Every now and again on internet gun forums, a thread on "Self-Defense Preparedness" comes up and posters launch into loving checklists of all the stuff they carry with them every day.
The gun, the backup gun, the backup backup gun, the knife, the other knife, the "impact device", the pepper spray, the holster, the belt, the multitool... Everything gets catalogued in excruciating detail by brand name and model number, down to the type and grain weight of bullets in the backup backup gun.
Marko used to read these threads and crack wise: "Imagine the clatter that guy's gonna make hitting the ground when some dude sneaks up behind him at the ATM and caps him in the back."
Not that there's anything wrong with hardware per se, but it's good to have some software upgrades, too. You know, so you have the correct drivers installed.
Well-known trainer "SouthNarc" is famed for his software upgrades. Here's an article-length .pdf of his "Managing Unknown Contacts" presentation, worth it alone for the section on "pre-assault cues". I definitely want to take a class from him, given the glowing recommendations he's received from Very Smart People...
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I too am stunned. My retort usually is something along the lines of: "I'm sure Secret Service Agent James West clanked when he walked".
Thanks for the links, will go!
I like the fence. I'm gonna have to remember that palms up and out - also is a display to bystanders that you are not the aggressor. The rest of my software is rubber soles and making track away as fast as I can...
Just got back. Good information. Awareness, avoidance, setting boundaries, verbal commands. I did like going for a grip on the handgun in the holster without pulling it. For us citizens it does avoid the "brandishing" or "pointing" thing until it gets to that point.
The .pdf does an excellent job of covering the "interview" and maintaining 360 degree awareness and separation.
I also reminds me that we have a lot of work to get our range squared away, the range that used bring John Farnum in nearby isn't doing it any more so we're hoping to land that weekend this year. I hope my arm feels better before then, I'd hate to shoot the whole weekend weak hand!
Good link and good presentation. Too many people 'choose' to be unaware, and have no idea how to truly react. This is worth it for EVERYONE to read!
Fantastic info. Thanks for posting that .pdf.
Ditto.
Very nice stuff. I like the visuals that show how quick someone can close in if you don't keep your head.
Good article. I've got a lot of challenges in the 'software' side of things, as I'm blind in one eye, and am often out with kids...
Nice. Thanks!
Everything gets catalogued in excruciating detail by brand name and model number, down to the type and grain weight of bullets in the backup backup gun.
Happens in just about every amateur survival/apockylips/Glourious Revolutsiya novel, too.
As DirtCrashr writes above, when do we get to the "run" part?
Yes, I know: you can't always run or it isn't advisable, but in the last pic in the attached article, he's backed up against his truck with nowhere to go even if he wanted to.
The article is nevertheless very good, especially the bit about NOT sitting, head down, in a stopped (and probably unlocked) car and generally doing attention-consuming tasks in a safe place.
I suggest that the toughest thing for people to do is to learn to react firmly to a potential threat. Most of us are taught from childhood to be trusting or at least polite, and common experience demonstrates daily that is reasonable to be so. So, the trick is to (A) recognize that somebody MAY be that one in a thousand who actually intends mischief and (B) react accordingly without (C) becoming a paranoid.
Reminds me of my HTC Tilt Smartphone. I guess it had a killer graphics processor on board. Only HTC never wrote drivers for it, so besides a handful of programs that managed to access the hardware, most things ran horribly.
Seriously reading your blog on that thing taxed my graphics card and I had refresh issues!
BTW, my boss has taken several classes with him, and highly recommends them. very real world applicable. very low BS tolerance.
poobie
Thank you. I just relayed that link to a half-dozen people
I highly recommend SouthNarc's DVD on the topic too. It goes into way more depth than the PDF does.
Available here:
http://www.moaarmory.com/details.php?prodId=37
Thank-you Ken: Boris' Double-Magnum Cossack-brand tractor was red, the kind of red you only get fresh from the Novobrisk factory on a Tuesday when the cadre had not been drinking and there were no spill-lines or drip-runs. He had equipped it with a double-braced Kalashnimavt hydro-steering gear and the Izhevsk Dragoon-treads from the catalog at AKoff.com, especially for the kind of heavy dirt-clods that are found among eastern Ural fields, the ones where a thousand Kulaks had miserably sought to defy the Glorious Revolution. Some say the dirt-clods are actual Kulak-skulls that snap and crackle when you run-over them with the 38-inch Tula wheels running on hardened steel inserts from the Nagant warehouse outlet...
Word: broykzi you bet!
Yes, absolutely.
Mindset and awareness and preparedness are far more important than the specifics of equipment.
They can save you when you have nothing - and all the equipment in the world won't help you if you're not aware of your surroundings.
(Perhaps my most important and best habit is always locking the doors on my car, immediately and instantly, and keeping them that way.
Good fences make good neighbors, etc.)
Sigivald,
years ago, one of my sisters was maneuvering to leave the 7-11 store parking lot in what was then known as "whiskey gulch". (the neighboring KFC restaurant had armour glass and turnstiles at the counter-this was not a good area!, but she lived close by) A denizen ran up and grabbed the door handle of her '67 VW Bug. She threw it in gear and launched HARD. She said she heard bones snap before he lost contact and tumbled to a stop.
(Those air-cooled Bugs could out-accelerate any car for the first 20 feet.)
Will
We used to have a Whiskey Gulch area like that around here, now it's all high-rises and a Four Seasons - like a Talking Heads song...
Many Really Smart People have opined that your only "impact weapon" should be the projectiles in your heater. Seems ironic that one can often end up in deeper legal manure for clubbing someone than for ventilating their innards, but I've seen it happen. Or, as our local sheriff said, "It's usually better if there's only one left to tell the story".
DirtCrashr:
That's the place. This was in the 80's. That is actually part of East Palo Alto, on the West side of the freeway.
Had a friend who was a deputy that covered E P A back in the seventies. Carried a .44 Auto Mag! Told me that the sound of racking the slide generally convinced the BG's to exit the ally, as opposed to going in after them. Recently discovered that a newer friend was the dealer that sold that gun to him. Sure can be a small world when talking guns...
Will
wv: ovensin. Honest, I was just drying my glass beads from compressor water.
1. That head touch/looking for witnesses thing is an absolute telegraph of escalation.
2. Since most criminals like quiet attacks, I am more of a believer than he in speaking LOUDLY EARLY. A loud firm command- STAY AWAY FROM ME. LEAVE ME ALONE. - is like sunlight to a cockroach.
Also, thinking ahead to court, it alerts any bystanders, creating a bunch of witnesses who from the jump are on your side.
"Miss Smith, what was the first thing that attracted your attention?"
"That man there, he told that other man real loud to leave him alone."
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