Originally published at Notes from the bunker…. You can comment here or there.

As you may know, Hornady has come out with anti-zombie ammo featuring their new ‘Z-Max’ bullet. Ruger has alos shambled onto the bandwagon and brought out a LCP-Z model. ‘Zombie apocalypse preperation’ stores are springing up.

Yet…no zombies.

It’s fairly obvious, to me anyway, that the elephant in the room that many people dont want to acknowledge is instead talked about in code. Zombie apocalypse is simply code for ‘whatever freaky stuff is coming down the pike towards us as this economic tragedy unfolds’. Bought three AK’s because youre worried about food riots and home invasions? Youre a paranoid freak. Bought them because of the upcoming zombie apocalypse? Hey, I like zombie movies too!

See the difference? This isnt the first time I’ve mentioned this. The Zombie Squad guys have been couching general preparedness in terms of zombie apocalypse for quite a while now. More and more people are preparing against the zombie apocalypse which, coincidentally, just happens to line up with being prepared for a host of other, more likely, scenarios.

What I find interesting is how it is starting to mainstream to the point that major manufacturers are actually offering product directly marketed to the zombie preparedness market.

Personally, I’ve never needed to justify why I do the things I do so I really don’t need to use zombies as a beard. On those very infrequent occasions when someone asks about what I’m doing I either just dance around the subject or I tell ‘em point-blank that I’m preparing against an uncertain economic future and that those preparations will dovetail nicely into any other disaster that comes along as well.

I will admit to a certain amount of zombie daydreaming. I’ll watch some zombie flick and think “man, I wonder ho we’d fare in that situation” and that will inevitably lead me down the road thinking about ammo, food stores, fuel, communications, transportation, etc, and in that way perhaps highlight something I need to do in my ‘real world’ preparations or give me a new idea altogether. This is one reason that I like ’survival fiction’ so much…it sets one to thinking about things that they may not have thought about before and in that way point towards weaknesses and solutions that were previously unknown.

I’ll probably buy a couple boxes of Hornady’s new ammo just for giggles, but it is an interesting sign of the times.