guns

A plate carrier carries armor plates so that you don't die instantly from being shot in the in heart or lungs. If you get hit almost anywhere else you have three options

1. You got shot in the head. You're dead now and your student loans are no longer your problem. This is, arguably, the best way to get shot

2. You get shot in an vein or artery. You'll be dead in about 90s, maybe a minute or two, because all your blood will rapidly go from being inside to outside. Tourniquets can stop this from happening, sometimes.

3. You get shot somewhere else, like the ass or the shoulder or your intestines. You'll probably live, because surgery is really good now, and we have antibioltics so you won't get sepsis or some shit.

The purpose of a plate carrier is to cover up the parts where you're likely to die instantly if you get shot. It doesn't cover up the parts where you'll die in a little bit, because if it did your armor would be really fucking heavy and hard to run in.

Now, this is some stupid shit. Let me explain

Plate carriers were popularized by Nazi Seals, who are professional mass murderers employed by people who spend too much time on boats. Navy Seals have really expensive NVGs, drones, satellites, battleships, 5k hand made HK rifles, and all kinds of other cool shit. Their job is to break in to people's houses and shoot men, women, and children in the head in the dark while they sleep.

Most of the time they're shooting at people who can't see them using guns that don't make any light and don't make much noise in teh dark.

When you're murdering unarmed people in the dark you generally get better mileage out of light weight gear that lets you run around a lot than heavy armor that provides a lot of protection you won't need because no one can see you and they're just random unarmed farmers anyway.

And if you do get hit your very buff roided out seal buddies can rush you too a helicopter which willt ake you to a field hospital in less time than it takes to get an ambulance response in a rough part of Chicago.

So if you have to make a choice between carrying more armor that is heavier and provides better cover, or carrying less armor that is lighter and allows better mobility and less noise, there's actually a really good argument for light weight plate carriers over heavier armor systems with more coverage.

Now, Americans are fucking idiots. They all think they're gonna be high speed low drag Kyle whatever the fuck his name is, shooting hordes of unarmed Somali's like it's Black Hawk II Electric Boogaloo.

So instead of getting armor with plates and high coverage soft armor like US army infantry wear that weighs a little more and is a little more restrictive but provides good coverage and protection from, like, pistols and shit they get PCs that are super-minimalist and shit.

I don't know what hte fuck they every plan to do with it. The Waco siege they all beat off about? Lots of standing in a house burning to death. Not much need to be high speed low drag. West Hollywood? Those dudes only even survived as long as they did because they were each wearing like four different soft armor vests layered over their whole bodies.

Idfk, if you're gonna actually, like...

You've got two real scenarios for shooting up the place in America 2020

Either you're doing IRA shit with yoru IRA friends,

Or you're doing WACO shit with your WACO friends.

If you're running around hedgerows taking potshots at squaddies or whatever the fuck you don't want any armor at all. You want as little military crap as possible. Ideally you want a rifle and 1 magazine and maybe some loose ammo. Because the whole point of doing Insurgent shit like you're the IRA or the Algerian resistance or an Iraqi militia is that if the security forces are closing in you can stash your rifle and pretend you're just some dumb fuck who got caught up in the security sweep. the last thing you want is to be wearing armor and grenades and cool high speed tactical shit because that makes it really fucking obvious that you're an Insurgent. Which means that the next thing that happens if that you get arrested, tortured, you give up your buddies, and your whole IRA/Algierian Resistance/Turner Diaries Fuckwit Battalion cell gets liquidated.

So - Insurgent shit? No armor, because it makes it obvious that you're an insurgent.

The other option is, like, Waco, Dublin Central Post Ooffice, or suicidal terror raid or whatever the fuck. Basically - You're facing off against the fed, and you're not getting out of this alive. There's no hospital waiting for you with a prepped surgery room. There's no friendlies who are going to rush you to a safe place in a helicopter. What's happening is that you're fighting the local security forces and you're fucked. In this case you're probably not running around a lot. You're not fucking sprinting through wadis in the dustbowl doing CIA shit, you're in a pitched firefight against guys who have a lot more guns than you. So having super-light weight kit sin't really in your favor. You want as much coverage as you can get, because otherwise your'e going to catch a 9mm round right in your girl cock which will shatter your pelvis leaving you unable to fight. The whole point of having lots of coverage for pistol caliber threats is that it keeps you in the fight longer if you catch shrapnel or fragments or low-caliber rounds or whatever. For another maybe 10lbs of weight you get a fuckload more survivability when shit starts blowing up around you. That way you can keep shooting out of the post office right up until the British Navy decides to just merk everyone in central Dublin.

So - Stand up fight? You probably want more armor than a plate carrier because the advantages of light weight PCs don't really help you.

So.

That's my "Fuck you it's 8pm and I am motivated by hate" break down of what kind of PC to get.