"You realize that most of the stab vests worn by police in England are made with chain maille, right?

In the meantime, hard leather or plate would provide crush protection, but the strips of steel sewn into the denim that you referred to (properly known as brigandine), might not because brigandine would only be as resistant to crushing as the denim to which it is sewn. With that said, though, I think it would still serve the purpose quite nicely.

To be honest, while the welded t­itanium maille is what I'd LIKE to have, as you said, it is very costly. Given that I probably WON'T be able to afford it, brigandine is probably what I'll actually end up wearing as well.
"

"EDIT: This led to some curious browsing to see what other custom RV vehicles are around. This one looks especially good (though it should do at that price!) Still, inspirational as a concept to work towards. http://jalopnik.com/5514798/ecoroamer-the-high+tech-zombie+proof-survival-rv"

"Budget, to be honest, not sure. My dad knows less than I do about guns and prices. He bought a few nice pistols (at a serious discount from what I've seen) from the state police and we haven't looked into getting new guns until we talked with a neighbor and saw how cheap .22 is. This is probably going to be pushed back to a later time, but thanks for you guys' help!

And I agree, that was childish, but they may have missed the yes button or something."

"I wish I could remember the name of it, but there's a design that uses a rotating cluster of tubes as the foregrip of a semi-automatic shotgun. Fire off the tube, quickly snap it to the next one with a turn of your wrist. The whole cluster detaches like a single magazine, so reloading is much faster than trying to load up 14 individual shells."

"..., but with all of the lights, lasers and illuminated optics, just curious what the plan is for batteries after Z-day? Stockpile? Or finding a way to recharge lithium? Other?"