Monday 31 December 2012

Doomsday Preppers: The Strategy of Jason Charles

By Terrance Franklin


Jason Charles is yet another great instance of the urban doomsday preppers. Living in the largest city in the USA has a few severe implications and he has an interesting approach to them.

1. Yellowstone national park

We already know how preppers must feel about volcanoes. But is the Yellowstone Caldera a danger? I have recently read through a useful post by an earth scientist about the chances of a disaster level event from the Yellowstone caldera.

Yellowstone is actually a series of three different calderas, having fault line and water driven forms of eruptions. Another important thing to remember is that there have been a few smaller eruptions since the last super eruption that took place 640,000 years ago. The author even fears that a super eruption would create adequate ash to reach NYC. The previous super eruption went as far as Nebraska (1000 miles). This wouldn't affect the east coast directly but could definitely affect domestic crop production.

2. Urban prepping in NYC

New York city is one of the most densely populated cities on this planet and would be a terrible location to be in should a global food crisis arise. Jason is clever to focus on defense first. New York is among the most difficult states to obtain a gun license in and doesn't issue concealed carry permits, however, if I lived there I would certainly push the paperwork before I started paying Israeli people for Krav Maga lessons.

There might be a point when it comes to needing to hide and needing to battle indoors. A gunshot might destroy any secrecy if trying to hide resources. Additionally, there is no telling where a stray bullet may go in an apartment building, which is particularly necessary to think about with family around.

3. Fight preparation

The show didn't really get into great depth, but Jason was noticed strapping on a katana at the start and brandishing a knife with a bladed pommel that looked like it had come straight out of Star Trek. For self defense and dependability it could be best to stick with a full tang blade. Otherwise your knife might wind up splitting in two with the initial contact.

Krav maga is definitely a reliable option for functional self-defense. It is very well regarded in the private defense world. Ex-Israeli soldiers having Krav experience are considered to be the best bodyguards in the world. There is one thing to be said for the teaching technique though. Doing drills is great for developing form but without live sparring there isn't any telling how applicable any of these tactics can be.

Krav maga often has live sparring sessions which weren't shown in the program. However, anybody trying to join a krav maga school (or even any martial arts for instance) certainly has to look for a location that does sparring. Without it, you might as well be taking choreographed dance classes.

4. The staying in plan

The problem with Jason's bug in plan is that it is neither a great stocking program nor a great bug out program. With 100 gallons of water and 4 people in the family he can survive for about 25 days. His defense is fantastic within the home however it leaves a lot to be desired against an organized group. Exactly what would happen if a gang chose to go door-to-door? What someone lit up a fire to smoke him out? There are lots of factors in the city similar to this which don't permit me to relax.




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