Category: mindset

Get a gun and… hope.

Posted by Mostly Genius – February 28, 2009

No sooner do I write this post and then I read this: My New Gun. This is precisely what I was talking about. Being afraid and having a gun is better than being afraid and not having one, but it’s not that much better.

The noise in the indoor range was frightening, even though I was wearing the same ear protectors as construction workers using jackhammers. But more unnerving were the other shooters. The man in the adjacent booth had set his target at 15 feet and was firing with a coolness and precision that chilled me.

This is not the mindset that is going to keep you alive when you need your gun for self-defense. This article represents the gun-as-talisman thinking, the author believes that clutching a gun when alone in the dark will banish the bogey-man.

Then finally I picked out a Smith & Wesson .357 Magnum, “the gun I started with,” the clerk said. I handed him my driver’s license and filled out the paperwork. He left us to run my license number through a criminal-records system called QuickCheck. Two minutes later I was qualified and, between gun and ammo, $762 poorer. The revolver I bought has a black handle and a four-inch stainless-steel barrel. There’s nothing pink about it.

So for a first gun the author has a pistol that will kick like a mule with an 18 pound trigger. This probably won’t matter because I doubt the author is going to be going to the range or getting any training with it. It’s just good luck charm for the nightstand – in a masculine color.

(h/t:Joe)

Get a gun… and

Posted by Mostly Genius – February 27, 2009

The common response to some crime incident or self-defense item of news is that somebody should get a gun. I am all in favor of guns, the 2nd Amendment, concealed carry, and the like but it is not “THE” solution.

A handgun solves a subset of self-defense problems: given an identified deadly force threat a handgun will solve that situation at a distance relative to the skill of the operator.

Pure marksmanship increases the maximum distance that the gun can be effective – but not the minimum. Regardless of how good of a shot you are unless you can get your gun into play it will not be a factor in the fight.

If you have a really fast draw stroke then you can reduce the minimum distance, but not down to zero. A half-second draw will optimistically let you engage targets as near as 7 feet, a little outside of conversational distance.

Having all of these gun skills will not make a non-deadly threat solvable with a firearm, and situations can have a way of escalating. The non-deadly problem can turn deadly – but you have manage it well enough to get your firearm into action. Shoot/No-Shoot isn’t real life. “No Shoot” targets can turn into “Shoot” targets in a few quick seconds.

It is easy to pat ourselves on the back after shooting a decent group under controlled conditions and pretend that is “fighting.” We read the little lists of bullet point tactics that are so popular on the internet (heck I have written a few of them) and believe we understand what we need to do to prevent victimizations. I applaud the decision to get a firearm and carry it for protection, but that is not the destination. It is true that in many cases simply producing a firearm will scare off the assailants, but what about the cases where this is not true?

What I am getting at is that all of your mindset, tactics, skills and equipment are the solution to a range of problems. It is easy to envision getting woken up by the intruder who is breaking into the house, it is much harder to contemplate getting woken up by the intruder who is standing at the foot of your bed. Having solutions to the simple scenarios is a step in the right direction, but having a plan for the harder scenarios takes a lot of work.

The Mugger’s Wallet

Posted by Mostly Genius – February 20, 2009

The Mugger’s Wallet
I don’t know that the “fake wallet” strategy is really all the new or innovative, but I do find the comments interesting. It seems that most of the people are operating on some internally generated fantasy of what a mugging might look like. These fall into a few broad groups:

The Hippies:“…so you’d rather kill some poor bastard down on his luck than part with a few bucks? That’s some good humanity right there. “
So their mugger isn’t a person who has decided to make a career out of taking other peoples property by violence, but a person driven to desperate measures by circumstances.

The Gunfighters:“My mugger’s wallet is a Springfield XD .40 Sub-compact and many hours of training for just such a situation. Make my day.” Life imitates Hollywood, where the hard-bitten gunfighter rids the world of evil-doers to the accolades of the crowd and a hearty pat on the back from local law-enforcement.

The Tough guys:Yeah, I have a body build that makes me look like the kind of guy who beats up muggers for fun. I might put one of these together just so the mugger will feel totally bad ass before I go all ninja on him.
Because the muggers are never bigger, better armed, or working in groups. I once saw a security detail from the US that looked like it was made of football linemen turned bouncers. While that would probably be impressive in a US night club, it didn’t dazzle me to much in country where street kids have AK47’s and two magazines.

The Good Area Guys:I use the “don’t be in places where you’re likely to be mugged” defense.
Because muggers obey some sort of criminal zoning restrictions. At best this is optimizing a statistical trend, but doesn’t really apply to individuals that actually leave their homes occasionally.

There were also some good, thoughtful comments:
The issue isn’t “is their life worth the money in my wallet”, but rather “is their life worth my life”. The act of shooting someone, even in justifiable self defense will undoubtedly cost you more time and money than a stolen wallet.

Awareness for self defense

Posted by Mostly Genius – December 29, 2008

All of the experts and novices alike epouse something like “be aware of your surroundings” but that isn’t a lot of help. That level of advice will allow you to recognize a problem once you are already involved in it. Without some more specifics or a model for making decisions about the current circumstances awareness you are not getting the most out of paying attention.

Strategic Awareness. This is achieved by staying current on the news and knowing the statistics. Avoiding dangerous or high crime areas reduces (but does not eliminate) the chances of being involved in a criminal assault or other dangerous encounter. Frequently the media tends to over-hype how dangerous a certain location might be, but as an over all guideline it makes sense to stay current on this information.

Understanding the statistics can be helpful as well. A high homicide rate can be troubling, but a high rate of armed robberies or assaults is a better indicator of an areas danger. Many homicides are the result of inter-personal violence rather than random street crime. Homicidal gang members are more interested in killing their rivals than the random passers by. This does not mean an area of high gang activity isn’t dangerous, it’s just that the homicide statistic is not the most relevant one.

Tactical Awareness. Understanding your immediate surroundings in terms of what is cover, what is concealment and what is an escape route. Remembering what our objectives are as private citizens escape is our primary objective unless escaping would put us in greater danger or force us to abandon the people we want to protect.

Cover and concealment are relative terms and people sometimes get confused as to what these terms mean. Concealment simply means you are difficult to see or identify. Moving behind a curtain is concealment, as is moving into a large crowd. Cover is a physical barrier that protects you from the threat. It is important to remember that not all cover is equal. A chain link fence will protect you from knives, but not bullets. Cover is weapon system dependent. Sometimes cover can be concealment (like getting behind a wall.)

Social Awareness. We all have a pretty good, intuitive understanding of what normal social behavior looks like. Our ability to see anything that deviates from normal social behavior, or is otherwise “not right” is one of our best early-warning systems.

Taking action (or at least making a plan to do so) as soon as a situation looks like it has the potential for trouble is why awareness is such a critical tool. By spotting a potential problem before it becomes a confirmed problem you give yourself more time to choose a course of action, and you have a broader array of options available to you.

Projected Awareness. Because surprise is a critical component of many criminal victimizations, some criminals will choose to not initiate against people who look like they are paying attention. By “looking” aware we become less attractive for victimization.