Mexico suffered a partial societal collapse in September of 2008 and has been recovering slowly ever since. When grenades were thrown into a crowd of innocent people trying to celebrate Independence Day and all over the country businessmen or their family members started being kidnapped or extorted -- things got pretty hairy. It is better now than it was but it is not back to normal by any sense of the imagination. But it is a lot better now in most of the country. There are still serious problem-spots.
However, life goes on. Where could you run if you're not going to leave? Most people in Mexico entered into the situation unarmed because legal gun-ownership is a tough hurdle to leap over down here (although it certainly is possible). Running or "bugging out" with any type of an assault weapon would probably have gotten the person running or "bugging out" shot at that time -- and maybe still today. There were, and often still are, roadblocks all over the highways, and the Police and Military are not 100% reliable. If they catch you with weapons you don't have all the paperwork for, well, they might shoot you. If they don't you still have a real problem. So right off, in any type of collapse, the normal "defenders of the peace" may or may not respond amicably to you if you are armed or at least visibly so.
So, life goes on, but the day-to-day survival becomes tricky. Shotguns and rifles are not much use because you can't go to work, walk to the bank, and handle normal transactions with them because the "Civil Authorites" will take them away from you or shoot you on sight. At the same time, if you choose to go unarmed as they want you to, you put yourself at risk because all the bad guys do not respect this ruling and often have paid off the "Civil Authorities" so they can run rampant.
You need to have a good, easily concealable piece of equipment for each member of the family. "Partial Collapse" is probably something more likely to happen than total collapse. Total collapse, in fact, probably requires more luck to survive than skill or proper prior planning. But partial collapse puts you, and your loved ones, on the street everyday as you try to go through the motions knowing that some of the dirt is all around you and the trick is to bring everyone back home at night.
It's Old-West rules. Think "Unforgiven" when English Bob wanted to go out on the town with "just a Peacemaker" and Gene Hackman caught him. And very few people get to be Gene Hackman in a partial collapse. Most of us are English Bob. Or the prostitutes. Pick your card game, but as did Indiana Jones, you must choose wisely. In my unqualified opinion, as I wade through another day here in the sunshine with trouble all about.
........... Big Cholla
