Accident on "Doomsday Prepers"

[stonecutter2]

Something to note regarding these people profiled - in a real situation where things have gone south (in a really bad way), there WILL be people walking around with guns that are irresponsible.

Be wary of the random guy walking around his shop with his 10/22, he may take his thumb off doing who knows what with his rifle that he's only fired once (if that), and he may hurt you in the process. Be wary of the guy who's been shooting since he was 4, he may be careless. Be responsible with your actions and mindful of others.

This is generally why I think wandering out into the "apocalypse" is a really bad idea. There are too many people who are way less mindful of what they're doing than I am. I strongly prefer the idea of hunkering down until the situation improves, and only venturing out if there is a distinct need and planned route.

I guess this show can be a reminder that not everyone is a responsible gun owner, or knowledgeable about gun safety.

 

[Lovesbeer99]

Sorry I'm late to this but I do have a comment or 2.

Just becuase preppers have a gun does not make them "Gun Guys". They bought the gun because they were prepping not becuase they love guns. This is why they almost all have the same gun, 10/22 Which brings me to how to become a prepper. Well with the internet it's easy. Just look up the list of items you need and you'll find the 10/22.

 

[mortablunt]

Moreso than putting gun owners in a bad light, this show also puts preppers in a terrible light. We aren't all ready to hike out of the city with our backpack stuffed with firelighting equipment and granola bars.

I've made it a priority for my house to have some provisions in the event we lost power (ice storm, tornado nearby, other power failure). I find this to actually be a responsible thing to do. Think of what you'd do without power for 3 days or more...in the heat of the summer or the middle of winter. Some of you might have already experienced that, but I haven't thankfully - and I'm trying to get things set up so that if something occurs, we've got some things on hand to make the situation better until the situation improves.

I think it's sad they obviously found the craziest, most irresponsible people to interview. But I guess it makes for "good television" for people who love watching crazy people.

@stonecutter2: Reality TV is made by finding the craziest people, sticking them in a room, and giving them an objective. Can you imagine a reality TV show with normal people who have no DSM disorders? It would be very boring.

 

[sigpro]

@stonecutter2: Reality TV is made by finding the craziest people, sticking them in a room, and giving them an objective. Can you imagine a reality TV show with normal people who have no DSM disorders? It would be very boring.

Truer words have never been spoken. For us responsible gun owners shows like this seem silly, sensational, or even irresponsible. For the rest of the world, it's just entertainment.

 

[mortablunt]

Truer words have never been spoken. For us responsible gun owners shows like this seem silly, sensational, or even irresponsible. For the rest of the world, it's just entertainment.

It's entertainment for us too, but it's a seriously guilty pleasure mixed with Schadenfreud.

 

[Mike1234567]

My version of "prepping" is to have at least 90 days supply of everything I may need in case of an emergency. I also have defensive and hunting firearms plus lots of ammo to trade/sell. Some folks would say even that's crazy.

I agree that the producers of shows like that scrape the bottom of the barrel to find the biggest doofusses on the planet.

 

[Tommygunn]

Still don't know HOW the guy managed to shoot his thumb, though OBVIOUSLY if he'd been practicing firearms safety it wouldn't have happened -- maybe the gun would malfunction and fire but the round wouldn't have hurt anyone.
I felt bad for the N.Y. firefighter. An old movie called NYC the Naked City (one meaning is unprotected) and given how difficult it is for honest people to obtain guns, it's possibly a better AKA than "Gotham." The problem is that criminals still have guns, and I wish the firefighter the best of luck with his knives and krav maga when he comes across an armed gang in a post SHTF situation.

It's easy to make fun of preppers -- especially some of the ones profiled in this show. As some have said the producers intend to depict them as .... odd.
But your home isn't "bulletproof" because a reinforcing beam will stop a .22RF. What about the thug with a .30-30 who will shoot through the wall, or the AK or M4orgery?
Bulletproofing isn't easy.
And maybe it just isn't possible to prep for EVERY contingency.
BUT you shouldn't fool yourself about what your weaknesses are.

 

[Mike1234567]

Does anyone know if a 10/22 will fire when set down too hard on the end of the butt stock? My guess is he may have held the rifle with at end of the barrel with his thumb covering the muzzle and set it down too hard.

 

[David E]

But treating ND and AD as anything but interchangeable is pure wasted effort. Negligent drivers cause traffic accidents every day.

Interchangeable? Hardly. You don't get charged with "accidental homicide," you get charged with "negligent homicide."

Words mean things.

Someone says they loaded all six cylinders....how many guns have they loaded?

A guy loads up 50 clips for his .30 caliber battle rifle....how many rounds did he load?

A person is injured when his gun misfires....did the gun function as designed or not?

 

[Hoppes Love Potion]

From what I have read, the show is purposely edited to mislead. Statements are taken out of context and the worst aspects of these peoples' beliefs and actions are featured. The lady with the cats said the crew tried to pay her to shoot her cats for the cameras.

I do quite a bit of video work myself and I know how radically you can change the narrative with a little creative editing.

It's like the Ghost Hunter series...they hear a noise, ask each other, "Did you make that noise? No, it wasn't me, wasn't me either, and there's nobody else here! It had to be a ghost!" Uh, what about the camera crew following you around? We're supposed to forget about that, I guess.

 

[mnhntr]

It was not a 10/22 he shot himself with. It was a snubby revolver.

 

[gym]

If you faint over the sight of a little blood, "and some do", a former friend, and employee and marine would go right down at the sight of blood and he was a 6'4" monster. It is going to be a problem right from the beginning. Fortunatelly my employee "John", only fained at the sight of his own blood. But still a problem when in any combat situation. Fortunatelly he was stationed in non combat zones, most of his tour, in between wars, mid 70's, but these prepper people are is a self defeating position as everyone who knows them, now knows where to run to if things do get nasty. Isn't it self defeating to spend 100,000.00 on supplies and then show them to the entire world. Desperate people would take them out in a matter of minutes, either with superior numbers or 1 exploive charge. I thought being discreet was what this was all about. Most of these folks seem to be "showing off" what they have accomplished, to be on tV, and get some kind of thumbs up from an imagiary expert who we don't ever get to see. Who are these peole and what is their thought process.

 

[coloradokevin]

One of my very well-prepared friends was offered the opportunity to be on this show. It sounded like an appealing prospect to him, right up until the time he figured out that the producers were really just looking for nut-jobs they could paint in a bad light.

I've never seen the show, but he definitely left the conversation with their producer feeling that they'd only make him out to look like a fool if he participated. Plus, most of the "prepper" types I know (him included) don't really like to have their stash shown on television.

 

[Cosmoline]

I wouldn't be too quick to condemn the guy. These producers are real monsters. And this isn't just about demonizing gun owners. It's about marginalizing those of us who realize combination of 15 trillion in debt (and counting), Helicopter Ben at the money switch and a dysfunctional government are steering us into some Big Trouble. Expect to see more of this sort of thing as the panic begins to build.

 

[David E]

It was not a 10/22 he shot himself with. It was a snubby revolver.

You know this how?

 

[Certaindeaf]

Never saw it. Never will. There's a lot of channels these days. Just type in whatever on Gooble hey.

 

[mnhntr]

I watched the show!

You know this how?

 

[David E]

I don't recall them mentioning a snub nose being involved, but I deleted the recording. At any rate, it would give the "negligence" charge more credence.

 

[ny32182]

Dictionary definition of accident:

noun
1. an undesirable or unfortunate happening that occurs unintentionally and usually results in harm, injury, damage, or loss; casualty; mishap: automobile accidents.

2. Law : such a happening resulting in injury that is in no way the fault of the injured person for which compensation or indemnity is legally sought.

3. any event that happens unexpectedly, without a deliberate plan or cause.

4. chance; fortune; luck: I was there by accident.

5. a fortuitous circumstance, quality, or characteristic: an accident of birth.

Omit consideration of #2 and 5 as they are not possibly applicable to the use of the word here.

#1 and #3 are, according to this listing, more commonly used definitions than #4. 1 and 3 don't speak to cause. #4 does.

Therefore, assuming no gun malfunction, an "accidental discharge" is an entirely accurate description of what happened, utilizing definition 1 (most common usage) or 3 above. It does not speak to cause. "Negligent" discharge would be a subset of "accidental" discharge in this case.

Using #4, "accidental" discharge would only be correct in the case of unforseeable gun malfunction.

The debate is dumber than "clip vs magazine"; at least someone is technically wrong in that arena.

 

[JustinJ]

Just becuase preppers have a gun does not make them "Gun Guys". They bought the gun because they were prepping not becuase they love guns. This is why they almost all have the same gun, 10/22 Which brings me to how to become a prepper. Well with the internet it's easy. Just look up the list of items you need and you'll find the 10/22.

While that may very well be true the many americans watching the show are neither into guns nor being paranoid about the end of the world but will now associate the two. It also doesn't help that many people into guns are 'end of the worlders'. When middle of the road americans make this connection they stop taking the 2nd amendment arguements seriously after they hear them from the same people claiming to need guns for the "upcoming revolution".

 

[David E]

What I find curious is the expert evaluation highlights things they could do better. IE; water for 6 months should be for a year.

Then they give the probability of their specific event happening: .0004%

Seems that would make the expert evaluation pointless.

 

[GEM]

Fainting at blood is well known - blood injury phobia - might have an inherited component - about two percent of the population.

 

[Hamilton Felix]

I haven't seen the episode with the guy shooting himself, but have to agree it's a really stupid move.

In general, I cut the show some slack. I know TV goes for sensationalism, but it's not quite the Jerry Springer of survivalism - not yet.

Each of the segments makes you think. The mistakes the people make do stimulate thought. I fully expected it to be entirely "let's laugh at the crazy survivalists," but they do have their own "experts" critique the preps of the people they interview, then come back later and see if they've taken the advice. Also, I almost fainted when they told one guy his skills for living off the land were good, but he needed to carry a gun for protection. NOT what I'd expect from any MSM source these days.

Before I realized some of them were definitely "a little off," my hat was off to any prepper who would consent to be on a TV show. I figured you'd have to care more about motivating others to prep (the more of us prepared, the better, if it really does hit the fan), if you were willing to paint a bullseye on yourself and your family. Most preppers prefer to maintain a low profile, for good reasons.

You look and see good things and foolish things in each segment. When you see the folks shooting the reinforced corner of their Conex box home with a .22 you wonder why they're not shooting the middle of the wall with .30 caliber ball ammo. But you look and see what they're doing right and what they're doing wrong. It's all a learning experience.

Frankly, I think the most truly serious preppers would never be on a TV show. You have to be just a bit "bent" to want to be on television.

BTW, National Geographic and Scientic American have become much more political, more "mainstream media, more PC, and generally less high quality publications than they were many years ago. So I was surprised to see this show on National Geographic Channel. It's mostly fluff, but I'll watch it if it happens to be on when we sit down in front of the TV.

Doomsday Preppers is no more stupid than "American Guns" shooting Mama's new custom pistol at filled champaign glasses, a vase of roses, an exploding cake and crap like that. My Dad told me when I was a kid, that if I shot glass and endangered his horses' feet, I was going to feel pretty damned endangered myself...

 

[Double Naught Spy]

Is it just me or do you think that the Doomsday Prepper show is actually counterproductive to the safety of the people on the show? I see where they have their stockpiles and one of the things they are prepared to do is to defend their stockpiles. So the shows up the people, their stockpiles, gives a general location as to where the person is and all that they have.

For example, take the first episode. You had Paul Range and his wife Gloria. They lived in the shipping containers outside of San Antonio by about 35 miles. Their specific location was not given. HOWEVER, a quick internet search turned up a limited number of folks named Paul Range in Texas. Turns out, there are several articles about the couple and they are listed in Floresville, Texas, which is about 35 miles from San Antonio. A further search on his name and the town name turned up this page .... http://www.meetup.com/HomesteadingPermacultureUrbanSurvivalSchool/
...which has a link to Reliance Community Farm with a map link that takes you here...
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=1977+County+Road+232,+Floresville,+TX
...and you now know the exact location of enough food for 22 people for more than a decade.

I would say that Paul and Gloria get a failing grade when it comes to security. They seem to have made themselves a readily identifiable target that is easy to locate. If you were truly concerned about defending your stores, why in the world would you go on TV and such and let people know what you have and provide enough information that you could be tracked down during a brief internet search?

I also liked how they were concerned about earthquakes. Do you notice the number of items stored in glass containers on open shelving units? A significant portion of their food is in glass containers they during an earthquake that the Preppers are supposedly prepared to handle, those items are going to fly off the shelves and shatter on the floor or are going to slam into each other during the seismic event and rupture right there on the shelf. So then they would have a lot of uncanned food starting to spoil that would be of questionable viability for consumption because it will be contaminated with glass shards.

My assessment? They have become so preoccupied with their preparations that they are actually less well prepared for the problems than they realize. When it was noted by the show's evaluators that they should not have all their food in one location, they expressed the defeatest logic that they figured that they would be dead if something bad happened that compromised their pantry. What?

Maybe I spoke prematurely. You don't want to mess with Paul Range. Why?
Because he has super elitist military training. Let's see, special forces, Range, UDT, jumpmaster, and he has a PhD. http://www.meetup.com/SanAntonioSurvivalistTribe/members/10889152/

I should have recognized his military training by the way he handled that little .22. Sometimes he almost hit his target.

 

[David E]

The folks that shot their home are the same ones that specified a major earthquake so severe, it would cause the continents to shift....but had what, 20 yrs worth of food stored in glass jars? No mention of that from the expert.

The NY firefighter going 4 blocks each way to retrieve ONE duffle bag of supplies? Seems like the risk far outweighed the benefit.

The New England community storing honey, etc, but dismissed guns as unnecessary. Their neighbor lib-nut calling gunowners stupid, would "show what he has, winning them over with his charm," but would poison them or slit their throats while they slept if he felt it necessary.

The couple that cleared their house as a team, she teaching other women how to shoot, cook, etc. But she is morbidly obese. No mention of her weight by the expert.

Interesting show, but I'm not impressed with most of the folks shown, or the expert evaluations.