If You Build It ~ They Will Steal It, Are You Prepared?

USA –  -(AmmoLand.com)- There was an insurance company commercial running on TV back when I first wrote this column. This is an update to that article reflecting the trying times we find ourselves in. The TV commercial featured a dog who was worried about the safety of his bone. He first buries the bone, but he constantly is looking out into his yard to make sure the bone has not been dug up and stolen. He then takes the bone to a bank and places it in a safety deposit box, where it is really secure. But again the dog loses sleep over his bone.

So finally he brings the bone home and leaves it out, insecure in his home. However, now he has the red umbrella of an insurance company hovering over his bone and the little doggie can sleep soundly. The bone can be stolen by another dog, but since the bone is insured against loss or theft the cute little K-9 who owns the bone, has no worries. No matter what happens, the dog gets a check from the insurance company so he can go out and replace the bone.

Now what if there are no new bones to be had, no matter how much money the insurance company gives him to replace the missing old bone?

What if he gets this windfall check to cover his loss, but there is no money in the local bank to cash the check? Even if he gets the check cashed there are no new bones to be had at any cost. The dog had great insurance coverage but he failed to “assure” that he would have a bone to chew when hard times came. If the bone was still buried in the ground he could go dig it up when he got hungry.

Maybe the bank he was using might not have any cash to distribute, but the bone would be safe in the security vault. Unfortunately, in times of crisis the dog had a check, which in reality is worth only the paper it is printed on and he has nothing to eat. Insured against loss, but no “assurance” that he will be able to eat and therefore survive the coming disaster. The truth of the matter is, in real hard times that cute little dog has a better than even chance of winding up in someone’s cooking pot and providing an assured meal for some hungry human who failed to prepare.

Gold is over $1800 an ounce. I am old enough to remember when this country was on the gold standard and gold was $35 an ounce. People buy gold when they do not trust what is happening to their paper money. It may be too late to even think about gold. If you have $1800 to spend on a gold coin I strongly suggest you put that money into assuring you can feed your family and protect your loved ones from harm.

I continue to say and I mean it most sincerely, in time of crisis the only two things of true value are food and firearms. However, when I say firearms I really mean ammunition.

Having a gold coin means nothing if I cannot find anything to buy that I can eat. Inflation is coming. If you have any spare money now is the time to stock-pile the things you have to have, not what you want to have. You cannot have too much canned-food in your home. Even in good times, you can skip going out to eat and make a home-cooked meal from all the stored up food items you have, whether hard times ever come.

We are a nation of people who do not know how to help ourselves. When bad things happen, we look to others immediately to save us and provide for us. Envision no one is there to save you or give you anything to exist on. Now envision what little you have, the have-nots are coming to take it from you and hurt your family during that confrontation.

This is where the firearms and plenty of ammo become so valuable.

As of today the going price for 9mm ammo is $80.00 ~ $100 a box for hardball ammunition. If you want jacketed hollow point you will pay $130 and up. 357 mag is $160 a box and 38 spl has an asking price of between $150 and $250. I know “you” and “I” would never pay that much. But someone is because the prices are not going down.

22LR ammo online from the legitimate ammo distributors is $27 to $50 for a box of 50 rounds. I wrote a column years ago projecting that 22LR would sell for whatever the value of a silver dollar in time a crisis and the projection was $200. That however was when the world was supposedly falling apart and there was panic in the streets of the nation. To have 22LR selling for $50 a box right now is scary and a tad bit creepy.

12ga ammo is getting harder and harder to find. The slugs and buckshot disappeared a couple of months ago but when you walk into a store and there is no 12ga of any kind on the shelf this is alarming.

Take a long look at your home. What room could you retrograde to, where you could keep your family warm, dry, fed, and protected in? There is that food and firearms thing again. When I was stationed in Korea the locals ate dogs regularly. You could buy a puppy in the town market. They would slaughter it for you and you took it home to eat. We are a country of animal lovers, including me, we imagine we could not participate in that feeding concept.

We all know what insurance is and how we hate to make those insurance payments to cover our health, our life, our home, our cars, and anything else we might own. But for that, we expect, no we demand that someone compensate us for our loss when the tornado destroys our property.

If there is no insurance man to pick up the pieces for you and reimburse you for your loss how do you go on? If every home on your block is burned to the ground in a civil “disturbance” but yours, will you gladly open your doors and your assured “stores” to your panicked and desperately in need neighbors?

Get some assurance or be prepared to eat your pets. This is not a joke, hard times are almost here.

Let us think back to the 1919 baseball World Series scandal and apply it to today’s situation. Shoeless Joe Biden and the Whitehouse Black-Sox have the game.

Recall that famous baseball movie in the cornfields of Iowa. “IF YOU BUILD IT—THEY WILL STEAL IT.”

There are no designated hitters in this game. Everyone must take their turn at the bat. Even an old bat, ball, and glove are better than no sports equipment at all. The game is afoot, but it is no game. It is time to hustle the ball and acquire some assurance.

If you are going to stand in a cornfield and wait for your life to change hopefully for the better, take your sports equipment with you out onto that field just in case you have to swing and hit against multiple opposing teams.

“IF YOU BUILD IT—THEY WILL STEAL IT” maybe or maybe not–you decide.

About Major Van Harl USAF Ret.:

Major Van E. Harl USAF Ret., a career Police Officer in the U.S. Air Force, was born in Burlington, Iowa, USA, in 1955. He was the Deputy Chief of police at two Air Force Bases and the Commander of Law Enforcement Operations at another. He is a graduate of the U.S. Army Infantry School.  A retired Colorado Ranger and currently is an Auxiliary Police Officer with the Cudahy PD in Milwaukee County, WI.  His efforts now are directed at church campus safety and security training.  He believes “evil hates organization.”  [email protected]