LARP! LARP! LARP!

The accusation that people are "LARPing" gets thrown around a lot these days in the tactical world. It's used to denigrate any training by regular people, who aren't professional military or LE. More broadly it gets applied to various homesteader/traditionalist types on the right.

The first thing worth noting is that, in almost all cases, this is a term used by people who don't actually do anything cool in real life, to describe someone who does cool stuff in real life. It's easy to get sucked into the online world these days and argue about optic height or belt kit vs chest rig. Those things do matter to an extent, but everything you do online is inconsequential compared to what you do in real life. Training out in the real world is what matters most, and in any case provides some very necessary touching of grass.

And this is another thing worth noting: "LARPing" and "training" often times turns out to be the same thing. It just depends on your perspective: if you dislike it, then its LARPing, if you like it then its training. And I think for the prepared civilian/partisan, training comprises a much broader range of activities than you might think. We can all agree that doing drills on the range with a shot timer is training. But how about camping with your buddies? How about camping with your buddies in guns and tactical gear? How about camping with your buddies in guns and tactical gear, with an objective added in, like to recon an abandoned building or to monitor activity on a trail or road?

Having done these things, I can definitely attest that all of them have value as training. And maybe that's what people don't get when they accuse others of LARPing. Camping with your buddies DOES have training value. It builds important bonds between each man, it builds comfort and experience with living out in the woods, it lets you test gear, it builds familiarity with new parts of your local AO, and a host of other benefits. Activities that are not explicitly tactical, even activities that are casual and enjoyable can still have training value.

This is not to discredit more explicit training. A group of guys who only ever camped with each other would be ill prepared for a real emergency. But such "LARPing" DOES have training value, and just like more serious stuff like range time, contact drills, and medical training, it is a tool in your toolbox to sharpen your skills as a prepared citizen.

So go ahead: grab your rifle, throw on your cammies, stuff some beers into your GP pouch, and meet up with your buddies to roam the national forest and scare normie hikers. You're doing more with your life than the people on the internet who would call you a LARPer. And if you need some cool gear to do it in, we've got you covered.

Good luck out there guys!