Food for thought: We need to be thinking beyond traditional notions of home defense. In a SHTF scenario, the only valid purpose of your civilian weapon will be to obtain a better weapon (i.e. a selective fire weapon). The vast majority of selective fire weapons in the USA are 5.56 “poodle shooters” based on the M16 platform. A stockpile for an AR15 will serve an M16.
I’d prefer the reliability of Mr Kalashikoffs piston driven AK than Mr Stoners direct impingement jammer.(though a number of AR clone manufacturers are now making piston driven ARs and it’s about time
Poor reasoning.
1. Stealing is wrong. Planning to steal later is wrong.
2. You have the opportunity to right now get what you’ll need. Waiting to steal it from someone later is STUPID every which way. You know you’ll need it, so get it now so you’ll have it before you need it. M16s et al _are_ legal (if not in your jurisdiction, MOVE ALREADY), just expensive - but a lot cheaper than risking your life trying to steal one.
3. Those you suggest stealing from are, by definition, much better equipped and trained than you. They operate in teams, are practiced at finding people like you, and will take it VERY personally when one of their own is so abused.
4. Unless you’ve got orders of magnitude of cases of ammo already, select-fire won’t do you much good. By definition you’ll be in a situation where fire discipline - to wit make every shot count - will be paramount. You won’t have the resupply to make “suppressive fire” viable.
5. If, for some reason, suppressive fire _is_ needed, you can still pull the trigger fast for the same effect.
6. In a SHTF situation, if you need select fire you’re up against superior opposition - make your last seconds count, and throwing the happy switch on “high” won’t help.
Don’t get me wrong. If you can get the happy switch thru sane & legal means, great. I sure want the option too - but I’m not stupid enough to plan to steal one.
1. Select fire weapons are worthless to the individual. It just wastes ammo. You only use it in large-scale operations for suppressive fire.
2. If I can find ammo, I can probably find the weapon that goes with it.
3. 7.62x39 is much cheaper than .223. I can store more of it with me in that SHTF situation. And you can’t beat the Russian spam can.
4. The 7.62x54R is very cheap and the Mosin-Nagant rifle is easy to find and inexpensive. Good deer rifle.
5. Saiga 12 - 12 gauge AK :)