Firearms and Emergency Preparedness:

By TLS

In an emergency, would you trust yourself, or your neighbor, with a firearm? Do firearms and emergency preparedness go hand in hand?

I spent the better part of my teens, 20s, and 30s doing a significant amount of shooting. I wasn’t involved in competitive shooting sports, but I was in the military.

While in the military, a lot of the shooting I did was for personal reasons, sport hobby and hunting. In addition to this I did a fair amount of shooting while engaged in military training and exercises. Without going into too much detail, for a non-ground pounder I was lucky enough to receive some specialized weapons training.

While I enjoyed shooting in my earlier life, the last 15 odd years or so I have not had much cause or desire to break out the firearms. Unfortunately I think the times in which we find ourselves make it prudent to engage in some amount of preparation.

Some aspects of emergency planning and preparing, while ultimately rewarding, can be a bit dull in practice. Stockpiling durable foods, household staples, bottled water, medical supplies, and the like. Other areas include clothing and some form of emergency gear. Emergency planning tends to be locally specific, meaning some areas have a higher likelihood of certain types of emergencies or natural disasters. Hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, or fires are prime examples of regionally specific concerns.

These examples often dictate post emergency needs. While food, water, and shelter tend to be universal, each may have more or less significance depending on location. Regardless of how significant, one very common theme in most emergency preparedness plans often involves weapons.

I would be very confident in saying far more people own firearms than are competent with firearms. A poorly trained or simply incompetent person with a firearm could be just as dangerous as a fire, flood, or earthquake.

However, in some emergencies a firearm could literally be the difference between life and death. Regardless, due to the inherent danger level of possessing a loaded firearm, training with that firearm should be a priority.

If you are experienced enough to manage your own training excellent. If not, seek out shooting instructors to help build safe firearm handling habits. A firearm can be used safely, but if not, it can be incredibly dangerous to all those in the area to include the handler. When was the last time you actually trained with the tools or equipment you may need to rely on Competent training is what makes the difference. So stay competent and stay safe, in all emergencies.