For my part, I have chosen Systema, a fighting and self-defense technique developed for Spetsnaz (the elite fighting forces of the USSR) starting in the 1950s. It is a technique with the peculiarity of having no fixed rules, allowing all possible blows, teaching you how to take blows, and not imposing a hierarchy of levels or grades. In the past few years, Mikhail Ryabko and Vladimir Vasiliev further developed Systema, focusing on non-opposition (absorbing blows rather than trying to block them); control of the body, breath, and reflexes; and the ability of a fighter to rapidly throw off-balance and neutralize his opponent, which allows one to defeat a numerically superior adversary.
Whatever martial art you choose, train regularly and assiduously. Complete your physical preparation with at least one endurance sport (jogging, bicycling, swimming, etc), which you should try to practice daily for at least 30 minutes. Take long hikes (two or three hours) as often as possible and engage in regular weightlifting sessions or another kind of strength training.
As you prepare your body, learn the 10 basic principles of self-defense:
Run away. If it is possible, avoid conflict.
Train. Prepare your body and mind for difficult situations. Repeat, visualize, practice sports, take courses.
Don’t let yourself be cornered. Disengage yourself, try to leave yourself space, either by repelling an attacker or drawing back. Do not let yourself be encircled by several opponents.
Attack your opponent’s organs of vision, breathing, and mobility. You must have a good idea of the incapacitation zones to aim for. At the same time, you must know how to protect your own sensitive zones.
Deliver a series of blows. On average, it takes five to seven blows to bring an adversary to the ground and put him out of commission. You must learn to deliver blow after blow rapidly in order to destabilize your adversary and deliver an incapacitating shock.
Vary your level and techniques in order to favor surprise.
Absorb blows. You must psychologically accept that you will take blows and learn to absorb them without losing your balance or being shocked.
Hit hard and fast. Once you have decided to use force, you must strike quickly and deeply. Aim for the inside of your adversary’s body and not the surface.
Use the environment. Anything can make an improvised weapon: a stick, a keychain, a pen, a rolled newspaper, a flashlight, an electronic device, a cup, a glass, a household tool, a stone, a fire extinguisher, an ashtray, a bottle, an iron, a motorcycle helmet, a chair, an umbrella, etc.
Don’t get stuck in tunnel vision. In spite of the stress of combat, do not fix your gaze solely on your aggressor; you must perceive your immediate environment in its entirety, observing the actions of other people and seeking out materials that could be of use to you.
Finally, don’t go to the ground. This a very unfavorable position, except in some rare situations where it is actually an advantage. If you are victorious, do not persist in attacking your adversary: neutralize him and evaluate the situation, looking all the way around you (360 degrees).
Above all, remember the strategic saying of General Sun-tzu:
Only a warrior chooses pacifism. Others are condemned to it.
Weaponry
If the rule of law disappears and the police are no longer there to protect honest citizens, you will have to have weapons to defend yourself. In fact, an armed citizenry is one of the few—if not the most indispensable—guarantees of a nation’s independence. As we say in Switzerland: “An unarmed citizen is only a taxpayer.”
Weapons often have a bad reputation, unfortunately, as they are harmless in themselves. It is up to the weapon’s bearer to show himself fit for the responsibility he has assumed by owning the weapon. It is not knives or firearms that maim or murder, but the men and women who use them unwisely. As for accidents, they happen mainly to those who do not know how to use them properly, or who think they no longer have to follow the basic rules of safety. All weapons, whether for hunting or fighting, require that you learn how to use them and maintain them in a manner that is safe for yourself and others.
I want to remind you, once again, that you must start by informing yourself about the weapons legislation in your country and state. Laws vary greatly, and I encourage you to respect them in all circumstances when it comes to buying, transporting, and using weapons.
Weapons serve three purposes: 1. hunting, 2. deterrence, and 3. defense. In all cases, the choice of arms will depend on several criteria:
Versatility. A weapon can serve many purposes, but no weapon can serve all of them; and so it is important to start with a weapon that can cover the greatest possible number of needs.
Robustness and quality. A weapon must be able to withstand frequent use with normal maintenance and not break down, especially if there is no one around to repair it for you. Always choose a good quality weapon; even if it is expensive, the difference will be worth it.
Availability of ammunition and spare parts. If you choose an exotic firearm with a caliber requiring an uncommon type of ammunition, you will quickly find yourself with a useless weapon, unless you make your own ammunition. So it is preferable to choose weapons with calibers corresponding to those that are most frequently used within your area and your country.
Here are a few types of weapons:
Cold weapons. These are knives, axes, tomahawks, etc., are all easy to buy on the market and are usually not regulated in most countries. On the other hand, their use demands a lot of training and courage, for you must go hand-to-hand with your adversary. Moreover, you cannot completely protect yourself from a knife blow, and you can expect to receive painful and serious wounds. Choose a martial art that teaches the use of knives or other cold weapons; that way, you will learn the basics. Once again, avoid as much as possible situations in which you must use a knife to defend yourself; hopefully, a knife’s mere presence will end a dispute before it begins. The knife is the survival tool par excellence: it is useful for practically everything and will be used every day, especially in a rural environment. Take good care of it and keep it sharp.
In an emergency situation, it is good for everyone to have the following knives:
a pocket knife (Swiss Army Knife);
a multipurpose tool (Leatherman, Victorinox);
a combat knife or a bush knife;
a hatchet or kukri-type knife;
emergency survival knife.
Improvised Weapons. This category includes weapons such as screwdrivers, pots, and pans, etc. You are limited only by your imagination and what you have around you. You can easily put a brick in a handbag or pouch to use as a scourge in an emergency. Do not neglect these means of defense, since they are easily available and have the advantage of not drawing much attention.
Bows and Crossbows. Easier to access than firearms, a bow or crossbow can be very effective, if you know how to use it and practice regularly. If you are short of time, choose a crossbow, for it is easier to handle. Bows and crossbows can be used for hunting and have the advantage of using ammunition that you can most often reuse or make by hand.
Firearms. Access to firearms is usually highly regulated. In fact, governments increasingly seem to view an armed citizenry as a dangerous threat. That is why owning a gun, pistol, or rifle has become more difficult in the past few years.
Before even approaching a firearm, it is important to know by heart four basic safety rules that were codified by Jeff Cooper:
All arms are always considered loaded.
Never let the muzzle point at anything you are not wanting to destroy.
Keep your index finger off the trigger until your sights are on a target.
Always be sure of your target and your surroundings.
The mastery of these rules will help you avoid a lot of problems and accidents. If you do not understand them, ask your firearm instructor to explain them in detail.
Using a firearm requires following a rigorous course of training. Without training, you will not even be
capable of handling a firearm in an emergency, meaning your adversary will certainly overcome you, and you’ll be wounded or dead. For this reason, you should enroll at a local shooting club. Take a course from an experienced instructor and get a handgun permit or hunting permit; you can then buy arms, ammunition, and practice in a safe and legal environment.
Prefer firearms with a caliber common in your area and easy to handle. Avoid exotic weapons, which won’t be useful, even if they look impressive in movies. Being armed also serves to deter unwelcome or hostile visitors by making them think that they would do better not to come onto your property. A firearm with a strongly dissuasive effect is the pump-action shotgun: the characteristic click-clack sound when you load one is usually sufficient to make an intruder turn around and seek out easier targets.
I advise you to acquire, as quickly as possible, and insofar as it is legal in your country, at least two firearms: first a long weapon (rifle or assault rifle) with the caliber used by the army in the country where you live. Ammunition and spare parts will be all the more easily obtainable in case of unrest. Typically, this will be a .223 Remington or a .308 Winchester, which are the NATO standards. If these firearms are available in a fully automatic version (multiple shots with a single pull of the trigger), this is preferable, because it will give you more versatility. This is not obligatory, however, as most modern techniques do not require full-automatic, or suppression, fire. These calibers will give you the capacity to fire, aiming with high precision, up to 200 or 300 meters (650 to 1,000 feet), depending on the weapon’s quality, barrel length, etc. This distance is sufficient for the defense of your SAB against common aggressors. Of course, with good training or specialized weapons with the proper sights or optics, one can aim with precision far beyond these ranges, even exceeding 3,000 feet. Sadly, it may be that the sale of such arms is not permitted in your country. In such cases, hunting rifles or carbines of smaller calibers—but still very efficient, like the .22 Long Rifle—can usually be obtained.
Next, you will need to acquire a handgun, which will be your secondary combat weapon in most situations. You must choose a robust pistol or revolver of good quality and with very common calibers such as .45 ACP in 9-mm Parabellum (9 x 19 mm), .38 special, etc. Handguns are also quite useful in urban environments, in enclosed areas (inside a house), and for targets no more than 50 meters away. (Statistically, the vast majority of engagements with handguns by police or security personnel are at less than 10 meters/30 feet). Above all, a handgun is a fallback if your primary weapon (i.e. your carbine or rifle) has run out of ammunition or has been incapacitated. It is important to buy a lot of magazines for weapons that require them (certain rifles, pistols, etc.). I recommend at least a dozen magazines for each of your weapons and ideally twice as many, if you can afford it, as these very valuable items could be used for barter.
I should make particular mention of the .12-gauge caliber pump-action shotgun. This weapon can be very easy or very hard to get, according to the laws of different countries. It is remarkably robust, relatively easy to use, and has great power and versatility. In fact, you can use it with a wide variety of ammunition from seed cartridges for duck hunting to bullets for larger quarry (such as boars) and anything in between. Although I did not begin my own training with this weapon, I now think that if I had to choose or could afford only one firearm, the shotgun is the best choice.
For hunting, you must acquire the correct permit before undertaking your local safari. You will learn quickly, in any case, that the weapons mentioned above are not ideal for hunting, and even if the pump-action shotgun is capable of shooting hunting ammunition, this is generally forbidden.
If you plan on hunting small game or even just eliminating vermin, a low-caliber weapon such as the same .22 Long Rifle carbine mentioned above is excellent for anything from a rat up to a hare, or even for that stubborn chicken you can’t catch. Moreover, the ammunition is not expensive at all. Arm yourself with a carbine and a little pistol or revolver of that caliber. For slightly larger game, a light, rapid caliber will let you hit small animals at up to 300 meters (1,000 feet). For example, the .222 Remington for a fox, the .243 Winchester for a roe, and the 6.5 x 68 for an antelope. A rapid but heavier caliber will work for larger animals (deer and boar) at a long distance, like the .7 millimeter Remington Magnum, the .308 Winchester, the .30-06 Springfield, and the .300 Winchester Magnum. Some of these calibers are also used by the armed forces as elite sniper weapons, and they are effective with a good rifle and a good sight (Leupold, Schmidt & Bender, Nightforce, Bushnell, Zeiss) at up to 700 to 1,000 meters (or 2,100 to 3,000 feet). For birds and larger game, the .12 gauge caliber is perfect. This is the most common caliber for hunting rifles, single or double barreled, and is usually the one most people learn to shoot with. The whole variety of cartridges at this caliber is easily available, which allows you to hunt practically all animals allowed (duck, partridge, pheasant, etc.) with seed cartridges, as well as heavier animals such as boars, deer, and bear with cartridges known as buckshot.
Whatever weapons you equip yourself with, you must learn how to store and maintain them. It is fundamental to store one’s arms and ammunition in a correct and safe manner, especially in a humid climate. You must avoid rust and anything else that can damage the mechanical parts of your weapons. All weapons, from knives to rifles, must be stored where children cannot get to them, in a locked armory or trunk at the very least. Ideally, store your guns and your ammunition in separate places. To avoid accidents, teach children early on that a gun is not a toy, that it is not used the way you see in movies, and that they must not touch it, but that, when they are a little older, they can learn the basics of how to handle one and, once they reach the legal age, they will learn how to use and shoot it. Progressive familiarization helps avoid an unhealthy fascination, all too common, alas, among certain adolescents who like to identify with Tony Montana in Scarface (!).
Ammunition must be correctly stored, in locked boxes sheltered from humidity (avoid cellars). In this manner, ammunition can be conserved for more than 50 years. And don’t be afraid to store a lot of it. At a minimum, per person and per weapon, figure on the following quantities: six to 10,000 cartridges for each assault rifle or carbine, two to 3,000 cartridges for each hunting rifle and one to 2,000 for each pistol or revolver. This is a minimum requirement, as ammunition might soon become scarce, more tightly regulated, or significantly more expensive. Inform yourself about the materials necessary for making ammunition yourself: cladding techniques are well established, easy and safe, and can save you a lot of money in the long run.
It is obvious that between arms and ammunition, you will need a significant budget; all the more so because you must buy the ammunition necessary to practice (nearly 100 cartridges per session). But this ammunition will be indispensable to you and will be irreplaceable in a world where access to manufacturers will be difficult. A stock of ammunition and replacement gun parts will be worth its weight in gold (likely literally), since ammunition is just as important as the weapon: neither is of use without the other. Remember that when European colonialists sold weapons to African tribes, although they sold a lot of rifles, they sold very little ammunition. There was a reason for that. (Also, should you wish to stock up on ammunition for barter, be sure to only buy common calibers.)
Finally, a weapon in the hands of a novice is worse than useless—it’s dangerous. You must learn to handle your weapon using plastic or metal practice cartridges. Then, you must learn to shoot at a shooting range. Invest in lessons with an experienced instructor and spend a good deal of time learning how to aim with precision. Learn to be a good shot. An experienced gunman knows when a trigger should be pulled—and not pulled—and how to live with the consequences.
Accidents most often happen to people who never practice, or who shoot so often that they become complacent with the safety rules. Re-memorize the four security rules before each time you handle a weapon: always remember that a weapo
n is not a toy, and that it is not dangerous per se. It is the user who can use it badly and be a menace to himself and others.
To perfect your defense, think about equipping yourself with what are called force multipliers. These are all the elements that can give you an advantage over your enemy: tracking alarms, vision, and coordination. See your enemy before he sees you thanks to long-distance optics, or infrared or thermal tracking. Getting alerted to an alien presence by alarms, or having the possibility to communicate with all the members of your team with a permanent connection, can give you a significant advantage. Opinions are divided on the use of these battery-gobbling high-tech devices. Over-equipped Western armies have trouble combating the Afghan rebels, who are lightly equipped but mobile and inventive. First World armies have probably become too dependent on technology. It’s up to you to figure out what you wish to and can use.
Finally, in terms of your equipment, you must reflect on the circumstances and conditions in which you will be carrying arms (hunting, defending your SAB, etc.). I recommend, first of all, a belt onto which you can fix a sheath or holster for your handgun, one or two magazines for it, and your main knife. This belt can rapidly be put on in an emergency. Then, for rifles and other long arms, try out different types of bandoliers or vests—preferably in your instructor’s presence—in order to find the type that best suits you. You must also plan on one or more magazines for your principal weapon, attached to your belt, a tactical vest or suspenders. There is an infinite number of models. It is worth the trouble of trying a few to find out which is the most practical for you. For hunting rifles or pump-action shotguns, plan on having a hunting pouch full of cartridges, or a cartridge belt or bandolier. If you need a backpack, a canteen, or other equipment, consider the conditions and the mission (reconnaissance, defense, etc.), for which one model may be better adapted than another. To avoid surprises and clumsy “epic fails,” remember this rule regarding equipment: “train as you fight, fight as you train”.
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