I'd appreciate it if you didn't try divining my motives.
I didn't mean those as snide remarks. I was serious.
When it really comes down to it, all you NEED to survive (assuming wilderness survival, which seems to be the theme) is appropriate clothing. I think it was Elen who said he often goes out for dayhikes with little more than appropriate clothing.
I also often hear the ultralight (and others) say that you should evaluate what you do/don't use on your hikes, and ditch what you don't use.
But if I followed that logic through to the conclusion, I must wonder why no one ever posts a thread "Do you NEED a first aid kit to survive?". I mean really, do you traet trauma wounds every time you go out? I would think that you'd stay home sooner if that was the case, than if you felt you needed a gun to protect yourself from potential bad guys. But no one questions the FAK. Or even the portable trauma clinics some carry.
Do you really NEED a camp stove and fuel bottle to survive? No. But many, if not most, carry them.
Do you really NEED a sleeping pad to survive? No. But how many carry them, even though they tend towards the bulky, if not heavy, side?
See where I'm coming from? If we evaluate what we carry based on what is likely to be used, based on actual experience, IN OUR OWN ENVIRONMENTS, we wouldn't carry survival kits at all, if we were honest about it.
Survival kits are all based on "what if". You put in them the things that will give you the biggest advantage over the widest range of possible problems in your environment, yes? I just wonder why some are so quick to discard the ENORMOUS advantage a firearm gives you. Again, speculating based on the countries many of you live in, it's based on carrying of firearms being severealy restricted or forbidden, so you haven't grown up understanding what an advantage it is.
So, perhaps a more pertinent question would be "Is a firearm enough of an advantage in the few cases it's really needed, to justify it's weight being carried all the time?"
To use my other example, I doubt many would give you a negative response to "Is a first aid kit enough of an advantage in the few cases it's really needed, to justify it's weight being carried all the time?"
I know I have said that, but I might not be the only one that has mentioned it here. In any case, it's true - I do occasionally go out on dayhikes (and more) with nothing but the clothes on my person. Haven't died doing it. Yet.
I think your post was a good one. :thumbup:
As for why no one ever posts a thread "Do you NEED a first aid kit to survive?", I think I can answer that. Because a) first aid kits don't go "bang", b) first aid kits can't blow a hole in a solid object from a distance, c) first aid kits aren't cool and finally d) people don't fear first aid kits. In short, first aid kits aren't the kind of things people are passionate about, whereas firearms are. Further, I think, if first aid kits were illegal to "EDC" in the USA, or in Finland, I bet we'd see a lot more discussion on whether we should carry them or no. That's how things go.
Of course, this may not be the answer folks want to hear - but I don't always carry a first aid kit, either. I don't use one often. In fact, can't remember the last time I did, inside the borders of this country, and for my own use.
I've used firearms enough, both on papery targets and living things, that I'm quite aware of what they can do. However, in this country, there is little benefit in carrying one outside of legal hunting, but a lot of downside to trying to do so - those downsides range from carrying a heavy object that you almost certainly will not use to being pestered by the police because you're breaking the law. The enormity of the advantage a firearm gives is quite dependent on the situation, I feel. In some rare cases, it can be an outright disadvantage - a group of armed bad guys sees your shiny gun and decides to kill you and take it. In some African places, that wouldn't be even very far fetched... Of course, those rare cases really shouldn't affect whether you do or do not carry a firearm.
Firearms offer the kind of stopping power over a distance that no more primitive weapon can offer. That's great. But you know what's even greater? To not need that stopping power. I'm glad I don't normally have to kill people or beasts when I go out to have fun and calm myself in the woods. In all my life, hiking in Scandinavia and Russia, I've never been in a situation where I thought "gee, I really wish I had a gun right now." It just isn't likely to happen here, although nearly all things are possible. But quite frankly, I'm more likely to get struck in the face by lightning out here than attacked by an armed bad guy in the woods, and yet I don't go around wearing a Faraday's cage or whatever they're called in the name of being prepared.
And I bet, if a lot of the folks who believe firearms are a necessity or near so for survival in their area actually studied the statistics and history of the area, they'd quickly notice that all those attacks they plan to repel with the firearm are actually quite rare indeed. That, of course, is no reason not to prepare for the possibility by carrying a firearm. But it would, perhaps, show one that they're not all that necessary. Like attej already asked - it would be interesting to know why, in some places, a firearm would be as important as hydration... Must be a rough place, because even in African nations in civil war, firearms weren't anywhere near as important to have as water...
The point, of course, is answering the original question, which was "really need a firearm for survival?" My answer is "no, you don't really need one, but in some cases, can really benefit from one - and in some other cases, it's nothing more than dead weight on you." That's the long and short of it. It wasn't a recommendation to not carry firearms - as I said multiple times in my previous post. My point was that a lot of the stuff people think they need they don't actually need. A lot of that stuff is only useful instead of needed. The distinction is important, because sometimes you may not have the useful items for one reason or another, and will have to make do without them. In those situations, it's skill that counts - skill that you may not have if you haven't ever walked without all that useful stuff that you thought you needed. In some situations, you will not have the stuff that you actually need. In those situations, you're not in trouble, because you're dead.
