Ot: Arm yourself

[headquarters]

I am reading into this that the question means that arming yourself is an act of self defense etc in an emergency situation. Also that the premise is that you may list whatever is realistically available at your location/area.

Up here hunting is pretty common and shotguns and hunting rifles are pretty commonplace. Also competitive and recreational shooting is pretty common. All told I think estimates are around 700 000-1 000 000 firearms in civilian hands counting legal and illegal weapons of all calibers including collections and museum pieces. The population is below 5 million. Goverment arsenals are thought to hold app. the same number of firearms - mind you decommissioning programs have been in place for decades to limit this number. Our license produced G3s are next on the list...

For both hunting and sport semi auto weapons are restricted to some extent meaning that most makes of semi autos and some calibers are not common.

12 gage shotguns, most bolt action rifles and .22 rifles are somewhat prolific.

I guess that in such a catastrophic event civilian weapons like these would be used.

[stormlion1]

The real fun is figuring out what is the most common ammunition type to be found in a area. Once the SHTF no food or new ammunition is coming in so soon enough your scavenging. And you know how frustrating it will get when all the ammo you find is .22's and you only have a 5.56?

[Olefin]

In my case it would be a 12 gauge shotgun with four round capacity, a 20 gauge single shot and a single shot 22 rifle - with about 50 rounds for each gun

plus several very good hunting knives and a crossbow that I bought off my neighbor a few years ago

Now if it was 1997 and the TDM - would have been at my grandfathers house and would have had quite the arsenal to choose from including a Thompson he brought back from WWII and several pistols

[Brother in Arms]

Sad that Finland changed there gun laws.....probably the only reason I don't live there right now.

[bobcat]

AR15 and M1911. i can load my own as needed and i can always pick up more from most of those who would make me use the ammo. for hunting i'd use traps why waste ammo and energy hunting game when i can trap it far more efficiently.

[StainlessSteelCynic]

Well if it was T2k 1st edition timeline, I'd have a .44M lever-action Marlin 1894 carbine, a .22LR semi-auto Ruger 10/22 and a 12g pump-action Winchester 1300 Ranger with slug barrel. As for bladed weapons, I'd have an Australian Army issue machete (that I "acquired"), an Austrian combat knife (made by Glock before they were known for their pistols) and an Australian .303 SMLE sword-bayonet.

Having joined the Army Reserve around that time, I'd be issued either the F1 sub-machinegun (or later, the M16A1), the SLR or the M60 and bayonets as appropriate.

If it was T2k 2nd Ed. I'd be able to add to the above a .22LR bolt-action Stevens single shot and a .30C M1 Carbine (with 15- and 30-rd mags and a portable reloading kit).
Added to the cutlery would be a Japanese made copy of the USAF Pilot's Survival Knife and a Russian made AKM bayonet/wire-cutter.

Still being in the army reserve at that time, I'd be issued either the F88 or the F89 and the F88 bayonet.

As of the present due to the Australian gun buy-back, I'm left with the .44 lever-action and the .22LR bolt-action. I've still got all the blades though.

I'd like to offer a minor variation of what Targan mentioned however, there are still a large number of legal firearms owners in the cities of Australia even today. Percentage wise it's a small number compared to the population size but we're still here, we just keep a lot quieter about who we are now-a-days.

In regards to the illegal firearm market here, we have a lot of coast and very few cities. There's plenty of places for smugglers to try their luck with landing whatever cargo on our shores.
While we were out bush on Exercise K89, one of our sister units dug up a crate of Chinese AKMs when they were extending their trenches. First call was put through to the SASR to ask if we'd dug up one of their caches. They said no.
The belief at the time was that it had been stashed by Indonesian special forces posing as illegal fishermen. This belief was reinforced a few years later on Ex Spiderman 91 when a Pilbara Regt patrol picked up a foreign national who was wandering the bush without any visible means of survival and with no registration of having entered the country.
He claimed he was a tourist but he was ID'ed as Indonesian and he "just" happened to be innocently wandering around in the exercise area. We were told officially that no such thing happened but the senior WO of my unit mentioned that they were pretty sure the foreigner was Kopassus... that and we were told to be alert for any foreigners paying extra attention to the Ex.

[Targan]

Originally Posted by StainlessSteelCynic

I'd like to offer a minor variation of what Targan mentioned however, there are still a large number of legal firearms owners in the cities of Australia even today. Percentage wise it's a small number compared to the population size but we're still here, we just keep a lot quieter about who we are now-a-days.

Fair enough, that was a clarification worth making. When I said not many urbanites legally own firearms here, I meant per-capita. I have at least half a dozen friends who legally own firearms, including IPSC pistol shooters, one person with a permit to collect older military firearms and people who like to do a bit of rabbit, roo or pig hunting from time to time. SSC is absolutely correct when he says that legal firearm owners keep their collections on the down-low. They're major targets for thieves.

There are still half a dozen LAW-66s floating around the black market following a theft from an Army armoury in Sydney in the mid-2000s. From memory an Army Captain was convicted over the theft back in '07. There was a suggestion that one or two of the weapons ended up on this side of the country.