This segment of Doomsday Preppers confirmed one thing – everyone needs a friend who is a sniper. Me and my sniper friend would be like a post-apocalyptic buddy cop movie. He would be the super deadly cool under fire type and I would spout in with corny pop culture meta-references. I’d have the macros down to a science though… Anyways, I’m getting ahead of myself.

1. Martial Law

Becky’s collapse of choice is a declaration of martial law by the US government. National Geographic summarily dismissed this possibility as something that could not happen in the United States but the historic context for declaration of martial law has resulted in some of the greatest tragedies of the 20th century. The Great Leap Forward, resulting in as many as 30 million deaths, is one of the examples that comes to mind.

While many of us may feel protected by consitutional rights, legislature such as the national defense authorization act have changed the playing field. With the ability to treat domestic territory as a warzone, the government has the ability to declare martial law at any time in not so many words. We live in changing times and even the oldest rights may be challenged moving forward.

2. Bugging in – the right idea?

Fear of the government should go hand in hand with certain preparation skills. The major change that would occur under martial law is centralized planning of resources. This would mean your food is now our food. Unlike defending against looters, lethal force would not be appropriate in a government takeover, at least not in an urban area. If government take over is truly the reason for prepping, bugging out should be the main priority.

3. Sniping

Speaking of lethal force, possessing the skillset of a sniper is another asset that would be complemented by a bug out strategy. Sniping from a fortified location such as a house removes much of the threat of a sniper. Against a large force, if location was known, the sniper in question would be good as dead. However, take this out to somewhere in the woods, in a location well studied with a number of hiding places, and enough damage could be done to dissuade any would be looters.

4. Collaboration

Going back to the topic of collaboration from the other day, there was some good communication coming from Becky. Her teaming up with her sniper friend is clearly a win-win proposition. It was not shown whether her friend was preparing food store like Becky was, but supplies and the firepower to protect them go together like milk and cookies. Not to mention that companionship would go a long way from a psychological perspective if Becky decided to bug out to the mountains.

Educating her friends was another good play but could go awry in the event of a collapse. The friends interviewed stated that they were a bit overwhelmed which was understandable. From my perspective the whole demonstration seemed a bit staged. If they ended up being too scared to ever prep, Becky would have written herself a ticket for 3 more mouths to feed once the grocery stores ran out. Follow up would be key in a situation like this.