The way I see it, these people, like many of us, are gear freaks. They love to collect kit. We all need something to aim for, an excuse to hoard. For us it might be finding the perfect EDC or the do everything outdoor knife, for them it is disaster prep. I find myself doing this sort of thing all the time, imagining senarios (not TEOTWAWKI for me), it makes life more interesting.

I was reading in the newspaper the other day, an ex. army who used to do security, noticed, when walking past a post office, that it would be highly suseptable to crime. He kept thinking about this and, just for fun, started buying gear that could be used to pull it off, a stun gun, CS spray etc. In the end he ended up doing the robbery, but thats irrelevant. He was hoarding and planning, we all have this instinct, and this is how the "survivalists" deal with it.

Thats my opinion anyway.