Buy what you need to fight, you don't need to buy every gun to make a point. Plate carriers, plates, ballistic helmets, battle belts, 3A soft body armor. etc are also hard to get with long lead times and expensive as AF. I wonder how many people can even carry their gear or know how to set it up in a way that isn't completely fubar. After putting all my kit together, it's thousands on accessories and I have enough extra shit to open a store. A good battle belt setup alone is $500, probably 100 more with AFAIK, medical crap is expensive, etc. Do you also have anti-biotics, a family first aid kit? With carrier and plates and helmet, that's probably 2500. How about good ballistic eyewear, gloves, knee pads, transportable cleaning kit and places to put these things where you can actually reach them (belt, carrier or pack), etc. Haven't even talked about ammo. lol What about comms? Hydration? Does it all work together without impeding your movement, is it too heavy? You bought AR-500 plates, your carrier is now 40lbs...lol Fuck. Buy once, cry once. Do you have a low profile EDC setup of all the above or do you plan on walking around like Rambo in multicam? Let's say an AK/AR pistol w folding brace, 3A vest that can carry plates, EDC belt with belt slide pouches and concealable chest rig (T-rex arms? Good luck finding one now. Try Ebay) and ankle kit for medical. That will be another 2-3G please. For urban environment, this alone is the kind of thing most people should have and all they can realistically afford. Sure, you could just wear cheap shooting glasses and throw all your shit into a cheap backpack and a coat pocket but is that really how and why you want to die? Remember, this shit could save or cost your life. I spent countless hours watching Garand Thumb videos learning how to configure belts, pouches, etc. It's not easy to do this right, there are a lot of ways to do it and most of them are wrong. Tip: don't reinvent the wheel., you don't know anything. Copy others setup or you will spend even more and end up carrying way too much shit. The average infantry or NG soldier has shit gear from the 2000s, that's fine because they have specialized roles and a million other guys to get them out of trouble and a VA card. You only have yourself so your shit better be perfect. You want to be light and fast, have your vitals protected, yet have everything you need, a very tall order. Stock ARs don't really cut it for anything other than standing on your porch and saying "get off my propertayy" and there's no point to having 10 such guns collecting rust in your basement. You don't necessarily need an expensive shotgun. Every time you buy a gun, that's a few hundred extra in mags and/or accessories. Make do with less. What you need are two rifles and pistols (or one + spare parts) of the same caliber that are proven to run flawlessly. Your calibers are 9mm and 5.56, don't try to be a hero. Bear in mind that the more obscure your weapon, the less likely that anyone can teach you how to run it or that someone with you will have a spare mag to pass you. You can't miss with ARs but try to buy them with most of what you need upfront (QD sling mounts on handguard and stock) or you will waste money. Don't show up with an SKS, no one knows a good sling for that shit or how to speed reload or what a good mag pouch is. There isn't a good mag pouch for or sling for that, no one knew wtf they were doing back then. lol If you buy weird shit, you will end up with weird problems that no one knows how to solve. There aren't a ton of old geezers left who still know how to run an M14 or Garand so buy things that are in current US military use. How about top notch training? Do you know how to work with others? Uh but bullets are too expensive, that's because everyone is buying them non-stop to hoard them in their basement. When you go for training, you may realize, "Oh, shit, half my kit is wrong and I look like a moron because it doesn't really work. I can't go prone, sling my weapon in front or shoulder my weapon quickly because I've got double mag pouches up front like an idiot. I can't re-index with these Condor pouches that I spent money on. Fuck, I need to spend 30 dollars on kydex inserts. Will they even work?" Get training before you buy all that shit and buy the right stuff the first time. Training and running drills with real operators will help you realize what you should have, do that first, rent a gun, talk to people who actually know before you spend 5K on bullshit. I'm at the point where I can take one look at someone and tell if all their shit is retarded. Anyone else who knows what they are doing can as well so keep that in mind. If I see someone with their pistol mounted on their carrier, I'm keeping my distance. lol