In truth you will never be prepared. The most you can hope for is to be surrounded by the proper tools that will help you to survive situations which would otherwise prove fatal.
The first thing I would recommend is purchasing and registering a handgun and a rifle as well as acquiring a concealed weapons permit for your local area. If you cannot acquire a concealed I would suggest you move because it would seem that you are surrounded by armed criminals
With a concealed you can guarantee that if the shit hits the fan you will at least be armed with a handgun.
Get a secure armored safe for your house and fill it with ammo and food. I would suggest dried rations Very bland but can be stored forever and a day.
Maybe a motion flashlight or two. First aid supplies.

The weapon is of utmost importance however.

List some goodies you might take or might suggest....

Medical supplies and vaccum sealed water supplies. And pick out an easily defensable location

http://saratogatradingcompany.com/

Some good stuff. Some MREs really aren't that bad. Avoid the cheese like the fucking plague, though.

I would suggest a rifle somewhere in this caliber. If you can afford it.

The Tikka T3 Tactical 308 Winchester kicks ass in all conditions where distance is key

OMFG!!!...I..uh...gotta go to the..uh... bathroom now...

That is hot.

Thats nothing, I have seen, in person(the guy who owns it is a friend of my boss') a rifle that if you had a good enough shot, could put a hole through a dime at a mile and a half out easy

Don't take this post wrong Dy as I have a hell of a lot of respect for you...


As someone who was a trained Survival instrutor and worked at it for a few years (thou many years ago), I find your logic truely flawed...

The greatest weapon you can ever have is a sharp and trained mind. You ask any Survivalist worth their salt and they will all tell you a weapon don't mean shit if you haven't got a brain first.

You seem to be talking about a 'typical' movie scenario that America loves to spew out all the time where the almighty gun rules above all...

But tell me, where would your gun be if you where in a plane crash in the middle of a desert?

What use would your gun be if you where stuck in a cable car 10,000 feet up a mountain?

How's a gun going to help you breathe if you where trapped in a submerged train car with icy watrer rushing in?

All possible scenario's.

It's a sharp mind that survives, not those with the biggest gun. Unfortunately it tends to be those with the dullest minds that reach for the gun first...

Not true in the respect that if something catastrophic was to occur during day to day routines where-in you are within yiour living bounderies. Yes a sharp mind is great yet if the literal shit hit the fan and everyone was starving, fuel was at a premium and rare, and luxuries became bottled water instead of who has the biggest tvs, a sharp mind will be shot dead for a can of pork & beans

You are thinking natural disaster situations..... plane crash.... last time I knew you could not take a gun onto an aircraft...... if I was stuck 10,000 feet up a mountain in a cable car maybe I could fire the gun to get someones attention or if we got off I could shoot the pissed off cougar who was going to attack one of us
Submerged train with water rushing in--- place gun against glass and shoot the fucking window out to escape biatch!!!!

with all possible scenarios my chances of living are increased if I have a gun.... whether it is a big fucking one or not

What kinda gun..... I know of only a few(VERY EXPENSIVE) rifles that will do something like that

Spoken by someone truely brought up in a Gun culture...

A sharp mind would know how to think around a situation rather than just reaching for a gun. Also with a gun you often increase your chances of becomming a target for others.

Strange how on all the Survival shows I watch not one of them mentions popping a gun in your survival kit....

I do not remember, I think it was something like a .308, but don't start me lying. I do know it was very big, very expensive(especially after he put the fluting and muzzle brake on it) and very very nice, and I wanted it really really really bad. I know he has shot a dear with it from 1200 yards out and the scope on it goes up to about 2000 yards

I was raised around guns. I was taught everything one could know about the proper handling and never once made a stupid mistake. I was carrying a 9Mil at about age 9 and had shot everything from a .22 to a .50 cal by that time. Knowledge is power.
Think yourself out of this situation. The shit has hit the fan. Industry has ground to a complete halt due to fuel shortage and food is scarce. A group of young men all armed storm your house searching for food. You tell me how you would stave them off with just your sharp wits.

No offense Jobe.

I know where you are coming from. I have argued with myself sideways until I came to the rational conclusion that I would rather be armed than not. With a gun I stand more of a chance of survival as do those around me.
Life without guns would be great..... we would just revert back to shooting arrows at each other and stabbing each other with oversized butter knives....

guns are here to stay.... we can learn how to live with them..... or you can die at the hand of someone else who knows what they are doing.....

.308's are traditional sniper fare But to be accurate up to 2000 yards
You are going to need one of these bad boys....

A .408 XM04 by EDM Arms or any .408 on the market

For about 1500 you can have a basic or for abour 2500 you can get it polished up with all the goodies

It is a beautiful rifle

By your logic then everyone should carry one? Then how would anyone be at an advantage, all that would create in a survival situation is a 'shoot first' mentality...

And someone will always have a bigger better gun and be faster on the trigger and more accurate....

Reminds me of the Cold war between the US and Russia, both making bigger and better guns (read nuclear weapons) as they claimed it would make for a better chance of survival. Yeah right...

In any survival situation a weapon should be a last resort or you will just lost your humanity.

So pleased I don't live in the USA....

Meh..... yes.... everyone should carry one.... Mutually assured destruction does work.... it has been proven to work by the cold war.... noone fired any nukes did they??? No??? than yes..... mutual death assurance works wonders
You would be less likely to be rude to me were you aware that I was armed.... in a society where everyone is armed rudeness becomes scarce

no.... you live in a country that would rather have an unarmed civilian population so only the criminals will be armed and if you ever face take-over by hostile forces you will not be able to help your armed forces kick thier asses out..... I would rather be armed so if that occured I could shoot the fuck out of some nut trying to leash me

We live in a free country..... one which accords adult responsibility to its citizens by allowing themselves to walk around armed if they feel the need

Hell our armed civilian militias helped keep this country out of British hands.... if they had not been allowed arms we would share the crooked teeth syndrome