of weapons, except as otherwise provided by sections 571.101 to 571.121, if he or she knowingly:
(1) Carries concealed upon or about his or her person a knife, a firearm, a blackjack or any other weapon readily capable of lethal use into any area where firearms are restricted under section 571.107; or
(…)
(4) Exhibits, in the presence of one or more persons, any weapon readily capable of lethal use in an angry or threatening manner; or
2. Subdivisions (1), (8), and (10) of subsection 1 of this section shall not apply to the persons described in this subsection, regardless of whether such uses are reasonably associated with or are necessary to the fulfillment of such person’s official duties except as otherwise provided in this subsection. Subdivisions (3), (4), (6), (7), and (9) of subsection 1 of this section shall not apply to or affect any of the following persons, when such uses are reasonably associated with or are necessary to the fulfillment of such person’s official duties, except as otherwise provided in this subsection:
…
4. Subdivisions (1), (8), and (10) of subsection 1 of this section shall not apply to any person who has a valid concealed carry permit issued pursuant to sections 571.101 to 571.121, a valid concealed carry endorsement issued before August 28, 2013, or a valid permit or endorsement to carry concealed firearms issued by another state or political subdivision of another state.
…
571.107. Permit does not authorize concealed firearms, where — penalty for violation.
1. A concealed carry permit issued pursuant to sections 571.101 to 571.121, a valid concealed carry endorsement issued prior to August 28, 2013, or a concealed carry endorsement or permit issued by another state or political subdivision of another state shall authorize the person in whose name the permit or endorsement is issued to carry concealed firearms on or about his or her person or vehicle throughout the state. No concealed carry permit issued pursuant to sections 571.101 to 571.121, valid concealed carry endorsement issued prior to August 28, 2013, or a concealed carry endorsement or permit issued by another state or political subdivision of another state shall authorize any person to carry concealed firearms into:
(1) Any police, sheriff, or highway patrol office or station without the consent of the chief law enforcement officer in charge of that office or station. Possession of a firearm in a vehicle on the premises of the office or station shall not be a criminal offense so long as the firearm is not removed from the vehicle or brandished while the vehicle is on the premises;
(2) Within twenty-five feet of any polling place on any election day. Possession of a firearm in a vehicle on the premises of the polling place shall not be a criminal offense so long as the firearm is not removed from the vehicle or brandished while the vehicle is on the premises;
(3) The facility of any adult or juvenile detention or correctional institution, prison or jail. Possession of a firearm in a vehicle on the premises of any adult, juvenile detention, or correctional institution, prison or jail shall not be a criminal offense so long as the firearm is not removed from the vehicle or brandished while the vehicle is on the premises;
(4) Any courthouse solely occupied by the circuit, appellate or supreme court, or any courtrooms, administrative offices, libraries or other rooms of any such court whether or not such court solely occupies the building in question. This subdivision shall also include, but not be limited to, any juvenile, family, drug, or other court offices, any room or office wherein any of the courts or offices listed in this subdivision are temporarily conducting any business within the jurisdiction of such courts or offices, and such other locations in such manner as may be specified by supreme court rule pursuant to subdivision (6) of this subsection. (…)
(5) Any meeting of the governing body of a unit of local government; or any meeting of the general assembly or a committee of the general assembly, except that nothing in this subdivision shall preclude a member of the body holding a valid concealed carry permit or endorsement from carrying a concealed firearm at a meeting of the body which he or she is a member.(…)
…
(7) Any establishment licensed to dispense intoxicating liquor for consumption on the premises, which portion is primarily devoted to that purpose, without the consent of the owner or manager.
…
(9) Any place where the carrying of a firearm is prohibited by federal law;
(10) Any higher education institution or elementary or secondary school facility without the consent of the governing body of the higher education institution or a school official or the district school board, (…)
(11) Any portion of a building used as a child care facility without the consent of the manager. (…)
(12) Any riverboat gambling operation accessible by the public without the consent of the owner or manager (…)
(13) Any gated area of an amusement park. Possession of a firearm in a vehicle on the premises of the amusement park shall not be a criminal offense so long as the firearm is not removed from the vehicle or brandished while the vehicle is on the premises;
(14) Any church or other place of religious worship without the consent of the minister or person or persons representing the religious organization that exercises control over the place of religious worship. Possession of a firearm in a vehicle on the premises shall not be a criminal offense so long as the firearm is not removed from the vehicle or brandished while the vehicle is on the premises;
(15) Any private property whose owner has posted the premises as being off-limits to concealed firearms by means of one or more signs displayed in a conspicuous place (…)
(16) Any sports arena or stadium with a seating capacity of five thousand or more. Possession of a firearm in a vehicle on the premises shall not be a criminal offense so long as the firearm is not removed from the vehicle or brandished while the vehicle is on the premises;
(17) Any hospital accessible by the public. Possession of a firearm in a vehicle on the premises of a hospital shall not be a criminal offense so long as the firearm is not removed from the vehicle or brandished while the vehicle is on the premises.
The humble refrigerator is the most taken for granted appliance in America. this ubiquitous contraption that runs day and night in kitchens all across the nation holds our leftovers, our veggies and our dairy products, all kept cold, fresh, and safe to eat.
Naturally, it is almost unthinkable that you might be forced to go without one. Most people alive today have never gone without one: nearly 100% of American homes have a refrigerator in it according to government census data.
But this snack repository and place of high honor for children’s drawings is far from a given; millions and millions of people around the globe have never even had access to a refrigerator, and these power-hungry appliances are completely dependent upon electricity to maintain their internal temperatures.
That is a far cry from the traditional ice chests of old. Losing power or just losing access to on-demand refrigeration may mean significant changes in your daily life, to say nothing of your emergency plans.
It is an easy thing to forget that you won’t likely have access to a refrigerator during an SHTF event. In this article, we’ll take a look at those lifestyle changes that will result from going without a fridge, as well as offer you tips, alternatives and procedures for keeping your chilled goods fresh without one.
Fast Facts on Refrigeration
In America, the refrigerator is absolutely ubiquitous. 99.8% of all homes in America contain one. Almost a quarter of homes contain two or more refrigerators.
That’s a lot of room for ice cream. American citizens are clearly unwilling to do without the refrigerator at any cost; almost 15% of power generated in America is used solely by refrigerators.
In kilowatt-hours, this is the appliance we rely on the most. It runs day and night, ceaselessly, so long as it has electricity.
Refrigerators are predominately dedicated to preserving fruits, vegetables, dairy products, and leftovers. In most American homes, people would not dream of storing those products in anything else.
Even food items that do not truly require chill temperatures to keep are kept in fridges and nowhere else, things like eggs, butter and many vegetables like lettuce, broccoli and cabbage.
Refrigeration is vital for some products, like milk, which will spoil with great rapidity unless they are refrigerated. There are exceptions, of course, but bog-standard milk that you buyout of the cooler or would have delivered from the milkman will not last any time if it is not kept cold.
Beyond food storage refrigerators serve a more important role for some people. Certain medicines, especially liquids like insulin, must be kept cold to extend their lives and potency.
Without refrigeration, many of them will go bad very quickly, potentially leading someone to an adverse reaction or suffering from various symptoms if they cannot have the correct dosage of medicine.
If you were one of these people to depend on refrigerated medicine, loss of power, more specifically the loss of an operational refrigerator, may be a life-threatening event.
It seems like refrigerators do an awful lot for us, and they do. Believe it or not, there was a time in America where people lived without them.
They haven’t been around forever! In the following sections, I’ll shed some light on the real story when it comes to storing various foods in refrigeration, what you can do without a refrigerator to try and keep them fresh and what you can do to produce a cold, or at least cool, environment if you don’t have a refrigerator or it stops working when you need it.
I’ll Never Give Up My Fridge! You Can’t Make Me!
Let’s get real: you might not have a choice. You definitely won’t have a choice most of the time in a SHTF situation. You can lose access to a refrigerator through misfortune, a bad financial turn, or honest-to-goodness disaster.
Even so, some people choose to go without a refrigerator, even in these modern times full of smart devices (including smart refrigerators)!
Be it a desire to live more frugally, save money or just reduce dependency on modern contrivances, more people than you think have been taking the plunge in recent years to live more like your great grandparents did: fridge free!
Here are just a handful of reasons you might be going without a fridge involuntarily:
A major disaster destroys your home and everything in it, or just ruins the contents, like in a flood.
A different disaster has left your home and its contents intact, but absolutely wrecked the power grid in your area. Without generators or your own off-grid solution, there is no way on Earth you can generate enough electricity to power a refrigerator.
The day has arrived: The s*** has hit the fan. You’re forced to flee from your home and a life you used to know. Your bug-out location has no power infrastructure, and therefore no refrigerator.
Tough times have forced you to tighten your financial belt. Unfortunately for you, the refrigerator is broken, you don’t know how to repair it and you cannot afford a replacement or professional inspection. Say goodbye to those TV dinners.
A troubled economy combined with a thermometer-busting record heat wave has led to constant rolling brownouts in the hot summer months. All citizens are being asked to discontinue use of power-hungry appliances, and refrigerators top that list.
As you can see, it is hardly unimaginable that you will lose your refrigerator one way or the other. If you call yourself a prepper, you’d be best off to learn how to live and thrive without it now before you are forced to later.
With just a little practice and perhaps a different point of view on the foods you typically buy and stick in that thing, you’ll see that it’s really not too awfully hard to do without a fridge entirely. After you finish this article, you might decide to ditch your refrigerator!
Giving Up the Fridge
It might be hard for you to imagine, but there are some people who voluntarily give up their refrigerators, and go without electric cold storage entirely. Why would anyone do such a thing? Reasons vary, but there are indeed benefits that accompany such a lifestyle choice:
Expense – Refrigerators are expensive to buy and operate, and some people want to increase their financial fitness by giving it up.
Independence – Fridges are massive power hogs. For people who want to live completely off grid, a lone fridge can easy bust a power budget. Giving it up entirely makes the equation much simpler.
Environmental Concern – There are those who worry over the massive consumption of resources, and want to be a little kinder to the planet by using less. A fridge is a “big ticket” item when it comes to waste and therefore fuel, so they cut it out of their lives to be greener.
Cramped Quarters – For those who live in close confines like a studio apartment or even a vehicle refrigerator are out of the question. Since the return-on-investment of smaller fridges is less, many choose to forgo them entirely if they live in a cramped space.
Reducing Dependency – The true adherents of prepping are aware of the shock that can accompany a massive “sea change” in lifestyle when a major paradigm shift occurs and want to wean themselves off of luxuries ahead of time. Giving up the fridge and other bulky appliances is just another part of that.
As you can see, there are intelligent reasons to abandon the refrigerator entirely before you are “forced” to. If you assess your lifestyle and see if doing the same will make sense for you. You’ll be one step ahead in that case if the SHTF!
Reexamining Cold Storage Foods
Contrary to what you are probably thinking now, not all of the foods we typically put in our refrigerator must actually be refrigerated. Sound crazy? I promise you it’s not.
We’re going into the major food groups that we typically store now in refrigerators and how we will keep them without a refrigerator, or rather, how well they keep without a refrigerator, but first we’ll deal with The Troublemakers.
The Troublemakers are food items that are really just not worth the trouble, or are flat-out difficult to keep unless you have dedicated cold storage. This doesn’t have to be refrigerator, necessarily, but it does have to be cold storage. More on that a little later. The Troublemakers are:
Processed frozen foods. Think things like TV dinners, frozen pizzas, packaged food items, and anything that is born and lives its shelf life in a freezer. Not only are these things overpriced and not particularly nutritious, we definitely won’t be able to get them in a SHTF situation, so it is best to cut them out now. Alternatives: None, ditch these entirely.
Milk. Yep, you were probably expecting this one. Milk goes bad in hours if it is not refrigerated. There are very few exceptions to this rule. For liquid milk, you can try and track down what is known as Ultra Heat-Treated milk which will supposedly keep, if it is unopened, for a few months. I’m not entirely sure I would trust it even if I could find it. Alternatives: Powdered milk, or an actual dairy cow so you can enjoy raw, farm-fresh milk before it spoils.
Meat. I’ll need to clarify this one. It is absolutely possible to preserve or prepare meat in such a way that will keep for a very long time without refrigeration. But fresh meat will not last without refrigeration or preservation. We are talking tens of hours, maybe, maybe a couple of days if you are lucky. Alternative solutions: use canned or pouched meat rations, can it, cure it, dry it into jerky, smoke it, or slaughter fresh game/livestock to produce fresh, healthy cuts, and have a plan to preserve the remainder.
And that’s really it for the troublemakers. There are some vegetables and fruits that will last a little bit longer if they’re refrigerated, but everything you enjoy today can be kept outside of cold storage healthily and safely. We’ll talk about all those veggies and fruits just below.
Produce
Here’s a fun fact for you: did you know that most of the produce you buy that’s fruits and veggies, actually loses shelf life if it get refrigerated at all? You read that right; if you refrigerate fruits, even for a short time, and then stop, they still go bad faster than if they were never refrigerated at all.
Now, did you know that most of the produce you buy at your local grocery store is refrigerated? In fact almost all of it is, at some point, before it reaches the store shelves.
To make matters worse, you can further shorten shelf life by washing your food before you put it away. It turns out that most fruit and veggies don’t respond well to water, or to being moist.
In the grocery stores, they don’t spray them with mist to keep them fresh. They spray them with mist to make them look more appetizing so that you will buy them. This practice will actually accelerate decay of the produce.
About the only way to beat this crooked practice is to either grow it yourself, or to buy it farm direct, specifically from a local farmers’ market, or directly from the farmers themselves.
That’s the only way you can ensure that your produce is not refrigerated or dampened in order to make it look more appetizing. Also important to ensure you get maximum shelf life from your food is to choose healthy, nominally ripe produce that does not have any obvious defects.
Yeah, it might make you feel good in kind times buying those oddball fruits and veggies that no one else wants so they aren’t wasted, but I can promise you they will not keep as long as optimal ones.
Below is a list of common fruits and how long they will keep in moderate temperatures if they are not refrigerated and they are kept out of direct sunlight.
Presented in ascending order of shelf life:
Berries, Grapes – A week or less. Pick these fresh and use immediately or preserve. Note grapes will keep “live” if their stems are kept in water.
Melons – A week, maybe a little longer. Melons with firmer rinds and no soft spots last longer. Softer ones go bad quicker.
Bananas – A week, perhaps longer depending on your tolerance for brown spots and mushy texture.
Pears and Mangoes – About 2 weeks. Contrary to popular opinion, pears do not last as long as apples.
Pineapples – 2 weeks or more if stem is healthy.
Apples, Lemons, Oranges – A month or longer. The shelf-life superstars of the fruit world!
As you can see, even with the most fragile fruits you have plenty of time to acquire and then eat them. They won’t go bad in a couple of days, and any of them can be preserved using a variety of methods to make them last even longer.
Vegetables are up next, presented in the same ascending order of longevity as the fruits:
Cauliflower, Broccoli, Eggplant – About a week, longer if stems are kept in water.
Peppers, Zucchini, Cucumber, Carrots, Red Tomatoes – About 2 weeks, perhaps a bit longer if kept cool.
Green Tomatoes, Beets, Turnips – 3 weeks to a month. Green tomatoes can have their shelf life extended slightly by wrapping them individually in dry cloth.
Lettuce, Cabbage, Squashes, Garlic – About one month.
Potatoes, Sweet Potatoes, Yams, Onions – One to two months. Remove potato sprouts as they appear.
Pumpkin, Butternut Squash – Two to three months, plenty long to make it through the worst of winter!
Dairy, Other Foods and Ingredients
Most of us will not want to give up our sauces and favorite toppings. I have good news for you: you probably won’t have to.
Most of the things that preppers stash in the fridge today in order to top their favorite foods don’t need to be refrigerated at all, or at least it won’t hurt them to not refrigerate them.
All the usual suspects of burger and hot dog toppings, things like ketchup, mustard, relish, mayonnaise and barbecue sauce will keep for months without refrigeration, and a very long time indeed if they are unopened.
Peanut butter does not have to be refrigerated at all, nor should it be! How are you supposed to spread cold peanut butter!?
And if you’re going to have peanut butter you better have jam or jelly to go with it. Preserves, jams and jellies will keep for two weeks to a month easily with no refrigeration once they are opened.
One superstar staple food that most folks are already familiar with is honey. For reasons known only to scientists, honey does not go bad.
It can harden and crystallize, but it does not go bad and is still perfectly edible in that state. If you want to turn it into golden liquid again, all you need to do is gently warm the honey inside its jar using a pot of hot water.
Eggs are one food item that will benefit from refrigeration but this is not mandatory. Fresh eggs will keep for about a week or a little longer dry and out of the sunlight. If you also you make it a point to rotate them daily they will keep longer still, a couple of weeks or perhaps more.
There is one more thing you should know about eggs: if you acquire fresh eggs from your own hens or a chicken farmer, don’t wash them! At least, don’t wash them until you need them.
The reason is that a freshly laid egg has a protective coating around the shell, called a cuticle (or bloom).
This cuticle acts as a sort of varnish that tightly seals the pores of the eggshell and keeps bacteria out while also preventing the eggs contents from losing moisture. Together, this will keep the egg fresh far longer than if it is washed.
If you have eggs that are dirty and need washing right away, that’s alright, just understand they will not keep quite as long as eggs that go unwashed. Make it a point to separate those eggs so you can tell them apart and use them first when you cook them.
One last thing: when washing eggs use warm or room temperature water if at all possible. Cold water will allow bacteria to infiltrate the eggshell and ruin your eggs.
Dairy products are more forgiving than you might think. Hard cheeses will keep basically forever without refrigeration assuming pests don’t get to them.
Americans are notorious for keeping butter in the refrigerator, but it doesn’t have to be refrigerated: It will keep just fine on your countertop for at least 2 weeks, and probably a month or longer as long as you keep it cool and covered.
That pretty much covers the gamut of typical foods you have in your kitchen, and probably in your refrigerator, right now.
As you can see, it is entirely possible to keep fresh produce and other foods ready to use and safe with no refrigeration at all.
But, let’s say you have something that you want to keep refrigerated, or should keep refrigerated but don’t have access to your trusty old fridge, left behind as it was when the sky fell. What can a clever prepper do to create their own cold, or at least cool, storage?
Alternatives to Refrigerators
This might come as a shock to you, but even ancient cultures understood the value of creating cooler environments for food storage, and for comfort inside their homes. While our technology might be superior to our ancestors’, there is truly no new concept under the sun.
No matter what supplies you have access to, and no matter what kind of shelter you’re living in, there’s always a way to create a cool storage space for food and even medicine. Several of the methods below can be field improvised using only rudimentary materials.
Others are better for fixed structures and can be added on to your home or shelter at your bug-out location. No matter what your personal plan is for surviving SHTF read over all of them, and try to understand the concepts. You never know what kind of curveball you might be facing that may require you to implement refrigeration.
Bucket Cooler / Ice Machine
if the ambient daytime and nighttime temperatures where you live or are staying drop below freezing and stay there for hours, you can easily create your own ice on a regular basis.
Using nothing more than a couple of buckets you can fill one with water and allow it to freeze, making ice, then remove the ice, bust it up and place it inside the other before lining it with a trash bag to make a handy cooler.
This is a quick, surefire way to keep cold things cold in a pinch so long as you live in a cold environment, or can reliably depend on night time temperatures low enough to freeze so you can replenish your ice supply.
OG Ice Chest
Another option if you live in a frigid environment is to rely on the ice chests of antiquity, which were literally nothing more than windowsill boxes hung on the outside of houses, and relying on the cold ambient temperatures to chill or even freeze whatever was within.
These are not ideal for things that cannot withstand being frozen, but for keeping meat and certain vegetables preserved all through the winter, it cannot be beat.
These are easily made from found materials, and are a snap to construct from scrap wood or metal. If you’re smart, all you’ll need to do is fashion a tightly fitting cover to keep foreign debris out of them, and perhaps deter animals that are active during winter time, and you’ll be all set.
Modern Cooler
Say what you want about some fantastically overpriced brands, but I wager that almost any prepper should have in their possession a modern, high-performance cooler.
From lunch box sized travel coolers to behemoth, treasure chest sized party coolers, these modern marvels can keep ice for days and keep cold stuff cold all by itself for nearly as long if you fill up the empty space.
Even if you aren’t the outdoorsy or tailgater type it does not take much imagination to see how useful something like this could be in an emergency, especially if you rely on refrigerated medicine for continued survival and health. If you are a prepper on the go, definitely consider one of the smaller units mandatory.
Pit Chiller
You ever notice how the ground is always much cooler than the environment around it? That’s why preppers are always told to never sleep directly on the ground because it will suck all the heat out of your body. The Earth is essentially one big heat sink, and we can use this principle to our advantage by digging into it.
If you can dig down a foot, just a foot, or perhaps a little more you’ll notice the soil starts to get pretty cool. If you can locate this pit in a shady area that doesn’t get any sun, you can save several degrees off the ambient temperature.
This is in essence a root cellar on a very small scale. Simply take your container of produce or liquid and set it in the pit.
You can help keep it from getting dirty by placing a wire rack, or even some stones at the bottom keep your container and the goods within from contacting the soil directly.
Root Cellar
The bigger brother to our previous entry. Root cellars have been used for centuries to keep veggies, typically fruits, nuts, squashes and, traditionally, root vegetables (hence the name) viable and fresh through the winter.
Root cellars may be constructed fully underground but are more typically only partially underground. Compared to other improvised refrigeration solutions, root cellars have an advantage, and they keep the produce at a constant humidity level as well as a more or less constant temperature.
It is entirely possible to add a root cellar to an existing home, or you can dig one separately from the main structure. If you are a handy, DIY-centric prepper, then a root cellar may be the ideal replacement for your refrigerator even before you need to bug out or bug in!
Adding water to a DIY zeer pot
Evaporative Pot Cooler / Zeer Pot
This ingenious little cooler is a piece of ancient technology that works just as well today as it did thousands of years ago. This arrangement consists of two pots, typically clay pots but terracotta or ceramic are also acceptable. The first is very large, and the second is smaller to nestle within the first with room to spare.
The functionality of this cooler is simplicity in itself: first, the larger pot has its inside walls packed with wet sand. Next, the smaller pot is set within before the remaining space between the two is filled with more wet sand. What you are left with is a space in the small pot cooled by the evaporative cooling principle.
This little marvel has been used since antiquity in Africa and the Middle East, and you can create your own with next to no effort and minimal materials. While heavy, it is also nominally portable.
Swamp Cooler
Just because you’re without a refrigerator does not mean you are necessarily without electricity. If you still have electricity, or just steady breezes, you can make a swamp cooler.
People growing up in rural Southern climates in the United States are no doubt well acquainted with these systems, as they are alternatives to traditional air conditioning.
Think of a swamp cooler as an upgraded evaporative cooler. Its function is simple: you can surround a common box fan with wet towels or other cloths while running it full blast.
The box fan will push air through these wet towels and, through the process of evaporation, the air will be rapidly cooled and made a little moister.
This can be used to cool entire rooms, even a whole house, and if adapted to a container or cabinet you will have made in essence a refrigerator of sorts. Be warned you will need to keep an eye on humidity levels; no one likes mold!
If you lack electricity entirely, you can hang up a wet cloth at the entrance to a room or window that catches a good breeze. While not as reliably efficient as a running fan, it can still cool the temperature in the room several degrees.
Smoking
Smoking is a method of cooking and preserving food by way of exposing it to copious amounts of (typically) wood smoke over a comparatively long period of time compared to other cooking methods, and is an ancient way of preserving meat.
Cultures all around the world have smoked everything from beef and mutton to fish and even tea in order to extend shelf life. It turns out that smoking also imparts a delicious flavor to most foods!
Smoking methods vary, but only hot smoking is controllable and repeatable enough to ensure good anti-microbial properties and consistent results.
Smoking is not particularly difficult, but it requires some preparation if done in the field and careful attention to tending the fire’s temperature and configuration to produce optimum results: too much heat or too little, or not enough smoke can spoil your results.
You can make your life a little easier if you want to add smoking to your prepping toolbox by purchasing one of several common “BBQ” smokers.
Offset, upright barrel and water smokers are all popular and common variations on this handy piece of equipment. If you get one now I promise you will get in plenty of practice, trust me! In fact, all your neighbors will probably show up and dutifully volunteer to help you test the results of your hard work!
Wood Ash Storage?
Perhaps the craziest sounding of them all, you can use wood ash- yes, common wood ash left behind from burning wood- to help preserve your fruits and veggies.
All you’ll need is a quantity of wood ash, and a small hole dug in the ground. Fill the bottom of the hole with wood ash and place your produce inside, being cautious to ensure it does not touch the other pieces or the bare dirt sides of the hole.
Now simply cover up the top of the hole with any old thing, an old container lid, a piece of wood whatever and your produce will keep longer than normal. This is a good method to use when time is money and you’re in a hurry.
Screw This, I am Keeping My Fridge!
For the very dedicated, it is entirely possible to keep your fridge running in an emergency as long as you’re dedicated to creating your own off-grid power.
This is easier said than done since refrigerators are enormous power hogs. But there are a couple tips and tricks you can use to make your power budget go further.
First, let’s work out the power storage and power generation problems. Most generators and larger solar cell installations will supply enough power to run a refrigerator but they will put a serious dent in your energy budget.
A good way to keep your refrigerator from gobbling all of your generated power is to simply run it intermittently, just enough to keep the food or medicine inside preserved and cool.
Additionally, you can make your fridge more efficient, done by packing absolutely every square inch of dead space inside with something so the fridge doesn’t have to work as hard to cool the internal volume.
The second, and probably smarter option, is getting a much smaller fridge like a dorm room or office fridge and keep it on standby for emergencies.
These modern micro fridges use significantly less power than their larger kitchen sized brethren and will significantly ease the energy burden on an off-grid power generation setup.
It is an additional investment but no matter which power generation setup you rely on, you can make your life a lot easier if you have a way to store extra power.
Rigging up a deep cycle battery bank to store accumulated power even when the fridge isn’t running is a great one-two punch along with running the fridge intermittently if you are dedicated to keeping the refrigerator going post-SHTF.
An arrangement like this might be the only way to survive for an intermediate duration if you rely on refrigerated medicine.
If you’ve already invested in your own off-grid power supply, you might as well use it, just understand that your refrigerator- no matter how big or small it is- will be the primary consumer of any power you create. Only you can decide if it is necessary or worth it.
Conclusion
Is the refrigerator an absolutely necessary part of modern life? When you get down to brass tacks, no it is not, no matter how much ice cream it holds.
It is in your best interest to learn how to live without one, because chances are you will be when dealing with a long-term crisis.
Even so, you need not give up having fresh produce on hand or cold storage for medicine if you know how to make use of improvised and primitive cooling techniques. Read over the information and procedures in this guide and you’ll be one step ahead when it’s time to chill out in an SHTF situation.
Utah is a state that is nominally pro-knife, but with major reservations. Their statutes are, quite frankly, highly perilous for the average citizen, consisting of predominantly subjective factors for determining whether or not a knife is legal under a given set of circumstances.
Combined with broad definitions, and with Utah’s history of adjudicating against the topic and lower courts, you will definitely need to be on your best behavior, and choose conservatively if you want to carry a knife without problems in Utah.
Though the state does not ban any kind or class of knife by particular feature or mechanism, it nonetheless puts considerable stress on a person when the time comes to choose what knife they will carry.
Will one handed opening features, ergonomic grips and other design elements see a knife classified as a dangerous weapon? The Utah Supreme Court has provided some backup thanks to rulings in recent years but Utah’s knife laws remain anything but clear.
At the very least, the state does have a preemption law on the books, and obtaining a concealed weapons permit may grant you some breathing room. Read more about this contentious and confusing state just below.
What You Need to Know
What Kind of Knives Can I Own?: Any kind of knife.
Can I Carry a Knife Concealed Without a Permit?: Yes, any knife that is not a “dangerous weapon”. See below.
Can I Carry a Knife Concealed With a Permit?: Yes, any knife that is not a “dangerous weapon”. See below.
Can I Carry a Knife Openly?: Yes, any kind of knife.
General Ownership
Utah restricts the possession of any “dangerous weapon” which, concerning knives, they define as any object that in the manner of its use or intended use is capable of causing death or serious bodily injury, further qualify the factors that are used in assessing whether any object besides a firearm is indeed a dangerous weapon.
Those factors include the location and circumstances in which the item was possessed or used, the primary purpose for which the item was made, the character of the wound produced by the object if used in an unlawful way, how it was used unlawfully, whether or not the manner in which the given object is possessed constitutes an imminent threat to public safety, and all of that viewed for the lens of what lawful purposes the item might have.
Folks, it does not take any sort of legal degree to figure out that that is dangerously vague and interpretive language for state statutes governing the legal and lawful possession of weapons in the hands of citizens.
All that is required is the mere opinion, the click of a pen or the wave of a hand classify your knife, any knife whatsoever, as a dangerous weapon under the circumstances and start you down the wrong road to prosecution.
Now, the story as twisted and torturous as it is, does not end there in the statutes. Additional lines of the law state that any person having on or about their personage any dangerous weapon with intent to use it to commit a crime is further guilty of a crime.
That is fair enough, but what is to stop a law enforcement officer, or a judge, from categorizing the mere possession of a certain kind of knife as proof that one would only possess it with other-than-legal intent? That’s a good question, one that is addressed and yet another section of the law.
Concerning the use of any dangerous weapon in a fight or in a threatening manner, Utah again states the set of factors that determine whether or not an item is a dangerous weapon, this time with qualifiers:
First that “threatening manner” specifically does not include the mere possession of a dangerous weapon (whether or not it is visible) without additional behavior which is overtly threatening or informing another person of the fact that one is in possession of a deadly weapon as a warning to prevent the use of unlawful force by that person.
Additionally, the law also states that it is not a crime to threaten the use of said dangerous weapon, or to draw or display that dangerous weapon if the wielder believes it is reasonably necessary to prevent that other person’s use of force.
Readers, Utah laws are a bit strange concerning knives; on one hand they have gone out of their way to make it as easy as possible for any given knife to be classified as a dangerous weapon, and then gone just as far the other way to clarify that the innocent, lawful possession of any given knife does not make it a dangerous weapon.
This would perhaps be okay if everyone was an honest actor in the legal system, but Utah already has a history of the lower courts enabling punitive prosecution in such matters, with only the Supreme Court of Utah affirmatively preventing such abuses.
That is not a good state of affairs. It might not provide much comfort but Utah does feature fairly sturdy preemption laws on the books, so at the very least you will not have to contend with contradictory and overlapping local laws in addition to the state’s laws that govern or may govern knives.
Concealed Carry, No Permit
You may nominally carry concealed any knife, including a dangerous weapon, so long as you are not doing so with any Criminal Intent or committing a crime with the knife.
Concealed Carry, With Permit
Utah makes no distinction between carrying a knife with a permit as opposed to without a permit, but it is worth noting that the legal statutes concerning concealed weapons permits would seem the clear up much of the confusion above, but the language of those statutes only concerns firearms.
It remains to be seen if the possession of a permit will keep someone out of hot water legally if they are carrying a knife that is categorized as a dangerous weapon under the circumstances.
Open Carry
The open carry of knives is legal in Utah, though this does not do much to assuage the fear that one might run afoul of the dangerous weapon definitions in the statute.
Prohibited Places
You may not carry any knife into any public or private school, school grounds, or school event. You may also keep your knife in your vehicle while on school property.
Assessment
Utah is a nominally pro knife state, but it is one with the most circular, bizarre and downright unhelpful knife laws that one could expect from such a place.
The statutes seen tailored to make classifying any knife a dangerous weapon under any circumstances as easy as possible while at the same time taking pains to clarify that simple possession does not rate charges.
In the end, an individual citizen’s confidence in these laws will probably be flimsy, and with good reason. Take pains that you do not run afoul of the law while carrying any knife in Utah.
Important Utah State Statutes
76-10-501. Definitions.
…
(6)
(a) “Dangerous weapon” means:
(i) a firearm; or
(ii) an object that in the manner of its use or intended use is capable of causing death or serious bodily injury.
(b) The following factors are used in determining whether any object, other than a firearm, is a dangerous weapon:
(i) the location and circumstances in which the object was used or possessed;
(ii) the primary purpose for which the object was made;
(iii) the character of the wound, if any, produced by the object’s unlawful use;
(iv) the manner in which the object was unlawfully used;
(v) whether the manner in which the object is used or possessed constitutes a potential imminent threat to public safety; and
(vi) the lawful purposes for which the object may be used.
(c) “Dangerous weapon” does not include an explosive, chemical, or incendiary device as defined by Section 76-10-306.
…
(16) “Readily accessible for immediate use” means that a firearm or other dangerous weapon is carried on the person or within such close proximity and in such a manner that it can be retrieved and used as readily as if carried on the person.
…
(18) “Securely encased” means not readily accessible for immediate use, such as held in a gun rack, or in a closed case or container, whether or not locked, or in a trunk or other storage area of a motor vehicle, not including a glove box or console box.
…
(23) “State entity” means a department, commission, board, council, agency, institution, officer, corporation, fund, division, office, committee, authority, laboratory, library, unit, bureau, panel, or other administrative unit of the state.
…
76-10-507. Possession of deadly weapon with criminal intent.
Every person having upon his person any dangerous weapon with intent to use it to commit a criminal offense is guilty of a class A misdemeanor.
…
76-10-506. Threatening with or using dangerous weapon in fight or quarrel.
(1) As used in this section:
(a) “Dangerous weapon” means an item that in the manner of its use or intended use is capable of causing death or serious bodily injury. The following factors shall be used in determining whether an item, object, or thing is a dangerous weapon:
(i) the character of the instrument, object, or thing;
(ii) the character of the wound produced, if any; and
(iii) the manner in which the instrument, object, or thing was exhibited or used.
(b) “Threatening manner” does not include:
(i) the possession of a dangerous weapon, whether visible or concealed, without additional behavior which is threatening; or
(ii) informing another of the actor’s possession of a deadly weapon in order to prevent what the actor reasonably perceives as a possible use of unlawful force by the other and the actor is not engaged in any activity described in Subsection 76-2-402(2)(a).
(2) Except as otherwise provided in Section 76-2-402 and for those persons described in Section 76-10-503, a person who, in the presence of two or more persons, and not amounting to a violation of Section 76-5-103, draws or exhibits a dangerous weapon in an angry and threatening manner or unlawfully uses a dangerous weapon in a fight or quarrel is guilty of a class A misdemeanor.
(3) This section does not apply to a person who, reasonably believing the action to be necessary in compliance with Section 76-2-402, with purpose to prevent another’s use of unlawful force:
(a) threatens the use of a dangerous weapon; or
(b) draws or exhibits a dangerous weapon.
(4) This section does not apply to a person listed in Subsections 76-10-523(1)(a) through (e) in performance of the person’s duties.
…
76-10-523. Persons exempt from weapons laws.
(1) Except for Sections 76-10-506, 76-10-508, and 76-10-508.1, this part and Title 53, Chapter 5, Part 7, Concealed Firearm Act, do not apply to any of the following:
(a) a United States marshal;
(b) a federal official required to carry a firearm;
(c) a peace officer of this or any other jurisdiction;
(d) a law enforcement official as defined and qualified under Section 53-5-711;
(e) a judge as defined and qualified under Section 53-5-711; or
(f) a common carrier while engaged in the regular and ordinary transport of firearms as merchandise.
(2) The provisions of Subsections 76-10-504(1) and (2), and Section 76-10-505 do not apply to any person to whom a permit to carry a concealed firearm has been issued:
(a) pursuant to Section 53-5-704; or
(b) by another state or county.
(3) Except for Sections 76-10-503, 76-10-506, 76-10-508, and 76-10-508.1, this part and Title 53, Chapter 5, Part 7, Concealed Firearm Act, do not apply to a nonresident traveling in or though the state, provided that any firearm is:
(a) unloaded; and
(b) securely encased as defined in Section 76-10-501.
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76-10-503. Restrictions on possession, purchase, transfer, and ownership of dangerous weapons by certain persons – Exceptions.
(…)
(8)
(a) A person may not sell, transfer, or otherwise dispose of any firearm or dangerous weapon to any person, knowing that the recipient is a person described in Subsection (1)(a) or (b).
(b) A person who violates Subsection (8)(a) when the recipient is:
(i) a person described in Subsection (1)(a) and the transaction involves a firearm, is guilty of a second degree felony;
(ii) a person described in Subsection (1)(a) and the transaction involves any dangerous weapon other than a firearm, and the transfer or has knowledge that the recipient intends to use the weapon for any unlawful purpose, is guilty of a third degree felony;
(iii) a person described in Subsection (1)(b) and the transaction involves a firearm, is guilty of a third degree felony; or
(iv) a person described in Subsection (1)(b) and the transaction involves any dangerous weapon other than a firearm, and the transferor has knowledge that the recipient intends to use the weapon for any unlawful purpose, is guilty of a class A misdemeanor.
(9)
(a) A person may not knowingly solicit, persuade, encourage or entice a dealer or other person to sell, transfer or otherwise dispose of a firearm or dangerous weapon under circumstances which the person knows would be a violation of the law.
(b) A person may not provide to a dealer or other person any information that the person knows to be materially false information with intent to deceive the dealer or other person about the legality of a sale, transfer or other disposition of a firearm or dangerous weapon.
(c) “Materially false information” means information that portrays an illegal transaction as legal or a legal transaction as illegal.
(d) A person who violates this Subsection (9) is guilty of:
(i) a third degree felony if the transaction involved a firearm; or
(ii) a class A misdemeanor if the transaction involved a dangerous weapon other than a firearm.
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76-10-505.5. Possession of a dangerous weapon, firearm, or short barreled shotgun on or about school premises – Penalties.
(1) As used in this section, “on or about school premises” means:
(a)
(i) in a public or private elementary or secondary school; or
(ii) on the grounds of any of those schools;
(b)
(i) in a public or private institution of higher education; or
(ii) on the grounds of a public or private institution of higher education; and
(iii)
(A) inside the building where a preschool or child care is being held, if the entire building is being used for the operation of the preschool or child care; or
(B) if only a portion of a building is being used to operate a preschool or child care, in that room or rooms where the preschool or child care operation is being held.
(2) A person may not possess any dangerous weapon, firearm, or short barreled shotgun, as those terms are defined in Section 76-10-501, at a place that the person knows, or has reasonable cause to believe, is on or about school premises as defined in this section.
(3)
(a) Possession of a dangerous weapon on or about school premises is a class B misdemeanor.
(b) Possession of a firearm or short barreled shotgun on or about school premises is a class A misdemeanor.
(4) This section does not apply if:
(a) the person is authorized to possess a firearm as provided under Section 53-5-704, 53-5-705, 76-10-511, or 76-10-523, or as otherwise authorized by law;
(b) the possession is approved by the responsible school administrator;
(c) the item is present or to be used in connection with a lawful, approved activity and is in the possession or under the control of the person responsible for its possession or use; or
(d) the possession is:
(i) at the person’s place of residence or on the person’s property; or
(ii) in any vehicle lawfully under the person’s control, other than a vehicle owned by the school or used by the school to transport students.
(5) This section does not prohibit prosecution of a more serious weapons offense that may occur on or about school premises.
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10-8-47.5. Knives regulated by state.
(1) As used in this section, “knife” means a cutting instrument that includes a sharpened or pointed blade.
(2) The authority to regulate a knife is reserved to the state except where the Legislature specifically delegates responsibility to a municipality.
(3)
(a) Unless specifically authorized by the Legislature or, subject to Subsection (3)(b), a municipal ordinance with a criminal penalty, a municipality may not enact or enforce an ordinance or a regulation pertaining to a knife.
(b) A municipality may not enact an ordinance with a criminal penalty pertaining to a knife that is:
(i) more restrictive than a state criminal penalty pertaining to a knife; or
(ii) has a greater criminal penalty than a state penalty pertaining to a knife.
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17-50-332. Knives regulated by state.
(1) As used in this section, “knife” means a cutting instrument that includes a sharpened or pointed blade.
(2) The authority to regulate a knife is reserved to the state except where the Legislature specifically delegates responsibility to a county.
(3)
(a) Unless specifically authorized by the Legislature or, subject to Subsection (3)(b), a county ordinance with a criminal penalty, a county may not enact or enforce an ordinance or a regulation pertaining to a knife.
(b) A county may not enact an ordinance with a criminal penalty pertaining to a knife that is:
(i) more restrictive than a state criminal penalty pertaining to a knife; or
(ii) has a greater criminal penalty than a state penalty pertaining to a knife.
