From Prepper Camp to Real-World Tragedies: Staying Ready When Disaster Strikes

Life can change in an instant. That's what hit me as I returned from the supportive community of Prepper Camp to discover news of two devastating mass shootings occurring within just 24 hours—one at a waterfront restaurant in North Carolina and another at a church in Michigan. The jarring contrast between the empowerment I felt among like-minded preparedness enthusiasts and the harsh reality of these tragedies perfectly illustrates why practical prepping matters now more than ever.

Throughout this raw and timely episode, I break down the essentials of the "run, hide, fight" protocol we'd previously discussed, emphasizing how critical these simple steps can be when facing an active threat situation. The statistics don't lie—324 mass shootings recorded this year alone according to the Gun Violence Archive. This isn't paranoia; it's pattern recognition. Those who act fastest in crisis situations have the highest survival rates, which is why knowing your exits and having a plan matters wherever you go.

I share details about my most valuable purchase from Prepper Camp: a comprehensive individual trauma kit containing tourniquets, pressure dressings, hemostatic gauze, chest seals, and more. At $190, it wasn't cheap, but what's the value of potentially saving a life when first responders are minutes away and bleeding needs to be stopped in seconds? The "Stop the Bleed" class I attended drove home that these tools aren't for show—they're for those "holy crap" moments that can happen anywhere, anytime.

What struck me most about Prepper Camp was how little politics entered our conversations. When preparing for disasters, whether natural or man-made, we're all simply humans helping humans. Take action this week by finding a Stop the Bleed class through your local Red Cross. Research trauma kits and tourniquets. Because ultimately, preparedness isn't about fear—it's about empowerment in a world where the unthinkable happens all too often. Stay safe out there, and take care of one another.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Prepper Camp Return and Tragic News
• 3:25 Two Mass Shootings in 24 Hours
• 5:45 Run, Hide, Fight Protocol Revisited
• 7:02 Individual Trauma Kit Walkthrough
• 10:00 Call to Action: Find Stop-the-Bleed Classes

Transcript

SPEAKER_01: 0:09

The National Member Service Position is a mere thunderstorm warning. Welcome. To the Common Sense Practical Prepper Podcast, where prepping doesn't have to be complicated or expensive. Coming to you from a well-defended off-grid compound high in the mountains. Coming to you from his Florida room in Richmond, Virginia. Neither off-grid nor well-defended, unless you count as chickens and cats, here is your host, Keith.

SPEAKER_00: 0:40

Hey all this is Keith, and welcome back to the Common Sense Practical Prepper Podcast, September 28th, 2025. Been home from Prepper Camp for about two and a half hours now. Got everything unloaded. And this is not the original script that I had put together that I was hoping to record tonight, or at least start to record tonight. So leaving prepper camp and I had a fantastic time. And we will talk about that later on. So got everything loaded up, completely waterlogged, bitten by a nasty spider, but I had a fantastic time. Weather was perfect on the way home. I got the windows down on the Jeep. I got the ponytail out, got the ball cap on, got the hair flying everywhere, rocking some 80 hair band music, poison, rat, Van Halen, and I was I was feeling pretty good, just taking mental notes about all the things I wanted to tell you about, about what I experienced over the last couple three days. I purposely stayed off social media because it's just depressing most of the time. So about three-quarters of the way home, I stopped to get some gas and I flipped on X to see what was going on in the world. And lo and behold, the feed is crammed with the active shooter situation in Southport, North Carolina Saturday night, and then the active shooter situation in Grand Blanc Township earlier today. It was like getting punched in the gut. Folks, I don't know what to say. It's almost like we're not safe anywhere we go, but that's all the feed was just talking about here's an aerial view and the church on fire and all these different things. It was so depressing. So I am not going to Monday morning quarterback. I've never Monday morning quarterbacked any situation like this, nor will I ever. It hasn't even been 24 hours, 24 hours since the incident Saturday night in North Carolina and this incident in Michigan. What, 12, 16 hours later? And my heart goes out to all of those affected. You can't even go to a restaurant on the water and enjoy a night with family and friends without being in the crosshairs of some maniac who's hellbent on causing mayhem and murder. So I'll talk a little bit about prepper camp. We'll tie this back into run, hide, fight that we talked about about a week ago, and just let all this information just try to empower you as best you can. We're not gonna hide, we're not gonna cower in our homes, that it's a nasty world out there, and you're not safe going to church, you're not safe going to school, you're not safe going to a restaurant, you're not safe going to a mall. So prepper camp was a huge recharge. And when I left this morning, I thought to myself, well, now back to reality. But I caught myself right at the end of that thought, and then I said to myself, well, what I learned at prepper camp is reality. And then when I stopped to get gas and I pulled up my feed, it just hit home even more. So the situation in Southport, North Carolina, a packed outdoor bar, a restaurant at the yacht basin, folks just hanging out. A boat comes up from Cape Fear, pauses, and then all hell breaks loose. The gunman, who I will not say his name from nearby, nearby community, has been charged with three counts of first-degree murder. He takes off in his boat up the Intercoastal Waterway, the Coast Guard catches him, and he's in jail. Now, Sunday morning in Grand Blanc, Michigan. A 40-year-old is dead, not gonna say his name, rammed his vehicle through the front door of this church. It was a Mormon church, jumps out with an assault rifle and starts shooting. Worshippers are hit, total chaos, and then he sets the church on fire. And at the recording of this podcast, at least two have passed, and at least nine are in the hospital. And now I've heard the I've heard that he took his own life, but I've also heard that the police officer shot and killed him. These are not isolated events, but two in less than 24 hours. It surprises me as much as it doesn't surprise me, and that's sad in both cases. The GVA or the Gun Violence Archive has 324 mass shootings this year alone. Now remember, they have a different criteria. When four or more people are struck by bullets in a situation, that's what they consider a mass shooting. Motive doesn't play a part, no one necessarily has to die. 324 mass shootings according to their definition. And again, prepper camp just reinforced that prepping is not being paranoid, it's being prepared, it's pattern recognition. So let's lean on run, hide, fight, the protocol we broke down last week. Run if you can, escape, barricade if you can't run, and then fight like hell only as a last resort. Again, I am not gonna deep dive these two incidents. That is not for me to do, nor will I ever do that. You'll never hear me say, well, at Columbine, this should have happened. Or at Sandy Hook, this should have happened. I would never, nor should anybody, Monday morning quarterback those situations. If you weren't there, if you didn't live it, you don't have any business playing Monday morning quarterback. So last week we talked about knowing your exits. And I think I said when you go to a mall, you go to your office, in this case, you go to a church, you go to a restaurant, take 30 seconds and look for three avenues of escape. If you have to hide, where are you gonna hide? And then if you're gonna fight chairs, bags, bottles, plates, anything you can get your hands on. The stats back up that those who act fast are more likely to survive. So shifting gears a little bit about something that I purchased at prepper camp. I mean, I did a lot of networking, met a lot of really nice people, made a lot of really nice contacts. And I certainly plan to go back next year if at all possible. I will certainly go back next year. But something I picked up was an individual trauma kit, gorilla ammo and tactical, or gorilla tactical is where I purchased it from. Some really nice cats I spoke to for quite a bit. So this particular kit comes in a fanny pack. That's right. I'm rocking a fanny pack, a tourniquet, a cat-style tourniquet, one-handed apply, wind it high and tight above the wound, an emergency bandage in Israeli style pressure dressing, compression gauze for deep bleeds, just stuff it in. Hemostatic gauze with the clotting agent that's impregnated into the gauze, gloves, trauma surgical tape, a permanent marker. So when you put the tourniquet on, you just make a little notation. TQ at 1032, so 1032 in the morning. Whatever time you happen to apply it. So first responders know when that tourniquet was applied. Two chest seals, and these are just peel and stick. This isn't the old school peel and stick and burp and get the air and all that crap out. It's just you just peel it, you stick, and you're done. Leave it on, don't touch it, let first responders take it from there. A nasal airway tube with lubricant. I'm gonna have to learn how to use that. Now, this gear is not for show, it's for holy crap moments. Like a post-shooting chaos when first responders are minutes away. They had a stop the bleed class where they actually practice on a it was like a rubber arm. It was really very interesting. It was a rubber arm that had lacerations that actually bled. And if you put the tourniquet on right, it stopped the bleed. So I have a lot of things that I purchased, a lot of things that I took to prepper camp with me, tent, cots, a cot that broke. And so maybe later on this week I'll do some gear reviews on those and let you know what I liked and what I didn't like. And this trauma kit, it fits on your belt. It can be an everyday carry. It can go in your go-home bag, your bug out bag, your go bag, anything. It can go in any of your bags, and it should. So later on this week, I'll actually put the link to some of the different vendors that I went to. I'll tell you all about that, all the people I met, all the networking, all the classes, and everything I learned. It was a tremendous time. As I said before I went, it was very refreshing to be in an environment with a lot of like-minded folks. Politics aside, politics rarely came up the entire time that I was there. Because when you're prepping for a disaster, politics has nothing to do with it. If there's riots in the streets, if there's a hurricane, and prepper camp in this particular area was right in the heart of where Hurricane Helene hit. They nearly canceled or had to cancel prepper camp last year, but they were already set up, they were already ready to go when it hit, and some people were able to get there. Most were not. And so they put it on as best they could, and then a lot of people stayed to help those in need. So I'll have a lot more detail about that and many, many other things. You guys can reach me at practicalprep podcast at gmail.com. You can find me on the Twitter at Common Sense Practical Prepper, or the official handle is prep underscore podcast. And folks, if you don't do anything this week, do this. Find yourself a stop the bleed class. Go to Red Cross. I don't know if it's redcross.com or dot org. Just Google Red Cross. Find a basic first aid class. Find a stop the bleed class. Do some research on some IFACs or individual first aid kits. Do some research on some tourniquets. Like I've said before, what is a human life worth? If you save somebody's life, is it worth the 60 bucks, the 80 bucks, or whatever you paid for your tourniquet or your IFAC? I paid$190, I believe, for this trauma kit. Now,$190 is a lot of money to me, and it sure is probably a lot of money to 90% of the people listening to this podcast. But that was probably the best$190 that I've spent in a long time. And as always, folks, please, please be safe out there. Take care of one another. And until next time.