Some are convinced the Feds will be, and some are convinced they already are an institution to be feared by its citizens. In part the fear is based on an executive order signed March 16, 2012, by then President Obama, titled National Defense Resources Preparedness.
The order falls in line with the Defense Production Act of 1950, as amended (50 U.S.C. App. 2061 et seq.), and section 301 of title 3, United States Code. The President of the United States is given the authority as Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of the United States (The White House, 2012).
The following is the exact wording taken from parts of the executive order under “general functions.”
(a) Identify requirements for the full spectrum of emergencies, including essential military and civilian demand;
(b) Assess on an ongoing basis the capability of the domestic industrial and technological base to satisfy requirements in peacetime and times of national emergency, specifically evaluating the availability of the most critical resource and production sources, including subcontractors and suppliers, materials, skilled labor, and professional and technical personnel (The White House, 2012).
What it states is that the government can commandeer resources to satisfy requirements in peacetime and times of national emergencies. Now, the million dollar question is who determines requirements and whose resources can be used?
The lack of specificity is what bothers many people. Just how far can the government go, can they come into your home and seize whatever resources they determine are needed for the greater cause, and what about your needs, your cause, and just what constitutes a national emergency by the way, and who gets to decide.
It’s all very confusing and somewhat scary, but there are over 315 million people in this country, so it is hard to imagine soldiers will come knocking on or kicking in every door to ransack the structure for Prepper supplies.
They do have the apparent authority based on the order, but it is also assumed as a matter of policy that they already know what resources are available and who controls said resources, so it is doubtful that anyone reading this is on the list of resources needed during an emergency, but just in case prepare based on the worst case scenario.
We have talked about staying off the radar in past articles, and how to avoid raising red flags and so on during your day-to-day activities in particular when it comes to gathering supplies for emergencies.
If they don’t have a reason to look at you closer they probably won’t. In most cases, you would have more to fear from friends and neighbors and other residents in the community than from the federal government. With that being said, however, local governments without direction from the federal government may decide they know what’s best for their community and law or no law about the commandeering of resources they may decide to take it upon themselves to start seizing property or goods once the SHTF.
Stashing or Caching
There are hundreds, if not thousands of articles online about hiding your supplies in your home. Well, if you think you have the perfect hiding place and received tips online about the perfect hiding place, do you think you are the only one that has figured it out besides the one that wrote the article on where to stash your goods.
What happens if the government or rogue Preppers, neighbors or so-called friends comes a knocking, or your common garden variety thief breaks in. Would they give up if they didn’t see your supplies scattered in plain sight about the living room.
Criminals know where the best hiding spots are, and desperate friends and neighbors would look and look hard for your supplies, but some of the hiding spots are great for deterring crimes of opportunity though.
If someone sees a wad of cash on the coffee table, they may grab it and run, but if they had to search for it, they may not have the time and or they fear getting caught. It’s the old saying about locks are for honest people. Criminals make their living from your hard work, and they will ransack your house if you are gone or they have taken it over, and they will find the best-kept secrets that survival experts are splashing all over the Internet. The government will find your supplies as well if they are hidden in the home, if they want to that is.
If you do hide all of your supplies in your home what happens if your house burns down or a flood carries it away or a tornado or hurricane levels it? Most, if not all of your supplies would be ruined. Do you have a plan for caching so you do have some resources to fall back on, plus caching means, they would be hidden from the government and others?
We have talked a lot about caching in previous articles. In fact, we are big advocates of it, if it is done right. Personally, I have never thought much about caching supplies along a predetermined route to a bug-out location because the route (s) can change. Bridges can wash out, tunnels can collapse or the river, which was five miles from your cache site, and was once peaceful and serene is now a rushing torrent carrying houses, trees, and your supplies along with it as it changes course until the next flood.
It makes more sense to cache supplies at your destination, so if you do have to alter your route then you are not leaving supplies behind. All you have to worry about is having enough supplies to get there, along with the capability of getting there. This requires planning, and it also means you need a destination in mind with a reliable means of transporting yourself there.
Another option is to cache supplies near your home, in your backyard even, so you have supplies for the journey or for sustaining yourself if you have to shelter near your home, which may have been taken over or destroyed. You can cache supplies at your destination and/or at a location near where you would embark on your trip.
Caching is hard work especially if you have a large stockpile and the rule of thumb is to assume you would come upon your cache with nothing in hand so all caches would need to meet all of the basic requirements, which are shelter, water, food, protection and medical. You have to assume you would be empty handed when arriving at the cache site or otherwise you would start splitting up supplies.
Some like to cache firearms and ammunition in one spot and other supplies elsewhere. People sometimes get it in their heads that during a crisis all you need are weapons. In most emergencies a firearm would be the last survival tool you would ever use, we say in most cases.
Have more than one cache but make sure each one is capable of sustaining you from that point forward. You don’t want to wander hither and yon gathering water from one cache and food and medical supplies from another and so forth or be caught without a firearm or ammunition.
Your objective is to protect your supplies, and have supplies ready to pack and go if need be. Having all of your supplies in one place means they can be destroyed or stolen at one time. Anyone, to include government agents that come knocking would expect to see the normal three to five days of food, and water on hand. Make sure that’s all they see.
Unless they have reason to believe you have a small armory in the basement or have been gathering massive amounts of supplies they would not look further in most cases. It would be hard to believe that any government agency would take supplies you need to survive because this would defeat their purpose. However, again a very large supply may be taken and redistributed. Their purpose would be to keep everyone alive, supposedly, so factor this into your prepping plans.
The White House. (2012, March 16). Retrieved 2017, from https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2012/03/16/executive-order-national-defense-resources-preparedness