“Real question: under what circumstances will each of us who is armed fire our first shot in anger?”
Never shoot in anger. Anger is a panic reaction and you can’t think straight while paniced. You only go into combat with a cool head.
Understood; go into combat with a cool head.
“Shots fired in anger” meaning “shots fired following a declaration of war” is what I intended. The likely SHTF scenario (I have to avoid writing STFU) won’t be movement of organized elements, it will be `triggering’ incidents or being in the wrong place at the wrong time, at least initially.
If armed Antifas start stalking the streets they will likely be picked off in short order; too many armed patriots. There are all kinds of possibilities; I would not want to be living on an isolated farm unless it was fortified & trusted friends were there as a QRF.
In fact, (just ruminating here) all the pro-gun control articles I’ve read are full of frustration over how to round up all the guns without national registration. They cheer the passage of Red Flag laws, of course, but now there are reports out of CA that thousands of Red Flag warrants have yet to be carried out. Couple that with huge noncompliance in blue states requiring registration of “assault weapons” and the situation may not be quite so bleak.
When stats show that several red states have each more deer hunters than the standing armies of most nations, and that a (successful) deer hunter is a trained sniper by default, it seems even less so.
That nerd from Esquire magazine who screamed “We’re coming to take away your guns right now!!” is more entertainment than credible threat.
Sometimes one just has to take a deep breath.