How do you define SHTF? What does SHTF mean to you?

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El Rojo

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A .223 or .308 thread over in the Rifle Country got me to thinking about how people define SHTF and what does it mean to you? Feel free to comment on any aspect of SHTF. Here are some primer questions.

What is and what isn't SHTF?

Do you feel prepared for SHTF?

Will you ever see a SHTF scenario?

Is SHTF just a myth perpetrated by the mall ninja supply industrial complex?

Thank you and flame away.
 
Most of the couch commandos around here believe that SHTF will come when blue helmeted UN troops are walking down every street gunning down US citizens at will and folks like me are serving no-knock warrants for the sole purpose to disarm you.

Our government is a lot of things but not stupid, that is the last thing the liberals would try, because it would be tantamount to a coup and they know this.

Americans are lazy and slow to anger, but when we do we would be a force to reckon with, just look at history.

I’m not being racist here I am simply stating fact and history.

When minority folks get mad and have riots and civil uprisings they tend to destroy their own stuff, homes and infrastructure, case in point Watts and South Central LA Riots.

When White Euro Types get mad/wild hair up the yang countries die and entire races and cultures of people tend to vanish, example the Native Americans, Hitler, Stalin etc…

I firmly believe that the above loss of rights total submission to the liberal state will happen but it will happen very slowly over the next 100 years or so, all the while 99.9% of the hordes will be content as long as there is beer in the fridge and NASCAR or WWF on the tube…

True SHTF scenarios to worry about now?

Just look at CNN and what’s happening in the South Pacific that is SHTF!
 
I think there are all kinds of levels of SHTF. The short term social chaos types include riots (LA), post-natural disaster looting (FL), extended power outages (so far have not led to mayhem, to my knowledge). The next level includes more wide spread panic, like a decent size (?) dirty bomb goes off up-wind of the town I live in (nearest major city is 35 miles north) and people lose it. That could have a more extended time frame. Last would be something big, like a foreign invasion (very unlikely) or a civil war (more likely than a foreign invasion, but still highly unlikely).

Am I ready? Maybe for the smaller issues, but not at all for any of the big scenarios. I'm probably more "prepared" than most, but I don't have large food/water stores or medical supplies and my home was not purchased with defensibility in mind.
 
I am prepared for the worst, but that doesn't mean I expect blue helmets to come marching down my street or LEOs to come serving no knock warrants.

I think chaos resulting from an extended power outage or a natural disaster is far more likely to occur.

If or when SHTF happens, I'll be armed and ready, but I hope to be helping my good neighbors with what they might need.

Indeed, when we had that big power outage on Aug. 14, 2003, I did just that.

Thankfully it only lasted one day.
 
SHTF in South Asia. It's a generic term for when things go bad in your area. Could be an Earthquake, Hurricane or other Natural Disaster. There are people who feel that S will HTF when the USA accepts the leadership of the UN or another government.
 
When White Euro Types get mad/wild hair up the yang countries die and entire races and cultures of people tend to vanish, example the Native Americans, Hitler, Stalin etc…
Click to expand...
And don't forget it.

A real SHTF situation would require much more than firearms. I'm thinking a complete breakdown in society (for whatever reason). Commerce stops. Stores closed/looted. You have to make due with what you've got.
 
Personally, I prepare for zombies. I figure if I can survive the night of the living dead just about everything else will be a cake walk.

There are also a lot more decent documentaries and training simulators available. (Zombies movies and video games.)

Best of all people think I am joking when I I talk about that sort of thing and don't stare at me the way they do when someone starts sounding off about the Trilateral comission and the UN invading the USA. :neener:
 
In answer to the questions, one by one, on a firearms-related level (since this is a FIREARMS forum):

1) SHTF is when someone is trying to kill/seriously injure/harm myself or any of my loved ones. No more. No less.

2) Yes, I feel prepared in most instances for a SHTF scenario.

3) I don't know if I'll ever see a SHTF scenario. I feel as though I've been close on a couple of occasions, but one really doesn't know until they're there.

4) SHTF is DEFINITELY NOT a myth. Peoples' lives are taken from them everyday against their will. Until that stops, then there will be s*** hitting the fan at sometime, somewhere.

Just my $.02,
38SnubFan
 
In order of increasing severity: zombies, invasion by space aliens, and the Beast of the Apocalypse taking the oath of office.
 
I'm watching a movie on FX right now called "Small Pox." It's about a bio-terrorist attack that unleashes small pox on an unprepaired world. That would be a true SHTF scenario. All the social, economic, legal, and moral structures break down. No matter what we do to prepare, we won't know what to do until we are in a situation.
 
I define a "SHTF" scenario as one which presents an immediate risk of death or serious harm to you, your loved ones, or even strangers around you.

The SHTF when the badguy sticks a gun in a clerk's face.
The SHTF when an officer has to fire his weapon.
The SHTF when a CCW holder has to draw his weapon.
The SHTF when somebody breaks into your house with you there.
The SHTF when a natural disaster hits where you are.

Note: The blue helmets wandering around in the USA would be a TEOTWAWKI (The End Of The World As We Know It). Nuclear attack(WMD), Super disease, Extraterrestrials, Zombies, Mutant Ninja Zombie Bears, and such are these scenarios.

The Tsunami that recently hit was a SHTF situation for the people in the area. It was a TEOTWAWKI for the survivors.

I feel prepared for many SHTF scenarios. TEOTWAWKI, well, I figure that I'll be reporting to work, as best as I can, and not have a personal life for a few years, or die trying to prevent it's spread. Work will provide the food, water, and clothing under most scenarios, at least for a few years.

*edit: lee n. field, Ky Larry, those are TEOTWAWKI scenarios, they're SHTF for the entire world. A SHTF is generally considered more of a personal or localized event.
 
I don't think the macho militia types are thinking of individual crime. I also don't share their fantasies about blue helmets or black helicopters.

You might recall that the last SHTF scenario involved the famous Y2K. Some of us computer professionals said that we weren't worried and that the problem, if it ever existed, was well in hand. We were shouted down by the panic promoters, and told to hoard food, flee to the hills, and stockpile ammo. Some of those clowns are still eating their tons of MRE's and trying to explain to their wives why they sold the house and moved into a cave.

Maybe someday the S will HTF. I plan to do everything I can to preserve the right to keep and bear arms against the possibility that the day might come in my lifetime. But I am not building fallout shelters or buying MRE's (not even duct tape).

Jim
 
I'd think that "SHTF" would be any time a natural or social disaster occurs such that the police agencies can not protect, or will not protect, the general populace from itself or from its police.


Respectfully,

jdkelly
 
In a nutshell....

I'd say when your normal supplyline of "stuff" is disrupted for an extended period by third party influences......you can see the beginning of SHTF from there.
 
I see it as natural disaster and rioting. Invasion and civil war seem a bit more distant.

In some areas drug/gang wars could be a reality and personal violence/crime would be a SHTF in my world.

Terrorism is also another possible scenario.

I feel slightly prepared and am working on getting a little more but it comes with time. Right now its just a good reason to buy all those fun rifles.
 
SHTF is when, three minutes before I have to leave the house for work, I open up the General Discussion forum and see the following:

Three threads that are not gun related. One of which should be locked and the other two sent to RT.

One thread that is all about handguns.

Another that's all about the FAL.

Yet another asking for advice on buying a new reloading press.

And two threads talking about how cool the IDPA competition last weekend was.
 
Shtf?

Justin, your problem isn't deciding what to do with those various threads, it's "working." You need to stop that. You'd be surprised how much time you suddenly have to do all the stuff you like.
I know. I tried working for awhile but decided right away that I didn't like it, so I stopped. Granted, it took me 45 years and some messed-up knees to get me out of the work force, but tomorrow morning I can sleep in and when I do get up I won't have to put on a suit or tie. On top of that, I've now learned to get along without sound knees.
 
SHTF is when SWMBO catches me doing something I shouldnt be doing. Everything else is just chewing gum for the internet mind


WildwheresmysurvivalstuffAlaska
 
I don't really get into the SHTF scenarios too much. But, I'm not so moronic as to believe it can't/won't happen.

Rwanda, Bosnia, Kosovo...Tsunamis...Earthquakes/Hurricanes.....there's all kinds of real-life SHTF scenarios happening every day all over the world. We've just been lucky here in the states that we haven't had a full-scale version in a long long while. I don't drive around in a "bug out vehicle" complete with a "bug out bag" and survival supplies everywhere I go. But I'm not completely unprepared either, and mentally, I'm ready to do whatever I need to do to keep my family safe and survive. One's willpower and brains will do more to keep you safe and alive than any .223 vs. .308, AR-15 vs. AK debates will. In the end, that's all just semantics.
 
SHTF, to me, is a time of immediate action where the long-term consequences of your actions are no longer considered. That means if there is a major riot, I or my family is in fear of death, or if someone is running around walmart with a pistol shooting at cashiers. This also extends to natural disasters, disasters made with a human touch, or what have you. If the S has HTF, you do what you need to do, then worry about the consequences.
 
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