Ham radio operators love to push the boundaries of their equipment. A new ham may start out by making a local contact three miles away on the 2m band, then talk to somebody a few hundred miles away on 20m. Before long, they may find themselves chatting to fellow operators 12,000 miles away on 160m. Some of the adventurous return to 2m and try to carry out long-distance conversations by bouncing signals off of the Moon, waiting for the signal to travel 480,000 miles before returning to Earth. And then some take it several steps further when they listen to signals from spacecraft 9.4 million miles away.
That’s exactly what [David Prutchi] set out to do when he started building a system to listen to the Deep Space Network (DSN) last year. The DSN is NASA’s worldwide antenna system, designed to relay signals to and from spacecraft that have strayed far from home. The system communicates with tons of inanimate explorers Earth has sent out over the years, including Voyager 1 & 2, Juno, and the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Because the craft are transmitting weak signals over a great distance (Voyager 1 is 14 billion miles away!), the earth-based antennas need to be big. Real big. Each of the DSN’s three international facilities houses several massive dishes designed to capture these whispers from beyond the atmosphere — and yet, [David] was able to receive signals in his back yard.
Sporting a stunning X-band antenna array, a whole bunch of feedlines, and some tracking software, he’s managed to eavesdrop on a handful of spacecraft phoning home via the DSN. He heard the first, Bepi-Colombo, in May 2020, and has only improved his system since then. Next up, he hopes to find Juno, and decode the signals he receives to actually look at the data that’s being sent back from space.
We’ve seen a small group of enthusiasts listen in on the DSN before, but [David]’s excellent documentation should provide a fantastic starting point for anybody else interested in doing some interstellar snooping.
It is the rare prepper who will not have a plan for bugging out when a situation turns against them or looks unendurable from the beginning.
Having a bug-out plan is something of a “graduation exercise” in prepping, an obvious indicator that you are serious about what you are doing, and are ready for the worst of eventualities.
It is tough to argue with the logic of having a bug-out plan and being prepared to execute that plan at a moment’s notice, but if there is one thing that any seasoned prepper will tell a young gun or inexperienced, new adherents is that assumption is the mother of all screw-ups.
Assuming that bugging out will be the only choice you have, or even a correct choice, during a disaster might be the last assumption you ever make.
There are plenty of reasons why bugging out might not be right for you in the instant, for a period of time or even in the context of your life in general.
Knowing when you should attempt to bug out and just as importantly when you shouldn’t is the mark of a prepper who is objective-oriented and wise.
In this article I will provide you with a frame of reference for why you should not let bugging out be your only possible response to a disaster.
Bugging Out isn’t an Ejector Seat
As it turns out, bugging out is often going to be a supremely difficult task in and of itself. I can tell you, based on my own conversations and consultations with preppers who were trying to put together a comprehensive and holistic bug out plan, that more than a few of them think exactly the opposite.
Some preppers believe that, thanks to their fastidious preparation, study, self improvement and contingency planning that when the time comes to hit the road and get clear of whatever is troubling them that it will be a walk in the park if not a literal jaunt through the woods. An ejector seat, if you will; pull the lever and your problems are over!
If only! I hope you kept the receipt for those hopes and dreams because chances are conducting any bug-out operation is going to be a task of enormous strain and uncertainty.
No matter if you are going by vehicle or by foot you will face many challenges; from obstacles and exposure to the carrying of heavy loads through difficult circumstances. Bugging out ain’t easy, and if it is what you are actually doing is camping!
Bugging out is simply going to be dangerous: You could become stranded, overtaken by bandits, brigands or throngs of desperate people, caught out by severe weather, you could get lost, you could become injured, either stalling or even halting your progress.
More than anything else, leaving the safety, security and shelter of an actual structure, even if traveling by vehicle, places you at considerable risk of exposure, nature’s most certain and frequent killer.
Any of these potential fates could happen to the most experienced prepper with a high level of fitness, the best equipment and the most comprehensive plan. As it turns out the event still gets a vote in the outcome!
Imagine how much more difficult any bug-out activity could be if you are not in ideal conditions, ideal terrain or weather, or possessed of ideal fitness. Might you be leaving a reasonably safe and secure if uncertain setting for one that is most likely to see you laid low and stranded, waiting for death?
It is possible, and will feel all the more grievous knowing that you could have stayed put! That is why knowing when you should avoid bugging out, or why bugging out is not right for you as an individual is crucial in order to obtain a happy ending when disaster strikes.
Keep Your Eye on the Ball
At its most fundamental, I think where some preppers go wrong on this topic is when they start treating the bug out, or rather preparing for the bug out, as the objective in itself. This is a mistake.
The bug out is not the objective; survival is the objective, bugging out is a tactic to help you achieve your objective! Said another way, you should employ the tactic that is most likely to obtain the outcome that you want. That is all that matters.
With just a little bit of genuine assessment, along with a greater awareness and understanding of the situation you are facing, it is possible to discern whether or not a bug out is the sub-optimal, acceptable, or ideal option for responding to an emergency situation.
But the situation at hand is only part of it; the other part of it is you and whoever else is going to be bugging out with you. Someone cannot bug out for you, and you cannot bug out for anyone else!
If there are personal factors involved which will greatly reduce your chance of success it is time to start looking at plans B, C and so on.
This is a highly personal decision, and furthermore one that is not guaranteed no matter how much information you have, and how smart you are.
Ultimately, you will have to read the situation, your resources, and your team as best you can, make the call and then stick with it. Just don’t ever lose sight of the fact that a winning move for our purposes is anything that will keep you and yours alive.
10 Reasons Bugging Out Might Not be for You
1. Terrain
If you live in or around an area where the terrain is especially inhospitable or difficult to traverse, this should affect your willingness to bug out in any given circumstances, especially if your home is well-stocked, secure and fortified.
Steep mountains with roads that are easy to block, slow to travel and generally perilous are one such example, as are urban areas that are typically slow going in the very best of times which will be made dependably into parking lots when things go bad.
Suffice to say you will not be trying to get out of a city in the best of times if you are bugging out!
You should consider the suitability of the terrain for traversal both on foot and by vehicle. You shouldn’t necessarily put all your eggs in one basket, as it is entirely possible that a vehicular bug out could face a show-stopping event like a crash or completely impassable road or trail that will see you taking off on foot to either head back or press on.
Always remember to consider the worst-case scenario when it comes to terrain.
On the other hand, don’t discount creative solutions to difficult terrain. Rivers will make for little-used and high-speed thoroughfares if you have a suitable watercraft, allowing you to completely circumvent the invariably jammed and packed roadways if you were otherwise traveling by automobile, or save a tremendous amount of both time and labor compared to moving around on foot.
Though traveling by river has its own hazards, other solutions abound if you have the right equipment and a little ingenuity.
2. Lack of Resources
Bugging out entails a certain amount of material preparation. At least it does if you are smart! For all but the most independent and seasoned outdoor survivalists, bugging out without ample supplies might spell certain death no matter where you are heading.
While it is true that a person with enough skills and experience when it comes to scavenging and living off the land can take off into the wild blue yonder with a knife and little else and wind up constructing a pretty respectable campsite, you would be a fool to disregard the advantages afforded to you by going properly prepared.
You might think of your supplies needed for bugging out (your BOB and all its contents) as something like an air tank for a scuba diver. So long as the tank has air the diver can stay down in an environment that will otherwise certainly kill him. When the tank runs out of air, the driver must surface (and resupply) or die.
Bugging out is not quite as lethal as that example, but I think you take my meaning. When you run out of the supplies and tools you need, or lack them to begin with, you’ll be in danger wherever you happen to be unless you are truly the stuff of mountain man legends.
Ultimately, you might lack some essential piece of equipment or conveyance that will make a bug-out feasible, all things considered.
In your area, considering where you need to go to reach a given bug-out location, lacking a vehicle might mean the prospect is too dangerous or just too grueling to be worthwhile. That is okay.
While it does not mean you should completely fail to plan for a “hail Mary” bug out on foot, you should indeed file it away as the desperate measure it is, and not as your first choice.
3. Poor Fitness
Adequate fitness is one prep that quite a few preppers want to tap dance around and pretend does not exist or is not important the greater context of prepping.
The bottom line is this: The single greatest thing you can do to improve your personal readiness, safety and security is to be fit. Survival is almost always hard work. You had better believe a bug out will be an arduous task, and potentially grueling if you have to bug out on foot.
Even if you are going by vehicle, you might be driving on high alert for a very long time for you can rest and other mishaps can result in great exertion besides.
If you are bugging out on foot, you’ll be hauling a heavy backpack across terrain that is anywhere from unpaved to steep and broken.
This is definitely going to be hard going, and is exhausting even for people who are in good shape. If you aren’t in good shape it will be somewhere between life-threatening and impossible.
If you are trying to flee something that has a real, legitimate deadline there is no second-place winner in this particular race! And that discounts all the other threats from nature and people that you might have to deal with besides.
If you get winded going up a flight of stairs or carrying in the groceries, you can forget trying to bug out in general, and especially on foot.
Your first tool, and indeed your first weapon and vehicle, is your body and if it is soft, flabby, slow and weak it is not suited for the rigors of bugging out in the gravest extreme. Think long and hard about your decision to bug out if you are not particularly fit.
4. Family Concerns
None of what we do as preppers happens in a vacuum. Though some of us are, indeed, single with no one but ourselves to worry about, that is not the reality for most of us.
Most of us have family members that we are immediately responsible for, and barring family members we have loved ones, friends, potentially even neighbors who we don’t want to turn our backs on.
In times of trouble, most people band together not just to increase their chances of success, but to be mutually supportive.
This is not to say you should stay on a sinking ship just because someone else won’t get off, but you shouldn’t necessarily abandon them either without a damn good reason.
For those of us who have immediate family members or other dependents we might be entirely prevented from bugging out with them for a host of reasons.
For all the tough talk and bluster I hear coming out of some preppers about Darwin and the “law of the jungle” I don’t think one in a hundred would actually leave someone they care about behind.
If you aren’t there for your family, and cannot expect them to be there for you, you have bigger problems. Assuming you are responsible to your family you need not think you will have the desperate resolve to run off and leave them to their fate, alone, even if you have determined that is the “correct” course of action.
Sometimes we have to put our lot in with others and take our chances. If you have family members that are unable or completely unwilling to bug out for whatever reason, that is what you might have to do.
5. Bad Timing
Sometimes things just don’t go to plan. Your bug-out plan might be excellent, you might have amiable routes plotted, destinations double-checked, and all the gear you need to successfully complete the journey. You know what to expect, what you are likely to be facing, and how long it will take you to get there.
Unfortunately, something goes wrong, or rather it does not go the way you hoped! The event kicks off too early, you are seriously delayed for some reason, or you simply get overtaken by successive piddling mishaps that see you running way behind schedule.
Whatever it is and however it happens, your timetable is blown. This means you might no longer be able to make it to your destination as safely and as surely as you thought.
A blown travel itinerary could see you overtaken by bad weather, human threats or just trying to make movement during a dangerous time. Simply stated, you might be better off staying put.
If that is the case, then so be it. Making a decision and taking action is all about weighing the risks when it comes to responding to emergencies.
One stratagem might be a “sure thing” one day and completely untenable the next depending on changing circumstances. It all depends, and if you cannot complete a bug out in the prescribed timetable or get underway in good order you might be better off staying put.
6. Weather or Climate
Bugging out on foot or by vehicle inherently means you’re going to be leaving a place of safety, or at least nominal safety, for the unknown. Much of the time, this means you’ll be leaving behind a proper shelter, which is your house, apartment or whatever.
You should never underestimate the potential danger this act alone can place you in, particularly when you are dealing with bad weather or a hostile climate.
As luck might have it, you might be dealing with flat-out crappy weather when the time comes for you to bug out. It could be raining cats and dogs, storming fit to shake the earth, piling on snow, visibility blocking dust storms or something else.
Any of these events is threatening enough in and of itself, and if you are forced to tackle them in the high-stakes context of a bug out things could become downright perilous.
Also, the climate where you live might be hostile or plumb dangerous year-round. Folks who live in the desert, swamp or in frozen northern areas know all too well what they will be dealing with as soon as they step out the door.
Before you are so sure you can bug out and solve all of your problems, you have to take precautions that you can survive your bug out if something goes wrong and you wind up stranded or delayed in the interim.
Bugging out might be your “low percentage” option if you live in any area with such a climate or are faced with severe weather during the event.
Don’t get cocky just because you think any of these threats are beneath you or that you have lived so long in these areas you have nothing to worry about; remind yourself that exposure is the single biggest killer (and one of the quickest) in nature when you are out of doors.
7. Lack of Skills
Surviving is definitely not easy, and neither is bugging out. Again, don’t assume that just because you can pile into the car right away or head out on foot in a timely fashion with your pack on your back that you’re going to have an easy go of things from then on.
Put another way you will be surviving from the word “go”, and you had better be up to snuff mentally, physically and practically.
Any prepper who is serious will do far more than just accumulate gear. They will acquire, sharpen, and refine skills over the course of their lifetime.
Your mind is your first tool, and if that particular tool box is empty when it is time to put up or shut up you are just a casualty waiting to happen.
I cannot tell you the number of mishaps and tragedies I have learned of over the years that happened to people who were extremely well equipped, even highly motivated, but didn’t have the practical experience or expertise needed to deal with the situation at hand.
Be honest with yourself: Do you know what you are doing? Do you know how to get to where you are going even without a GPS? How about without a map or even road signs?
You know how to properly set up a camp, build and extinguish a fire, and do all the other myriad tasks that could be required of you in case things don’t go smoothly?
If the answer is “no” more often than it is “yes”, listen up; you need a new plan! Your theoretical knowledge is still worth something, but you do need to focus on skills, as you will need every advantage you can get when surviving.
Much of the time, you will find you have more advantages in more situations by bugging in, and holding on to the home-field advantage. Bugging out might not be the best idea unless you have no other choice.
8. Illness or Injury
Any pre-existing injury or disease that you are suffering from could spell the end of your bug out before you have even begun.
Any major physical infirmity or hindrance is going to dramatically slow down your bug out, or make it so agonizing that you run out of willpower. This is not something that should be taken lightly.
Likewise, diseases and ailments of all kinds, from diabetes to heart failure, nervous system ailments to the flu can all complicate your bug out, increasing risk and chance of failure.
Some people will be dealing with permanent or lifelong disabilities. Being confined to a wheelchair does not mean that bugging out is not for you, but it does mean that a cross-country bug out without the use of a vehicle is going to be nigh impossible, especially as the terrain gets rough or becomes clogged with debris and people.
If you have lost the use of even a single limb this might significantly affect your ability to deal with emergencies and curveballs.
I am not saying that you should not attempt a bug out or even plan a bug out as your first choice option just because you were dealing with a permanent or semi-permanent disability; I am merely advising caution since you have another disadvantage you’ll have to deal with from the outset.
Remember what I said about planning around your objective? That planning entails accounting for every advantage but also every disadvantage you have, whether you have been dealing with it for most of your life or it is a “day of” impairment.
Don’t convince yourself that you must bug out or face even worse consequences.
Especially if you are already dealing with some ailment, the correct answer might be to improve your circumstances where you are to better accommodate that impairment versus risking everything on a comparative unknown.
9. Nature of the Event
A bug-out is not a one-size-fits-all solution for every emergency, disaster or situation. In fact, there are some situations where a bug out might put you in even more jeopardy no matter what you are facing in a fixed location.
Once again, this is dependent upon where you live and the nature of the event that has you executing on your contingency plan.
One great example is something like a dirty bomb, nuclear power plant meltdown or, God forbid, a nuclear warhead detonation.
Any event that results in radiological fallout is likely to be best countered by sheltering in place and taking the appropriate precautions to keep the fallout from entering the home via your HVAC system, chimney and other passages through which dangerous particles could pass.
Choosing to bug out on foot in the same circumstances would be absolutely disastrous and likely fatal, and you will fare little better in a car.
Another instance could be a natural disaster like a tornado. You might have notice via a tornado watch alert that a storm system capable of spawning them is in the area, or you might learn that one has formed via a tornado warning.
Either of those notifications are an indicator that you should seek the best possible shelter as rapidly and as surely as you can, and suffice to say you should never, ever be caught in a vehicle or on foot when a tornado draws close. With very few exceptions almost any structure is better than either of those two eventualities.
If your default and only reaction to any kind of disaster or other event is the hop in the car and go or grab your BOB, and take off you could very likely be putting yourself and potentially your loved ones in harm’s way, not saving them from it.
10. Poor or No Bug Out Locations
Inherent to the concept of bugging out is having a place to bug out to! These pre-selected destinations, called bug-out locations or BOLs, are a crucial element of any well-designed bug-out plan.
The purpose of bugging out is not merely to scramble and get out of the way of approaching danger or an untenable situation by heading any which way, though in the worst of circumstances that might be exactly what you have to do.
Instead and ideally, you want to go directly to a place where you know you will be safe, or at least safer from a given threat, a place where you can catch your breath, rest, regroup and hopefully resupply.
Depending upon your anticipated threats, resources and strategy, this BOL could be a location in nature where you will set up a camp, an alternate dwelling that you own or one that belongs to family or friends, or potentially just another settled area where you believe chances will be good you can obtain aid and supplies.
Again, there is no one-size-fits-all answer, but it is absolutely essential that your bug-out locations are able to support you, service your plan, and give you some much needed direction when the time comes to bug out. They need to be a pin on a map that you can orient yourself toward.
If, for whatever reason, you just don’t have any good bug-out locations to choose from within a reasonable distance, you probably don’t want to plan on bugging out at all, reserving instead a bug out as a true, last-ditch, last-gasp evacuation from a situation that has become so untenable and unsurvivable as to mean certain death.
This might result as a consequence of where you live, the event you are dealing with or any other personal issues that prevent you from making use of typical BOLs. Whatever the case, there is not much use in bugging out without a BOL to head towards.
Conclusion
For preppers, bugging out is often seen as a first response, or the ideal option when the time comes to deal with an impending disaster that will disrupt their way of life.
While bugging out definitely has its place among all of your options, it is not a panacea, and for preppers whose lives are complicated by internal and external factors, including the specifics of the event itself, bugging out might not be the first choice, or even a choice at all.
Only by assessing your life, your circumstances and the characteristics of the event you are dealing with in totality can you make an informed and intelligent decision about bugging out.
What do you do with an old cable modem in a closet? If you are [stdw] you reverse engineer it and turn it into a software-defined radio. The modem in question was a Motorola MB7220. After looking at a similar project using a different modem, it seemed like it should be doable.
Cracking open the case revealed two likely UART ports, one of which was active. The output from that UART provided a lot of info. The chip was a Broadcom BCM3383 which is a MIPS processor. It had eCos as an operating system. However, the bootloader eventually disables the UART, so there wasn’t much more investigation possible via the serial terminal.
The next step was to dump the flash memory. That required a little solder surgery to prevent the board from starting while the flash chip had power. It appeared that some key credentials and configuration data were present, but they were really backups. After doing a factory reset to remove the backups, the right data was apparent.
After some lengthy exploration, the diagnostic that builds a spectrum display gave up its data. At first, the data was just a small sample of what was really required, but it did show a local FM station as a spectrum. Eventually, the data loss rate was down to about 12% when streaming which is not great, but good enough. You can hear an audio clip of the reception. Not exactly crystal-clear quality, but not bad.
Of course, no one will use this for an FM radio. But it is a fascinating view into how far you can hack into a device like this if you have some skills and patience. There must be something about quarantine that is making people hack old gear, as we just recently saw a similar Netgear hack. Even cheap games aren’t safe.
WiFi is an ubiquitous feature of the modern landscape, but due to power restrictions on most hardware alongside the high-frequency signal it’s typically fairly limited in range. This of course leads to frustration where a WiFi signal can be seen, but the connection is unreliable or slow. While most would reach for a range extender or other hardware bridge, [tak786] was able to roll out a better solution for his workplace by using a high-gain antenna and a single-board computer which gets him an amazing kilometer-wide WiFi network.
The build uses a 10 dBi antenna from TP-Link that’s rated for outdoor use and a single-board computer which acts as a sort of router. The antenna is placed at the top of a building which certainly helps with the extreme range as well. This setup doesn’t actually broadcast an open Internet connection, though. [tak786]’s employer needed a teleconferencing solution for their building, and he also created a fully open-source video conferencing solution called trango that can run on any LAN and doesn’t require an Internet connection. The WiFi setup in this build is effectively just a bonus to make the conferencing system more effective.
Alaska has a reputation as a rugged and mostly wild state, what might truly be called one of the last great frontiers in North America. This state is sparsely populated, vast and dangerous.
Many of the people who live there choose to rely on themselves or their small community and little else, and this rough-and-tumble living produces people that are known for self-reliance and getting things done no matter the situation. These ethics extend it to Alaska knife laws.
In Alaska, you can own and carry virtually any kind of knife you want with little in the way of restrictions. There are, however, certain requirements put upon people who carry knives when it comes to notification of law enforcement and the owner of a dwelling if you are carrying any kind of knife besides a common pocket knife.
Additionally, people who are under the age of 21 cannot carry any kind of knife except an ordinary pocket knife. We will have a look at the specific requirements and the laws pertinent to the carry of knives in Alaska 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?: If 21 years old any kind of knife, must inform LEO if contact made or owner of a residence.
Can I Carry a Knife Concealed With a Permit?: If 21 years old any kind of knife, must inform LEO if contact made or owner of a residence.
Can I Carry a Knife Openly?: Any kind of knife if 21 years old or older; common pocket knife only if under 21.
General Ownership
Alaska is a state or pretty much anything goes on knives so long as you are old enough to carry something more involved than a common pocket knife, and if you are carrying concealed you inform both law enforcement officers and the owners of any dwellings or residences you visit that you are carrying a knife that does not meet the definition of common pocketknife knife.
A particular regulation on the carry and ownership of knives is that a person who is not an emancipated minor under 16 years of age cannot be in possession of any switchblade or gravity knife without the express consent of their parent or guardian.
Concealed Carry, No Permit
Concealed carry of knives is a simple affair in Alaska. You can carry any kind of knife you want concealed on or about your person with no permit required.
However, you have the duty to inform any law enforcement officer of its presence when contact is made with that officer, or you are specifically asked about it.
You then might have to secure the knife at their discretion, or allow them to do the same. Additionally, should you enter the home dwelling of someone else and are carrying a knife concealed, that does not meet the definition of a common pocket knife you must inform them of the fact also.
For anyone under the age of 21 you are not allowed to conceal any knife except a common pocket knife, though you are not forbidden from carrying any other such knife openly.
In both cases, Alaska specifically defined concealed as the following:
“… covered or enclosed in any manner so that an observer cannot determine that it is a weapon without removing it from that which covers or encloses it or without opening, listing, or removing that which covers or encloses it.”
The only exceptions to this particular part of the law is if a person under the age of 21 is carrying a knife concealed when they are hunting, fishing or on property that they own or lease.
Concealed Carry, With Permit
There are no particular changes to Alaska knife carry statutes if one does or does not have a concealed weapons permit.
Open Carry
Open carry is the norm in Alaska, with absolutely any kind of knife being allowed at anytime by persons aged 18 years or older.
Prohibited Places
As free a state as Alaska is, there still exists some restrictions on where you can carry your knives, openly or concealed.
Any school is off-limits, unless you have the explicit permission of the head official of the school. This includes both school property, and the school building itself.
Additionally, any vehicle owned or being used by the school for activities or trips is also forbidden. One does have the option of keeping your knife locked in the trunk or secure storage compartment of any vehicle or securely encased inside the cabin of the vehicle.
Of interest, Alaska does have comprehensive and potent preemption laws that prevent cities and municipalities from enacting and enforcing any knife regulations that are more stringent than the state laws.
Essentially you will only ever see local laws that mirror the state laws in effect if not an exact language. The state does reserve the right to borrow the carry of knives from any government buildings.
Assessment
Alaska is an excellent state for knife ownership, and among the very best when it comes to carry laws. Any kind of knife pretty much anywhere you want to take it, carried openly or carried concealed, is a-okay.
People under the age of 21 cannot carry a knife concealed if it is not a common pocket knife, and you must notify law enforcement officers and homeowners of any knife you are carrying concealed, but other than that you won’t have any issues in the state.
Important Alaska State Statutes
You are always well advised to become intimately acquainted with state statutes yourself before taking any action that might see you in violation when it comes to weapons, knives certainly include.
Below you will find a selection of the most relevant Alaska state statutes pertaining to the carry and ownership of knives in the state.
Sec. 11.61.220. Misconduct involving weapons in the fifth degree.
(a) A person commits the crime of misconduct involving weapons in the fifth degree if the person
(1) is 21 years of age or older and knowingly possesses a deadly weapon, other than an ordinary pocket knife or a defensive weapon,
(A) that is concealed on the person, and, when contacted by a peace officer, the person fails to
(i) immediately inform the peace officer of that possession; or
(ii) allow the peace officer to secure the deadly weapon, or fails to secure the weapon at the direction of the peace officer, during the duration of the contact;
(B) that is concealed on the person within the residence of another person unless the person has first obtained the express permission of an adult residing there to bring a concealed deadly weapon within the residence;
…
(3) being an unemancipated minor under 16 years of age, possesses a firearm, switchblade, or gravity knife without the consent of a parent or guardian of the minor;
(4) knowingly possesses a firearm
(A) within the grounds of or on a parking lot immediately adjacent to an entity, other than a private residence, licensed as a child care facility under AS 47.32 or recognized by the federal government for the care of children, except that a person 21 years of age or older may possess an unloaded firearm in the trunk of a motor vehicle or encased in a closed container of a motor vehicle;
(B) within a
(i) courtroom or office of the Alaska Court System; or
(ii) courthouse that is occupied only by the Alaska Court System and other justice-related agencies; or
(C) within a domestic violence or sexual assault shelter that receives funding from the state;
…
(6) is less than 21 years of age and knowingly possesses a deadly weapon, other than an ordinary pocket knife or a defensive weapon, that is concealed on the person.
(b) In a prosecution under (a)(6) of this section, it is an affirmative defense that the defendant, at the time of possession, was
(1) in the defendant’s dwelling or on land owned or leased by the defendant appurtenant to the dwelling; or
(2) actually engaged in lawful hunting, fishing, trapping, or other lawful outdoor activity that necessarily involves the carrying of a weapon for personal protection.
(c) The provisions of (a)(2) and (4) of this section do not apply to a peace officer acting within the scope and authority of the officer’s employment.
…
(e) For purposes of this section, a deadly weapon on a person is concealed if it is covered or enclosed in any manner so that an observer cannot determine that it is a weapon without removing it from that which covers or encloses it or without opening, lifting, or removing that which covers or encloses it; a deadly weapon on a person is not concealed if it is an unloaded firearm encased in a closed container designed for transporting firearms.
…
(h) In a prosecution
(1) under (a)(4)(B) of this section, it is a defense that the defendant, at the time of possession, was authorized to possess the firearm under a rule of court;
(2) under (a)(4)(C) of this section, it is a defense that the defendant, at the time of possession, was authorized in writing by the administrator of the shelter to possess the firearm.
(i) In (a)(1) of this section, “contacted by a peace officer” means stopped, detained, questioned, or addressed in person by the peace officer for an official purpose.
(j) Misconduct involving weapons in the fifth degree is a class B misdemeanor.
…
Sec. 11.61.210. Misconduct involving weapons in the fourth degree.
…
(7) other than a preschool, elementary, junior high, or secondary school student, knowingly possesses a deadly weapon or a defensive weapon, without the permission of the chief administrative officer of the school or district or the designee of the chief administrative officer, within the buildings of, on the grounds of, or on the school parking lot of a public or private preschool, elementary, junior high, or secondary school, on a school bus while being transported to or from school or a school-sponsored event, or while participating in a school-sponsored event, except that a person 21 years of age or older may possess
(A) a deadly weapon, other than a loaded firearm, in the trunk of a motor vehicle or encased in a closed container in a motor vehicle;
(B) a defensive weapon;
(C) an unloaded firearm if the person is traversing school premises in a rural area for the purpose of entering public or private land that is open to hunting and the school board with jurisdiction over the school premises has elected to have this exemption apply to the school premises; in this subparagraph, “rural” means a community with a population of 5,500 or less that is not connected by road or rail to Anchorage or Fairbanks or with a population of 1,500 or less that is connected by road or rail to Anchorage or Fairbanks; or
(8) being a preschool, elementary, junior high, or secondary school student, knowingly possesses a deadly weapon or a defensive weapon, within the buildings of, on the grounds of, or on the school parking lot of a public or private preschool, elementary, junior high, or secondary school, on a school bus while being transported to or from school or a school-sponsored event, or while participating in a school-sponsored event, except that a student may possess a deadly weapon, other than a firearm as defined under 18 U.S.C. 921, or a defensive weapon if the student has obtained the prior permission of the chief administrative officer of the school or district or the designee of the chief administrative officer for the possession.
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Sec. 29.35.145. Regulation of firearms and knives.
(a) The authority to regulate firearms and knives is reserved to the state, and, except as specifically provided by statute, a municipality may not enact or enforce an ordinance regulating the possession, ownership, sale, transfer, use, carrying, transportation, licensing, taxation, or registration of firearms or knives.
(b) Municipalities may enact and enforce ordinances
(1) that are identical to state law and that have the same penalty as provided for by state law;
(2) restricting the discharge of firearms in any portion of their respective jurisdictions where there is a reasonable likelihood that people, domestic animals, or property will be jeopardized; ordinances enacted or enforced under this paragraph may not abridge the right of the individual guaranteed by art. I, sec. 19, Constitution of the State of Alaska, to bear arms in defense of self or others;
(3) restricting the areas in their respective jurisdictions in which firearms or knives may be sold; a business selling firearms or knives may not be treated more restrictively than other businesses located within the same zone; and
(4) prohibiting the possession of firearms or knives in the restricted access area of municipal government buildings; the municipal assembly shall post notice of the prohibition against possession of firearms or knives at each entrance to the restricted access area.
Quite a few preppers have based all of their training, accumulation of provisions and other material or intangible preparations on plausible, society-toppling events like a second civil war. The way things are going, a civil war is no longer purely theoretical.
A never widening chasm between the Haves and the Have-Nots, increasing cultural balkanization and simmering resentment brought on by planet-wide lockdowns, political malfeasance, and a host of other issues are even now turning former friends against each other, and before long the fractures may widen irrecoverably.
It is impossible to concisely say just how widespread and how devastating a second civil war will be. You only need to crack open a history book or hit up Wikipedia to get the tale of the blood-red tape accounted for in civil conflicts around the world.
These are among the most devastating conflicts in recorded human history, and ironically enough, it so often happens that civilians, not those fighting on the front lines, suffer the worst.
You will be facing a lengthy list of possible dangers, not just direct harm from weapons, bombs and targeted sectarian violence but also from shortage, famine, lack of medical care, and from lack of societal infrastructure that we today take for granted as a sure thing.
But for every painful reminder that history furnishes it also provides us with lessons that our ancestors paid dearly for. Lessons that we must learn from.
In the remainder of this article I will share with you these lessons, along with other tips and procedures that had been gleaned from the collective experience of survivors who saw the onset and end of civil conflicts around the world.
Your survival is not guaranteed when the next civil war occurs, but we will do everything we can to improve your chances.
Nothing Civil About a Civil War
Right now, you might be thinking you are not terribly worried about the next civil war, God forbid should it occur, because you are not in the military and you have 100% no interest and no intention enlisting to fight in an official or unofficial capacity.
Your logic is sound on paper, but reality disagrees with your prospects if history is anything to go by.
Civil wars are ugly. Extremely ugly. The American Civil War was one of the most costly conflicts in lives (between 650,000 to 850,000), although some estimates are lower), treasure and property that our young nation has ever participated in, and the civil wars of other prosperous nations around the world have been nothing short of apocalyptic.
It will definitely not be a picnic participating in a civil war as a combatant, but it is potentially even worse to be a noncombatant. War is always hardest on civilian populations in the end, and civil wars have a way of getting particularly nasty.
Civilians that are caught in or near battle lines, contested population centers or just along routes of travel are always in danger.
Targeted strikes from aircraft and vehicles, rolling gun battles conducted by infantry, punitive actions undertaken by partisans and irregulars, and even the deployment of strategic weapons will all reap a terrible harvest and lives from civilian populations that huddle desperately and whatever places they think are safe.
Worse than this, civil wars force people to pick a side. Being lukewarm will not save you; your proclamation of neutrality will fall on deaf ears. It is very much a “with us or against us” mentality, especially among irregulars, partisans and anyone that is fighting in a mercenary capacity.
You could be shot, stabbed, beaten, burned or tortured just because it is assumed you are on the other side, even if you are not fighting. After all, it is your people who got us into this mess in the first place…
But let’s just say you don’t fall victim to any of those unhappy and grueling fates. War still inflicts plenty of casualties in ways that have nothing to do with bombs, blades and bullets.
The death tolls in the 20th century alone for civilians living in and around protracted conflict zones the world over are the stuff of nightmares, and a great many of those deaths resulted from things that we plan on dealing with and the aftermath of a major disaster; chances are you can forget all about utilities you used to enjoy on a day-to-day basis.
Exposure will now be a near constant companion, and with it the threat of freezing to death or dying of heat stroke. The intricate clockwork machine that is commerce in the 21st century will be broken irrevocably, and no longer will food and even water be brought readily to storefronts.
Deaths from dehydration, starvation and illness will become so common as to not even be worth remarking about. Injury and maladies that were formerly trivial will be life-threatening as a matter of course.
What supplies that there are and are counted by the government will always be priority earmarked for their own forces to keep the war machine going. So much of the time, civilian casualties will just be an acceptable cost of doing business.
Perhaps worst of all, the very glue of our society, the basic level of trust we have for our fellow man and our neighbors, will be annihilated, destroyed beyond any dream of recall.
Assuming you do survive the carnage and the destruction and the agony what peace prevails in the aftermath will be uneasy, tense and forced. The psychological and social scars will last for generations.
Preparing for Civil War
This article is written from the perspective that you’ll be participating in the hostilities of any civil war strictly in a self-defense context. If you are looking for any information on how best to prosecute a civil war as a combatant, you will have to look elsewhere.
Assuming that you are not participating directly in the hostilities it is going to be hard to say exactly what you will face during the war, when that will occur and how long you will have to endure it.
But, once again, we can turn towards the grim and dark days of history both near and far to get some insight. Whatever you are forced to suffer, take some solace in the fact that you are not the first person to have suffered so, nor will you be the last.
You will have to deal with many threats, and also make many life-or-death decisions. Sometimes the calculus will be impossible to determine, or your fate decided by margins that are so thin as to be negligible.
Below is a list of the major factors you will have to consider when living in a state experiencing a civil war:
Who Are You Up Against?: State actors, irregular fighters, opportunists, organized crime, partisans and the teeming throngs of the desperate. Conflict zones, and especially ones made so by civil war, are packed full of people who will hurt you, kill you or take what you have. You need to know how to deal with all of them.
Stay Put or Run?: Vital to your survival is knowing when to move and leave an area and when to stay put. Both have advantages and disadvantages but you cannot afford to be wrong. Similarly your choice of where to go, rural or urban, will significantly impact your safety based on several other criteria.
Group Up to Survive: Loners usually don’t survive situations like civil war unless they are so far from any interactions with belligerent as to be unnoticeable. Even then, you will always have an easier time of things with more people around to help out. Assembling a group that can be relied upon to work toward the common goal of survival should be a high priority.
Making Movement Safely: Moving around an active conflict zone is nothing like your usual commute or Sunday stroll. Everyone you encounter will be on the lookout for suspicious people going to suspicious places to do suspicious things, and you might even be forced to move under a standing hard travel ban or through actively contested areas- both risky propositions.
Protecting Yourself: One of the major Catch-22s of being a civilian in a warzone. You cannot afford to go without protection but getting caught with guns by any side is a great way to get killed as an enemy partisan or assassin. Don’t expect “your” side to be okay with it, either.
Maintain a Low Profile: Your gray man skills will be put to a severe test living through a civil war. Drawing attention in the wrong place, at the wrong time or from the wrong people is liable to see you lose possessions, get yourself incarcerated or even be killed.
Dealing with Martial Law and Gov’t. Mandates: Talk about conflicting interests. You will likely have to deal with strictly enforced government directives or even martial law for the duration of a civil war. Many of them will run completely contrary to your needs and interests. Disobeying them will have major consequences. How best to deal with this…?
Treating Injuries: There are uncountable ways to get hurt or maimed in and around active conflict zones, and many of them are hard to see coming. You will not simply be able to dial 911 and summon aid anymore. This means you must be your own first responder. Knowing how to treat all kinds of maladies and injuries with or without proper gear may make the difference.
Stockpile for the Future: Everything that truly matters will become scarce in a civil war setting. You can get a leg up on the rat race if you stock up now. That is only half the equation, however: Everyone from criminal gangs to gov’t. Soldiers and partisan fighters will be hungrily sniffing out where their next meal, drink, and magazine will come from. You will have to be clever, quick and resourceful just to keep even a fraction of your resources.
I’ll be sharing all kinds of insights and things you should know about these factors in their own sections below.
Who Are You Up Against?
Soldiers: Professional fighters belonging to one “legitimate” government or another.
Irregulars: Motivated belligerents who fight for their own reasons, for one cause or another, outside the bounds of a government entity.
Criminals: Lone desperadoes, opportunistic gangs or massive illicit enterprises, criminals always look to profit from the distraction and chaos caused by war, often at your expense.
Civilians: Your fellow survivors just trying to survive and see the day all this ends. Their desperation and fear makes them dangerous and unpredictable.
Most people imagine a civil war scenario as literally “brother against brother”. Historically, this is true in the strictest sense, but a civil war pits two or more sides of a nation against each other in a clash that will determine culture, governance and more.
That being said, you’ll be making a grave mistake if you assume that all the belligerents running around are going to be uniform soldiers, easily recognized.
It is almost certain that some or even most of the combatants may indeed be uniformed, more or less, but there are also people you have to watch out for who won’t be. Trust is something you should share sparingly if at all during a civil war.
Most wars will be prosecuted by legitimate professional soldiers, perhaps on both sides of the conflict.
There will always be at least one side that is representing the current standing government, though any breakaway factions or newly-hatched nations might muster their own official armed forces from those who deserted the legacy government.
The attitudes and behavior of professional soldiers in conflict zones is always highly variable, and just because soldiers are on your side does not mean you can let your guard down or even approach them.
The stresses brought on by war easily fracture the human mind, and you’ll see people act viciously or cruelly out of character towards their fellow man as a result, even those they are ostensibly supposed to be protecting.
When tensions are especially high and you’re hiding or moving in an active conflict area, the risk of you being shot or killed in some other way will be at their highest.
Mistaken identity is a thing, and soldiers who have seen too much death already might not be willing to take any chances with an unknown contact.
Besides professional soldiers, each fraction will see its fair share of irregulars attracted to the fight.
These ramshackle forces could be made up of near-peer organized militias, enthusiastic fighters motivated to enter the fray for ideological reasons, opportunistic partisans or rogues and adventurers getting involved for some other reason, including boredom and plunder.
Sussing out the motivations and intentions of people in this category will always be very difficult, as they may not be constrained by any genuinely professional intent, or the oversight of governing bodies or agencies.
Should you find yourself attracting the attention of these groups who are on the other side you will have much to fear, as many times these people will seek to vent their rage and frustration on the constituent “single cell” of the opposing ideology. That means you, by the way!
Aside from legitimate and what-passes-for-legitimate belligerents participating in hostilities, you’ll also have to be on the lookout for opportunistic criminals, individuals, small bands and large organized entities. Invariably, wherever war goes so too goes organized crime, like sharks following in the wake of a whaling ship at sea.
Any gangs that already exist that avoid being wiped out or disbanded will oftentimes grow in power and influence.
Other major criminal interest might move in, taking advantage of the chaos and uncertainty of the war zone in order to dispatch rivals or expand their operations, particularly smuggling, racketeering, prostitution and more.
While unsavory, criminal enterprises are often capable of supplying goods and services that cannot reliably be had in other ways. Still, more criminals will only seek to take advantage of the overall lack of law enforcement to engage in whatever evil deeds their hearts desire.
Lastly, you’ll have to be on the lookout for fellow survivors and civilians just like yourself. Unfortunately, you’ll have to be very, very sparing with your trust as everyone is likely to be suffering just as badly as you are.
Rumbling bellies might see people with families that are relying on them resort to thievery or even heinous acts of depredation in order to provide for the people they love. If you remember nothing else, you must remember to always keep your guard up.
Stay Put or Run?
No “Correct” Answer: Your choice might change with the situation, or be dedicated for you.
Bug Out: Fleeing might be your only option to escape certain death, but this choice will almost always be an uncertain and perilous one.
Bug In: Staying where you are might be scary, even dangerous, but sometimes it is worth it; you’ll know the terrain, the people and the overall situation better.
Bunker Up?: A fully equipped, hidden bunker is seen as the ultimate prepper retreat for this type of scenario, but they are far from foolproof. Your hidden hideaway might become a tomb.
Where to Go?: Not all locations are equal when it is time to hide or make a stand. You’ll need to know what to expect before that time comes.
Most preppers ask a singular question when considering how to respond to any prolonged and life-threatening situation: Bug in or bug out? Should you stay or go? Run, or sit tight and bunker down?
The most instinctive and seemingly the most obvious answer when facing danger from a civil war is to get as far away from the conflict as fast and as early as you can. This is entirely reasonable but will not always be possible or even advisable depending on the situation you are facing.
Your hand might be forced. You might be forced to shelter-in-place to survive bombardment, occupation, or any number of other hazards until you have both time and opportunity to attempt escape with a modicum of safety.
By the time this occurs, roadways could be choked with debris, clogged with other fleeing refugees or actively controlled by belligerents from one side or another.
You probably don’t need me to tell you that any of these will drastically slow you down or halt your progress, and also present significant dangers all on their own.
If you decide to stay put, you might get some choice on where you decide to shelter or you might not. You could have advance notice of an incoming threat or a brewing battle, or your first warning could be exploding ordinance or a massive gunfight breaking out.
Sometimes you have to play the hand you are dealt and hope for the best. Where you are living, or currently residing, also factors into the calculation. If you are in a rural town with very little or even no strategic importance, you might be better off staying put.
If you are a living in the metropolitan area, logistical hub or industrial town you might want to get out while the getting is good. Staying anywhere where you know people and they know you is always an advantage.
On the other hand, if you have to bug out, you had better be prepared. You need to have some idea of where you are going, and what you can expect when you get there. Will you even be able to find reasonable habitation, or will you be roughing it all the while?
Remind yourself that you will be a refugee in the most literal sense of the term, and during wartime you will never be a welcome sight, representing only, as you are, a drain on resources that are already stretched perilously thin for the residents of any given area.
Also, simply being out on the road is going to be hazardous, exposed and vulnerable as you are to being overtaken by troops (on any side of the fighting), highwaymen and other people who will fleece you or kill you.
I have included more particular considerations for the bug-out, bug-in question in regards to surviving a civil war in a couple of subsections below.
Is a Bunker a Good Idea?
A bunker is a potential life-saver if you lose everything.
Might allow you to ride out war in secrecy and safety.
Any discovery of bunker by unaffiliated individuals will all but guarantee destruction and displacement.
All participants and people in a conflict zone will be keen to raid your supply stash.
The apple of every prepper’s eye is having a bunker that they can call their very own, one in a hidden, remote location that is completely self-sufficient, and stocked with every conceivable necessity one could want to ride out the end of the world.
Who would not want to flee to such a location in the middle of a nasty civil war!? This idea is undeniably enticing, and bunkers surely do have merits in many situations, but you would be a fool to put all of your eggs in this particular basket in the context of a civil war.
The long and the short of it is this: A bunker might indeed be the thing that saves you in a civil war, especially if it has remained hidden, well-stocked and maintained when you find yourself out of resources or have already lost everything, including your home. Being able to access a dedicated cache so amply supplied will be a blessing.
But on the other hand, bunkers have a substantial drawback in that you will pretty much be locked into staying there for the duration.
Anytime you enter or leave the bunker you increase the chances that you will be detected, and even if someone tails you from a distance you are likely to lead them right to your honey hole.
Your problems with operational security will begin before you ever head to the bunker during wartime; someone has to construct that bunker, and every person that knows about its presence or probable purpose is a potential leak that can see your prized prep ransacked or commandeered.
Even if you are the one to build it yourself, someone might just get lucky and stumble across it or put two and two together if they figure out what you are doing. Then they will place a big, red pen on their personal map…
It is easy to understand why. Any prepper-built survival bunker is always going to be chock-full of goodies like a giant loot box. This will make it quite a prize for any of the groups we discussed previously, be they professional soldiers, irregulars or criminals.
Basically your bunker must avoid attention and notice from the very first day you break ground to construct it until they day you no longer need it.
The moment that it is discovered by anyone, even a single person, who cares to talk about it or investigate then the clock is ticking on when you will have to abandon it or else risk death or capture.
Where Should You Go for Shelter?
Cities are often hotly contested battlegrounds and full of strategic targets, but might allow your more flexibility to move around undetected.
Rural and wilderness areas afford you better chances to hide peacefully, but you will be more vulnerable due to lack of manpower and witnesses.
You might have to adapt on the fly to meet changing conditions.
Most important consideration is remaining with a large enough group to provide mutual defense and staying away from contested areas.
Deciding where to flee to, or where to stay, to ride out the conflict is a pivotal choice in your survival plan. Some people believe in staying in the city, just outside the city or in a larger town.
Others would only consider a rural area or even a place that is completely undeveloped and devoid of human habitation.
There are good reasons to do both, and you might indeed end up having to do both before the last shots are fired. Let’s take a look at the reasons why.
Cities are an obvious choice for some people, being where they have lived, worked or grown up. Cities provide no shortage of hard cover from gunfire and places to hide.
In cities there are also many streets, alleys, warrens, sewers and tunnels that make for convenient hidden highways for moving around, safe from prying eyes when the chips are down.
The problem is that cities are full of both people and other strategically important targets, and are perpetually targeted for invasion by troops, bombing from the air, and pounding from clanking armored vehicles.
Many of the most destructive and dangerous modern weapon systems will be deployed profligately in and around cities to support the typically intense fighting taking place therein.
When you think about it that way, remote and rural territories probably sound comparatively blissful… This is not always the case!
There are many instances of isolated people, or small groups, living in sparsely inhabited places being picked off and preyed upon relentlessly by criminals, troops and other people who are just bent on doing evil.
Far from support and the mutual protection provided by a large group of people banding together, those who live on the fringes and far outskirts of settlements often suffer unspeakably during civil conflicts.
Even in case you’re living in a village or something akin to a compound with multiple families trying to survive together and provide for the mutual defense, that is not likely to go well when you are facing down professional soldiers or battle-hardened Irregulars.
Most people will probably see the best chances of survival and remaining free of any unhappy outcomes by living in a very small city or large town, whatever you want to call it.
If you can find a place like that that has as few installations of importance as possible- rail yards, airports, industrial centers, logistical hubs, major crossroads and so on- you’ll improve your chances even more.
You must never forget that the chief threats you will face during a civil conflict are not bullets and bombs; the chief threat is the people besides your own!
The single best way to counter a human threat is with humans of your own, or put more succinctly a group that is invested in the mutual defense and survival of itself.
If you are surviving with just your family, your wingman, or a small team you will probably have success for a time.
But whenever you are discovered, forced to fight and need to make a show of defense you had better have the manpower that will make people think twice.
Ultimately, you’ll have to make a choice and live with the consequences when it comes to where you will live to ride out the civil war.
Group Up to Survive
Stick Together: Even small groups have significant advantages over going things alone in a time of war. Groups have the manpower to help with work, help on watch, and contribute to a fight if push comes to shove.
Assemble Your People: Your group could be inherent, like your family, or elective, like a MAG or coalition.
Provisions Count: More bodies means more mouths to feed. You will have to diligently watch your supply situation if you want your group to go the distance.
Wars, including civil wars, are conducted by groups of people, literally armies. A lone human being will rarely make the difference one way or the other as it is units, groups, assemblages of people who are getting things done, both in an “official” capacity and otherwise.
This means you will rarely if ever be equipped to deal with threats brought about by civil war as an individual. Your survival will probably depend on who you can rely on among the people around you.
You will have plenty of cause to enlist others to your aid for the duration: You’ll need people to help you get work done, be it scouting, building, gathering or fighting.
You’ll definitely need an abundance of people to keep watch while the rest sleep or work. It is also good to have people who can help you when you get hurt, sick or injured.
So the question then is who do you bring with you? For most of us, the members of our group will be more or less baked into our lives; family, friends, and other close associates we already have a high degree of trust with.
These are also the people that we would not turn our backs on even at risk to ourselves.
This is the foundation of any group interest- blood and kin. Even if the people in this group are a liability, or more of a drain on resources then they contribute, they can still serve important, even vital functions depending upon their skill sets and abilities.
Another prepper-centric ideal for civil war survival is a mutual assistance group, or MAG. A MAG is simply a collective or a coalition of like-minded people who have voluntarily decided to contribute to the collective survival and welfare of group members when things get scary.
They could do this for mutual aid in the form of supplies, skills or labor, or even do something so extreme as pooling all of their possessions and manpower together in order to establish a compound, village or some other community all their own, a place to withstand the world.
Perhaps the largest benefit of a MAG in a civil war setting could come from its distributed nature.
Assuming the members do not live very near to each other geographically but are still familiar with and invested in one another, this could provide multiple safe havens, a sort of survival “railroad” for members who are turned into refugees fleeing dangerous areas.
Ideally, a MAG will one way or another give its members who are displaced by a civil war a fixed point on their maps to head to, definitely a comfort in such uncertain times.
But for all the benefits, any group can provide you must take care to ensure they are properly provisioned. More people means more mouths to feed, more water for drinking, more supplies for medical care and still more besides.
A large stash that would last a single person quite a long time can seemingly evaporate in a week if a larger group is now drawing from it.
This is not a reason to avoid putting together a group, or joining one, but it does mean you need to put in the work now, sharpen your pencil, and get your estimates right before you start stocking up.
Making Movement Safely
Timing: Move when fighting is over if at all possible.
Day or Night: Certain areas will be safer to move through in the day, others at night depending on local conditions and extant threats.
Beware Snipers: In cities, even ones with minimal fighting, snipers regularly take potshots at people moving around.
Get off the beaten path: Paths and roads that are less traveled are most often safer, and more likely to be free of hazards like roadblocks and explosives.
Safety in numbers: Try to move in groups totaling three to five people. Any fewer is vulnerable to mishap or injury, more might see you designated a target by combatants.
Anytime you are moving around a place where you have bunches of armed people out and about, on edge, afraid and generally on the lookout for suspicious persons, moving through that area is going to entail a certain amount of danger.
It might even be near suicidal depending on the local conditions. Unless you are far, far away from any fighting in a country that is currently experiencing a civil war you must think through and execute any movement very carefully.
First, anytime you are moving in an urban or suburban area that has been experiencing ongoing fighting or has recently seen the cessation of fighting you must be on the lookout for snipers of any faction.
Historically, recent civil conflicts in the Middle East and Europe have plainly illustrated the threat posed by snipers in urban areas, and you’ll have very, very little chance of detecting them before it is too late.
You might be shot for simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time, for being mistaken for a member of another faction or just for kicks.
If you do go anywhere, try to go in a small group at the very least. Having two to four additional people with you will allow for better security, awareness and mutual aid if things go wrong or someone gets hurt.
You can consider going in a larger group than that, but be advised it will significantly raise your profile and not just your overall visibility. Professional soldiers and irregulars operating in the area are more likely to suspect you are a hostile element when moving together.
As is always the case, nervous troops with loaded weapons in a conflict zone are often well within their rights to shoot first and worry about the consequences later.
When you make movement is also of crucial importance. Obviously, you should never try to move around while a battle or fight is underway. The risk of catching a stray bullet or wayward ordnance is just too high, as is the fact you could be targeted in a case of mistaken identity.
In some places, moving during the day might be the safest option if most of the fighting or action takes place after sunset, and in other places the reverse might be true with night time being the safest time to move owing to snipers and other sporadic threats.
Don’t forget that modern and well-equipped militaries often have plentiful supplies of night vision devices and thermal sensors that let them fight as effectively in the nighttime as they do in the day. You won’t be hiding from them in the dark!
If you are forced to move during dodgy times, try to do so in a way that appears as non-threatening as possible and go by the least traveled routes available to you. Routes that are fast, easy and commonly employed are the ones that are going to be checkpointed, blockaded and littered with mines or IEDs.
You don’t necessarily have to avoid a route with a checkpoint if you know that the checkpoint is allowing regular traffic through, just at a reduced rate. Understand that it is still highly likely that your vehicle can be searched, possessions taken, and potentially you could be incarcerated for various reasons, real or invented.
Also remind yourself that checkpoints invariably have at least a few heavy weapons or combat vehicles in place that will make short work of people on foot or in vehicles.
Protecting Yourself
Tough Call: Go unarmed, and avoid the wrong attention and be defenseless, or keep your guns close to stay safe and draw aggro from troops.
Keep it Secret: Keep your guns and ammo securely hidden until they are absolutely needed. Don’t put them all in one spot!
Get More than You Need: Guns and ammo are always valuable in conflict zones, and make great “high end” commodities. Also, it is good to have spares if you lose, break or have one taken.
Keep it Simple: You want guns that are common in your area; easy to replace, fix and find ammo for.
You will be facing a classic dilemma if you are trying to survive a civil war. The first part of the conundrum is that you would be a lunatic if you chose to forgo some method of reliable self-defense considering all the human-centric threats you will be facing for the duration.
Literally everybody and their brother has guns; you definitely need guns also. But as sure as the sun will set in the west you can depend on any governments or other groups, legitimate or illegitimate, that are vying for control of a given area will ban firearms in the hands of civilians for the duration.
This is a problem for obvious reasons. If you give up the guns, you are effectively defenseless in the grand scheme of things. If you hang on to the guns, and get caught with the guns, you could be facing imprisonment or summary execution.
At best, you might be mistaken for a combatant in or out of uniform. This means you must always act carefully when you are going around armed, and do everything you can to securely and safely hide your firearms and ammunition until they are needed most.
I cannot tell you how or where you should hide your guns, except to say it must be a place that is truly hidden while still being accessible in a reasonable time frame.
I will give you one tip, in that any place you can probably think of right off the top of your head is a place that will be known to people who are searching for them if that ever occurs so try again.
A few other factors for consideration include both type and quantity of the guns you are going to keep handy for self-defense. Obviously, any gun beats no gun when you need one right now, but you should take pains to make use of guns that are commonly available in your area, war notwithstanding.
This will make them more valuable as trade fodder and more importantly replaceable, entire guns or just their parts, when things go wrong.
Also consider having drastically more guns than you need: If you are ever shaken down for guns or forced to turn them in for whatever reason, there is a good chance you can part with one or two and keep the rest if you don’t have them all stored together.
Keeping and using guns as a civilian surviving in the middle of an active conflict zone is a thinking man’s game, and you had better be thinking long and hard about your choices before, during and after if you want to keep your head.
Maintain a Low Profile
Don’t Stick Out: Try to look like everyone else in the area. Don’t look better off, don’t look worse; try to stay right in the middle, beneath notice.
Applies to Shelter: Your shelter should not look better maintained or in better repair than the other structures nearby.
Fortify or Not?: Maintaining a low profile is tricky when the situation calls for physical defenses like walls, barricades, wire and more. These will definitely attract attention from people who think there are things worth protecting inside.
Keep Quiet and Out of Sight: Especially in areas of sporadic or active fighting, lights, movement and sounds will attract attention, and bullets follow attention. Make sure you and your group practice noise and light discipline at all times!
It is imperative for any civilian in a civil war to maintain as low a profile as humanly achievable, and I mean a low-profile in every single aspect of your life and existence.
Your home, your vehicle, your clothing, your body, everything; everything about you, yours and your possessions should look just like everyone else’s in the area.
Do not stick out in any meaningful way. Standing out means you attract attention; attracting attention in a war zone, especially a civil war zone, means bad things (see: bullets) will probably follow in short order.
If you are a civilian, and especially if you are a prepper, you need to absolutely ditch the idea of wearing any military-style apparel, gear or clothing, at all. Anything that could identify you as a combatant, professional or irregular, is a total liability.
It will either attract attention and gunsights, or it will attract attention and see you detained, and possibly hoisted under the pretenses of acting like a spy, infiltrator or saboteur. None of these are good outcomes!
This extends to more than just uniform appearance. If everyone in an area is living on the ragged edge – dirty, starving and hopeless – then you also want to look dirty, starving and hopeless. Appearing well-fed and clean when everyone else could get you followed and robbed.
This part of the background mentality extends to your home or any other shelter. It should appear identical to the buildings or shelters nearest it. If every building is shot up, broken and busted your building should remain broken, shut up and busted.
It should not attract attention or invite exploration in any way. This can be something of a conundrum when it comes to physical defenses.
Barricades, barb wire and reinforced doors and windows will definitely give you an advantage when the time comes to defend what you have, but if they attract that fight in the first place that sort of defeats the purpose.
This is a very tricky thing to figure out, and requires much thought on your part. You might take pains to conceal any defenses you do have, or just decide to forego them entirely if the fighting is not particularly intense in your area.
Remember: There is no truly ideal solution; there is only trade-offs, and you will have to pick which advantages you want and accept the disadvantages that come with them.
Maintaining a low profile extends to everything that you do. You and your group must constantly maintain noise, light and, when necessary, movement discipline to avoid detection and prevent attracting attention.
Dealing With Martial Law and Government Mandates
Martial Law: When military forces assume control and governance over an area, they are responsible for law enforcement. This can make violation of mandates costly or deadly.
Mandates: Mandates and orders for civilians issued by controlling forces will make your life difficult, impossible or hellish. Expect to face movement restrictions, curfews, confiscation of goods and mandatory housing of troops.
Weigh the odds: Your needs will often run counter to the mandates issued by controlling forces, but defying them could see you beaten, arrested or killed outright with no trial.
Forget about due process: So much of the time in civil conflicts due process is a bullet and nothing more. If you piss off the enforcers badly enough, there will be no trial.
Any group that has currently subjected a city or a region to its control, either the legitimate government or the would-be, newer, semi-legitimate government, will assuredly institute all kinds of odious regulations and mandates on civilians living in the area.
It is overwhelmingly likely these mandates will be enforced via martial law. “Martial law” in common parlance simply means the military will be assuming governance and assuming law enforcement duties over civilians in a given city, area or region.
It does not take much in the way of imagination to see how this could go terribly, precipitously wrong if you need to violate any given mandate handed down by an overseeing authority in order to ensure the safety and survival of you, your family and your group.
What could these mandates be? Well, once more if recent history is anything to go by it could be an order to shelter-in-place when absolutely no help is forthcoming, even if doing so actually lowers a civilian population’s chance of survival.
It might be intolerable restrictions on movement, curfews and mandatory confiscation of weapons, food and other supplies. You might even be forced to house troops and other personnel.
Regardless of what the mandates are, much of the time you will find they run contrary to your interests and you will have to make a decision. If you buck the current authority in the area you will run afoul of whatever forces are responsible for enforcing it.
The consequences for getting caught will vary widely, from punitive action like additional confiscations or detainment to summary execution, on the spot, and in the field.
There is not much in the way of advice I can give you on this, as you will have to weigh to scales and then choose based on what the greater need is against the possible consequences.
I can tell you this, however: make it a point to read the temperature of whatever forces in the area are responsible for law enforcement.
Try to learn as much about them as you can. This way you can learn if they have a reputation for being brutal or just harsh toward violators. Others might be much more lenient, akin to traditional police.
For this reason, it is imperative for you to gather as much intelligence, news, rumor and scuttlebutt as you can about what is going on in an area and who the players are.
Only by understanding who you are dealing with and what you can expect if you act counter to their orders can you make an intelligent and informed decision about what mandates you will and will not comply with. This is definitely a situation where ignorance is not bliss, but potentially deadly.
Treating Injuries
Only a Matter of Time: You are surviving in dangerous times. Count on being injured or wounded during a civil conflict.
You are Your Own EMT: You probably will not have access to trained medical assistance under any conditions. If you or someone in your group cannot intervene, you will have to take your chances.
Stock Up: Medical supplies will be precious in any conflict, and will command premium prices in trade. Make sure you have an ample supply before things kick off.
If you want to get hurt, maimed and mortally wounded, hang out in an active war zone. You knew it would probably come to this eventually. As I have mentioned several times throughout this article there are countless ways to get hurt in and around the proceedings of a civil war.
Unfortunately, unless you are extremely lucky, far behind the lines or a VIP, you are not going to be able to reliably obtain trained medical intervention to treat an injury.
This extends to boo-boos and injuries which are trivial or laughable in kinder times, but which may nonetheless eventually be fatal if not cared for. This means at the bare minimum you must have the training and the supplies needed to care for all kinds of common injuries, great and small.
This is even more depressing because war zones have a way of draining medical resources of all kinds from a given region, and you can bet your bottom dollar that they will be in vanishingly short supply if you are not a professional soldier or worker in a functioning hospital.
If you are wise, you will prioritize getting trained and skilling up on first-aid and trauma care above all other things.
Aside from serving you the best in everyday life, this may be the skillset that determines whether you or someone you love lives or dies as a result of injuries sustained in a conflict.
You must be prepared to treat penetrating and lacerating injuries, such as the kind that typically inflicted by bullets, blades, shrapnel and sharp debris.
You must be prepared to treat burn injuries endemic to open warfare, the kind resulting from fires as well as thermobaric and other incendiary weapons. Even outside of combat you will have to contend with fractures and breaks, fevers and illness, rashes and other ailments.
If you or anyone in your family or group is a trained medical professional of any kind, even a veterinarian, you need to keep them close and treat them right as they will be invaluable during a situation like this.
Of course, the skills only go so far and improvising medical gear and bandages should only be done in desperation.
Make sure you stock up on everything you need to treat minor injuries as well as major trauma, and include plenty of bandages, antiseptic, hemostatic gauze and clotting agents, tourniquets, splints, medicines, first-aid books and more.
Stockpile for the Future
For Yourself: Many items, basic commodities and niceties alike, will evaporate in the shortages that always accompany civil war. If you don’t have plenty of what you need, don’t count on getting any more reliably.
For Barter: Cash is likely to depreciate or become entirely worthless during the conflict. Goods of all kinds will be traded among troops and survivors alike instead. Stocking up surplus goods as currency, especially in the case of luxuries, is a wise move.
Keep it Portable: You will have far less opportunity to move or trade large, bulky or heavy goods in a time like this. Think carefully before you commit to any large goods or equipment for any reason.
You should be heading into surviving any civil war with the notion that the cash currency you are used to using for daily purchases is going to plummet in value, or even become entirely worthless.
As the war drags on, you will become increasingly submerged in a barter culture where goods that used to be common are now used as cash. You can expect this new “wartime economy” to basically take care of itself, as barter has been the basis of economies for millennia.
Of course, if you are going to participate you must have goods to trade with, and the goods that people want to trade for are oftentimes the goods you yourself need, so stockpile with the notion in mind that you will have a reserve specifically for trading for things you need and don’t already have.
Lucky for you, many of the items that will suddenly become valuable in a war economy are inexpensive, easy to transport and easy to buy in bulk. A few are listed below:
Medical Supplies
Shelf-stable food
Potable/purified water
Hand tools
Lighters and matches
Guns and ammunition
Spare parts
Fuel
Additional items that are less necessary as strict survival items but are undoubtedly useful or classed as “luxuries” are good trade fodder, including things like:
Bleach
Bar soap
Shampoo
Conditioner
Cologne
Spices and sauces
Tobacco products
Alcohol
Sealing buckets
Nail Clippers
Clothing
Books
Children’s toys
Before you write off any of the items featured above in the second list, I would have you know that all of them, every single one of them, are items that people were killed for and did kill for while surviving civil conflicts in the 20th century.
It stands to reason that these small luxuries, helpful gadgets and reminders of better times will remain incredibly valuable in whatever civil conflict we have the misfortune to live through.
Final Word
I pray that no one reading this article today or in the future will ever have to endure the horror, the degradation and the misery of a civil war. But it seems that ours is a species not made to get along with each other for long.
Surviving a civil war is a challenge that seems so cyclopean that survival is more a matter of luck than anything you can do on a personal level, but that is not true.
With the right skills, the right preparation and the right understanding of the factors and variables at work you will be able to make decisions to keep yourself and your loved ones safe or at least safer for the duration.
Take the time to read over the information and recommendations presented in this article so you can at least have a plan in case the unthinkable happens.
Hi,
I've been trying the obe4u technique and got vivid dreams last week while practicing it. I went back "into" my body because of not recognizing that certain moments were dreams.
I want to know an app that can remind me of when to do a reality check.
