Stay safe no matter where you go.

Let’s talk for a moment about a few other options for personal defense that DON’T involve a firearm. If you work in a location that bans “weapons” such as most knives and all guns, there are still a lot of self-defense options available to you. Here’s some suggestions that I’ve found might work in more restrictive locations, but as always, these are suggestions, and use them at your own risk.

First off, use your brain, and don’t do dumb things in dumb places with dumb people.

Secondly, have a good, strong, bright flashlight with you, and use it whenever you go out at night. That mugger in the parking lot might pass you by and find an easier target if you walk out of your building shining a flashlight that could light up a small neighborhood. In addition to this, that flashlight makes a DANDY striking tool if (God forbid) the worst happens and you’re attacked.

Thirdly, just because you can’t have a gun or a knife with you doesn’t mean you’re unarmed. Some options for self-defense besides a flashlight might be:

• Keep a can of wasp spray in your desk. It’s nasty, nasty stuff and foams up very nicely, blocking the bad guy’s vision and impairing his breathing.
• Fire extinguishers. Like wasp spray, they block vision and impair breathing and are 100% innocuous.
• A hammer. No one will bat an eye if you have a hammer in your desk for small repairs or hanging pictures, but they make a heck of a weapon if needed. War hammers were the weapon of choice in Western Europe for hundreds of years, so they should work for you, too.
• Multitool blades. No, they’re not a Spyderco or Benchmade, yes, they are better than harsh language, and no one will freak if you have a pair of pliers, a bottle opener and a nail file near you.

But as I said at the start, the most powerful weapon you have (and the only one you really need) is what’s in-between your ears. Situational awareness, or paying attention to what you’re paying attention to, will help you avoid the trouble in the first place. 

And no trouble is just the kind of trouble you want to have.

Somebody Else Isn’t Going To Help You.

My friend Kathy Jackson has a great post on how all of us tend to think that bad things will always happen to somebody else, when in reality, we are just somebody else’s “somebody else”.

I confess, I lived like that for a long, long time. I grew up in Canada, and despite having some sky-high murder rates, we never thought of violent crime as something that affected us. We lived in good neighbourhoods, we didn’t do stupid things with stupid people, and besides, there would ALWAYS be a Mountie nearby when we needed one, right?

Then one night, a group of friends and myself went camping, and late at night, after we’d all retired, a group of yokels made camp near us, lit up a huge bonfire and started shooting shotguns off into the air, and I realized that if they meant to do us harm, a cop would NOT be there to protect us and the only thing we had to defend ourselves was a hatchet.

Somebody else’s problem became MY problem, and quickly. That’s when I realized that believing bad things only happened to other people was not going to keep me safe, I was going to have to be my own first responder. 

What’s your story? When do you realize it self-defense wasn’t someone else’s problem?

 

Teach your kids about guns.

I have two wonderful sons. They’re the reason why I own guns. I know that there won’t be a cop around when I need one, because crooks are really, really good at finding opportunities to attack people when there’s not cops around. 

That’s why they’re called “crooks” and not “convicted, locked-up criminals”. 

I digress…

One of my priorities is making sure my kids know that guns are dangerous things and should not be played with. Before I bought my first gun for home defense, I bought and installed a quick-access safe to store it in, and I also ordered the free Eddie The Eagle DVD from the NRA. 

Why that DVD? Because it’s excellent, and the NRA is the world’s largest firearms training organization, that’s why. If you have kids, you need to have them watch it, because it works. 

How do I know that? 

A few months ago, we were cleaning out the trunk of my car, and my sons found a few loose shotgun shells rattling around the trunk. My youngest son immediately stopped what he was doing and asked me what I wanted them to do. He knew to “STOP! – Don’t Touch – Leave the Area- Tell an Adult.” when he saw that ammo because they learned it from the NRA’s DVD.

Win. 

What being a gun owner is not

• Being a gun owner isn’t being a gun nut 
• Being a gun owner doesn’t mean you need to buy Mossy Oak clothing (unless you own some already)
• Same is true of RealTree 
• You don’t even need to know what MossyOak or RealTree is in order to own a gun
• Being a gun owner doesn’t mean you have to watch Duck Dynasty
• Being a gun owner doesn’t mean you start using tactical as a noun
• Being a gun owner doesn’t mean you want to buy this
• Or this
• Being a gun owner doesn’t mean you vote Republican
• Being a gun owner doesn’t mean you’ll be signed up for the NRA against your will (although joining of your own volition is a really good idea)
• Being a gun owner doesn’t mean you’re compensating for something. 

Being a gun owner means you’ve realized there will not be a cop around when you need one, and that you are always going to be your own first responder. 

Cool training vs. effective training

I REALLY want to hunt hogs from helicopters.

Why? Because I’d be in a low-flying helicopter, shooting a rifle, ridding the country of a loathsome invasive species that’s causing an ecological nightmare and harvesting my own organic, steroid-free, free-range bacon, all that the same time.

What’s not to love? 

But that sort of thing has absolutely NOTHING to do with my life outside of the helicopter. Sure, it looks like too much fun for any one man to have, but useful for my day-to-day life? No way. 

Which brings us around to firearms training.

As I see it, your first firearms class should be about the things you’re most likely to need, such as safe gun handling and storage. Using a gun a to defend your life is (thankfully) a very rare event, but safe gun handling is something you’ll need every time you pick up a gun. 

Start your training off right with safety, because techniques may come and go, but safe gun handling never goes out of style.

Giving up something to carry a gun

People want to know what changes they will need to make in their lives when they decide to carry a gun for self-protection. The answer I usually give out isn’t about new clothing or different equipment, it’s about a new attitude. Specifically, you can’t get angry when you carry a gun.

Ever. Let me say that again in another way: Carrying a gun means giving up your right to be angry at the actions of others, no matter how unbelievably stupid those actions may have been. 

An example. 

A friend of mine’s boyfriend got into an argument while driving with the driver of another car. Words were exchanged, and both cars pulled over to the side of the road. My friends boyfriend walked out of his car with his gun in hand, determined the other driver was unarmed, and drove off, believing the incident to be over. 

The other driver called the cops, claiming my friend’s boyfriend had pulled a gun on him (which, in reality, is sorta what happened). My friend’s boyfriend had a long legal journey that only recently came to an end and with a satisfactory (but not exculpatory) conclusion. 

What if he had just walked away and not stoked the fires of anger? What if he gave up his “right” to express his anger at that @#$! who just cut him off at traffic? Would he have had to worry about that other driver being armed? Would he to face a mountain of legal bills and possible loss of his right of armed self-defence? Is giving up the pretend right of being angry at someone worth the loss of your actual right to arm yourself in defense of your life and your loved ones? 

If  you answer to that question is “No, I am not willing to give up my right to get angry”, please don’t own a gun. The safety of myself others around you depend on such things. 

Should Your Firearms Trainer Be A Combat Veteran?

 

It’s not uncommon these days to see firearms trainers talk about their experience overseas as something that makes them a better firearms teacher.

This is probably true if I’m headed overseas to serve in Afghanistan. 

But I’m not. I’m headed out to Wal-Mart later today, not Khandahar, so the knowledge of how to lay down covering fire with an M4 or call in an airstrike is of limited use to me. Not knocking those have or who are serving: They’ve done more to defend this country than I have and they will always have my respect. It’s just that the combat skillset needed to win a firefight doesn’t translate automatically into the skillset needed to survive a mugging. 

An example: My friend Don is a crackerjack photographer and an excellent photography teacher, but his degree is in music composition. He was trained to be a jazz musician, but he’s one of the best photo teachers in the world and has authored a bunch of books on learning photography because he teaches what he knows and knows what he teaches is of use to the people who take his classes. 

The point of instruction is to have your instructor teach you something you can use, not tell you about all the things he knows. You don’t want a firearms teacher who’s seen it all and done it all if he can’t teach you something you need to know. A firearms trainer shouldn’t teach theory or have a bunch of really cool stories to tell, a firearms trainer should teach skills that you can call upon if (God forbid) you need them one day. 

Training vs. Competition

A quick thought about the ongoing idea that competing in a firearms competition will get you killed in “the real world” because you’ll expect things to happen in a real gunfight like they do on in a match. 

I don’t look up at the night sky expecting to see rows of aliens slowing descending towards the ground, I don’t get in my car and hear the theme to Peter Gunn playing in the background and I certainly don’t think that things will happen in the real world like they do in an IDPA match. 

If you can’t figure out the difference between a game and the real world, you need a lot of help. 

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