This actually got started at another board, but as many threads there do, it deteriorated. If you want to check it out, it is the "Urban Escape" thread under tactics over at AR15.com. Thought I'd come here where the manners are better and get some other opinions on one fragment of that discussion.
Let us assume TSHTF in the form of a nuclear, biological, or chemical attack on an NYC-sized population center. You do not live in the area directly affected by the strike, but you do live close enough to have the waves of those "bugging out" reach your area. Further, let us assume that you have done enough advance preparation and have enough stuff on hand to see to your own family's needs during a period of social chaos.
Now for the questions:
1. How do you react to those refugees who turn to you as a possible source of food, safety, and shelter? We all here would probably shoot "looters" without having to pause to think about it, but what about the women and little children who have fled the city? Can you turn them away? What about those who are marginally better trained or prepared and attempt to "forage" on your property?
2. Suppose the problem is a contagious biological and the affected area is quarantined. You are one of the police/military/militia personnel placed to enforce that quarantine. Would you shoot people for trying to escape the quarantined area if those were your orders?
For my own part, the answer to #1 depends on the degree of chaos. If emergency services are available to react the same way they would to a hurricane or other similar disaster by setting up camps to feed and shelter the refugees, then I would help them out till the emergency services arrived. If the fabric of society is too disrupted for their to be an organized relief effort, then the refugees (all of them) are SOL as far as getting any help from me. A society that badly disrupted is in such bad shape that there is no telling how long the chaos will continue. I have to look after my own. If the problem is an infectious biological, we won't be taking in any refugees from the hot zone under any circumstances.
As for #2, I would shoot. People can be infectious w/o actually feeling any illness. In a misguided moment of mercy, I might turn a localized problem into an epidemic by not shooting.
How about you all?
Let us assume TSHTF in the form of a nuclear, biological, or chemical attack on an NYC-sized population center. You do not live in the area directly affected by the strike, but you do live close enough to have the waves of those "bugging out" reach your area. Further, let us assume that you have done enough advance preparation and have enough stuff on hand to see to your own family's needs during a period of social chaos.
Now for the questions:
1. How do you react to those refugees who turn to you as a possible source of food, safety, and shelter? We all here would probably shoot "looters" without having to pause to think about it, but what about the women and little children who have fled the city? Can you turn them away? What about those who are marginally better trained or prepared and attempt to "forage" on your property?
2. Suppose the problem is a contagious biological and the affected area is quarantined. You are one of the police/military/militia personnel placed to enforce that quarantine. Would you shoot people for trying to escape the quarantined area if those were your orders?
For my own part, the answer to #1 depends on the degree of chaos. If emergency services are available to react the same way they would to a hurricane or other similar disaster by setting up camps to feed and shelter the refugees, then I would help them out till the emergency services arrived. If the fabric of society is too disrupted for their to be an organized relief effort, then the refugees (all of them) are SOL as far as getting any help from me. A society that badly disrupted is in such bad shape that there is no telling how long the chaos will continue. I have to look after my own. If the problem is an infectious biological, we won't be taking in any refugees from the hot zone under any circumstances.
As for #2, I would shoot. People can be infectious w/o actually feeling any illness. In a misguided moment of mercy, I might turn a localized problem into an epidemic by not shooting.
How about you all?