‘Escape and evade’ courses just one of the survivalist things that’s more popular now than ever

A reporter with Slate’s The Big Money took a course on how to pick locks and evade pursuers in what sounds like an awesome assignment. You can read the story here, but I’ve also embedded the video above (watch for the guy who looks a little like William Shatner).

As a financial reporter, her article’s thesis is that the crumbling economy has some people preparing for a post-crash Mad Max style life. Maybe that’s a little over the top, she concedes, but if it gives you a sense of security, that’s great.

Interesting tidbit:

Though it isn’t formally tracked, the growth in the survival industry is not limited to onPoint. Firearms sales in the most recent quarter at Sturm, Ruger & Co. (RGR) and Smith & Wesson (SWHC) have grown between 22 percent and 55 percent from a year earlier. The number of background checks for firearm purchases, required before the sale of a gun at a federally licensed dealer, has risen to 6 million through May of this year, a 25.5 percent jump from the same period in 2008.

The media attribute the spike in background checks and firearms sales to fear that President Barack Obama will reverse key provisions of the Second Amendment. They have also claimed it is due to increased interest in ammo and weapons as an investment vehicle. But isn’t it also possible that it has to do with the same fear that is propelling sales at some camping supply and military surplus stores, which are up 50 percent?

When I was a teenager, I read a pamphlet about the Boulder Outdoor Survival School, and I’ve often longed to take one of their famous month-long survival courses. The concept of wilderness survival appeals to me much more than urban survival.