I highly recommend you buy and read “In the Gravest Extreme” by Massad F. Ayoob. He will answer most all of your questions.
I recommend that book quite frequently, have an extra copy to loan out. Parts of it are a little out of date (some of the firearms recommendations), but it is still excellent. I don’t know of anything better for making you think about mindset and legal issues. If anyone knows of a better book for that, I want to know about it.