Gear articles are among the most popular on the site, so it shouldn't surprise you that I get a lot of questions about what chest rig to buy, how to set up belts, or whether or not someone really needs a set of plates and night vision. When just starting out, an aspiring prepared citizen is easily overwhelmed by the myriad of choices out there, not to mention the cost of actually acquiring it all.To many, the simple answer is defaulting to how the military does it. That means dividing up your equipment into first line, second line, third line, and so on. While that makes sense for a military unit who has a primary mission of seeking, fixing, and destroying enemy combatants- it might not actually work for the average citizen just trying to protect their neighborhood during difficult times.In this post, I want to dig in to an alternate approach that makes a lot more sense for an everyday civilian who might get caught up in a Scenario-X situation. I also want to highlight what a training progression looks like for a civilian as they progress through this system.How the Military Does ItTo start, it's important to grasp where this discussion is coming from. If you've poked around enough places where combat veterans hang out, you've likely come across the concept of First Line, Second Line, and Third Line equipment. There are subtle variations of this, so what I'm saying here might not be exactly what's you've seen before, but it's close enough.First Line equipment is your core essentials to survive. This usually means the clothing you wear and the items in your pockets include basic first aid, "soap dish" survival kits, basic land navigation, and so on. This sometimes includes things that mount to a uniform belt like a fixed blade knife, canteen, or even a handgun. I've even seen this concept expand to a basic battle belt.Second Line gear is your primary fighting equipment. Think load bearing harnesses, chest rigs, full combat loads of magazines, mounted first aid kits, smokes, and other "stuff" useful in a firefight.Third Line equipment is what you live on in the field. It usually fits into a sizable ruck sack. The intent is that a fighting unit carries their sustainment gear into the field and then drop their rucks before a fight, keeping their first and second line equipment on throughout the engagement.There are a lot of different ways of dividing this concept up or phrasing it in different ways. I've heard "survive out of your pockets, fight off your belt, live out of your ruck" as another way of putting things.So what do I think this gets wrong?The Problem with Military ThinkingFor someone who doesn't have any other resources, it makes complete sense to use the military as a model. The problem is difference in mission between a military combat unit and a neighborhood protection team during Scenario-X.In our situation, the chances of needing six or more magazines to engage in a firefight is extremely slim. The priority should shift more towards day-to-day survival of the group rather than fighting, and there's a lot of other "stuff" you're more likely to need and do before "party favors" start flying.The Everyday Marksman Gear HierarchyNot long ago, a community member in the Discord server shared the "gearamid" produced by the guys over in Reddit's r/QualityTacticalGear. A little while later, an updated version came out and went up on YouTube as Gearamid 2.0.I thought it was an interesting concept, but there were several things about it that didn't quite sit right with me (though the 2.0 version came a lot closer).