Body armour just to have it? No. I don't care if you have it, I just don't understand the "why". Maybe it's my worldview--that most people are a decent sort. That, and isn't it only good for five years before it starts to degrade? I'll spend my money on other things, thanks.

Anyway, having had body armour abruptly tossed on/strapped onto me (it involved being shoved into a closet at at the WSP...long story), I'll take a hard pass, thanks.

Two reasons I have armor of any type.

1. Part time security job (and previous full time job). Armed sites or carrying jewelry/escorting jewelers.

2. We live in a place with volcanos and earthquakes. People are selfish assholes when things aren't smooth. It's bad enough when we lost power for a few days and people were stealing generators from businesses.
Remember New Orleans after Katrina? Riots, robbery, etc. Think it won't happen here?

It doesn't really degrade over time. It degrades if it's heavily used or store improperly. Leaving it wet from sweat, rolling it up, machine washing, sun exposure. The manufacturers have no idea what a person will do with it once they have it so they settled on 5 years. It also gets people to buy a new vest every 5 years so more money for them.
Plates degrade even less, unless of course you let a steel one rust, deform UHMWPE in the heat, or drop ceramic.

I point to that example when people ask why I have what I have. It pretty well sums up the whole preparedness ball of wax.

Nah, I know it will happen here, after we get the earthquake that Mother Nature has had coming to us for, oh, six hundred years. I'm just thinking that it'd be awfully damn difficult to do the stuff I'm trained to do whilst wearing body armour.

Besides, if someone really wants to kill me in the aftermath of a disaster, for whatever reason, well, they're going to kill me, armour or no. *shrugging* It is what it is.

I have some, and I hope it sits in my closet forever and never gets used.

But in the event that I might need it, a few hundred bucks now is worth improving my or my families chances of living later. While some will just roll over and accept whatever comes their way, I will try to do whatever I can to keep on keepin' on.

I wouldn't call my acceptance of the possibility that someone bent on killing me, when I'm acting in a disaster-response role, "rolling over". I meant, body armour is kind of useless against head shots.

The earthquake or whatever will come. Some will barricade themselves and their family inside their homes, and that's fine. We all will have our eventual reckoning with G-d.

i'd rather have the iron man suit, step one is for sale now: http://www.3ders.org/articles/20180723- ... idges.html

Head shots?

I would take my chances and hope they go center mass.

I also have more than one pair shoes and multiple vehicles.

Move to the group buy thread?

Wearing armor sucks. But its a necessary evil if your reasoning or line of work requires it. I have a set at work we throw on when needed. Doesn't stop me from performing my job, just takes some getting used to and mental flexibility. I've got a training set I work out with to continue to keep my brain flexible and my body capable of handling the extra weight and burden. And I've got my personal set that, God forbid I get shot center mass, will allow me to keep my life and bring the fight to the person who shot me.

do we have a time-share thread?

Remember snowmagedden a few years ago? I think it might have been a member here that said he helped a couple of Fredie employees pull apart two women that were fighting over two packs of Oreo cookies. It doesn't take much for people to lose their mind in a (perceived) crisis. Just think how crazy it would get during a REAL crisis.

What kind of armor? A full IOTV with plates? Or concealable armor that cops, security guard, and EMTS wear for hours every day? Saying that someone could kill you anyway is almost like saying it's not worth the effort to prepare for anything at all. Since there will always be something that can get past whatever you are doing. There is a line where it gets silly, but it's up to each person to figure that out for themselves.
I know what I can do in different types of armor. I'm not going to be setting up fighting positions in my front yard with triple strand concertina and anti tank ditches, but a concealable vest for going out and even an IBA with plates in the closet aren't, in my mind, very much.

I remember that storm, my neighborhood was out of power for 7 days. By the third day it was a ghost town and people were arguing over the over priced shrink wrapped bundles of wood