A couple people had expressed interest in this topic, and I have a bit of extra time for a couple days, so here goes:
Bona fides: I am a former infantry NCO and sniper, hunter, competitive shooter, reloader, hobby gunsmith, sometimes firearms trainer and currently work in a gun shop, mostly on the paperwork/compliance side. Back in the day, was a qualified expert with every standard small arm in the US inventory circa 2003 (M2, 4, 9, 16, 19, 249, 240B, 21, 24, 82 etc.), and today hang around the 75th percentile of USPSA classifications. I've shot Cap-and-Ball, Trap and Sporting Clays badly; Bullseye and PRS somewhat better and IDPA/USPSA/UML/Two-gun with some local success. Been active in the 2A community since the mid-90s, got my first instructor cert in high school, and have held a CPL for almost twenty years now.
I certainly don't claim to be an expert in every aspect of firearms, there's huge areas that escape my knowledge base, but if you've got questions I'll do my best to answer.
Technical questions
Gun control proposals for feasibility
Industry
Training
Wacky opinions
General geekery
Some competition links (not my own) just for the interested.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=U5IhsWamaLY&t=173
https://youtube.com/watch?v=93nEEINflXE
https://youtube.com/watch?v=utcky0zq10E
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Notes -
I'll take a crack at answering the body armor & plate carrier question. Now, speaking as someone who is fully committed to the LARPer8r lifestyle (plate carrier, NODs, the whole kit and kaboodle), a plate carrier is largely useless to civilians in 99% of cases. Even in a potential civil war, it's largely useless if you're not a full-time front-line fighter. Your use case just never involves "okay hang on let me go grab my plate carrier out of my trunk before the ambush" because it's vastly more important that you be able to ditch your gun and blend in with the civilian population as quickly as possible.
That having been said, running around in a plate carrier and shooting at things is a lot of fun so don't think I'm saying don't buy one. I'm just saying it's not practical gear, it's fun gear. Nothing wrong with that, like I said I own one.
My personal carrier is a First Spear Strandhogg, which I like because I run hot and it is one of the more comfortable plate carriers if you run hot. A lot of people swear by the JPC 2.0 and that's also a fantastic option. Anything made by First Spear, Crye, LBX Tactical, or Spiritus Systems is going to be good to go. Buy with confidence and don't look back. In terms of plates to put in your plate carrier, avoid steel plates. They're the ones that can spall, which is what you've heard about. Spalling is an effect where a bullet impacts the plate, and fragments, shooting shrapnel straight up and down the surface of the plate. Imagine what is directly above and below your plate carrier. Now imagine those surfaces are impacted by shrapnel traveling at a significant fraction of the speed of sound.
No steel.
Plenty of manufacturers will advertise an "anti-spall" coating that's supposed to make it so your junk and jugular don't get perforated by the aforementioned shrapnel, but there's a perfectly good other option out there that doesn't run that risk. Ceramic. There's a reason that all of the big names in armor make ceramic plates. Hesco and RMA are the two biggest producers of civilian body armor on the market. Your stated threat (commonly used intermediate cartridges) will be stopped by either level IV or level III+ armor. Level IV is an industry specific term and you have to be careful here. Body armor actually has a government certification process under the National Institute of Justice, or NIJ. NIJ certification is the gold star for plates. Unscrupulous manufacturers will sell NIJ compliant armor, which is not the same thing. However, the current NIJ standard (0101.06) does not include something equivalent to III+, it goes I, II, III, IV in order from least protection to most. Level III will not reliably stop M855, one of the most common loads of 5.56. Thus manufacturers came up with III+, which is lighter and thinner than comparable level IV armor, and can stop M855, but isn't quite as protective as level IV. Reputable manufacturers will sell III+ and people trust them because their other plates are all NIJ certified.
Personally I have RMA level IV plates and I'm very happy with them. But if you buy any level III+ or IV plates from a good manufacturer, you'll be fine. I will say that Hesco has had some recalls due to failed NIJ audits in recent years, so you might want to stick with RMA. Their plates are a little thicker and heavier on average than Hesco's, but they also have a rock-solid reputation. If you're looking for cheap and serviceable, the RMA 1155 is a level IV plate that costs $159.99 a plate, or they have III+ for $284.99 – $374.99 per plate. They also always have a 10% off code "RMAPROTECTS".
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