Physical maps are fine, but take some practice to actually use well. I wouldn’t pack transmission radios like walkies- most that are affordable are unencrypted, and the encrypted ones are in all likelihood already broken by the alphabet gang. Plus, they need batteries and they’re just not that useful in practice, imo. An AM/FM receiver, though, I could get behind that.

I didn’t say this in my other comment, but it’s important enough to be its own:

If you think you’re going to be targeted, use the buddy system. Don’t go anywhere alone, for any reason, ever. One person is an easy target, two and especially three people are a lot harder to deal with.

I have three pieces of advice:

First: The best, most practical and actionable advice I can think of is to start organizing your neighborhood. You don’t even have to openly be organizing resistance to do it, just get to know your neighbors, get your neighbors to know each other, get to know what’s going on in each other’s lives and offer help where and how you can. Bring over some snacks on the basis of being neighborly and just ask how they’re doing some time. Forming these social bonds are really, really important, and it’s the basis of building resilience in your community. We used to have stuff like this built in, but it’s been slowly eroded over lifetimes, largely but not exclusively by exclusionary zoning and car-centric infrastructure.

Look, if you’re just the person a couple doors down they don’t really know, people might go “oh, huh” when the brown shirts come. If you’re Dolores down the street who brings them brownies every month, there’s a much better chance that your neighbors knock back when the brown shirts come knocking. And if it’s not just one neighbor, but three or four of them that come out to beat some Nazi ass? Pretty good chance those fucks will get the message loud and clear.

I can feel some of you out there already replying “but my neighbors voted for the Nazis”. Yeah, they did. I’ve also worked with enough Republican voters to know that when they think of the evil other, they don’t possibly imagine that that could include their friends, family, and co-workers. That is, your neighbors, in all likelihood, don’t want the bad thing to happen to you. The point is this: community bonds can and will outweigh other considerations if you build them.

Second: Go to local government meetings as much as possible, bitch at them about your favorite pet issue, listen and watch other people who show up there. It’s an easy way to speed run making connections in your local activist community, and you might even end up actually influencing some local policies. I go to them, it’s free and easy, and the cops can’t stop you from yelling at the city council about the price of housing. The real value, though, has been getting invited to other local activist groups that I never realized existed because I met other members of those groups there.

Third: Prepare. If shit hits the fan, you need to be able to take care of yourself, help might not be coming. I think probably the best strategy is the same as for mass shooters: run, hide, fight.

Run- ditch your smartphone and other spyware devices. Tell nobody about your plans, especially not over any kind of electronic medium. Just go. Have a bug out bag ready to go. When you’re making your bag, remember that you’re going to have to carry it a long, long way. Try to be practical. Probably the most important items you can have are your ID, cash, more cash than you think in a few different places, a change of clothes (especially underwear and socks), a good multi-tool or fixed-blade knife (no need to go crazy, just get a decent full-tang no-frills knife from a flea market or something), hygiene products (moist towelettes and baby wipes are great), water, and snacks (try to focus on really energy dense stuff like peanut butter). Small tarps and mylar/wool blankets probably are good ideas too. Water should also be its own container, ideally a large canteen, or a backpack if you can swing it. I’d also recommend a handful of dice or playing cards to keep you sane.

Have a plan with anyone who’s going with you on where to meet up and how long to wait and don’t tell another soul about it. If they miss the deadline, just go ahead and follow the rest of the plan.

Also, part of this is upskilling. Learn how to repair tears in your clothing, how to talk to people, how to do first aid, stuff like that. You’ve got to be ready to rely on yourself to get yourself out of a jam. At the point of running, this is the worst scenario, and you need to treat it as such.

Hide- DITCH YOUR FUCKING ELECTRONICS. Never go on social media ever again ever, don’t log into Google, don’t check your email, don’t log into Lemmy, just quit this shit altogether. The NSA already has a full database of basically anything you’ve ever communicated over a phone or the internet, and law enforcement absolutely will use it via parallel construction. Don’t use debit cards or credit cards, pay in cash. You wouldn’t believe the shit they collect on you all the time. You can worry about contacting people once you’re safe.

Fight- There is still a second amendment. If it’s a choice between dying in a firefight with some fascists or going to the boxcars, I think that choice seems obvious. Speaking as a gun owner: If you get a gun, you MUST practice with it at least a few times. Get familiar with it and understand how to handle it, you really don’t want the first time you’ve ever shot your gun to be when you’re trying to fight the Nazis. Personally, I’d recommend a pump action 12 gauge shotgun; it’s practical for many, many use cases, the ammo is easy to come by and very common, it’s dead easy to service and maintain, and aiming at close quarters is as simple as point and click.