Hi Ferfal,

I was wondering. In many countries where corruption begins to show, it

seems very common that officials and persons of authority expect or

demand bribes. Having never experienced this situation before, can you

tell me what are the (unwritten) rules of these situations. How is it

initiated? By who? How’s the amount set? etc etc.

Many thanks for any insight you can give!

Toby

“Son, do you have the latest Technical Revision of your vehicle?”

The technical revision is a state issued paper that says that your vehicle is in proper working condition. You can lose all day to get that paper, after bribing an employee that will always find something wrong with the car. Either that or you can bribe the guys standing outside the building that sells you the authorization directly.

“No officer, I didn’t do it yet this year.”

The cop was visibly glad I didn’t. That was just what he was expecting. This happened many years ago, when I was a bit “greener.” Today, I wouldn’t get fooled so easily at these control posts and checkpoints.

Most of the time I get close to the car in front of me, try to hide behind it, and speed up a bit as I get close to the post, looking the other way to avoid eye contact. That way I avoid these unpleasant encounters.

The cop said, “Sorry, I’ll have to take your car then.”

I knew what he wanted but I wanted to at least make him say it, so I said, “Sure officer, you do what you have to do.”

“I’m not kidding, I’ll take the vehicle and you’ll have to go get it at the station.” The cop didn’t expect my reply.

“That’s too bad, sir, but if that’s the law then that’s what you have to do I guess.”

The cop had had enough “Son, those plans and blueprints you have in the back of the vehicle? What are they?”

I told him, “Architectural plans.”

“Okay…do you need me to ‘draw’ what’s happening here?” said the nice police officer with a menacing tone of voice.

“No, officer,” I said, and handed him my driver’s license yet again, but this time with twenty bucks folded under it. The officer grabbed the money, gave me back my license, and I left. Given his threat, it was more of a robbery than a bribe.

This is just part of the chapter on Bribes of my book, “The Modern Survival Manual: Surviving the Economic Collapse”.

I wrote it knowing that somewhere, at some point, these sort of things would end up being needed or becoming common occurrence in places where it didn’t used to be that way.

I hope with all my heart that this never becomes common occurrence in USA and other countries where, while corruption to some level does exist, its not as obvious and not part of daily life for most people.

As things degrade though, or maybe when traveling to places where the situation is worse, there may be a time when you’ll just have to do it. Try to bribe your way out of a speeding ticket in USA and you’ll land in jail. Try NOT bribing a cop in Ciudad del Este if he stops you and that will land you in the bottom of the Parana River. When authorities “demand” a bribe as you said, there’s not much you can do.

Regarding your questions, How is it initiated and by who? Generally it’s the figure of authority that will start beating around the bush about you not having this or that paper, usually something that makes little sense. You will rarely be asked directly for a bribe. The most shameless officials may ask for a “voluntary contribution” or something similar, or ask for money directly. But generally they wait and drag things until you offer them money or slip it along with your papers or documents. If you honestly don’t know whats going on or even fail to see if you’re being indirectly demanded money, something like “what can we do about this to solve the problem?” may give you more leads, or “would a contribution help solve this?”.

How’s the amount set? It depends on the “favor”. A cop that stops you in Florencio Varela in Argentina a Saturday night probably  just wants a small “contribution” for pizza, sometimes they ask for “money for pizza” directly, so the equivalent of 20 to 30 USD would do. If crossing a South American border someone gives you a hard time, maybe insinuates that you’re carrying illegal substances (that you don’t have) basically threatening to throw you in jail for the rest of your natural life, then 200 or 500, even  1000 USD may be in order. Heck, how much would you pay for your life? Same for escaping a sieged or restricted area. Buying your way out of Sarajevo in a UN vehicle was reported to cost about 10.000 USD.  As you see, it greatly depends.

My humble suggestions would be:

1)Don’t do it.

2)Do it only when you have no choice, and especially if you know that is what’s expected of you, or less…

3)Ask carefully, just in case you’re missing something, maybe really missing some information you actually needed to have, and you’re getting the wrong signal regarding being demanded a bribe.

4)If you have to do it, offer it in a way that the authority doesn’t feel as if you’re trying to make the bribe obvious to others. You might get in even greater trouble if the official feels threatened in any way.

5)Just leaving the money among the papers or documents is generally a good call. If it had been demanded of you he will just take it, if not the official will just leave the money there and hand you back the money with your documents. “Are you trying to bribe me?” Maybe you got the wrong idea, maybe it was something lost to you in translation, in this case you can claim that the money was simply there with your paperwork, which is believable given that you generally do have money along with your documents and papers, especially when traveling.

Really, it is tricky business and I at least try to avoid it as much as possible. Having lived in a 3^rd world country most of my life and traveling to even worse bordering countries, it’s a situation I’ve been in and I’ll do my best to never be in it ever again.

Join the forum discussion on this post!

FerFAL

Guest post by blog reader J. Vanne. Thanks J for the well written article!

I’ll discuss some of the videos in our next post, pointing out some things you guys should keep in mind.

FerFAL

The utterly horrific Colorado shooting is still being processed, as I write, into the collective conscience of America. First, clearly the care for the wounded and survivors must be paramount for everyone. Let us all labor with one goal to that end at present. Once this is over, however, there will be time for reflection on what has caused this tragedy. Here are some preliminary thoughts – that join my thoughts and prayers for the victims – that may be worth reflecting on in the months ahead:

Is it guns, or people, that kill? As the old saying goes, Teddy Kennedy’s cars have killed more people than all the guns of 99% of all gun owners in America.  And this true around the world.  My brother lived in ultra-safe Switzerland for years. Why is Switzerland so safe? Is it because guns are outlawed?

Hardly.

Wikipedia notes: “If you were a Swiss man, you would be a soldier as well. Every able-bodied Swiss man must go to the army in Switzerland for 90 days (Rekrutenschule-Ecole de recrue) and then every 2 years until the age of 42, he must return for practice for 19 days. This allows the government to raise an army of 400,000 men, fully armed, within 24 hours, as every soldier has an assault gun in his house, complete with ammunition. But there is more to this than a picturesque democratic institution.”
http://switzerland.isyours.com/e/swiss-business-guide/swiss-army.html “; moreover, “Each individual is required to keep his army issued personal weapon (the 5.56x45mm SIG 550 rifle for enlisted personnel or the SIG 510 rifle and/or the 9mm SIG-Sauer P220 semi-automatic pistol for officers, medical and postal personnel) at home with a specified personal retention quantity of government issued personal ammunition (50 rounds 5.56/48 rounds 9mm…)
http://en/wikipedia.org/wiki/gun_politics_in_switzerland.” Meanwhile, in gun-control happy Chicago – which has banned guns for all practical purposes – the city has become the leading “alpha” city for gun murders in the world. For comparison, drug war ridden Mexico City 8.0 murders a year per 100,000, Moscow 9.6, Sao Paolo 15.6 and Chicago 19.4.  Similarly, Washington DC, which has banned concealed carry since 1975, has one of the highest rates of murder in the U.S.

Could it be, as former gun control advocate turned gun rights supporter Dr. John Lott of Univ. of Chicago maintains, in his eponymous book More Guns, Less Crime, that we are safer with more guns? Certainly, a single trained concealed carry theatre-goer in Colorado would have put an end to the rampage much earlier, with significantly less loss of life. As Exhibit A: scarcely one week before the Colorado tragedy, a similar situation had an opposite ending in Florida, where 71 year old Samuel Williams stopped an armed robbery when two masked men entered the Palms Internet Cafe around 10 p.m. Friday, July 13, 2012. Make your own conclusion from the the surveillance camera, which captures it all: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZNC2VwyaPU&feature=player_embedded#t=0s. Exhibit B: Scarcely a month after the Colorado theatre shooting, on the opposite side of the country, an Orange County, CA. jewelry and coin dealer thwarted and armed robbery – and possible employee deaths – by defending herself with her pistol. Video surveillance footage at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjXJBpV9YRI  Dr. Lott documents many thousands of similar situations, but here is one woman, in her own words, discussing after the fact how her gun saved her life: http://bcove.me/zgbghtxu. As a matter of fact, Gun Owners of America, at http://gunowners.org/sk0802.htm, cites statistics indicating guns are used 2.5 million times a year in self-defense, or around 80 times a day (other statistics estimate this number could range as low as 1.5 million, but either number is a lot!). This includes 200,000 women a year using guns to defend themselves against sexual abuse. As a matter of fact, as of 2008, armed citizens killed more violent bad guys than the police (1,527 vs. 606).

The unfortunate thing about the Colorado shooting is that, while Colorado has concealed carry laws, the theatre where the shooting occurred was a gun free zone - despite what Roger Ebert fallaciously stated in the New York Times (as a matter of fact, Warner Houston at Breitbart.com wrote in 2009 that an Alaskan member of a gun owner’s message board had wanted to enter a Cinemark theatre, but was refused entry because it was gun free zone). So, what about other locales in Colorado where concealed carry is allowed, and a shooter began a rampage?  We have exact, historical records: In Dec., 2007, five people were shot (two killed) when gunman Matthew Murray, packing a semi-automatic rifle and two pistols, attacked the New Life Church in Colorado Springs (he had gone to another site previously, killing two, while wounding others). This might have been a tragedy similar in scope to the recent Batman movie shooting – except that the gunman was shot by church security office Jeanne Assam with here personally owned concealed weapon.  Similarly, on April 22^nd – scant months before this tragedy, and also in Aurora, CO. – a convicted felon shot and killed the mother of the Pastor, Delano Stephan of New Destiny Christian Center as the service was ending. We don’t know how far this could have escalated – as the shooter was shot and killed by someone with a concealed gun. (See http://denver.cbslocal.com/2012/04/22/2-shot-outside-aurora-church/

Incidentally, Aurora, CO., where the tragic Holmes shooting occurred, has some of the most strict gun laws in the state, including:

• “Dangerous weapons” including firearms prohibited.
• Revocation of license for furnishing a firearm to a minor or someone under the influence.
• Window displays cannot include firearms with barrels less than 12 inches long.
• Unlawful to carry concealed “dangerous weapon.”
• Unlawful to discharge firearms, unless by law enforcement on duty or on shooting range.
• Unlawful to possess firearm while under the influence of intoxicant.
• Unlawful to have loaded firearm in motor vehicle.
• Unlawful for a juvenile to possess a firearm.

Of course, all the explosives in Holmes’ apartment were “illegal,” too.

One state to the west, Utah, saw a similar situation where on Feb. 12, 2007, Muslim Sulejman Talovic, who told his girlfriend the day before his rampage that his martyrdom would be “the happiest day of his life,” opened fire in the crowded Trolley Square mall, killing five.  Unfortunately for Sulejman, there was was an armed bystander, off-duty Ogden policeman Ken Hammond. Officer Hammond pinned down Talovic – preventing futher deaths – until a SWAT team arrived and provided the martyrdom Talovic wanted. Hammond was credited with saving “countless lives” – something, unfortunately, the gun free zone in Aurora, CO. did not experience.

It appears George Washington had it right, when he said “The very atmosphere of firearms anywhere and everywhere restrains evil interference – they deserve a place of honor with all that is good.” Thomas Jefferson  certainly felt the same way, saying “Laws that forbid the carrying of arms… disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes. Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed one.”

What about concealed carry? Statistics from the recent past show states that passed concealed carry reduced their murder rate by 8.5%, rapes by 5% and robbery by 3%. Florida, which passed concealed carry in 1987, saw its higher than average homicide rate drop 52% during the following 15 years after passage, to below the national average.  And no, concealed carry does not result in chaos, as the average Floridian is more likely to be attacked by an alligator than by a concealed carry holder.

As a matter of fact, the US. Dept. of Justice, in its (admittedly dated) publication, “The Armed Criminal in America: A Survey of Incarcerated Felons, Research Report July, 1985,” stated that 60% of felons they surveyed agreed that “a criminal is not going to mess around with a victim he knows is armed with a gun”; 74% agreed with the statement “one reason burglars avoid houses when people are at home is that they fear being shot during the crime”;  and finally, 57% of felons agreed that “criminals are more worried about meeting an armed victim than they are about running into police.”

Meanwhile as gun sales climb to record highs – 47% of American adults currently report that they have a gun in their home or elsewhere on their property, and given that many gun owners have multiple guns, there may be more guns now than Americans –  2010 FBI data shows violent crime continuing to fall (http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2010/crime-in-the-u.s.-2010 ) in the United States, with homicides dropping out of the top 15 causes of death in the country. The statistics undermine a favorite argument of anti-gun groups that “more guns equal more crime.”  The reverse is true. As Lawrence G. Keane, NSSF senior vice president and general counsel.  Noted, “These statistics vividly demonstrate that the lawful possession and use of firearms by law-abiding Americans does not cause crime…There have never been more firearms in civilian possession in the history of the United States, and crime, including homicide, continues to decline throughout the country.”

The truth is, when guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns. The truth is, that the Colorado shooter would still have found ways to get, or make weapons, even if they had been made illegal (certainly, Timothy McVeigh and the leftist Unibomber found a way!). The truth is if guns kill people, then pencils misspell words, cars drive drunk, and spoons made Oprah fat. The truth is that one never sees gun murders at gun shows, where guns are seemingly every two steps one takes. And finally, the truth is that, as Stephen Dubner wrote, “far more children die each year in swimming pool accidents than in gun incidents.”

And the truth is practically illustrated in Kennesaw, GA – where gun ownership is mandatory for every head of household, per ordinance [Sec 34-21], which states: (a) In order to provide for the emergency management of the city, and further in order to provide for and protect the safety, security and general welfare of the city and its inhabitants, every head of household residing in the city limits is required to maintain a firearm, together with ammunition therefore, and (b) Exempt from the effect of this section are those heads of households who suffer a physical or mental disability which would prohibit them from using such a firearm. Further exempt from the effect of this section are those heads of households who are paupers or who conscientiously oppose maintaining firearms as a result of beliefs or religious doctrine, or persons convicted of a felony.”

Kennesaw – contrary to what the gun grabbers would have you believe – is not the Wild West, but rather was voted by Family Circle magazine as one of the nation’s “10 best towns for families.” (http://www.familycircle.com/family-fun/money/10-best-towns-for-families/?page=4) The city website also claims Kennesaw ““has the lowest crime rate in Cobb County” – this in one of the most populated counties in Georgia. In fact, from 1982 through 2009, Kennesaw, with a population of just under 25,000, had only one murder, in 2007. Compare this to gun-free New York City,  which in a recent 25-year period had more than 15,000 murders – 2, 245 in 1990 alone (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:NYC_murders.PNG) – while Kennesaw, Georgia, had 1. Yes, these are different cities – but twenty five thousand to one?? I, for one, am not going to even bother with doing the math for this.  The truth is that it is the inter-generational socio-pathology that the left has created that has created this society of killers and psychopaths (see http://patriotpost.us/alexander/2936).

Moreover, if we are to ban guns, may I humbly suggest that we also ban hands and feet, as well as butterknives? As http://personalliberty.com/2012/08/01/time-to-ban-hands-feet-and-the-fda/?eiid= notes, in 2010 alone, 742 people were killed by hands or feet, with 540 people killed by blunt objects. (and let’s not forget the 82,724 people who died as a result of FDA approved drugs). In contrast, only 0.1% of all homicides involved five or more victims. Even the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence admits that, since 2010, a grand total of 35 people have been killed in 9 separate incidents in which an assault weapon was involved (even if the gun was not the murder weapon). Perhaps, it the gun grabbers really want to keep us safe, perhaps they could ban the FDA?  Similarly, within a month of the Colorado tragedy, nine people were killed and others wounded in a knife attack in China (see http://news.yahoo.com/chinese-teen-kills-eight-knife-attack-reports-102629246.html)

On a broader level, guns also have historically ensured American freedom. Bill Bonner wrote “When King George sent troops to put down the revolution a letter appeared in the London paper. It came from a man who had lived in the colonies. He told his countrymen that if they were shipping out to fight the Americans they should be sure to write their Last Wills and Testaments before they left. Because the Americans all had guns and knew how to use them.

And King George wasn’t alone: Isoroku Yamamoto, Commander-in-Chief, Imperial Japanese Navy, killed in action, April 1943, said “You cannot invade the mainland United States. There would be a rifle behind every blade of grass.”

But what about other countries? I’m glad you asked!

For England, as the article Barbarians Within the Gates, Part III, Schwarz Report, Oct. 2011, p. 5 noted, “The UK’s ban on handguns in  1997  “did not stop actual crimes committed with handguns. Those crimes rose nearly 40% according to a 2001 study by King’s College London’s Centre for Defense Studies, and doubled by a decade later, according to government statistics reported in the London Telegraph in October 2009.”   Just for good measure, England has a 10 year sentence for possession of “any knife with a blade more than three inches long” (I literally have no idea if this includes butterknives!). No word yet if England has banned running with scissors or people using pencils with sharp points.

Across the English Channel, Holland’s draconian gun laws certainly haven’t helped – witness the recent report at http://www.cbsnews.com/2100-202_162-20052416.html , entitled 7 Killed 15 Wounded in Dutch Mall, while across the border Nazi guns laws against Jewish firearm owners 60 years ago, as Stephen Halbrook has written, “played a major role in laying the groundwork for the eradication of German Jewry in the Holocaust. Disarming political opponents was a categorical imperative of the Nazi regime” (a full rendering of Nazi gun control laws, including ones against the Jews, is found at http://constitutionalistnc.tripod.com/hitler-leftist/id14.html). The experience with Hitler was anticipated by the Second Amendment, which declares: “A well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.” This right reflects a universal and historical power of the people in a republic to resist tyranny, was not recognized in the German Reich – and led to disaster.

Perhaps one might care to examine Russia, which also has relatively strict gun control laws, under their Federal Weapons Act of 1996 (see http://www.gunlab.com.ru/excerpts.html). Did their laws prevent the 2002 theatre siege by Chechen militants, which saw killed 118? See http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2002/oct/28/chechnya.russia6 or YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbvKhdVGOoo if you need to refresh your memory

In Australia after they banned guns recently, armed robberies were up 69%; assaults with guns up 28%, gun murders up 19% and home invasions up 21% (except the Australian government still refuses to define what a “home invasion” is (no word if they have defined what the meaning of “is” is, either). Full details at http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=p8RDWltHxRc

Closer to home, as a dual US/Canadian citizen, who has spent half my life in both countries, Canada has some of the strictest gun control legislation in the world. From having a very close friend having a neighbor murdered right outside her front door, to my brother in law telling me about a knife murder at a mall down the street, to the week we moved from Canada, when someone with an illegal gun committed murder on Elgin St. in Ottawa, the whole gun grabber thing is a disaster in Canada. The results of strict Canadian gun control laws?

On Jan. 13, 2011 the Ottawa Citizen, even acknowledged that Canadian gun legislation is an abject failure:

“As strict as Canadian gun laws appear, they do not prevent the movement of illegal firearms in or out of this country, nor their possession, and only cover those firearms that have been registered. Last year, Canadian police services reported some 8,000 victims of violent gun crime, ranging from assault to robbery and homicide — a rate of almost one person per hour victimized by violent gun crime. On average, more than 1,200 Canadians are killed and more than 1,000 injured with firearms each year.” 

And if you thought the Giffords shooting in Arizona was bad (and it was!) in 2006 a Canadian gunman uploaded pictures of himself posing with a rifle. He bragged on his blog that he loved the Internet game based on the Columbine shootings. One day he decided to stop playing. He went to a Montreal college and, when all was said and done, he killed one person and seriously wounded another 19 before he shot himself. Less than 10 days after the Colorado theatre shootings, Toronto had a shooting that killed two and wounded 21 (http://www.torontosun.com/2012/07/17/one-dead-several-injured-in-scarborough-shooting); in turn, this had been preceded a month  earlier by a Toronto mall shooting at the Eaton Centre, which killed one and injured seven (http://www.cnn.com/2012/06/02/world/americas/canada-mall-shooting/index.html). The stories in Canada go on, but I won’t

Canada’s stringent gun laws, in the form of Bill C-68, apply to handguns and rifles. This has been universally acknowledged as an abject failure, including over $1 billion dollars lost on something that didn’t work. Here’s the details for those of you that aren’t aware:

There are nearly 7 million registered long guns in Canada. Since 2003, when mandatory long gun registration was introduced, of the 2,441 homicides in Canada, less than 2% (47 to be exact) have been committed by those registered guns (figures cited from Canadian Centre of Justice Statistics). According to Statistics Canada, in 2008 there were around 23,500 victims of violent crime committed with a knife, with homicides and attempted murders about 1/3rd of such incidents (cited from Lawyers Weekly, 21 May, 2010). No word yet whether leftists will introduce a “long butterknife” bill -  you know, you can never be too careful about those doggoned table settings, including possible strangulation by napkins!!

Let me conclude with an anecdotal story to help reify the matter.  Canadian John Myers writes about a personal experience in Alberta (and which is borne out by Dr. John Lott’s aforementioned book, “More Guns, Less Crime”: at http://www.personalliberty.com/conservative-politics/civil-liberty/with-gun-control-canadian-criminals-are-making-a-killing/?eiid=&rmid=2011_01_26_PLA_[PIZ0411C]&rrid=238494331.   Myers writes:

“I never imagined that a time would come where I would have to level my shotgun at a person; that I would take deadly aim with it. But that happened when I as a senior at the University of Calgary and was cramming for a final. Around midnight I heard a car screech to a stop outside my parent’s home which sat on an isolated street. I was home alone with the family dog, Elsa, a Great Dane with a gentle disposition.

In the news had been reports that two men were terrorizing women on Calgary streets. Two young women, Laurie Boyd and Debbie Stevens, had been dragged from their cars at night and murdered. I heard pounding at the front door. I knew something was seriously wrong when I opened the door to find my girlfriend Angela standing before me crying. Before I could even ask her what was happening a second car pulled into our driveway with the high-beams on.

I took Angela inside and went outside to see what the commotion was about. I brought the family dog with me and kept her leash wrapped tightly around my hand. Two men were walking straight towards the door; neither one saying a word and neither showing any regard for me or our dog which was growling and barking.

I dragged the dog back inside and gave her to Angela. I remembered the Remington that I kept in the front closet. I found it and then fumbled for the single target load shell that I kept in the corner of the hat shelf. It was all the ammunition I had, but I was damn happy to have it.

I was shaking, but I loaded the shell. I slipped back outside. I was surprised at how close these strangers were to me; perhaps fewer than 20 paces. I remember the taller of the two had his hand reached inside his coat.

It was dark so at first I don’t think they noticed my shotgun. But they knew it was there when I raised it to my shoulder and pumped the fore-end, chambering the shell. In a split second they spun and ran to their car, roaring off into the darkness.

More than a year later two men, Jim Peters and Rob Brown, were charged and convicted on multiple charges of murder. My girlfriend Angela later became my wife. To this day we don’t know if those men were the Calgary serial killers. All these years later we remain certain of two things: These men had evil intentions and we were damned lucky to have that shotgun.”

There’s more to gun ownership in America than meets the eye. Don’t let the leftists take the moral high ground on this one -  that belongs one hundred percent to the gun owners.

J. Vanne

You cant make this stuff up

http://www.clarin.com/politica/Diputados-opositores-explicaciones-autorizo-Vasquez_0_748725363.html

http://www.lanacion.com.ar/1495919-la-estrecha-relacion-de-vatayon-militante-con-la-campora

Oh yes, that’s exactly what´s going on. Eduardo Vásquez murdered his wife by burning her alive, Rubén “Oveja” Pintos is a well-known assassin involved in Argentina’s hooligan underworld (Barra Brava), convicted of murdering and enemy within his own barra brava organization.

Eduardo Vaquez, a free man. He was found guilty of murder by burning his wife alive in 2011.

What do both of them have in common? Besides being recent 2011 convicted murders, they can just walk out of prison as if nothing as long as they support the K regime, show up in their rallies, parties and militate in the K organization by joining the “Vatayon Militante” organization.

“Vatayon Militante” (VM) translates to a misspelled “Military battalion”, purposefully misspelled using V instead of B and Y instead of LL so as to appeal to the lower cultural segments of society through the grammatical error.  VM was created by the Kirchner Youth, called “La Campora”, in an attempt to recruit muscle and crash force within the prison system to be used against everyone and anyone that opposes the K ruling.

Extremely dangerous convicted felons, murderers, assassins, thieves and rapists, are recruited in prison by the K leaders through VM, all they have to do is beat a drum, try singing, talking, play soccer or anything that could be considered a “cultural” activity, and then as long as they promise to support “the national and popular project “ of Cristina Kirchner they are free to go. The Chief of Federal Prisons along with many of the wives of these criminals run the VM project, and K judges swiftly approve these exits, making everything nice and legal. We are supposed to believe that after enjoying a long day of freedom these brutal murderers just go back to their cells, but who’s controlling and why bother when the Chief of the penitentiary system and the president herself has your back covered.

Cristina Kirchner even had the nerve to publicly defend these events on national television, saying and I quote “its done so as to reinsert them in society”… not a year went by and the guy who burned his wife alive is free? Why would you need to “reinsert” a hooligan mafia assassin that got sentenced for life?

Be a good “K soldier” as they call themselves and you can literally get away with recurrent murder.

So did SHTF or not, and when is it over?

This would be a perfect example of what I often try to describe, how misguided it is to think of WROL and ROL terms when in reality history keeps teaching us that most often theres this gray zone where terrible things are either ignored or plainly made legal in spite of how immoral they are. You have to be ready TODAY, you have to become a modern survivor TODAY because if you keep waiting for the official WROL, balloon going up and the infamous “… when SHTF”, you’ll one day find yourself splattered with poo without understanding what exactly happened. When did SHTF happened exactly will be discussed by academics the next decade. Today, you have to implement all these things that we discuss here to your daily life. If its not practical enough to be done now, it will hardly be practical enough later. If it cant be done now, don’t count on things becoming more convenient for you  when its becoming harder for everyone else. This goes for everything, from the “no, a Glock 17 is too heavy for everyday carry but “…when SHTF” I’ll carry my AR and LBV all day long, day and night”,  to the “ by blood sugar is through the roof and I roll much faster than I can walk.. but “when SHTF” I’ll hunt wild game and work my garden for a living and be in my best shape ever!” & “I cant make a living today because of the government/the illegals/ the Chinese … “but when SHTF” I’ll live like a king by bartering my TP supply…”, no! you have to find a way to make things work now.

FerFAL
Join the forum discussion on this post!

As awful as a mass shooting can be, there are things you can do so as to at least somewhat improve your chances of survival, and its not just about shootings, these same principals apply to disasters such as fires, or terrorist attacks where you want to evacuate a building as fast as possible. It wasn’t that long ago that I posted about the fire in “The Station” night club where 100 people lost their lives, a post called “Surviving a Fire”. Given the recent shooting that took place in the movie theater in Colorado, here’s some easy to remember advice that will improve your survival odds. Its not about living in fear, just a couple quick mental notes that eventually become second nature to you:

1)Exits. Notice the different exit points when entering any room. The obvious first one is the one you just walked through, but look around for more. In many cases people rush to the main entrance ignoring other emergency exits that are closer. In a crowded room this may be the difference between life and death, surviving or getting crushed by the mass of victims.

2)Two ways out. When seated, make again a mental notice of your exits, especially the two closest ones to you. Why two? Because the threat, whatever that may be, mass shooter, fire, terrorist, it may be standing between you and your exit, leaving you with the second one as your best chance of survival.

3)React. In “The Station” nightclub fire, the fire was started by the special effects that were clearly getting out of control yet the band kept playing and the fans kept cheering. During the Batman movie massacre in Colorado people heard the shots and thought it was part of the movie, or part of the premier show. There’s a moment where your primal instinct kicks in, that gut feeling that has kept our species alive for thousands of years. Don’t ignore it, don’t suppress it. If you feel something is wrong, take action and assess the situation. In the case of a shooting in a movie theater, getting down provides both concealment by the rows of seats and to some degree, given the angle and number of seats, it can be cover as well. As soon as you hear shooting get down and crawl away from the threat using the cover provided by what hopefully will be several rows of seats.

4)Escape. As soon as you hit the floor crawl, away from the threat towards the exit. Making a quick exit is key to your survival. In the footage of “The Station” nightclub fire you can see how the place was all engulfed in flames in just two minutes. Seconds make the difference, so exit as fast as possible.

Run, walk, crawl…?

It will depend on a number of factors including the proximity of the exit, the attacker, how many of them are there and the amount of people all around you just to mention a few. The basic gun fighting rule is to take cover as soon as possible, in this case that means ducking behind the rows of seats. In most cases thats the best course of action when under gunfire. Maybe if the exit is close enough you can make a run for it. It is true that a running target is much harder to hit. Then again running increases the chances of falling, so that’s why running wouldn’t be recommended during a fire where falling to the ground means you’ll get crushed under the feet of the human wave trying to escape. The right amount of space, few enough people, close enough distance, you might want to run, if not walking quickly is almost as fast and you’re not as likely to fall in the confusion. Walk fast, duck or even run, it will depend on each specific case.

To Shoot or not to Shoot

If you are armed, do you open fire on the attacker? It will depend on a number of factors too. Are you trained well enough so as to take that shot? You fall down to your lowest level of mastered training, you´ll rarely rise to the occasion. Do you have a clean shot? If not are you willing to risk shooting innocent bystanders?  In the Colorado theater, the shooter was wearing full body armor, a helmet, armed with an AR and using a gas mask after deploying tear gas.

I was shooting a competition this Saturday along with some other people. While I’m not a good shooter by the standards of guys that compete seriously, out of the six shooters in the line that day, I was the fastest one. I can draw and shoot accurately pretty fast, but If I have to take that shot inside a dark theater, with my vision impaired by tear gas, with the place full of people running around scared, and I have a guy armed with an AR, wearing body armor and a helmet leaving me with a small amount of face (covered with a respirator!) so as to shoot at, chance are that I wont risk taking that shot. Honestly I don’t think I could unless I felt I had a clear shot, a window of opportunity of some sort.  Having said that, being close enough and if the attacker happens to be distracted or turning his back you can put him down, even disarm him, stab him or pin him down. Yet you have to be there, fighting to breathe because of the tear gas, in a dark room with mayhem erupting and a mad man shooting everyone down. Much easier said than done doesn’t begin to describe what It must have been like in there.

A few more final tips:

1)Whenever possible, avoid crowds if you can. When a movie I like comes out, I personally avoid the first couple of days when I know the theater is packed. I can catch the movie next week in the early screening when I know there will be fewer people. I don’t like crowd anyway and I enjoy the movie more.

2)Whenever possible, think restaurants, fast food joints, etc, sit a) close to an exit b)facing the main entrance c) with your back against the wall. It eventually becomes a habit of your and its funny how when you go eat with cops, soldiers or other like-minded people they all want to sit in the same place.

3)Carry your EDC, 24/7. If you use your gun or not, its still another tool that gives you options, and its good to have those. Same for your knife, your LED torch, and other EDC often mentioned here. If you don’t carry every day, every single day, it will not be with you when you need it.
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