Showing posts with label defence. Show all posts
Showing posts with label defence. Show all posts

Tuesday, September 24, 2019

Thoughts For The Week By Ron Owen of Owen Guns. September 2019.



Thoughts For The Week.
Keep Your Powder Dry.
First of all let me put it on the record, I am not anti Chinese, I spent a lot of good times in China during the 1980s and early 1990s. As a student of military history I visited the Great Wall in several places, shot on their rifle ranges,visited military museums and the Terracotta Army in Xi’an. I have long standing friendships that I value with Chinese friends, my only problem with China is that their communist leadership and corrupt political system has taken a path of expansionism and will not turn back from it unless it has a cataclysmic change in leadership. Napoleon Bonaparte said “China is a sleeping giant. Let her sleep, for when she wakes she will shake the world.” and it will take the rest of the world to stop her from shaking the world to death. This week US President Donald Trump has welcomed Prime Minister Scott Morrison to the White House for a historic state visit. Asked whether he was only concerned about trade with China or if he saw the country as a strategic threat, he said: “Obviously China is a threat to the world in a sense because they are building their military faster than anybody and frankly they are using US money.”

China Increasing War Budget.
Scott Morrison, will be having a quiet word with President Trump seeking ‘quid pro quo’ assurances that if Australia joins the USA coalition against Iran, that when the chips are down with China that America will take over China to save Australia. The answer will of course be in the affirmative, but when the chips are down and a US President Trump or worse Biden, or worse Warren has to make a choice of going nuclear to save Australia knowing that China’s nuclear missiles will certainly take out Seattle, Hawaii, San Francisco and Los Angles killing a 100 million Americans to save 20 million Australians. That sacrifice scenario becomes even less likely as even if China and North Korea were wiped out, what would remain of the USA, theoretically the East Coast would not be able to withstand an attack from Russia, so even if Russia did not feel disposed to get involved it would be the last remaining World Power which would then dominate Europe and the World.

Weapons that could be used in the Pacific wipeout war. Notice Australia did not get a mention.
So saving Australia from China by America is highly unlikely, even though America is following the same formula to create a war, as President Franklin D. Roosevelt did prior to World War Two. At that time similar to China today, Japans Naval power was beginning to dwarf the USAs Pacific Fleet, Japan needed raw materials and living space from China, President F.D. Roosevelt knew that if Japan succeeded in conquering all of China then it would be an unstoppable super power so he imposed a oil and fuel ban on Japan unless it withdrew from China. Faced with having a few months supply left Japan decided to try to sink the US Pacific fleet at Pearl Harbour and struck south to capture the Burmah Oil and Seria Field ,Borneo Oil, ( Brunei) and the living space, food and resources rich continent of Australia.

Due to Japan not succeeding to win the Battle of the Coral Sea, and suffering huge losses in Burma and the Kokoda Trail Australia remained a large base on the southern flank of Japan which America was able to re-enforce. So if Japan had struck South attacked Australia first, and not attacked the USA at Pearl Harbour, and not tried to take India through Siam, the USA would have stayed isolationist with the Monroe Doctrine and Japan with all its force concentrated in the South would have won Australia.
The Spratley Islands, Chinese Bases are really close to the Brunei oilfields.
Once it consolidated Australia’s resources they could chose who to attack next. We can be assured that present day China will see the move of President Trump to keep applying tariffs denying China from the worlds largest market, like “Déjà Vu”. They well know that manufactured exports are their only profit makers, every other aspect of their economy makes huge losses, housing, food production, (they now have to import food again) Fuel,(oil, gas and coal have to be imported) without their exports, without foreign exchange to pay for imports, without their resources (food, and fuel) the future finishes in bankruptcy and starvation. They are being forced into making a decision, either to withdraw contract, returning to their past position, or to attack and like Germany in WW2 gain Lebensraum (‘living space’) in order to survive.. We can only hope that Scott Morrison is aware of this and is chewing Mr Trumps ear asking him to leave a way out. Even if he gets a promise, I am doubtful if it will ever be honoured as Trump needs to close the Chinese exports off so the United States can re-build its industry, give jobs to the voters to gain re-election.
In my August Bulletin “Thoughts of the Week” to summarise I explained Australia lack of an adequate defence force, our lack of Defence Industries, the scenario of China building an Island base at Long Island, (Chesterfield Islands) and then moving on to Lord Howe Island. The inability and lack of interest for any other nation to move them. (As with the South China Sea Spratley Islands, the USA has not stepped in to throw China off the Islands that the Philippines claims as its territory) The probability that China dominating all of Australia’s sea and air ways would blockade, preventing the importation of fuel, or manufacturing materials, in less then 25 days diesel fuel and petrol would run out, food would not be delivered to the shops, Australia the land of plenty would starve. Australian politicians would surrender, do a deal and fly to the South of France. The Australian population being superfluous to the Chinese requirements would die out.
The only consolation would be the thought that Australia’s left wing unionists, media and greenies would finally find out the reality of Communism, as they would be the first to have their body parts and organs sold off. The Muslim Shari law clerics would soon follow them. The skilled workers who produced things would survive a little longer.
This Bulletin goes out to a mail list with 10,000 subscribers about 20 or 30 complimented me on my efforts to awaken Australia to pending disaster, the rest either did not read my article and just looked at the adverts, or read it and did not accept it. They may think that it is a one sided debate, maybe, but here are a few words from the Chinese perspective.
It is hard to find the Chinese perspective as the Chinese governments suppresses the truth and keeps an unyielding grip of silence on its citizens within and without the nations borders. I was in Beijing at the beginning of June 1989 and then returned a week after the Tiananmen Square Massacre.

I was staying at the Beijing Hotel which was in East Tiananmen, it was amazing to see a million peaceful people at one time in the square. I returned home and within a week there were tank tracks and huge burn marks on the square as though flame throwers had incinerated them. I was shocked how a country could treat its own citizens and amazed at how quickly it was hushed up.
This stranglehold means that, even today, relatively little information is available about the Tiananmen Square massacre. However, British ambassador to China, Sir Alan Donald wrote a secret diplomatic cable around 24 hours after the massacre, which the British Government only declassified in 2017. The cable reveals stunning information previously unknown to most of the world, and most likely, China itself.
According to Donald, at least 10,000 people were killed. One of the Chinese army units was apparently so vicious that the former ambassador described them as “primitives” in his document. The cable provides a hitherto unprecedented look at what really occurred that night and day. Donald’s cable has since found a new home in the U.K. National Archives. The former ambassador was an eye witness to most of it from the rooftop of the Embassy but explained that the details of his report stemmed from personal conversations from a “good friend” in China’s State Council, the government’s cabinet, who spoke to Donald in confidence.
Donald said his source “has previously proved reliable and was careful to separate fact from speculation and rumor,” making his recounting of the events of June 3 and June 4 highly credible.
Donald’s cable to London described the “atrocities” against several thousand pro-democracy protesters as being undertaken by the 27th Army of Shanxi Province. He called this truculent group of soldiers “60 % illiterate” and “primitives.”
According to Donald and his trusted source, however, the local Beijing troops that entered Tiananmen Square prior to the 27th Army were unarmed. The people gave them flowers and expected them to stay and protest with them. This was an initial attempt to disperse the massive group of protesters without violence, as most were students, unarmed, and non-violent.
Unfortunately, this approach rapidly came to an end.
“The 27 Army APCs (armored personnel carriers) opened fire on the crowd before running over them,” Donald wrote in his cable. “APCs ran over troops and civilians at 65kph (40 miles per hour).” He explained that even though the CCP had provided protestors with a warning, even this small amount of leeway was underhanded, a lie, and viciously broken.”
“Students understood they were given one hour to leave square, but after five minutes APCs attacked,” Donald said. “The group of protesters remained steadfast, even in the face of annihilation. Shots rang out, innocents were struck, and people began to die. Nonetheless — there was power in numbers, and solidarity that allowed them to find courage, and thousands joined hands as bullets flew”.
“Students linked arms but were mown down,” wrote Donald. “APCs then ran over the bodies time and time again to make, quote ‘pie’ unquote, and remains collected by bulldozer.”
As if this wasn’t atrocious enough, the government’s criminal and brutal activity that day got even worse. With no regard for the families of these victims, not to mention their identities, what was left of them was disposed of, in an unspeakably callous manner.” Remains incinerated and then hosed down drains,” Donald wrote.
According to Donald, the violent attacks stemmed from a substantial portion of China’s State Council that was afraid of civil war breaking out. The nationwide tides seemed to be turning and those in power would certainly not benefit from a freer populous. Thus, clamping down forcefully on any kind of dissent was vital to their interests. On top of that, the recently declassified cable stated that the 27th Army was called into action that day specifically because of its disregard for anything but orders. The troops were “the most reliable and obedient,” Donald explained. “The 27 Army was ordered to spare no one,” he wrote. “Wounded girl students begged for their lives but were bayoneted. A three-year-old girl was injured, but her mother was shot as she went to her aid, as were six others.”
The diplomat’s sources also told him that “snipers shot many civilians on balconies, street sweepers etc for target practice.” The declassified document also claimed that this excessive force continued even after the first wave of killings were completed. “A 1,000 survivors were told they could escape but were then mown down by specially prepared MG (machine gun) positions,” wrote Donald. “Army ambulances who attempted to give aid were shot up, as was a Sino-Japanese hospital ambulance.”
“With medical crew dead, a wounded driver attempted to ram attackers but was blown to pieces by an anti-tank weapon. “Donald’s declassified cable even claimed that troops killed one of their own officers. ” A 27 Army officer was shot dead by his comrades, apparently because he faltered,” said Donald. “Troops explained they would be shot if they hadn’t shot the officer.”
Of course, Chinese state TV was painting an entirely different picture. Before the army was deployed to wipe out protestors, government television was repeatedly broadcasting the following claims:
“Tonight a serious counter-revolutionary rebellion took place. Thugs frenziedly attacked People’s Liberation Army troops, seizing weapons, erecting barricades, beating soldiers and officers in an attempt to overthrow the government of the People’s Republic of China.”
“For many days, the People’s Liberation Army has exercised restraint and now must resolutely counteract the rebellion. All those who refuse to listen to reason must take full responsibility for their actions and their consequences.”
The Chinese Red Cross estimated the death toll to be around 2,700 people on June 4, 1989. While this is far less conservative than the Chinese Governments preposterous count of 200-300, it’s far lower than Donald’s account, which ended with a stunning figure.
“Minimum estimate of civilian dead 10,000,” the final sentence of his cable read.
Sir Alan Donald’s now-declassified assessment of the Tiananmen Square massacre and the resulting death toll aligns completely with a confidential U.S. government file reported on in 2014. This document quoted a Chinese military source and said the CCP’s own internal figures estimated the body count to be 10,454 people. Chinese friends of mine at the time told me that over 10,000 were killed and over 10,000 were arrested and they worked for the Chinese Police (Jin Ang Corporation)

General Chi Haotian Defence Minister
Who was responsible for organising this massacre? I have asked and the only answers I have received have named General Chi Haotian as the director of the military’s enforcement of martial law in Beijing to suppress the protests in Tiananmen Square. As at the time he was Chief of Staff he instructed the commanding officers of the Beijing, Shenyang, and Jinan Military Districts to “finalize the name list of every group army division scheduled to advance into Beijing and their exact times of departure and arrival, as well as details regarding primary duties“, according to the “Daily Report” (Meiri yibao) from the Central Military Commission Office, dated 19 May 1989. This military buildup removed the local military force and introduced the external forces who took part in the Beijing massacre, which took place on 3rd and 4th June and led to his promotion to Minister of Defence until 2001.  His perspective on China’s future plans were specified in a his speech, text below
By Chief of General Staff and Vice -Chairman China’s Military Commission Comrade Chi Haotian, December, 2005 to top officers and generals. This is his Modus Operandi.
“Comrades, I’m very excited today, because the large-scale online survey by sina.com that was done for us showed that our next generation is quite promising and our Party’s cause will be carried on. In answering the question, “Will you shoot at women, children and prisoners of war,” more than 80 per cent of the respondents answered in the affirmative, exceeding by far our expectations. Today I’d like to focus on why we asked sina.com to conduct this online survey among our people. My speech today is a sequel to my speech last time, during which I started with a discussion of the issue of the three islands (Taiwan, Diaoyu Islands) and the (Spratley Islands) and mentioned that 20 years of the idyllic theme of ‘peace and development’ had come to an end, and concluded that modernization under the saber is the only option for China’s next phase. I also mentioned we have a vital stake overseas. The central issue of this survey appears to be whether one should shoot at women, children and prisoners of war, but its real significance goes far beyond that. Ostensibly, our intention is mainly to figure out what the Chinese people’s attitude towards war is: If these future soldiers do not hesitate to kill even non combatants, they’ll naturally be doubly ready and ruthless in killing combatants. Therefore, the responses to the survey questions may reflect the general attitude people have towards war. We wanted to know: If China’s global development will necessitate massive deaths in enemy countries; will our people endorse that scenario? Will they be for or against it? The fact is, our ‘development’ refers to the great revitalization of the Chinese nation, which, of course, is not limited to the land we have now but also includes the whole world. As everybody knows, according to the views propagated by the Western scholars, humanity as a whole originated from one single mother in Africa. Therefore no race can claim racial superiority. However, according to the research conducted by most Chinese scholars, the Chinese are different from other races on earth. We did not originate in Africa. Instead, we originated independently in the land of China. Therefore, we can rightfully assert that we are the product of cultural roots of more than a million years, civilization and progress of more than ten thousand years, an ancient nation of five thousand years, and a single Chinese entity of two thousand years. This is the Chinese nation that calls itself ‘descendants of Yan and Huang.’ During our long history, our people have disseminated throughout the Americas and the regions along the Pacific Rim, and they became Indians in the Americas and the East Asian ethnic groups in the South Pacific. We all know that on account of our national superiority, during the thriving and prosperous Tang Dynasty our civilization was at the peak of the world. We were the centre of the world civilization, and no other civilization in the world was comparable to ours. Later on, because of our complacency, narrow- mindedness, and the self-enclosure of our own country, we were surpassed by Western civilization, and the centre of the world shifted to the West. In reviewing history, one may ask: Will the centre of the world civilization shift back to China? Actually, Comrade Liu Huaqing made similar points in early 1980’s Based on an historical analysis, he pointed out that the centre of world civilization is shifting. It shifted from the East to Western Europe and later to the United States; now it is shifting back to the East. Therefore, if we refer to the 19th Century as the British Century and the 20th century as the American Century, then the 21st Century will be the Chinese Century! (Wild applause fills the auditorium.) Our Chinese people are wiser than the Germans because, fundamentally, our race is superior to theirs. As a result, we have a longer history, more people, and larger land area. On this basis, our ancestors left us with the two most essential heritages, which are atheism and great unity. It was Confucius, the founder of our Chinese culture, who gave us these heritages. These two heritages determined that we have a stronger ability to survive than the West. That is why the Chinese race has been able to prosper for so long. We are destined ‘not to be buried by either heaven or earth’ no matter how severe the natural, man-made, and national disasters. This is our advantage. Take response to war as an example. The reason that the United States remains today is that it has never seen war on its mainland. Once its enemies aim at the mainland, the enemies would have already reached Washington before its congress finishes debating and authorizes the president to declare war. But for us, we don’t waste time on these trivial things. Maybe you have now come to understand why we recently decided to further promulgate atheism. If we let theology from the West into China and empty us from the inside, if we let all Chinese people listen to God and follow God, who will obediently listen to us and follow us? If the common people don’t believe Comrade Hu Jintao is a qualified leader, begin to question his authority, and want to monitor him, if the religious followers in our society question why we are leading God in churches, can our Party continue to rule China??
(Lebensraum (‘living space’) in order to survive.)
The first pressing issue facing us is living space. This is the biggest focus of the revitalization of the Chinese race. In my last speech, I said that the fight over basic living resources (including land and ocean) is the source of the vast majority of wars in history. This may change in the information age, but not fundamentally. Our per capita resources are much less than those of Germany’s back then. In addition, economic development in the last twenty-plus years had a negative impact, and climates are rapidly changing for the worse. Our resources are in very short supply. The environment is severely polluted, especially that of soil, water, and air. Not only our ability to sustain and develop our race, but even its survival is gravely threatened, to a degree much greater than faced Germany back then.  Anybody who has been to Western countries knows that their living space is much better than ours. They have forests alongside the highways, while we hardly have any trees by our streets. Their sky is often blue with white clouds, while our sky is covered with a layer of dark haze. Their tap water is clean enough for drinking, while even our ground water is so polluted that it can’t be drunk without filtering. They have few people in the streets, and two or three people can occupy a small residential building; in contrast our streets are always crawling with people, and several people have to share one room. Many years ago, there was a book titled Yellow Catastrophes. It said that, due to our following the American style of consumption, our limited resources would no longer support the population and society would collapse once our population reaches 1.3 billion. Now our population has already exceeded this limit, and we are now relying on imports to sustain our nation. It’s not that we haven’t paid attention to this issue. The Ministry of Land Resources is specialized in this issue. But we must understand that the term ‘living space’ (lebenstraum) is too closely related to Nazi Germany. The reason we don’t want to discuss this too openly is to avoid the West’s association of us with Nazi Germany, which could in turn reinforce the view that China is a threat. Therefore, in our emphasis on He Xin’s new theory, ‘Human Rights are just living rights’ we only talk about ‘living’ but not ‘space’ so as to avoid using the term ‘living space.’ From the perspective of history, the reason that China is faced with the issue of living space is because Western countries have developed ahead of Eastern countries. Western countries established colonies all around the world, therefore giving themselves an advantage on the issue of living space. To solve this problem, we must lead the Chinese people outside of China, so that they can develop outside of China. Would the United States allow us to go out to gain new living space? First, if the United States is firm in blocking us, it is hard for us to do anything significant to Taiwan and some other countries! Second, even if we could snatch some land from Taiwan, Vietnam, India, or even Japan, how much more living space can we get? Very trivial! Only countries like the United States, Canada and Australia have the vast land to serve our need for mass colonization. Therefore, solving the ‘issue of America’ is the key to solving all other issues. First, this makes it possible for us to have many people migrate there and even establish another China under the same leadership of the CCP. America was originally discovered by the ancestors of the yellow race, but Columbus gave credit to the White race. We the descendants of the Chinese nation are ENTITLED to the possession of the land! It is historical destiny that China and United States will come into unavoidable confrontation on a narrow path and fight.


General Chi Haotian left with western visitor.
In the long run, the relationship of China and the United States is one of a life-and-death struggle. Of course, right now it is not the time to openly break up with them yet. Our reform and opening to the outside world still rely on their capital and technology. We still need America. Therefore, we must do everything we can to promote our relationship with America, learn from America in all aspects and use America as an example to reconstruct our country. Only by using special means to ‘clean up’ America will we be able to lead the Chinese people there. Only by using non-destructive weapons that can kill many people will we be able to reserve America for ourselves. There has been rapid development of modern biological technology, and new bio weapons have been invented one after another. Of course we have not been idle; in the past years we have seized the opportunity to master weapons of this kind. We are capable of achieving our purpose of ‘cleaning up’ America all of a sudden. When Comrade Xiaoping was still with us, the Party Central Committee had the perspicacity to make the right decision not to develop aircraft carrier groups and focused instead on developing lethal weapons that can eliminate mass populations of the enemy country. Biological weapons are unprecedented in their ruthlessness, but if the Americans do not die then the Chinese have to die. If the Chinese people are strapped to the present land, a total societal collapse is bound to take place. According to the computations of the author of Yellow Peril, more than half of the Chinese will die, and that figure would be more than 800 million people! Just after the liberation, our yellow land supported nearly 500 million people, while today the official figure of the population is more than 1.3 billion. This yellow land has reached the limit of its capacity. One day, who know how soon it will come, the great collapse will occur any time and more than half of the population will have to go. It is indeed brutal to kill one or two hundred million Americans. But that is the only path that will secure a Chinese century, a century in which the CCP leads the world. We, as revolutionary humanitarians, do not want deaths, But if history confronts us with a choice between deaths of Chinese and those of Americans, we’d have to pick the latter, as, for us, it is more important to safeguard the lives of the Chinese people and the life of our Party. The last problem I want to talk about is of firmly seizing the preparations for military battle. The central committee believes, as long as we resolve the United States problem at one blow, our domestic problems will all be readily solved. Therefore, our military battle preparation appears to aim at Taiwan, but in fact is aimed at the United States, and the preparation is far beyond the scope of attacking aircraft carriers or satellites. Marxism pointed out that violence is the midwife for the birth of the new society. Therefore war is the midwife for the birth of China’s century.”

China’s second aircraft carrier, 3 more to come in the current program.

Comrade Chi Haotian idea’s for limited war strategy is the fait accompli. Such an approach involves an attacker seizing territory before the defender and its patron can react sufficiently and then making sure that the counterattack needed to eject it would be so risky, costly, and aggressive that the United States would balk at mounting it, not least because its allies might see it as unjustified and refuse to support it. Such a war plan, if skillfully carried out in the Coral Sea, could checkmate the United States as it has already succeeded to out bluff the USA in the South China Sea.
So as most of our readers are firearm owners I would suggest we take a notice of Oliver Cromwell’s advice “Put your trust in God, my boys, and keep your powder dry” as one day soon we are all going to need everything we have.
There is no Spring without Winter, without Mistakes there is no Learning. There is no Life without Death, without Doubts there is no Faith. There is no Peace without War, without Fear there is no Courage. For without Mistakes, Doubts and Fears there are no pathways to Wisdom.
Ron Owen.
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Any Inquiries on any products phone 07 54824099 or 07 54825070 or email owenguns@spiderweb.com.au


Tuesday, June 19, 2018

Survival Equipment for Beginners.


Survival Equipment for Beginners.
Advice based on experience.
1)      When packing a back pack for the trail, there must be a compromise between two principles; Minimum weight, & Maximum self reliance.
2)    Don’t waste money on modern gadgets that are NOT sustainable. Most of these gadgets are designed & sold for one purpose only, to make money for the designer & the seller.
3)    When purchasing survival gear, think practically, what are the items you actually NEED.
4)   Blades: Bowie knives & stilettos are all very nice, but think about what you blades will be actually mostly used for. Second hand blades in good order are just as good as modern blades if not better. 19th century & early 20th century butcher knives can often be found in second hand & junk shops. A tomahawk with a round or oval tapered eye is more versatile than a hatchet or a machete, but if you can’t find or afford a tomahawk, then pick up a light hatchet to get you by. I carry three knives & a tomahawk.
5)    A bird in the hand is worth more than two in the bush. You will need a hunting, defence tool(s).  You are better off with a flintlock pistol in your hand than a 9mm Glock still in the gun shop! Personally I carry a flintlock longarm & pistol from choice, but get what you can afford for now, even if it is only a single shot .22 rifle.
6)   When planning your equipment always think long term. We can’t possibly know what is going to happen in the future.
7)    Your survival kit should be your back pack/knapsack; all of your gear should be your survival kit, no fancy extras, just the basic needs that will keep you alive & in reasonable comfort.
8)    Learn primitive living skills. The more skills you have, the better chance you have of surviving.
9)   Practice makes perfect: Or at least as perfect as an individual can get. Use your gear, trek & camp & get used to using your equipment out bush.
10)Fire: Being able to make fire under all conditions is very important, so learn all you can about kindling, plant & fungi tinders & making fire. Learn how to char tinders directly in the fire & use the tinderbox to smother the glowing embers. I suggest you purchase or make yourself a flint & steel kit; fire steel/striker, tinderbox, & a piece of siliceous rock to strike the sparks from the steel. A good back up skill is being able to make fire with a fire-bow which you can make in the bush.
11)   Don’t rely on finding natural shelters, & don’t waste money on a modern tent. Get yourself a piece of canvas or oil cloth, it is more versatile than a tent, easier to erect, & you can take advantage of a fire for warmth & cooking without having to go out in the rain or snow.
12) A good pure wool blanket(s) is better than a sleeping bag. Sleeping bags in general will not keep you warm if they get wet, & they are difficult to get out of in an emergency. A good new blanket will always be better than a good old blanket, but two second hand wool blankets work just fine. You can also cut a blanket to make a “half-blanket” to use as a cape around your shoulders in winter, just as any blanket can also be used as a Matchcoat or a Great coat without any cutting or sewing.
13) Footwear: Hiking boots are good, but they can be noisy in the woods, difficult to repair & impossible to replace in the bush. If you make yourself a couple of pairs of center seam Woodland Indian moccasins (one pair to wear & the other pair to carry spare), then you will have the pattern to make new ones on your feet. They are light, leave less sign than a modern boot, easy to make a makeshift sole repair on the trail, easy to repair & replace. If you want to use your hiking boots, do so, but I suggest you make at least one pair of moccasins & carry them with you tied to your pack.
14) A good way to carry extra warmth with you is to roll up some spare warm clothing in your blanket roll. I carry a spare wool shirt & wool waistcoat which I put on over my other clothing on cold nights.
15) Make sure you carry a good modern medical/first aid kit. This is the only piece of modern equipment that I carry with me. Learn how to use it, learn first aid. There are first aid courses available in all cities.
16)Running a trap line. This is the most efficient way to make meat, carry your hunting tool with you & check the line every morning. Don’t carry any traps with you except small game snares & perhaps a rope for a large game snare. Learn how to make cordage from plant fibers’ & make your own traps.
17) Water is probably the heaviest thing you will be carrying, but always carry a water bottle/flask or canteen. I try to follow a water course when I can to make sure I always have water, but you never know when you may not be able to find any water.
18) Trail foods: Dry foods are lighter than canned foods. Always carry some foods that do not require cooking just in case it is not safe to make a fire.
19)Carry a light trade kettle or billy kettle. These are easy to make from a tin can & a piece of wire for a bail. These are good for cooking in, boiling water for sterilizing or making a hot drink, & for collecting rain water to top up your water bottle.
20)                       Carry some form of water filter. I carry linen & cotton water filter bags for straining dirty river water into my kettle for boiling.
21) Fishing Tackle: Carry a couple of lines & some spare hooks. You never know when you might get a chance to do some fishing.
22)                        A sewing kit is a must & it is pretty inexpensive to put together. This will be needed for repairs to your clothing, footwear & perhaps your shelter & back pack.
23)                        Whetstone for sharpening your blades. You can often find these second hand, but you can also find suitable stones in a creek or river bed.
24)                       Eating utensils.  You already have a knife, so all you need is a light wooden spoon.
Keith.


Saturday, June 16, 2018

Equipment: Comfort & Ease of Living.


Equipment: Comfort & Ease of Living.
Choosing the right equipment for wilderness living is important, especially if you are carrying that equipment on your back. It is important to choose equipment that is sustainable, which many modern survival gadgets are not. So you really do need to give it some thought before you start collecting gear.
The ease & comfort that you achieve in your wilderness survival depends solely on the equipment you choose. Your survival per se depends mostly on your wilderness living skills. If you have the right skills, you can survive in the wilderness without any bought equipment, BUT, it will be a hard life & a lot of work. Choose the wrong equipment, equipment that is not necessary & not sustainable, & you will finish up living a Stone Age lifestyle!
Here are some questions you need to ask yourself before purchasing or choosing items of equipment:
Is it sustainable? If it breaks can I repair it easily? Do I really need this or am I choosing it because it looks cool? What purpose will this serve? Can I use it for more than just one task? Is this suitable for the environment I am expecting to live in; example, jungle or forest/machete or tomahawk? (a tomahawk is more versatile than a machete). How versatile is this shelter option? If I choose a sleeping bag over wool blankets will the bag keep me warm when wet? In an emergency how easily can I escape from a sleeping bag? Do I need a firearm primarily for defence or hunting? How long will the ammunition last if I use a modern firearm for defence & hunting? Am I likely to get into a firefight? Will I be travelling alone? If I am travelling with a partner, how can I divide some of the equipment to our best advantage?

Tuesday, March 13, 2018

Advantages of a Flintlock Muzzle-Loader Post TEOTWAWKI.


Advantages of a Flintlock Muzzle-loader.
1)   Ammo is less expensive than a modern equivalent calibre firearm.
2)  The smoothbore is very versatile, being able to digest round ball, bird shot, & buckshot, or any combination of two of these (can also use minies/conical slugs).
3)  The fusil is lighter to carry than a modern equivalent sized gun.
4)  You can vary the load if needs be.
5)  The smoothbore will digest other projectiles besides lead.
6)  Lead can be retrieved from downed game & remoulded with a simple mould & lead ladle. This means that you can carry less lead, & more of the lighter gunpowder.
7)  You can make your own gunpowder.
8)  You can use the lock to make fire without using gunpowder.
9)  You can use gunpowder for gunpowder tinder fire lighting if needs be.
10)        IF the lock should malfunction (these are very robust & it is not likely) you can easily repair it if you are carrying a few spare springs & a few simple tools.
11) If you do not have any spare parts & the lock malfunctions, you can easily convert it to a tinderlock or matchlock & continue using it.
12)        You do not need a reloader, brass shells, caps, or primers. The latter have been known to break down in damp conditions or if they are stored for too long.
13)         Wadding for ball or shot is available from natural plant materials or homemade leather or rawhide.
14)       Less chance of being affected by future ammunition control legislation.
15)        Gunpowder is easily obtainable providing you have a muzzle-loader registered in your name regardless of calibre (NSW).
16)        A .32 caliber flintlock rifle is more powerful than a .22 rimfire, less expensive to feed, more accurate over a greater distance, able to take small & medium sized game, & other than not being able to use shot (unless it is smoothbore), it has all the attributes of the other flintlocks. For larger game you can load with conical slugs, which of course you can make yourself in the field.
17)        Damage from a .62 calibre or .70 calibre pistol or long arm is in the extreme. Wounded prey is unlikely to escape.
18)         By using buck & ball you are unlikely to miss your target. This load is capable of taking out more than one target.
19)        There is less kick-back to a muzzle-loading gun.
20)       Antique Flintlock muzzle-loading guns do not require a license, registration, or a permit to purchase in NSW Australia.




Monday, September 25, 2017

Centerfire versus Muzzle-Loader.

Centerfire versus Muzzle-Loader.
In a fire fight no one can deny that it would be better to have a modern cartridge gun than a muzzle-loading gun, but let’s just look at some pros & cons for something to think about.

Post shtf modern ammunition will no longer be available. Modern ammunition is heavy. You may prefer to carry a 9mm Glock or a 357 magnum, but for most people this will mean having to join a pistol club, paying club fees plus the cost of the handgun & the constant purchase of ammunition, because you have to attend regular shoots to retain your membership & your “H” class licence. If you plan on using this handgun post shtf, then you will need to stock up on ammunition, or at least get as much as restrictions will allow. If you are planning on “Bugging In”, then you can get some reloading equipment. It may not be practical though to carry this reloading equipment with you if you have to leave home. It all depends on how heavy & bulky it is & you do not want to compromise your survival by not carrying enough water, food & ready made ammunition. Don’t forget that if you are planning on reloading your own ammo, you will need primers, possibly more brass, smokeless gunpowder & of course lead.

A flintlock pistol only requires gun flints, gunpowder, wads or wadding & lead. Any siliceous rock will work in a flint lock. Black powder, wads & wadding you can make yourself, & lead is easy to come by & you can mould your own ammunition. You can also make paper cartridges for faster reloading if you have a smoothbore. A smoothbore pistol can fire shot & round ball, either or both together.
You do not need a licence, registration or a permit to purchase in NSW (check your own state legislation) if you are buying an antique. You don’t need to carry a lot of lead, as you will only be using this pistol for defence. If you have the stomach for it you can retrieve spend lead from a dead foe or game & remould it. No heavy reloading equipment is required, just a ball mould & a small lead ladle. Gunpowder is light in comparison to lead, so you can carry enough to last you a very long time. If you were to run out of lead, you can substitute other projectiles obtained from nature.


Wednesday, April 26, 2017

Thoughts For The Week By Owen Guns.


Thoughts For The Week.
Well its Anzac Day, it does not seem 5 minutes since last year, again the bands will be playing, politicians will be postulating, young officers (just out of school) will be making speeches and the dignitaries will be accepting the salutes of the veterans as they march past.
I go every year, I don’t enjoy it. It is a duty that I care about. I go to show that I respect the sacrifice of those who paid the ultimate price and to those who are still paying the price. I watch the sloppy drill of the current serving soldiers and silently lament some of the chronic renditions of the Last Post. I hear the croaking, stuttering, silences, when they attempt to sing the National Anthem. No one knows the words, no one knows what the words mean. We show our flag, it’s a symbol but very few know what the symbols on the flag are supposed to mean. Many just think that its like a product banner, like ‘coca cola’ a logo, a familiar badge that they put up and down if someone wins a medal at the Olympics.
I believe the Anzac Day Parade is done all wrong, the Veterans should be on the podium and the whole town, politicians, mayors, councillors, police, teachers, serving officers, should all march past, smartly saluting the Veterans. Show some respect for those who put their individual lives on the line, so that we can live in idle security, and give it all away.

All had some one waiting for them at home. Countless millions never came home.
All the sacrifice, the lives cut short, the loss of whole generations, the loss of whole families, the loss for the mothers, and wives whose lives were lost in grief, for what? Yes, we have been given the best country and richest country in the world, yet our apathy has allowed us to vote for traitorous politicians who beginning with the Lima Agreement in 1974 gave our country away to the international power club. The Wars to End all Wars have never really stopped, yes we have had a continuous flow of little enemies, media created bogy men, with big hats like Castro, Ho Chi Min, Pol Pot, Gadaffi, Saddam Hussein and Kim Jong which have destroyed millions of families since World War Two, but the seemingly endless war between the international mainly faceless power brokers and the harmless Mums and Dads of this sorry world goes on, and on relentlessly. What’s more the bad guys keep winning, and we lose more freedoms every day.
Ever since the bad guys have dominated the printing press and television the people have been used and abused, dumbed down and misinformed. Our only hope, the combination of the internets distribution and the mobile phone ability to record and transmit is still only a pin prick to the mainstream media enemy. Australia’s leadership since the first sell out to internationalism, sending our jobs over seas with the Lima Agreement, destroying our manufacturing ability has been magnified by selling our real estate, selling our utilities, Electricity, Phones, Banking, Gas, and even our Water. What’s next the air we breath, or our body parts?
Would those who sacrificed their lives in days gone bye, recognise the slave state we have to-day with the future that they were promised. It seems that all threats are used to enchain and bind the people, if they do not have enough threats local enough, they will import them by mass migration, yes they will flavour it with refugees fleeing from the new holocaust but when Mad Monis, or the Monash University overseas student illegally obtain firearms, that is used as the catalyst to bind the people’s steel chains a little tighter. Bit by bit they import a threat, they even follow the suspects give them bail and wait for them to fuel a media campaign against their real enemy the free thinking freedom loving Australians. That’s us, we are our leaders real enemy. They want power and we are preventing them from having it.
Thesis and Anti Thesis allows them to conqueror with Synthesis.
In two world wars, thousands of Australian and Britons were sacrificed on countless battlefields because we our nation and our Commonwealth was sadly ill-equipped, left without secondary manufacturing industries to quickly re-equip our military forces. In the First World War the bogy men on our doorstep was German New Guinea, in World War Two it was the Japanese. They were not false bogy men.  If they had won, English would not be spoken on the Australian continent, the best they could have expected would have been to be worked to death in a labour camp. Same as today, the Islamic threat, within our borders or without, it is very real. To Islamic believers, we infidels are worth less than any edible animals.

Our government even though it spends $26 billion dollars in an ever increasing defence budget, has destroyed 95% of our manufacturing ability so we have to import all equipment.  This is why our annual defence budget is so high, it has to service our nearly non existent defence force. What’s worse a defence force which cannot re-equip itself.  Our demise will be when Australia is cut off from US and other supplier’s, on the other side of the planet. For our $ 26 Billion in US dollar terms we get 58,000 personal (although by the sound of it 50,000 work in the office). We have an official Reserve of 44000 (but if anyone inspected the turn up at the drill halls they might only ever find a quarter of them, their well intentioned enthusiasm is killed off and put to sleep) We have 59 tanks, 75 towed artillery guns, 47 ships (including patrol boats) 78 attack aircraft. While Singapore with its 5 million people, and its $9 Billion dollar defence budget has 72,000 regular soldiers and 950,000 in the Reserves, 212 Battle tanks, 212 towed artillery, 41 ships (including patrol boats) 119 attack aircraft. Singapore has 6 submarines so does Australia but they have a Merchant Marine strength of 1599 ships.  They can get re-supply, they have a secondary manufacturing industry. We have 7.7 million square kilometers to defend and Singapore only has 697 square kilometres. We have a Merchant marine of 41 ships and they are manned by foreign labour. When we wonder which threat does Singapore face to spend that $9 Billion on defence. Well they have a neighbour close at hand that is militant Islamic and has 255 million people, just to Singapore’s south and just to our North. Indonesia has 476,000 regular soldiers and 400,000 in active reserves, 468 battle tanks (they make their own) and 80 towed artillery, 58 attack aircraft and 221 ships in its fleet. Indonesia only has 2 submarines but it has 1340 ships in its merchant marine. They keep all this and only spend $6 Billion in US dollar terms. They have a manufacturing industry so they can build firearms, they can build tanks and ships and even their own aircraft, it’s a lot cheaper in the long run to do it yourself. Australia could not produce an ice cream making machine, too much government regulation, wage restrictions, dearest electricity in the world, expensive real estate and no chance of competing in the world market that the big power brokers have forced on to us.

I’m sure that America was out this way, on our last day trip.
Why worry about North Korea? As it only spends $3.5Billion in US dollars terms per year and only has 700,000 in its full time defence force and 4.5 million men in reserve. 4200 Battle tanks, 4300 towed Artillery, 528 attach aircraft, its Navel strength is 967 ships. However, its 2400 Multiple Launch Rocket Systems are worrying its close neighbours. The point is when we see what our neighbours are getting for 3.5 Billion dollars and what we get to defend Australia, a continent, we should be worried about the corruption, or worried about the betrayal, or worried about intelligence of our elected leaders who are put forward as being so much smarter than us. They can criticise the quality of North Korean tanks, or Indonesian Artillery, all they want, but Australia with 59 tanks to defend 7. 7 million sq kilometres is a world joke. In World War Two Japan started the war with 2 million men, at the end of the war it was set to field 13 million men, if the USA and Britain had not have been fighting them as well, Australia would not have stood a chance, and our history would have ended in 1943.
So they are again preparing us to be the ill equipped patsies trading the lives of Australian soldiers because we are an easy target, swapping lives because we have no bullets to fire back. Does history keep repeating itself, but even after we lose another generation can we really expect to win out for the third time. That is highly unlikely.
Maybe, they are counting on the 2 million licenced shooters in Australia to be its deterrent and saviour? That is doubtful as our leaders are bent on imposing another disaster on us.

NFA Registering Ammunition Sales.
In most of the other Australian states they have already put the new National Firearms Agreement alterations through the parliament. Queensland is again lucky, it was due to go through the House of Representatives in the first sitting of parliament this year January, it’s the end of April and it still has not been presented to the house. Premier Palaszczuk is keeping it at bay until she is forced to an election as she thinks that when the Nationals, One Nation and Katter Party vote against it that they will win votes on that subject at the election. She has not done her mathematics and does not realise that the worm has turned that the 600,000 shooters in Queensland who are increasing in numbers every year with an increase of applications of 50 % on preceding years. She does not realise that the bad news on world security increases peoples needs for individual security and she is standing in their way of getting it. Premier Palaszczuk has also not understood the new power on the block, facebook and the internet, she underestimates the new media channel. She sees the shooters detriments as the means of her success at the next election. We have to ensure that she is defeated by encouraging all our personal friends and virtual friends plus our family members to get a licence, apply for a PTA get angry and go tell it to your local politician.
We all have to be soldiers of the working day, we are lucky we don’t have to sacrifice our lives yet for our friends and families we only have to get off our chairs and put the shoulder to the wheel to get Labour and the Greens off the benches at the next election. Now, I know that the all parties have betrayed us before, or done nothing, that is no excuse to do nothing in return. Apathy grows like cancer, we have to stand up and be shining examples of Tigers,
“In peace there’s nothing so becomes a man
As modest stillness and humility:
But when the blast of war blows in our ears,
Then imitate the action of the tiger.” Henry V. WS.
OR Tell  MPs to VOTE AGAINST the National Firearm Agreement.
You all should know who your local MP representative is and soon with an election coming your going to know who their opposition is. Seek them out, don’t be insulting just tell them that if they vote against law abiding firearm owners they wont get your vote or you friends and families vote. If they vote for the NFA they should not get your vote.
Read if for yourself, its NOT  just a Re Category for the Adler Shotguns its further impoistions.
” This Agreement sets out minimum requirements in relation to the regulation of firearms. Nothing in this Agreement prevents jurisdictions from adopting additional, including more restrictive regulations.
Cat A
(c) Shotguns (other than semi-automatic, pump action or lever action)
Cat B
d) Lever action shotguns with a magazine capacity no greater than five rounds
Cat D.
(c) Semi-automatic, pump action and lever action shotguns with a magazine capacity greater than five rounds
20. Heirlooms
(a) Jurisdictions agree that where the owner of an heirloom firearm is unable to establish a genuine reason for possession of that firearm and/or does not qualify for a collector’s licence, jurisdictions may issue the heirloom owner with a special category of licence. The requirements of that heirloom licence must be that:
i. before the licence is issued, the owner provides sufficient proof of inheritance of the heirloom
ii. the licence apply only to a single gun, or a matched pair or set
iii. all heirloom firearms be rendered permanently inoperable
iv. the licence not authorise the discharge of the heirloom firearm or firearms in any circumstance
Collectors
i. the firearms which are the subject of the collection should be of or above a defined age
ii. firearms in a collection which have been manufactured after 1 January 1946 must berendered inoperable (whether or not they are otherwise only required to be rendered temporarily inoperable according to paragraph 19(b))
iii. collectors may not possess ammunition for a collection firearm
iv. any attempt to restore firearms in the collection to usable condition should be regarded as a serious offence and subject to severe penalties
v. all operating firearms which are owned by the collector under separate licensing arrangements should be subject to the same level of regulation as any other operating firearm
vi. for the purposes of the collection of Category H firearms, genuine historical collectors must
1. be a member of a state or territory accredited historical firearm collectors society
2 .have their licence application endorsed by an accredited historical firearms collectors society
3. comply with strict storage requirements
4. display a commitment as a student of arms in order to collect or retain post-1946 handguns.
AMMUNITION
54. Jurisdictions will legislate to allow the sale of ammunition only for those firearms for which the purchaser is licenced, and impose limits on the quantity of ammunition that may be purchased in a given period.
(This means that all sales will have to be recorded to whom and which licence another register, more public servants more taxes, more impositions)
55. On the purchase of ammunition, the relevant licence must be produced
(d) the commercial transport of ammunition with firearms is prohibited
.43. Jurisdictions agree that the issuing of a permit must be subject to a waiting period of at least 28 days to enable appropriate checks to be made on licensees in order to ascertain whether circumstances have occurred since the issuing of the original licence which would render the licensee unsuitable to possess the firearm or which would render the licensee ineligible for that type of firearm.
45. Jurisdictions should consider imposing greater storage requirements where multiple firearms are kept on the same property.
All information has to be forwarded to the national information-sharing hub.
We all know who they share the information with.
This ‘national information-sharing hub’ seems separate to Crimtrac which is where all licenced shooters have been recorded with what they own up to date. Incomplete, though it has been, we all know that information from it has leaked to people whose only work choice is robbery under arms.
All the above affects all of us and all those in the community that are worth defending as when the bad people don’t know who owns firearms and who does not, that lack of knowledge protects the whole law abiding community.
One of the reasons why I oppose registration so vigorously is because I know it does not work. I can remember many years ago, I lived in a remote mountain country area, we had road edges with 1500 feet drops on one side. Ben Buckly a pilot, crop duster, fire spotter spotted a windscreen stuck in a tree that had a car attached to it. SES went in found the Voltswagon stuck up in a tree it had come off the road a 1000 feet above and ended up in a tree top. No one could see a body in the mountain bush so it stayed there. Some years later some hunters found human remains down below that point in a dried up creek bed. The local Policeman went it and found that the bones had a broken leg and assumed it could have been the driver from the voltswagon. He bagged and tagged the bones and sent it off to Melbourne to Police Headquarters for identification. I asked him a few years later did they ever find out who the person was. The answer was amusing at the time. He had continued to chase up the results but Police Headquarters had lost the bag somewhere between lost property and the morgue. No one ever knew who he was. Sad that the man, was lost when he went over the edge and then he was lost when he managed to get out of his car to the ground, that’s when more than likely he broke his leg, then he was lost as he waited for rescue after he crawled to the creek. His bones were found but then he was lost again by the Victorian Police. The bit that stuck in my mind, was that if they can lose a bag of human remains, if they can lose a car, how do they hope to retain all the firearm information. Well we know they cannot, but if they lose 1 % or 10 % they can never justify that the information is going to be any use as when they want to recover the information more than likely it will not be available human error will have erased it.

West Australian gun users are calling for tougher laws and communal weapons safes after a spate of gun thefts police are blaming on bikie gangs.
ABC news reported last week that due to guns being stolen from farms. A farmer,  Murray Pederick thinks a better solution would be communal gun safes in towns where they can be overseen by police.
Detectives have recently charged 10 people in connection with firearms thefts from rural properties in the Kojonup and Katanning districts.
Police Minister Michelle Roberts has promised to act.
“Theft of firearms is an incredibly serious issue, I will be raising the issue of facilities to store guns with the Police Commissioner,” she said.
So now again we have that old anti gun push for Communal Armouries where we can only draw them out when we need them.
The article does not explain that as in Queensland when firearm are stolen from licensed shooters the victim is often the one charged not the perpetrator. If the person leaves his key where it can be easily found, if he or she leaves a window open and in Western Australia police are even charging farmers for not locking up the tools that were used to break open the safe. Once they get a conviction then its another feather in the policeman hat and another conviction that they can call a firearm crime and this can be used against all of us.
The responsibility is on the Police we pay a huge amount of taxes to pay them to put away the bad guys. They neglect their duty and blame the victim, what’s worse they prosecute the victim after punishing him by forcing him to have all the security under the sun. As above in WA. CCTV, burglar alarms, safes.
The Police are culpable they prevent us from defending ourselves and refuse to defend or protect us. Then like parasites they still want a bigger pound of our flesh. Once they get huge collective Armouries all the eggs will be in one basket for them and then the terrorists or crims, or invaders will be able to come and take what they want.
In about 1960 when I was twelve, I went to the local Drill hall two nights a week and many Sunday mornings as I had joined the 22nd Cheshire Regiment Army Cadets. I knew nothing, I was always wondering where the other 21 Cheshire Regiments were. I also went to small bore shooting with the small bore club that used the same 25 yard indoor range at the back of the Drill Hall, my whole idea of being in the part time army was for shooting, but wanting to take up every opportunity I shot smallbore competition as the Army never did enough. After about six months I saved up my wages, (as a bicycle order boy) to buy a very second hand .22 BSA target rifle it had been a Martini Cadet that had been converted to.22 by BSA. It had elementary peep sites and it was slightly better then the club Mossberg training rifle that I had started off with. As I could not apply for my firearm certificate to own that .22 rifle, I only had a 10 shilling licence that could allow me to own an air rifle and a .410 shotgun, the BSA had to stay in the Armoury with the club guns. The Armoury was the territorial and army cadet Armoury it was a steal vault in a very strong brick building that had a full time guard. So everyone presumed that it was very safe, that was until a few months went by and the IRA called in on a Saturday night stuck a pistol in the face of the guard got the keys and helped themselves to everything, they must have had a truck. They had taken the Bren Guns the single Vickers Medium machine gun that I was very keen on, they took all the two inch mortars, the Enfield and Webley revolvers. They took all the .303 Lee Enfields No 4s even the one that had been issued to me, at no charge. They took all the ammunition thousands of rounds of 303, the drill practice mortars and the few real ones, .380 ammunition and all of the Small Bore Clubs .22 ammunition and what was much worse, this fairly put me off admitting to having an Irish line of descent for years, they stole my BSA. On the Tuesday night when we turned up for drill I felt disarmed, useless, so did the whole company. We were ‘gobsmacked’, at the thought of the work and labour I had put in to raise the money for my .22 BSA.  I was angry, I would have been pleased to have wiped out half of Ireland on the off chance that they might have remotely once known an IRA man. Angry and yet heartbroken, I can remember marching home that night with a tear in my eye. I was so ashamed about what the IRA had done and that I had lost my rifle.
In the weeks to come when we were re-issued with .303 Lee Enfields we took them home with us. No ammunition or course but rifle and bayonet, boots polished, belt blanco’ed and brass cap badge gleaming I proudly marched to the Bus stop and caught the number 40, then came home the same way. No one ever blinked an eye, all the older territorials and the reserve all took their rifles home. I always wanted to be the one to take home the Bren but was never picked. The message had made its mark, we had the IRA to thank for that the rifles were safer in everyone’s homes. It was un safe to make a target with all those eggs in one basket to carry out the same effect the IRA would have had to rob every one of us. The message is just as clear today, if the government does this the Islamic Bikers Groups, or ISIS equivalent will know just where to tool up. ISIS would not have the good manners to stop the truck and phone the local police, so they could go and let the tied up guard out of the Armoury. He would be dead.
Australia has never ever been under a greater threat than it is today, we can hope that the threat goes away but Australia will never be secure until it has the industry and skill to make its own arms and have them close at hand. Veterans, the few that are left  understand the importance of defence in all of its contexts, so too should we all, we have to defend our rights to self defence. Like when the chips are down its time to stand up, stand up for your mates, your friends and families. Take a part, phone up your local MP.
……………….
There is no Spring without Winter, without Mistakes there is no Learning. There is no Life without Death, without Doubts there is no Faith. There is no Peace without War, without Fear there is no Courage. For without Mistakes, Doubts and Fears there are no pathways to Wisdom.
Ron Owen
Every Man Should Have A Rifle

Every Man And Woman should take their place at the Sea Shore.
So I sit and write and ponder, while the house is deaf and dumb,
Seeing visions “over yonder” of the war I know must come.
In the corner – not a vision – but a sign for coming days
Stand a box of ammunition and a rifle in green baize.
And in this, the living present, let the word go through the land,
Every tradesman, clerk and peasant should have these two things at hand.
No – no ranting song is needed, and no meeting, flag or fuss –
In the future, still unheeded, shall the spirit come to us!
Without feathers, drum or riot on the day that is to be,
We shall march down, very quiet, to our stations by the sea.
While the bitter parties stifle every voice that warns of war,
Every man should own a rifle and have cartridges in store!
Henry Lawson :