Building A Mutual Defense Community - Prepper Tips
One of the most common issues we see in the comment sections of any article dealing with survival or preparedness are those worried that when it hits the fan, so to speak, they will be unable to protect and defend their family and/or the supplies they have accrued, from looters, rioters and those that refused to see the signs beforehand and have nothing of their own to survive on.
One would think with the Internet being as vast as it is, finding like-minded survivalists in your community would be easy, but as we all know, more now that Edward Snowden revealed the depth of domestic surveillance, nothing you do online is secret, not even private messages on Facebook.
The Internet can still be utilized to find potential allies without announcing to the world what you have stocked up on, your exact location, what type of protections you have set up, and without meeting with someone unknown, one-on-one, that could be mentally unhinged. We will provide links to sites that offer those types of opportunities after going over the options for finding like-minded survivalists in your area.
Group meetings before it all hits the fan, meeting in a group close to where you reside because there is safety in numbers, then after feeling out the members of that group, making the decision who you would choose to be part of a "Mutual Defense Community" and whether you would be a good fit with them and vice versa.
There are a number of excellent resources into this area of preparedness, all offering good advice, but rarely do we see it all compiled in one article, so we will provide the links and suggestions found during researching this article.
BUILDING A MUTUAL DEFENSE COMMUNITY
Finding people locally is important because when any type of catastrophic disaster hits, whether an economic collapse, an EMP, a terrorist attack or a natural devastating event, traveling too far isn't a viable option, and one critical aspect of surviving the aftermath will be building a Mutual Defense Community, pre-arranging a meeting place for "after" the event, communication options in case cell phones, landlines or internet are no longer working and for the purpose of bartering with others.
Churches with similar religious convictions to your own; Hunting clubs; Gun clubs; Garden clubs; First Aid & CPR class attendees; Those attending self-defense classes or seminars.
Well, let’s get them to come to us instead. For instance, take advantage of known places where people regularly gather together. And although you’re not necessarily hopping atop of a soap box and yelling, “Hear ye, hear ye, my fellow survivalists!” you could still catch the attention and intrigue of the anonymous, nonetheless. Let’s face it, they’re probably in search of other like-minded individuals as well.
If you’re a churchgoer and you’re allowed access (or you simply need to win over the favor of the church secretary) to the bulletin board, start a survivalist group. You could do this by posting a flyer that comes furnished with those fun little tear-tabs, which should have your contact info on them. It won’t be long before you start seeing emails pop up in your inbox asking for more info on what you’re all about. Also, this doesn’t just have to be something you only do in church either. You could use this method in just about any social gathering spot from coffee shops to your local American Legion.
Once again, these types of suggestions offer you the ability to connect with other preppers or survivalists in your immediate community, plan out communication routes, even if just a word of mouth chain, to pre-arrange meeting places, to discuss locations to converge to set up the Mutual Defense Community after an event, and even as mentioned earlier, to meet with people for bartering purposes by setting up pre-scheduled bartering meet dates.
Finding people via the Internet is a lot trickier. Setting up any type of meeting one-on-one with someone unknown to you is madness, just look at some examples of online meets going horribly wrong to see why. (See here, here and here)
MEET IN PUBLIC LOCATIONS AND IN GROUPS
If one feels the need to meet with someone one-on-one for whatever their personal reason, make sure it is done in a public place and make sure a friend or family member is aware of exactly where you are and set up timed phone calls (not text, they must hear your voice!) so they know if the calvary needs to come rushing in.
Keeping in mind the government is targeting survivalists and others as potential threats and that nothing done online is private, so offering any personal information about your preparedness activities in any forum or social platform is not recommended, there are sites set up to meet like-minded people, such as MeetUp.com where groups from different areas meet up for a variety of reasons, whether it is religious, lifestyle, professionals, fitness, sports and recreation, etc...... If there is no group in your area or within a certain distance, you can set one up.
It cannot be reiterated enough that on these or any online forum, one must never jeopardize their Operational Security (OPSEC), never divulge too much about your preparation, location, specifics on your everyday life or family. These types of forums should be used as a starting point to find like-minded people, but it is up to the user to be smart, careful and safety oriented in how they arrange meetings. groups and what they share.
Communication is key, before and after a catastropic event, because as we have seen before, even during a severe weather event or terror attack sometimes phone lines become inaccessible due to overload, and while eventually overload issues are overcome, during an EMP or something like the Carrington Event, it is possible phones, both cell and landlines, and internet will be gone for months or years.
With communications in mind, two excellent articles are recommneded. Backdoor Survival details why Preppers should have short wave radios, which would allow you to get news and information from halfway around the world, although the limitation is you cannot communicate back.
Over at GrayWolf Survival we see a number of options that would allow those in a "silent" world to be able to communicate, some the author clearly states are not great options, before detailing what they consider better options include Ham Radios. The GrayWolf link also offers a large list of frequencies that could be useful to monitor.
PROTECTING YOUR EQUIPMENT
What good is having the means to communicate if an event occurs that wipes out all electronics unless you have a way to protect those electronics, which is where the Farady Cage comes in.
A Faraday Cage shields their contents from static electric fields. (See how they work here) As seen at LBA Group (scroll down) these cages built buy professionals can be quite expensive, especially in a day and age where many are living paycheck-to-paycheck, but there are many resources which can teach you to build your own as seen in the videos below and some written instructions on how to build one can be found at Backdoor Survival and The Survival Mom.
BOTTOM LINE
While those paying attention to the events happening nationally and globally are stocking up on essentials like food, water, medical supplies, blankets, etc..... it is just as important to understand that if the "worst" happens, protection, being able to barter items, communication and having a community that is prepared to defend each other, their families and their supplies, could very well be the difference between surviving the long term aftermath of catastrophe and not surviving.
As always, readers are encouraged to offer their own tips and ideas, links, and videos in the comment section below to help each other survive.
