Tag Archives: TEOTEWAKI

Looter Repellent

The recent hurricanes of this year, Isaac and Sandy, have brought to light that worse trait of post-storm recovery: looting.

Looting is the act of taking goods (stealing) during unusual circumstances such as the recent hurricanes, or other natural or manufactured disasters when police are unavailable or otherwise occupied. It’s simple: when the lights go out alarms don’t work. Damage to storefronts and homes left vacant by evacuating families often create access points through knocked-out windows, doors, and walls, that further invite people with sticky fingers. After Hurricane Sandy one eyewitness said, “”I saw this guy stealing televisions from a nursing home right on the boardwalk on Tuesday, and the workers were chasing him up the street….Every time I saw him he had a different TV.”

Simple, affordable, and effective is the key to a good anti-looter arsenal. Any firearm is preferable to nothing at all. In (legal) firearm-scare Queens, residents had to use “baseball bats, booby traps – even a bow and arrow – to defend themselves” from looters.
Read the rest in my article on Firearms Talk

Silver and Gold or Brass and Steel

Investment firms across the country for a generation have recommended buying precious metals such as silver and gold as a hedge against inflation. However, what should be evaluated alongside that in investing in steel and brass.

Let us look at a theoretical example. The retirees looking to claim their Social Security benefits this year at age 66 would have been 18 years old in 1964. Say that young person had $20 to invest. He could have bought about one half ounce of gold or a WW2 surplus M1 carbineĀ  for that price. Today that little throw away warbaby carbine would be worth $850-900 and the half-ounce of gold right at $812.

Read the rest at my column at Firearms Talk http://www.firearmstalk.com/entries/Silver-and-Gold-or-Brass-and-Steel.html

In the 60s you could get TWO M1 Garands for $134….now that was a deal…