# Ponder the Unthinkable (pt8) Defense



## Winston (Sep 8, 2014)

"The Best Defense is a Good Offence".  Of Course.  But even in the worst of times, it's not practical (or moral) to go around shooting everyone.  Zombie Apocalypse, not withstanding.

Seriously, the best defense is to arm yourself.  Train, and be a real threat when others threaten you.   

As a thought experiment, let's just take offensive weaponry off the table.  Maybe you're a Quaker.  Maybe they repeal the 2nd Amendment and now the only ones armed are vicious mutant biker gangs.  All you have is a low-powered Super Soaker and some harsh language.  Whatever scenario works.  The shooting starts, rocks and Molotov cocktails are flying... What do you do?

Again, let's recap:  In most moderate to major emergency events, all public services, including police, will be unreliable at best.  Most likely, you'll have a better chance that those folks from Publisher's Clearing House will deliver an oversized check to your door than a cop will respond.  And, again, formulating and implementing a plan once the shooting starts is like running to Home Depot to buy a fire extinguisher after your kitchen is engulfed.  Act now.
　

And now, a word from my favorite ancient philosopher, Sun Tzu:
_"To be unknowable, is to be unconquerable."
_
Pretty straightforward, if you don't overthink it.  It's called camouflage.  Misdirection.  Concealment.  No one is going to mess with you if they don't see you.  If your house looks like Fort Knox, bad guys will think you have gold in there.  If you're place looks like a crack house, maybe they're not so hot for old newspapers and dirty mattresses.  
Real estate agents have it all wrong.  You don't want the ranch house on five acres.  If that's your place, you're the only possible repository for food, water and teenage daughters on the block.  Roaming bands of thugs will be very interested in you.  And if you're not shooting back, your options are limited.

If the Bad Guys are coming in, and you have no escape route, you're only option is a Panic Room.  A Panic Room has two requirements:  It must be secure, and it must be hidden.  If an assailant has an exact fix on your Panic Room, they have options.  They can probe and find a weakness.  They can smoke / heat / burn you out.  Or, they can post a sentry and wait you out.  Most thugs don't have the skill or patience to pull any of those strategies off, but it depends how desperate they are.  Also, a Panic room is like a Cold War bomb shelter, or The Fight Club.  The first rule is, you don't talk about the Panic Room.

Without the resources to build a Panic Room, consider places within your house to hide.  Attic and basement crawl spaces are fine, if you're lucky.  Bad guys are stupid, but those are pretty obvious.  Depending on their level of inhumanity,  some invaders may decide to "recon by fire" and shoot into the ceiling and floor.  Then again, they may have done this already from the outside.  And, FYI, sheet rock doesn't provide any cover.  At all.  You may get inventive, and use a master closet off the bathroom.  They're usually centrally located within the house, providing some cover.  Pull a bookcase in front of the door, and hope your invaders are lazy and half blind.  Without a secure position, your best bet is to leave some booze and a gold watch somewhere easy to find.  They get their win, and hopefully move on.

Ideally, you'd like them to move on earlier within that scenario.  The best way to affect this result is to trash you house.  Throw stuff all over the place.  Make it look like some other thugs have already ransacked the place.  In my experience, people in general are lazy, crooks are doubly so.  If your dresser drawers have already been dumped, then someone else already got the good stuff, right?  They'll keep going.

Yet, you can't hide forever.  When in the open, there are two diametrically opposed forces you must manage:  Maneuverability and protection.  Too much of one negates the other.

It's natural to want to "armor-up" when bullets are flying.  Let's say FEMA is distributing MRE's a few miles away, and some roaming gangs are having a turf-war nearby.  That armor may protect you, but it will also slow you down.  Body armor is generally rated Level II to IV with gradient sub levels (i.e. IIIA).  Each level provides better protection, and is bulkier and heavier. A Level IIA is used by most police, because it is light weight, yet will stop most handgun rounds.  A Level IV is much heavier, and will stop rifle rounds (soldiers use Lvl IV).  If you're riding your bicycle, a Level II may be manageable, where a Level IV will kick your butt in one mile of peddling.  You're a pretty easy target when you're doubled-over on the side of the road, retching.  

If you decide to wear body armor, don't make it obvious.  Wear something baggy over your vest.  If one of the Bad Guys is a good shot, and he sees you're sporting a chest plate, he'll aim for your head.

Not all personal protection has to be ballistic.  A "flack Jacket" is better than nothing, especially when dealing with thrown / blunt items.  It's also a good idea to own, and practice with a gas mask.  The police or military may be trying to restore order, and you get caught in the middle.  Or, the Bad Guys get a hold of some tear gas.  Trust me, regardless of the source, you don't want a whiff of any of it.  Every mucus / saliva generating orifice works on triple time with the smallest exposure to tear gas.  You're incapacitated.  And vulnerable.  

Keeping your head down, both literally and figuratively, will keep you alive.  Normally, the "Strength in Numbers" axiom is valid.  But if you're not shooting back, keep your group as small as possible.  The lazy looter will gravitate toward the Wal Mart and bypass the mom-and-pop store.  Size matters, but not in the usual way.

In the open, in public, always try to look like a mentally ill homeless person.  No offense to those that life has thrown a few curves.  In a survival situation, a desperate criminal is not likely to "roll a bum" for two crushed cigarettes and a wad of used Kleenex.  Look and smell like you just spent the night in a gutter, people tend to avoid you.

Martial arts are always handy, but let's be real.  There are over 300 million firearms in the United States at this time.  I love Akido, but my ability to throw someone to the ground is dependent on their foolishness to close and attack.  If they're maintaining their distance, and lock and load, my _ki_ is cooked.  Never bring and empty hand to a gun fight.

I wish I could be more positive in advising a defensive strategy in an emergency situation.  Since the real world is the best predictor of current trends, consider the following:  

The last large scale defensive position used in warfare was the French Maginot Line.  The French spent a decade, and millions of Francs in it's construction. It was considered impregnable.  In 1940, the Germans bypassed, then destroyed that string of defenses within two weeks.  France fell shortly thereafter.
During Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003, Allied "bunker buster" precision guided bombs smashed underground facilities that Saddam Hussein had custom built in Baghdad.  His bunkers were state of the art, constructed by experts to be "bomb proof".  Eh, not so much in reality. 
If you're looking for a believer in defenses, Kim Jong Un relies on his bunker.  
You may not face German panzers, or guided munitions, but a determined attacker will always defeat a static position.  Your only hope is that they bypass you.  But then, there is no guarantee that they will not eventually circle back.  And you will never know when.

So, if you're not going to fight, hide.  Run.  Disappear as best as you can.  But never expect that if you create a tough nut, someone is going to get squirrelly on you.    

In the next installment(s?), I'll begin to cover your offensive strategies.  Pack a lunch.


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## Ethan (Sep 9, 2014)

My Dad always advised me to 'Get your retaliation in first, only way you're gonna win'.


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## ppsage (Sep 9, 2014)

Hey Win... Part 8 huh? Looks like I've missed a lot of these. I remember the first one, which I thought was pretty disjointed and ranty. From the writing point of view, this seems very much improved. I like the voice here. What I remember from before was confrontational and preachy, the sort of thing only already convinced persons would tolerate for very long, but this is friendly, and it's authoritative without belittling. Even to Quakers. The language here is smooth and the argument doesn't engage in any extraneous and distracting assertions. Very nice job and congrats on the improvement. --------------- Of course I disagree with almost all of it. Well, I've always done the camouflage thing when I go into the metropolis. Hardly anybody robs grungy, old hippies either. But in the main, life just ain't this scary to me. And my first line of defense is knowing my neighbors, which has worked out pretty good in the emergencies we've had. -------------- But enough of that... I should write my own, if I want to say, not muck up your thread. This is getting to be good article writing and maybe you'd better enter the non-fiction pretty soon. Like to see what happens when you tackle other topics. In appreciation, pp.


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## Firemajic (Sep 9, 2014)

Winston--sorry I missed the other 7 parts. I enjoyed reading this. I could tell that you have put in alot of research and info into this piece. I truly believe everyone should be informed and have a plan. Knowledge is power. I also felt this is something you are passionate about and that came through in your writing.  Peace...Jul


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