I’ve heard from people I work with as well as people online, who don’t own weapons, but think it might be a good time to get one ‘just in case’. There is a lot of economic uncertainty today and along with this comes concern about political and social instability. Could America see riots, food shortages, a coup? I hope not, and I try to be optimistic, but these possibilities exist and seem much less remote than they did even six months ago. If you believe that there is a chance that you made need to hunt for food or defend yourself in the case of looting, riots, or martial law, then it would make sense to arm yourself in case any of these things come to pass.

This is really a quick beginners guide to firearms, and with that being said I would encourage anyone who is new to firearms to take some kind of a safety course before using a gun. Like cars, guns can be very useful but they can also be dangerous if you don’t know what you’re doing. Different types of firearms have different applications and ideally a person would have a different firearm for each purpose, but since times are tight and beginners aren’t likely to buy a whole bunch of firearms I’m going to focus on guns that are good “all around” if that’s all you can afford.

Handguns are very practical for self defense because they are small enough to be carried concealed on one’s person and they are easy to wield inside one’s home when there is a strange noise in the middle of the night. However, I would not recommend buying one if you are concerned about social unrest. Presumably there are going to be bad guys with guns that pose a threat to you, and this is a main factor in your decision to buy a gun now. Most gun fights happen at close range, but if the person shooting at you is more than 10-20 yards away they’ll have a distinct advantage with a rifle or shotgun. Most handguns that people carry for protection are also much less practical for hunting than long guns.

So we’ve narrowed  the “all around” gun down to a long gun, but that is still a pretty wide field. In basic terms this group of firearms consists of two categories: rifles & shotguns. Rifles have spiraling grooves in their barrels which are called rifling. They fire single projectiles with each shot and the rifling in their barrels causes the projectile to spiral like a football while in flight. Shotguns usually lack rifling and while they can fire single projectiles know as slugs, they are as a rule less accurate than rifles. The advantage to shotguns is that they can fire multiple projectiles, referred to as shot, at once. Shot varies in size from buckshot which is typically used for hunting deer or self defense down to bird shot which can be used to hunt birds and small game animals.

There are pros and cons to both types of firearms, but I believe that the shotgun is the best multi-use firearm. Buckshot is more than sufficient to stop an attacker, and the fact that the projectiles spread while in flight gives a beginner a better chance of hitting their target with the first shot. This is good news if that target is someone trying to shoot you, or an animal that you’re hoping to have for dinner. If you can only have one gun, then I personally recommend a pump action 12 gauge shotgun. I’m partial to the Mossberg 500 series myself.

This is a personal recommendation, and a general one at that. Shotguns have very limited effectiveness beyond 100 yards, and if you live in an area with a lot of open space, you may want to consider a rifle instead. There is also the fact that most shotguns do not take detachable magazines, although the Saiga is an exception. Having to reload one round at a time is very bad news in the middle of a gun fight. If these issues outweigh the benefits of a shotgun’s versatility for you, then you need to decide which rifle best suits you.

There are a number of rifle calibers to choose from and obviously different cartridges have different purposes. The debate of which chambering is “best” is too extensive to condense into this article, but at the very least it should be a caliber that is likely to be readily available and useful for self defense and hunting. I would recommend a semiautomatic rifle that is fairly compact. The SKS & AK variants are popular with survivalists because of their perceived reliability. My own personal experience with these models has been good but I would also recommend the Ruger Mini-14.

There are a number of “battle rifles” such as the M-1, M-1A, FAL, & CETME. These are great guns, but if you’re a novice with firearms and you can only have one, I don’t recommend them. These guns would be a great choice if your main concern is shooting elk and engine blocks at 300 plus yards, but they aren’t very practical in hunting small game or defending yourself from an attacker who will most likely be in close to you.

If you are considering purchasing a gun, I hope this has been helpful to you. For those who think I’m crazy and managed to read this far, I’d like to point out a couple things. I’m not saying that we’re necessarily headed for the collapse of society, and I am hopeful that in the long run life in the United States and for humanity as a whole will get better. I don’t know if we will see a depression, riots, or martial law in the next several years, and I hope we don’t, but the possibility is real. Even if society as a whole ends up doing fine there are always isolated incidents where it pays to be prepared. Hurricane Katrina and the LA riots are good examples of localized events where law enforcement was powerless to protect people and property for a period of time. You need to arm yourself before an emergency, because once you actually need a gun it’s almost always too late to get one.