Can You Defend Your Location From An Attack

The answer in most cases is no unless your home is specifically designed to withstand an assault and you have a significant number of armed and trained personnel on hand. You would also need a support group off site that can engage the enemy using indirect fire and can resupply you if you are under siege for an extended period.

There is a difference however, between an attack and an intrusion or break-in.

The following is not a likely scenario by any means, unless the country as a whole collapses and anarchy rules and where no laws apply, and everyone is on their own.

You have thought about this type of scenario, but of course have never experienced such a situation. Would you know what to do, and could you do what needs to be done.

Most homes are not built with defense in mind other than heavy doors, locks on the doors and bars on the windows. Most heavy caliber rounds and some not so heavy could penetrate the walls of most homes. Rounds from a shotgun could unhinge the front door in a matter of seconds, windows can be shattered, and walls can be torn apart by gunfire.

If you cannot defend your location then you have to bug-out to a location that can be defended. This is not practical for most people however, because where do you go, and are there such things as safe havens when the SHTF.

Ask yourself can any structure be defended with limited personnel that while they have some firearms training, they have never been in a firefight before.

Do you evacuate before something happens, or do you wait until you are under attack. It would be difficult if not impossible to bug-out while under attack, unless you have a support unit that can bring direct and/or indirect fire against the attackers.

OPSEC

Avoiding conflict in the first place is obviously the safest. Some will say that trouble finds them and they have no control over it. This is not entirely true. If everyone in the county knows you are a Prepper, then trouble knows right where to look. If you hang out at a gunsmiths’ shop or at coffee shops and talk prepping all the time, then once again trouble knows what address to look for, because someone somewhere is paying attention.

You as a Prepper should know where it is you can go for help. However, others that did not prepare do not need to know that you have a stockpile. Known Prepper homes will be grocery and retail stores, with a firearms and ammunition aisle when the SHTF, so make sure there is not neon signs advertising your location. People will know where to go if you talk to the wrong people about what you have done and what you plan to do.

Relocate

The whole point of this is that no matter how well armed you are, how well trained you think you are or how well trained you actually are, your home can be burned down, blown up and broken into, by anyone or any one group of people with limited training and resources. 

You cannot stay and fight a heavily armed force, dying is not your objective. Dying to save a few supplies defies the entire concept of prepping, which is to survive anything.

If you suspect or know an armed force is working its way through your community, you would have to employ guerrilla tactics to stay alive, and this means taking to the woods, hills or countryside. To do this however, you would have to be prepared.

You Can’t take It with You

Surviving is about location and strategy. The further away from the conflict you are, the safer you are. You cannot prepare with the mindset that you never leave, and that you will stay to defend your supplies to the last breath.

It does not matter how well armed you are, someone else or some other group will be better armed and they will not be in the dangerous position of defending something, they are on the offensive.

Be prepared to leave, and be ready to use escape and evasion tactics until the threat passes. This may mean that you have to survive in a remote area for a few hours or a few days or even for a few weeks. Survival is about assessing the risks and making the right choices based on current information.

You will also have to leave behind supplies, so again having caches means you have a way to resupply yourself. Having all of your supplies in one place means all of your supplies can be destroyed or taken from that one place, leaving you with nothing.

You may not have a specific place in mind. Most people cannot afford to have a shelter or piece of land just sitting idle until a crisis occurs. However, you can plan from now, how you would get out of your home, off your street and out of your town if fighting breaks out. Know your area, and know multiple way in and out of your area. Where can you go if the shooting starts is a question you need to answer before something happens?

There Is Nothing Wrong With Living to Fight another Day

Unlike a military or law enforcement operation you will not have support units or support personnel. You will be on your own in most cases, so you need to ensure you have a way of resupplying yourself. This means supply caches.

You have already decided you cannot stay and fight an armed force, so you have to gather up weapons and ammunition along with other essentials, escape the area, and then evade the enemy.

In some ways, not traveling with a heavily armed group has its advantages. You as an individual do not leave a large footprint, so those tracking you, if there is anyone tracking you, would have a harder time doing so.

Escape and evasion means you do not engage the enemy unless there is no other alternative. You blend into your surroundings. You have supply caches hidden so whatever is looted from your home can be replaced.

Once away from the conflict you can plan, you can harass the enemy when the opportunity arises and you can move quickly from one location to another. Being trapped inside of a structure is suicidal, and that is why you left your home. You always need to know in which direction to travel if you encounter the enemy. You are now using guerrilla tactics, to survive.

You cannot carry much on your back, so you always have to be prepared to survive in the environment in which you find yourself.

Before You Can Do Anything, You Need a Plan

An armed force can be any group of heavily armed people, invading armies or Prepper groups that have decided pillaging is easier than doing it themselves. It could be rogue law enforcement and/or rogue military personnel as well. The possibilities are endless. The point is you cannot face them head on, and expect to survive.

It needs to be stated again the above scenario is not likely to happen in America, but keep in mind it is happening every day, almost every hour somewhere in the world. People are displaced from their homes because of wars, because of armed troops, terrorists groups, and because of criminal organizations entering towns and villages destroying everything in their path.

What is your plan if your community is being bombarded with shells and armed groups are moving about rounding up the citizens of your town? If they want your home they will take it whether you are in it or not. You have to know what to do if this were to happen to your town, your community.

Criminals and rouge armies do not roam the woods shooting up trees and bushes. They roam in heavily populated areas, where the goods that can be stolen are, where the infrastructure is. You have to make sure you go missing before they arrive.

First, walk out your front door and know where you would end up if you walk north for two miles and where you would end up if you walked south for two miles, and do this for east and west as well. Two miles may not even take you to the edge of town or it may take you into a rural area. You need to know so you can narrow your choices from most logical to worst case and so you know the number of miles you will have to cover to get clear of the fighting.

Once you know how to get out of the community using multiple routes you can start planning your resupply methods. Do you bury caches along the way or at your destination? You have to decide this based on information at hand. Keep in mind what is forestland today may be a strip mall in six months, so do your research. Know who owns the land around you.

Know where the airports and rail stations are located because some groups may very well use these transportation hubs to transport personnel and goods in and out of the area. Interstates will be used as well as major roads and waterways. You can gather intelligence from these areas by conducting surveillance missions, or if the opportunity arises, you may be able to harass the enemy at these points.

Sheltering in place usually makes the most sense, but in extreme cases, staying put may mean death to you and yours, so plan for the worst and work back from there. While it is not likely that something like this could happen here, it is not impossible given all that is happening in the world today.

You cannot depend on anyone else to do the right thing or have your back, so you have to plan as if you are the only one that you can count on.

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Source: prepforshtf.com