Before today’s post, two things.
First. Congratulations to “Gat31” for being the lucky commenter on the lock pick set and gas siphon pump ethics post. Send me an email, Gat31, and we’ll see about getting you a gas siphon pump for your bug out bag, car survival kit or for just fun post-apocalyptic beach ball inflating.
Second. From here going forward, comments on all posts 20 days or older are now closed. Why? SPAM! For whatever reason, the site has been completely inundated with spam comments over the past several weeks – BAD. The spam filter isn’t doing its job and I’m tired of trying to find an effective one that works, because NONE work. Spammers have gotten really good at fooling filters. I’ve even seen readers respond to spam, saying “what do you mean?” and such. Damn spam. It must be terribly annoying to anyone that also signed up to get notified up follow-up comments on posts. Did you enjoy all of the “Delaware Lawyers” and similar junk “comments”? Too bad I had to close old posts to comments because of it, but alas – oh well.
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Now, today’s post came to me from a SHTF Blog reader, a link from Gun Reports that describes a new FBI “Terrorism” Handout that has been distributed by an FBI Denver Joint Terrorism Task Force to Colorado military surplus store owners. The handout lists the purchase of many popular preparedness items and firearms accessories as indicators of potential terrorist activities. Under the title “What Should I Consider Suspicious?” it states …
People or groups who make bulk purchases of items including:
- Weatherproofed ammunition or match containers
- Meals Ready to Eat
- Night Vision Devices: night flashlights, gas masks
- High capacity magazines
- Bi-pods or tri-pods for rifles
Have YOU made bulk purchases of these items at a Colorado military surplus store? The store owner was advised to:
- Require valid ID from all new customers
- Keep records of purchases
- Talk to customers, ask questions, and listen to and observe their responses
- Watch for people and actions that are out of place
- Make note of suspicious statements, people and/or vehicles
You can download the brochure by clicking here. Read the Gun Reports article on it by clicking here.
Are these guidelines warranted? Are they even practical? What terrorist is going to stock up on MREs? I’ve never heard of such a thing.
Now, to be fair, the brochure also has some, what I think are, pretty legitimate suspicious activities, like watching someone that might have missing hand/fingers, chemical burns, strange odors or bright colored stains on clothing.
But stocking up on MREs or match containers? I’m not understanding that bit.
– Ranger Man
23 comments
RIGHT! so if your a redneck, your a terrorist. None of this surprises me, saw it coming two or three years ago or maybe more. IF you are a god fearing christian conservative or Pro Americna Constitutionalist your the “the new Jew” you are going tpo be targeted for elimination. Try to get your mind around that. FYI Ranger MAn, the gas siphon thing has a great counter part. theroadwarri0r(that second o is supposed to be a zero) o youtube has a video about a self priming siphon hose. its the ….stuff(oops, almost used the B word there! Dont want ECHILON looking if thier not already)
They wouldn’t want people to be able to fend for themselves if things ever got too bad. Seriously, though, I think that one of the biggest fears of the people watching our backs are people who are totally disenfranchised with the government who have the skills, means and will to drop completely off of the grid and start carrying out attacks. Some of these far left politicians are chomping at the bit, hoping and praying that some right wing tea partier will actually do it. It’s almost like they’re egging them on. Unfortunately for them, these people have the skills, means and will to provide for themselves so the biggest rise they’ll get out of them will be an angry letter to a congressman, an over the top blog post or an outburst at a town hall meeting. The people that they seem to be worried about will be too busy taking care of themselves to worry about what the government is doing if things get too bad.
I think that the only “homegrown” terrorists that we have to worry about are people who haven’t been able to find work in years (at least not work that’s up to their standards) and who feel like the government owes them a lot more than they’re getting. You’re starting to see it with these flash mobs. Then there was that mob that showed up at the Wisconsin State Fair a few weeks ago. And of course there are the riots in Europe. The people that the government SHOULD be worried about aren’t figuring out how to build explosives or stockpiling months worth of food. They’re just going to show up in droves and start shutting down cities.
IMHO Terrorist do not buy MRE’s. Survivalists do. If you are a survivalists, then most likely you are not beholding to the government or to the banks for survival. That’s not good for business. (crooked government and banking business that is)
Let’s think about this, terrorists usually kill themselves in the process right? Would you want to eat an MRE as your last meal if you didn’t have to? lol
I think this is just another step to the 1984 big brother nanny state we seem to be getting in to here.
P.S. Thank you very much for the prize too 🙂
‘grats on the prize. Even if you don’t run a drop of gasoline through it, there’s plenty of uses for it involving water. 🙂
To be honest, I prefer buying the commercial freeze-dried foods. They taste better generally, and the expiration date isn’t nearly as close at hand, since you’re getting them fresh, and not second/third/fourth-hand from a surplus store.
While quite high in calories, I’ve eaten all the “three lies in one package” that I’ll ever want to a couple decades ago.
Not sure what I’d ever do with a bipod though… it’s easier to just use something handy and nearby to rest a rifle on, or just keep the skills high enough to hold the thing yourself. Ammunition is laughably easy to waterproof w/o buying specialized military surplus containers. High-capacity magazines (I have quite a few for my .45 from my IPSC competition days) can be had anywhere, especially by mail or online.
One thing I’ve always wondered though… what’s the big attraction to night vision goggles and the like? If you give your eyes a minute to adjust, you can see fairly well in the dark w/o them (unless you’re totally night blind or such). In a pinch, a lot of video cameras have the exact same ability.
I guess my point is, not only are they targeting the wrong people generally, but they’re not even all that competent about doing that. :/
There are a few people who actually have a need for night vision, but for everyone else: they’re a cool toy.
i posted about dick proenneke,it got dropped.was thinkin it might be good for the book an movie collom.name of the movie is,alone in the wilderness.the man walked into the wood’s an stayed, 32 year’s.thank you.
ps. he walked in the wood’s when he was age 51,then walked out at age of 82.started in 1968 came out of the wood’s in 1998.
Don’t get me wrong here, I am certainly not defending this letter, and will remain on gaurd for my privacy, but these letters exist for many areas of the service industry. The nearly exact same letter exists for hotels, rental car agencies, martial arts & paintball facilities, self storage facilities, bulk fuel distrubutors…the list goes on.
I’m not terribly concerned, considering that they aren’t investgating everyone who buys a plane ticket, flies to any destination, rents a car and stays in a hotel room. It simply isn’t realistic.
I do however find funny, the statement of “Talk to customers, ask questions…”. What? Are they deputizing the store clerks?
I just got me one of those “Night Flashlights!” I thought, with a name like that, it’s got to be good! WOW!
Yeah, it sure cost a lot, but it was worth every dollar!
It’s the weirdest thing… you turn it on – during the day – and it becomes dark out!
It reminds me of the “insecurity light” – it goes OUT when folks are heard.
I forgot to mention the ad-copy for the “Night Flashlight.”
…”It casts a beam of darkness.”
Heh, the fuy thing is that these idiots dont realize that most of the surplus dealers are PREPPERS! They know whats going on and they stache thingsfor themselves and let thier patrons pay for it! The people I deal with, I know so well that would probly take them in during a crisis. NO WAY these guys flip anyone to the feds.
Pay cash and don’t give them the information. It’s up to them whether or not they want to make a sale. If not, just go on ebay and buy for even cheaper.
Now I’m getting jittery: I never smell ‘good’, and twenty years using saws and air nailers, I’m short a few fingers, and there are always burn marks on my arms- I just can’t get the knack of not splattering oil when I drop wet sliced potatoes into that darn hot grease. :-
Now that that’s outta the way…
The only people they’re trying to catch are the ones who’ll have the food and other necessities when they’re needing to go door to door and collect. The only reason.
As for the NVD, if our eyes could adjust as well to see at night as with NVD, there’d be no market for them in the military. Same for those who hunt some animals at night- legally so. Or when they turn on their night flashlights and it gets dark fast.
I have bipods on several rifles- wonderful little items to keep a rifle steady when making really long shots. Better than a pack rest or tree swaying in the breeze. Even good for some close shots.
MRE’s are wonderful for camping trips, too. Especially the freeze dried variety, and I buy a lot for that.
All in all, this just pees me off: it’s about control and sticking their furken nose into my business, which is none of their business.
Shy III
Hey King Arthur, welcome to Spamelot – yuk, yuk, yuk.
Demestic Terrorist ….
Well, let’s do a quick breakdown first, under the catagory of “believing is seeing”. First you believe then you see. So the FBI does the scare title of Domestic Terrorist then, follows up with an all inclusive list that includes fringe stuff like MRE’s. It really doesn’t matter what they put on the list, they want us all scared of our own shadows & spying on each other. Now, you see someone buying anything bulk & you have the planted seed that they could be a terrorist.
What about the guy with the sheet wrapped on his head being held on by a fan belt who owns the in-convenience store, is he a terrorist?? He certainly has the bulk supplies. Let’s arrest them all! Oooh, that would mean 50% of those stores would close nationwide.
It’s just plain BS & another distraction to keep us off the real issues in America.
Next, it is another of a broad range of “rights” for our Jackbooted “defenders” of our freedom to push us around. Hmmm, remove freedoms so they can protect them – kind of an oxymoron right?
The say necessity is the mother of invention, I guess we need to upset Al Gore and drive to 15 different stores to safely buy the equivilent of a bulk purchase. Sure hope they don’t install cameras at the gas pumps that record & compare purchase times & quantities of individual users.
Imagine you drop your keys and the go under your car, do we now have to figure out which way East is so when we get on our knees, bend down low to get them we are not facing Mecca?
Sheesh, so much to consider these days …..
They are following the model set up for decades by Communism , they just cant come right out and say it .
Hey King Arthur, welcome to Spamelot – yuk, yuk, yuk.
Demestic Terrorist ….
Well, let’s do a quick breakdown first, under the catagory of “believing is seeing”. First you believe then you see. So the FBI does the scare title of Domestic Terrorist then, follows up with an all inclusive list that includes fringe stuff like MRE’s. It really doesn’t matter what they put on the list, they want us all scared of our own shadows & spying on each other. Now, you see someone buying anything bulk & you have the planted seed that they could be a terrorist.
What about the guy with the sheet wrapped on his head being held on by a fan belt who owns the in-convenience store, is he a terrorist?? He certainly has the bulk supplies. Let’s arrest them all! Oooh, that would mean 50% of those stores would close nationwide.
It’s just plain BS & another distraction to keep us off the real issues in America.
Next, it is another of a broad range of “rights” for our Jackbooted “defenders” of our freedom to push us around. Hmmm, remove freedoms so they can protect them – kind of an oxymoron right?
The say necessity is the mother of invention, I guess we need to upset Al Gore and drive to 15 different stores to safely buy the equivilent of a bulk purchase. Sure hope they don’t install cameras at the gas pumps that record & compare purchase times & quantities of individual users.
Imagine you drop your car keys and they go under your vehicle. Do we now have to figure out which way East is so when we get on our knees & bend low to retrieve them we are not facing Mecca?
Sheesh, so much to consider these days …..
Sorry about the double entry!
For those under 40 who don’t know who Sybil is – she was famous for her multiple personalities. Jokes always lose some impact when you gotta explain them ….
“You hold your water young lady!” *cringe* That’s all I remember about Sybil.
Me and my jewish neighbor/doctor have been buying this shit for years
I guess we were “Pre-pubescent Terrorists”!! We got night vision, bipods, food rations, extended clips and we’ve even talked about protecting our neighborhood! Booga booga Muslims don’t frighten us..nothing much else does either!!!
Hope you know who Azrael is!!
I bet 1/3+ of the wounded soldiers from Iraq/Afghanistan fit the missing fingers and burns descriptions. I think it is just their way to AGAIN call our soldiers potential terrorists, from the USA hating socialist mindset.
USA made:
http://www.palights.com/
Has a nice 9V green LED flashlight that works with those terrorist night vision goggles. I was surprised by how bright it really is.
My favorite is the Starlight white LED.
They had this discussion on another site , We should be outraged by it BUT thing is , merchants are in business to make money …Period ……its not the law and its bad for business to follow this . cash is very much still king . Unless your doing something weird like opening up a suitcase full of money , merchants will be more than happy to take it from you . Even if you did open up a suitcase full of cash , they would more likely suspect you of being a drug dealer than a terrorist . Every-time you use a debit card at a store , it actually costs that store money , not much but its still a red instead of a black , small business especially still prefers to see the green . I think this will be largely ignored . As far as Meals Refused by Ethiopians go , better things out there anyway , as pointed out above by another comment . Waterproof match holders ? thats as dumb an item for them to list as I have ever seen . Again , there are better things out there to put your matches in . The commercial waterproof match cases are inadequate anyway , they dont hold hardly anything and most dont have a place for a lanyard . This is just a harassment document , the neo nazis attempting to enlist fellow americans to snitch on innocent people so they can try to justify their jobs . Dangerous times in this country , you have communism on the left and fascism on the right , nobody with a balance .