Is Your AR-15 Rifle “Collapse-Ready”? Or Is It Missing This One Feature That Could Save Your Life?

Imagine the world is going nucking futs…

Our infrastructure has collapsed due to some cataclysmic event, like a cyber-attack on our power grid that throws us all back to the Dark Ages.

Law enforcement? Military protection? Forget it!

Gangs and looters will exploit the chaos to target you, your loved ones you’re protecting, and any gear and supplies you may have to offer (or steal) as grocery stores are emptied and it’s every family for themselves.

If you’ve really thought through how to survive during times “without rule of law” (WROL), then you most likely have a firearm like an AR-15 to defend yourself, your family, and your precious supplies.

But let me ask you – is it “collapse-ready”?

What if I told you there’s a feature on your AR-15 that you probably haven’t given much thought to, but…

This One Controversial AR-15 Feature Could Mean The Difference Between Life & Death In A Real Firefight…

If you do own an AR-15 for defense, your “selector switch” most likely have two modes to it: “Safe” and “Semi-Automatic”

But there are options…

In fact, in my 10 years in the U.S. Army, I’ve seen the evolution between different “select-fire” modes as the military experimented with how to best support a soldier’s ability to win on the battlefield.

These include:

• Semi-Automatic: One trigger pull, one shot. Simple as that.
• Burst: Three rounds, quick as a hiccup, and then you’re back to square one.
• Full Auto: The gun won’t stop till you do. Or your magazine runs out.

So, which one is the golden ticket?

Spoiler Alert: One size never “fits all” when it comes to bringing the heat.

The real magic is in knowing WHEN to use WHICH setting…

Semi-Auto: Your Practical “Grandmother” Of Select-Fire

Like that big stack of grocery coupons your Mimi Num-Nums use to keep on the kitchen counter, “semi-automatic” will help you save big-time on precious ammo.

With no firearm or ammo stores available, you need to make every round count, right?

Aim matters, folks.

So does conserving ammo.

With semi-auto selected, you’re not lighting up the Fourth of July; you’re taking precise shots.

This is perfect for when you need to pick off threats from a distance, especially if your target is more than 150 meters away.

It lacks the Hollywood glamor, but it’ll keep you alive and extend the life of your finite ammo pile.

“Burst”: That “Middle Child” No One Really Understands

Picture this:

You’re on foot, approaching your objective with your team spaced at 5-10 meter intervals, methodically covering each others’ movement as you take turns bounding closer and closer to your destination.

Suddenly you’re spotted and start coming under fire.

You’re not as close as you had planned on getting before you made contact, so you don’t want to go “full-auto” and start tossing your ammunition like confetti at a New Year’s Eve party.

This is where a short 3-round burst can offer a smidge of suppression fire to allow you or your teammates to get to a better position without blowing through your entire magazine.

It’s these types of active-offense maneuvers – ones where you have intel, and can somewhat control space and time – that the military switched from “automatic” to “3-round burst”.

The thought was that it would offer a compromise between semi-auto’s ammo conservation and full auto’s continuous rapid fire.

But let me make this very clear…

In the military, we often had team members with fully-automatic, belt-fed machine guns, strategically-placed to provide cover fire.

In other words, burst mode wasn’t necessarily needed and was a good example of “too much” for accurate shot-placement… and “not enough” for effective suppression.

In fact, in every team I ever led, trained with, and fought with – we almost never used burst mode.

Overall (in my humble experience), burst is unnecessary for civilians armed with an AR-15 loaded out for SHTF survival.

Which brings us to…

The Full Auto “Reality Check”: Maximum Firepower For Multi-Use Defense

I have to admit…

I used to sneer at “full-auto”… until I was neck-deep in urban warfare – and then… light bulb moment!

You’re the point man, walking into the unknown… and you stumble into a pre-planned enemy ambush as they rain down on your with a hail of bullets…

You turn a corner of a building and come face-to-face with an armed trespasser coming for your goods, as he raises his weapon…

You’re about to bust through a door to clear a room and have no idea what awaits you on the other side…

When you don’t have time to react – or you don’t even know where the enemy is or what they have in store for you, with bullets zipping past your ears – this is not the time for aiming and single shots.

Sometimes, the situation is so touchy – so chaotic – that your survival instincts will scream, “Unleash Holy hell!”

And that’s exactly what full-auto does.

In fact, in most situations in combat where time and distance were extremely short, this was the default select-fire position we’d have our rifles in.

• When taking fire and an attacker’s position is unclear, shooting full-auto can help pin down the general area you think it’s coming from, buying you time to spot the threat while keeping your head down or allowing team members to move to a more tactically advantageous position.
• In an ambush, going “full-auto” wins you some breathing space, throwing a kink in the enemy’s plan and providing some immediate suppressive fire to disrupt their aim.
• In close-quarters battle, where targets can appear with no warning at “bad breath” range, there won’t be time for precision shot-placement – so spraying your attacker with an explosive barrage of bullets may be the only thing that keeps you alive.

That’s why we had a saying, “When in doubt, empty the magazine!”

You may only get that one shot to save your life.

It’s The “Pineapple Pizza” Of Your SHTF Firearms Arsenal…

I totally get it that having the option of a fully-automatic select-fire rifle is a divisive and controversial topic.

But it has its place under the right conditions – especially in a SHTF scenario against the predatory looters and gangs that will put their crosshairs on you, your family, and your supplies.

Yeah, it can be pricey to upgrade your AR (or AK-47 if you have one) to become a fully-automatic “select-fire” weapon and for most people, requires a special government permission slip that will also put you on Big Brother’s radar…

… but being “prepared” is not a half-measure game!

Upgrading (legally) to full-auto prior to a collapse scenario is complex… but it is achievable.

You don’t need to be a gunsmith to transform your current AR or AK platform to a full-auto survival tool and there are plans available that can show you how to do it even if you’re like me and can’t even build a birdhouse with popsicle sticks.