Pioneer Living Survival

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Friday, June 10, 2011 A Black Eye For Preppers This one really get my Irish up...

A prominent figure in the American prepper world has been arrested on kidnapping and gun charges.  Although, reportedly, the charges are being dropped, authorities had reason enough to detain this person for more than two weeks.  Was it a misunderstanding, mistake, or other explainable issue?  Maybe, but I find that gun charges usually stem from breaking gun laws...period.

So what does this mean for us law abiding preppers?  Well more of those strange looks and comments about being rednecks holed up in the woods with more canned beans and bullets than brains.  Preppers may once again have to hide their actions from the public as well as family & friends.  Those of us who try to bring more people into the prepping community will likely now have to scale down their teaching for fear of being labeled as dangerous.  Even if this arrest was later withdrawn, the damage is done.  Preppers all over the world have now been set back decades in their struggle for acceptance & understanding.

Whatever really happened with this arrest, one fact remains...police  had reason to detain this person.  Weather guilty or not, this person did SOMETHING to make police act.  This is unacceptable behavior.  If you own guns, and as a prepper, I believe you should, make sure you own them, store them, transport them, and use them legally.  If there is a shadow of doubt that you are not within the law, stop, inform yourself, and correct your actions as required.

The prepper community CAN NOT AFFORD another gun toting anti government activist running around giving us a bad name.

Posted by Denobat 4:21 AM

2comments: Anonymous said..."I find that gun charges usually stem from breaking gun laws...period." Not sure that this is the case in reality. Even in this particular case, the charges would probably NOT have been dropped if there was ANYTHING that was counter to the law. Same thing happens everywhere. A guy was detained for having a trailer with the debt clock on it near the Conservative convention in Ottawa. Detained for no reason, let go with no explanation. No crime, no fault of his. Happens to good, law-abiding gun owners, too.

I might say that our focus should be on the organization that charged this guy. Why was he charged? Exactly what did he do to give probable cause? Was the search and seizure illegal.

When the people fear the government, there is tyranny. when the government fears the people, there is liberty.

June 10, 2011 11:30 AM     

APN     said...While I don't think this has set the Prepping Community back decades, it does have it's negative affects. Humans by their nature gossip and rumors spread. The media especially likes to look for dirty laundry even if that laundry really isn't dirty. A small mistake, even if you are in the right, can have lasting negative effects.

Whatever the truth is in this case, we should learn from it.

Denob makes a very good point about guns, and as preppers we should be extra careful with them to make sure that all of our T's are crossed and i's dotted. This is not the time to be breaking laws. Each mistake leads to more legislation against law abiding citizens and hurts us all.

I will say that I have spoken with one of the individuals involved, and while I do believe their side of the story, we must wait for all the facts to come out and for the truth to be told and determined in the courts. That is, if this even does go to the courts. From what I'm hearing everything in this case could be dropped. As the kidnapping charges have been dropped and shown to be a false accusation.

We must remember, in the U.S. as I believe is also true in Canada as well, we are all innocent until proven guilty and should not pass judgment on anyone until we know the whole story.

I think we will find in the end that the rumors are all hype, the situation is not as bad as it seems, and the accused are innocent.

But as Denob has explained, we as preppers, should be very prudent and careful with guns in all circumstances. (if you are a prepper who owns guns, not all do)

June 10, 2011 4:10