Alright, you military types are going to think I am a dumbass. I beg your forgiveness. Hear me out.
I am a 50ish year old woman who has never been in the Military Services. I live with my mother who is aging and whom I care for. I mean that in all ways. I feel blessed.
We live in a house that is minimally defendable, and I am the only person here who would take on that role.
I have several friends who have taken me shooting, and I have shot a variety of firearms.
I have made a decision, for a variety of reasons, not to carry firearms. Instead I carry Byrna EP Launchers. The rounds are .68, and I carry some magazines loaded with teargas, aluminum, red paint ball (my favorite) and rubber rounds.
I also have some .22 caliber pump-style air rifles. Single shot. It’s just mom and me, so I keep them locked and loaded. In a pinch they make good small game arms.
Low tech.
I would tell you it’s because I do not want to fatally wound anyone, but I also have a variety of swords, mostly Japanese, some with beautiful ‘Damascus’ style but well made blades. I’m a girl. I find them pretty.
I’m also an artist, and so magazines with paint balls in them just seemed like an obvious choice. I chose blood red in case we’re dealing with an amateur thief who I just want to scare. Being shot with a paintball gun hurts. Period. And then to not fully understand what is happening in the so called ‘fog of war’ and to see blood red on your chest where it hurts (which was more expensive by the way, so clearly I am not the only one) would get the sissies eliminated off the bat.
The non-sissies, I just am no match for and I won’t try to be. Sometimes you just have to be honest with yourself.
I want to be part of the Armed Militia, but I don’t want to shoot the AR. I’ll reload. I’ll clean the guns and get them oiled and ready. I will serve. I am not a master. I require a period of wax on wax off with an expert around.
If someone serious is breaking in, the Air.22s should at least tell them I see them, and give them a choice. Hopefully they do not call my bluff. I have several in case there are more than one. I have a laser mount on my first choice for the same reason.
I draw the line at my level of training. I’m wicked with an armor piercing spear which I also use as a Bo staff. I’m good with a sword and a knife. I’ve put in the time. My favorite training is in the garden. A) Because it’s outside in the garden, and B) because I like to give my neighbors something to talk about when I train on the large pile of branches that accumulate if you grow your food and enjoy hollyhocks and sun flowers. It’s full on entertainment for all involved, and it keeps the focus off the Greenhouse I just built without a permit. I gave it a greenhouse tarp tent roof and made it ‘modular’ and gave it a tent staked into the dirt foundation so that, when pressed, I can demonstrate that it is a temporary and movable structure.
Sometime you have to keep a couple steps ahead of the Federales.
Otherwise, if you are up to shit that is interesting, you’d get inundated with the kind of bullshit I can’t use in my compost pit.
But my point is, as a prepper who has not had access to a lot of stable money, at some point you have to put on the full armor of God. This is 40+ years of experience as a rebel talking.
What that means to me is that I know my limits, and I don’t extend them unreasonably. If it comes down to it, I will give it my all. But knowing what you can’t do, keeps you away from the dangerous first impulses that lead to more than you can chew. A calm head and savy but open heart is also key, because it allows you to focus on things that you do have better aptitude with. In slaying Goliath with a sling shot, David was using adept strategy. He was not fighting on Goliath’s terms, which everyone else seemed to. They all thought it was a test of strength, and lost their wits. David was a sheep herder and had killed lions. He played his strength. That is what knowing your limits does. It allows you to hear the Minority Report, the Deus Machina, the voice of God.
And that voice is hard to hear. But like the Shaman in Palenque, which story I will tell you later, I think God made his voice soft in order to weed out the UN-dedicated. Putting on the full armor of God means being prepared and nimble, but it also means leaving some of the work to the divine clockwork, and listening for it.