First off, let me stress as strongly as I can that the opening, finally, of the Urban Survival section indicates not the least a change of direction or a slackening of efforts with regards to wilderness, aviation or marine survival. In fact, as I hope everyone will see in a few months, we are taking some very important steps to allow us to eventually expand our offerings and influence considerably in these areas. One of the reasons I have been rather sparse hereabouts is that this is taking a great deal of my time to get going. Bottom line, ETS is committed to providing you unique and effective information on these subjects and nothing is going to change that at all.<br><br>As for the Primer and the new section, this is an area that has been planned and been promised since ETS first went online 6 years ago. I am constantly hounded, yes hounded, by readers who want this information from a source that they can trust and which is independent and will take a measured look at the subject. There are a number of issues involved in developing the subject, but a primary one was simply finding someone knowledgeable who was willing to devote the effort needed and who had the right attitude. I believe that Stu is that guy.<br><br>We were careful to start out the Primer by indicating what we thought was important and most different about Urban Survival, vis-a-vis the other content on this site. We also made it clear, or at least I thought we did, that self-defense isn't the only topic we intend to cover. We have another contributor already working on some pieces on urban survival kits, for example. For the most part however, as noted in the primer, the skills and tools needed to survive environmental problems are not significantly different no matter the setting, wilderness or a city. There are differences which we do plan to address, and there are unique situations that we do plan to cover.<br><br>Having said all that, there is no doubt whatsoever that self-defense is going to make up a significant portion of this area of the site. As we noted, most of us spend a good deal more time in the urban environment than in the wilderness. The dangers we face are no less life threatening, and perhaps more so in some respects, but they are different. Dealing with the differences in what threatens our survival is what this section is about and all too often the most likely threat many who write to me feel they need to prepare for is violence to ourselves or our loved ones, or loss of our personal property. <br><br>Reaction such as yours is not unexpected, self-defense and related subjects are controversial for many and a big change from what many have come to expect on ETS. However, it is still about survival and in the grand scheme of things, this subject is of critical importance to many and readers have been asking for me to provide this sort of information for some time now.<br><br>I can also assure you that it has nothing whatsoever to do with survivalism or the survivalist mentality. In our society, in virtually all parts of the world to one degree or another, it is simply an everyday fact of life that crime to property and person is an ever present danger and those who take responsibility for their own actions include self-defense and defense of property in their bag of personal survival tricks. As stressed in the article numerous times, the tools available for this task vary depending upon where you live and we intend to cover them all with equal measure and in a responsible fashion.<br><br>I hope this reassures you that the ETS that you have come to know and love is not going to disappear, quite the contrary. Nor will our focus in the Urban Survival section be strictly on self-defense. This is just an effort to provide similar responsible information for another environment where survival is necessary.<br><br>Doug Ritter<br>Editor<br>Equipped To Survive