The chapter on self defense scenarios was interesting, especially the part about seizure of a school as a potential fortress. However, as an antique firearms hobbyist, I felt that I should point out a few things.

First of all, whoever wrote that chapter is woefully uninformed about firearms history and technology in general, and firearms proliferation in specific. Crossbows and trebuchets are nice, but you would never want to go up against even black powder muskets with them, let alone a group of people armed with rifles from 100 years ago. I converse on a regular basis with numerous firearms enthusiasts from all over, and, believe me, there are countless millions, perhaps billions of rounds of ammunition stockpiled in the hands of private American citizens right now today, with personal reloading equipment as well as perfectly good industrial ammunition production facilities out there to produce countless billions more. Will they ever run out, should the Apocalypse come ? Maybe in a half-century or so of warfare, but probably not.

Which brings us to black powder and Victorian era firearms.

The bolt-action Mosin-Nagant, model of 1891, or “Vintovka Mosina,” served Mother Russia for nearly a century, and continues to serve today all over the world. It was produced by Russia, America, France, Finland, China, Poland, Hungary, and so on. These rifles helped to kick the ass of America out of N. Korea and Vietnam, Russia out of Afghanistan, and Russia out of Finland, not to mention their role in defeating National Socialist Germany. There are numerous photos of Nazi soldiers armed with the enemy’s M-N rifles, as they are just as accurate as a Mauser, if not more so, totally indestructible, and do not jam in the freezing cold. The receiver is this monumental fucking hunk of milled steel, and the design is simplicity itself.

Surplus Com-Block 7.62×54r rounds can be purchased in bulk for 15-20 cents apiece, in sealed tins of 440 each, and stored away as much as you please. This price has dipped to as low as 7 cents per round in the past.

Quite literally, billions of rounds of this were made, and still are, all over the Earth.

I have some of these rifles, and the hotter surplus will go through 3/8 of an inch of steel armor like hot knife through butter. Or, to use your example of a high school as a fortress, a 54r round will go through a brick and cement wall or automobile like it’s not even there, destroying anything and anyone hiding behind it.

Best thing is, rearsenaled, like new rifles are widely available for under $100 from places like “Big Five,” and feature gigantic, evil looking “Cruciform” bayonets affixed to them, 12-18 inches long, in the shape of phillips head screwdrivers, that look like something from the Napoleonic Era.

They are only one step up from black powder technologically, in fact, the 7.62×54r cartridge started out as black powder, and the simple, rimmed brass or steel cartridge could easily be modified for this. Or, eventually, a shot-out, worn down barrel could be reamed out to be used as a small-bore shotgun, spraying the scrap metal shards of your choice downrange in a devastating hail of fire and destruction. Just remember to scrub out that bore with both hot water and then oil to keep it from getting corroded.

Quite the Victorian Milita fashion accessory for the practical-minded “Steampunk,” if you ask me. Hit Google for more on these fascinating, totally indestructible relics of Jules-Verne era technology, in all their rakish, Gothic styled glory.