If possible, I would like to discuss small arms with you guys. I'll try to describe what I see as a problem in the first part, and offer what I believe is the solution in the second. I believe there is an unhealthy fixation on small arms in general, from hunting community to the amateur radio/survivalist/conspiracies communities and most important of all, our 'community' or movement or whatever it is. Could be wrong, but my belief is simple:
Small arms pride is like small dick pride.
It is very simple: categorically superior and just overall BETTER weapons are available, while legal small arms are near useless at everything.
I see guys among us who think they are ready for third world war because they own their civilianized pigeon caliber non auto glorified pistols. It is just low effort on their part. Purchasing such toys doesnt affect your ability to fight the zog in the least. They will still smoke you out. They will encircle you. Their vehicles are hardened, their body armor thicker than you can penetrate. They WILL call the nearest national guard to fire off a howitzer and blow up your wooden house and just say drug lab exploded or something. I mean I am sorry but there are too many people (some are even obese) who got trapped in this false sense of security because they own ineffectual small arms and they are even proud of it.
Ive been looking into armed conflict as much as I could, and being from former Yugoslavia I had a lot of civil war veterans to talk to about it, nearly all of them survived lots of combat. And I concluded that we simply must step our game up. Being properly armed in the modern age requires multiple phd's in physics and mathematics and electrical engineering, as well as billions of dollars in rare earths and precious materials for airforce type of stuff, however being decently armed is realistic and achievable and should be pursued. It only requires basics of chemistry and electronics, undergrad math, and basic academic level of mechanical engineering. We need to start learning about propellants and primers. We need to know how to weld and use basic machining tools and lathes (affordable). We need to learn at least trigonometry for aiming mortars and howitzers. How to entrench ourselves with sturdy enough support beams to survive both artillery and land slides in the trenches. How to harden vehicles. How to fight effectively, for example using flamethrowers in urban environment where fire can consume oxygen from rooms and smoke alone choke people to death. How to use indirect weapons even in close fights, like those portable 30mm mortars. And so on.