Pat expresses particularly deep concern about the dynamics of haves and have-nots that accompany any major disaster. “I’m not sure I’ll be strong enough to turn away someone who needs food.” She continues: “I just started learning how to shoot. I wonder if I’ll be able to pull out my gun and shoot someone because they’re trying to…”
“Rob us,” Bill finishes.
“… rob us,” Pat repeats. “Or hurt Bill. We discuss this type of thing in the chats.”
The threat of nuclear annihilation was the catalyst for baby boomer prepper fear, while many younger preppers pointed to 9/11. Other major events in the newfangled prep tradition include Hurricane Katrina, the Ebola epidemic and then, in quick succession, the Covid pandemic in 2020, the Texas power grid failure in 2021 and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Sources at both Patriot companies told me that the presidential election is also a routine goose sale. One of them explained that after Donald Trump’s re-election in 2024, “we knew sales would plummet, and they did.” He later recalls, “I’m really confused why the left isn’t starting to prepare.”
When I walked into Stapleton’s house on September 10, everything was fine. But thirty minutes later, news broke that right-wing activist Charlie Kirk had been shot and killed at Utah Valley University, just nine miles south of American Fork. When I descended into the Stapleton family’s underground bunker, Kirk’s killer was still on the loose.
A few hours later, I witnessed a vigil for mourning Americans outside the hospital where Kirk’s body was being held. One of them was Kelsie Gruenewald, a member of the Latter-day Saints, wearing a red, white and blue T-shirt and holding an American flag. As it turns out, she owns various non-perishable food products from 4Patriots. In a later interview, Gruenewald tells me that her instinct for preparation was heightened in response to various forces, including March 18, 2020, when a 5.7-magnitude earthquake shook Salt Lake City just as Covid-19 shut down the entire country. She was once again shocked when political violence struck her relatively sheltered, generally moderate home state. “Evil,” she said, “can creep in anywhere.”