My husband took third place in marksmanship in his Jr. High School for the state of California. The school issued him the firearm!
A friend of mine used to take rifles to school in the trunk of his car so they could ditch school and go hunting. The principal found out and got after them because they were ditching too many days to hunt.
Here’s another post from FerFAL. Keep in mind he lives in Argentina... this could be us soon.
SUNDAY, MAY 24, 2009
Keeping a low profile
Some people refer to it as “gray man”, urban camouflage.
I’ve written before about dressing in a way that doesn’t attract attention. Mostly black, gray, and dark blue or brown colors. No insignias, no cammo and no bright colors or political message stamps or tshirt. You want to be as forgettable as possible.
Once you realize how rumors and failing to keep your mouth shut can get you kidnapped, “ loose lips sink ships” achieves a new level of importance. I don’t pretend to have all the answers, but I can tell you that the stage you are in right now in USA is something we were once familiar with.
Right now in the various survival forums , “I lost my job” seems to be a frequent post. It’s happening folks, people are getting fired, and most don’t have any preps to fall back. Again, these are things I do and you may want to implement in the near future:
1)Don’t dress like a million bucks… or a thousand.
This is just common sense, but at least in my opinion it doesn’t hurt to look even a bet worse than people around you, not a bum but still on the poor side, rather than the well off. Worn jeans, tennis and shirt or tshirt are generally what I wear, unless I really need to look better because of business. I don’t need to brag about anything. I prefer to look ordinary/lower middle class.
2) So.. how’s business/work?
My standard reply: “Barely making it man. You know, like everyone else. Times are tough for us all. Had to spend 200 bucks the other day on a car repair and that hurt quite a bit. It seems I can barely keep my head above water” Talk, poor/lower middle class too.
A fool that brags about how much money he made selling a house or boat or whatever will only risk getting kidnapped. You tell a good guy, a friend, but destiny wants your friend to make an innocent comment to someone that is not that nice and bam!, you get targeted. “Things aren’t that bad for some of us, as a matter of fact my friend Johnny, you know the guy you saw me with the other day, he just told me yesterday that he managed to get rid of that boat he had rotting at the marina, just burning a hole in his pocket. I bet he made a few buck out of it too.”
3) Even in the bank, as things get worse criminals will have informant inside banks.
Even if you have a bank you trust and visit more often, where you try to build a relationship with the manager, try using other methods of moving money around too, so that lower level employees don’t notice you as a guy that moves around large sums of money. The cashers are generally the ones that mark you.
4) A low profile is even relevant to stay away from the government goons.
Ricardo Montoya, one of the governments goons in Argentina, would track down people that where making purchases of expensive electronics or cars. Bought a big screen Sony TV? That placed you in Montoya’s list and he would investigate you further, making sure he was taking every cent he could out of you, the fat tax payer. Whenever possible keep all purchases anonymous, use cash. Of course, destroy the box, don’t leave the HD TV box next to the trash so that the neighborhood junky keep it in mind next time he needs cash for a fix.
5) In terms of guns and gun confiscations, whenever possible buy guns at gunshows and private purchases that leave no paper trail behind. Also, be very careful of who you tell about your “hobby” and how you describe it. IN the eyes of the politically correct wimp:
Target shooting sounds like the Olympics.
Firearms training sounds revolutionary.
You don’t want your sissy neighbor calling SWAT on you. Risk getting shot by paramilitary police that is more concentrated these days on no knock raids than serving an protect. It’s important to educate people about survival and self reliance, but learn to know when you are throwing pearls to the pigs or even worse, putting your family and yourself at risk. All this may not sound that relevant right now for your current situation. It may sound exaggerated or paranoid.
One thing we’ve learned here is that reality changes. And I’m not talking 100s of years, it’s not volcanoes, mountains and planetary tectonic plates moving. Back when NY city was a hell hole full of crime, Buenos Aires was a rather good place to live in comparison, and Argentina in general was rather safe. It was 1990 when NY was a mess, and Bs As was really a rather safe “Latin Paris” where violent crime like murder existed but was not at all common as it is today. In a couple decades these extreme changes took place.
FerFAL
Posted by FerFAL at 11:32 AM 2 comments
>>>The school issued him the firearm!<<<
Wow, I was not that lucky till ROTC in College - and of course in the Army - Had my trusty M1 Garand and since I shot on the base pistol and rifle teams, they issued them as well. (both small bore and large bore - all the way up to the BAR. - Browning Automatic Rifle - 50 Cal. fantastic weapon.)
Thanks for keeping us up to date on the FerFAL posts.
Having lived in Cuba during the Antonio Prio Socaras era, it can be pretty scary. Back then, any policeman who was anybody carried a Thompson sub-machine gun, and they loved to wave them under peoples noses...
Although some of the incidents were rather comical.
I remember once when we were out for a ride in the countryside, police jumped out from both sides of the road, sticking their Thompsons in all the windows and ordered everyone out. They checked under the hood, under the seats, glove compartment, trunk, everywhere - when asked what they were looking for we were told - ‘Ay señor, somebody stole the Cuban Liberty Bell last night - we are searching for it. (Danged thing weighed 4 tons and they wanted to check the glove compartment and under the hood...) We asked if they expected it to be there and he laughed and told us ‘probably not.’ ‘ Never thought of that.”
But such is life in Latin America... (and now almost the same here)