how do you know ?, page 1

Shuck,
Thanks for your input, your thinking along the lines of my intentions by asking ' when do you know"
" keep your ear to the ground" is exactly where I was leading.
All we can do is to try to keep ourselves informed of situations as they develop, but then we run into the reliability of the information sources we are depending on.
All the preperations in the world are useless unless we are given the oportunity to employ them.
If you wait till there's a cloud on the horizon, or a squad of troops on your doorstep, it wont matter how many coolers you have stashed in the boonies.
I think instinct plays a huge roll in figuring out when the time comes.
When I saw the second plane turn and crash into the WTC, I loaded my truck with my gear. I heard about the pentagon on my truck radio as i was on the road.
I was settled into my fall back position as i listened to the air craft grounding all over the country.
I waited 3 days after the sitation appearded to have stabilized before i made plans to return to my home.
I do understand that being retired and of secure economic means puts me in a different position than most. I have spent a great deal of time talking to other people from a broad demographic well outside of my peer group. Thats what promts my question. I was hoping for a broad spectrum of replies as to when each thinks they will know when a given situation has reached critical mass.
Aside from all the technical questions i get, probably the most prevelant and the one i feel least able to answer, is, " when will we know it's time "

As to pulling the trigger, I would suggest that if you have never looked at another person framed in your sites, and considered the finality of pulling that trigger, it's something you should think long and hard about before being in a position where you have to do it.
In my expereince, there are 3 parts to a gunfight.
First is the build up or the realization you are in a gunfight and for someone this is going to be fatal.
Secondly is the gunfight it's self. being shot at, and shooting at another person, with both parties focused on the others death is an intense sitution.
Ther is a profound intimacy between both parties involved. For the loser, it means giving up all you have ever known, and all you will ever know.
For the victor, it means claiming the right to erase another persons past, and denying them a future.
The third part is living with the consequences of winning the gunfight.
The first reaction is the exileration of survival, then comes the magnitude of what you have done. Finaly there is the realization that the person you have just killed will be with you the rest of your life, every minute of every day, of every year that you remain alive.
It's one thing to consider lethal foce as a hypothetical. it's quite another dealing with the reality.