self defense

Don’t forget about the bathroom

/ hsoi / 4 Comments

I went to Subway to pick up sandwiches for Wife and Kids.

I go to open the door. It didn’t open. Huh? Maybe my fingers slipped, try again. Nope. I try yet again with a little more oomph, maybe the door is just stuck? The door still didn’t open. A few more tugs and eventually the “sandwich artists” realize the door is locked and one of the patrons unlocked it for me.

How… odd. Why would the front door to the Subway be locked? and how could it happen? It was a bolt, and when the other gentleman opened it for me it certainly took a few twists of the knob to get it to fully unlatch. So I highly doubt the bolt was in any sort of position where it could have dislodged on its own.

So, that immediately put me on edge. Apart from the 2 ladies working the counter, there were 3 other patrons: the older man who opened the door for me, then two younger tattooed guys. I have nothing against tattoos, but the way they were acting was something to note. Of course, those two guys were almost done getting their sandwich and the older guy was the last in line… the one closest to the door and likely the last one that came through that door before it locked. I kept an eye on everyone’s hands. I kept my distance, minded my location, and just watched and prepared. Yes, I was in Condition Orange.

Things progressed for a couple of minutes while sandwiches were being made.

Then — to my surprise — a young black male walked out from the back hallway, where the bathrooms are located. He walked out from there, through the door, and out the front door. No one else paid him any mind, so maybe he was a patron that had finished his sandwich and opted to use the facilities before leaving. But it doesn’t matter. The point was simple:

I had forgotten about the place I couldn’t see.

In the end, nothing happened. Got my sandwiches and left. I’m still curious how the door became locked, but it doesn’t really matter now. What sits with me more is that I missed thinking “hey, could there be someone or something going on in the back that I can’t see?”

Just sharing a little learning point. It reminded me of something, and hopefully you can learn from my mistake.

A couple links

/ hsoi

KR Training attended the 2010 Polite Society event. Here’s a write-up. I highly recommend visiting the page and reading up on the 4 Force-on-Force scenarios. The write-up describes the scenarios and “results” from them. Very enlightening, and as with many FoF situations, a sober read. Many implications on what we need to practice, and it’s not just our marksmanship skills. There’s also a few videos of their shoothouse runs.

Rangemaster’s May 2010 newsletter is posted. Congratulations to Lynn Givens for her recognition by the Shelby County AG. This newsletter contains a good article about safety while traveling, especially in regards to hotels.

Tips from the blotter

/ hsoi

From time to time, scan your local Police Blotter. Sometimes you find directly useful tips to avoid crime. In other cases, you could try putting yourself into that situation and figuring out what you would do. It’s a tip from Tom Givens… figure out the plays beforehand so you have a script (and one that’s debugged) before it happens to you.

While reading this morning I came across this entry about two men arrested for a Craigslist scam.

Police said victims would see an ad on Craigslist for an iPhone and would contact the seller to meet. All four meetings were set up in a business parking lot between the hours of 10:15 and 11:30 p.m.

Police said Jenkins and Anderson would get the victim to an isolated area in the parking lot and then rob the victim using weapons and physical force.

Business parking lot is good, as it’s a public place and likely well-lit at night. But that’s also a problem: meeting at night. As well, you should stay in a very public part of the lot, not be taken to an isolated area. The blotter entry echos these tips:

Police are advising that people follow the following safety tips when meeting someone to sell or buy something from an online ad: arrange the meeting in very public places with plenty of people around; avoid, at all costs, being directed to an isolated area of a parking lot; attempt to obtain as much identifying information on subject prior to meeting; do not go alone, take people with you; avoid meeting after dark.

All good tips.

Daughter recently sold a collection of toys on Craigslist. The buyer lived in Lockhart, so when we went to arrange details for the transaction I figured it wouldn’t hurt to go to Lockhart — exchange the goods and pick up some awesome BBQ. When I went to arrange the details, we met on a Sunday morning around 10:00 AM in the gravel parking lot of Smitty’s BBQ. That’s a high traffic area, given it’s right on US-183 — the main road through town; plus, it’s Smitty’s on a Sunday, which is going to have the church crowd and the weekend visitors all around. It was for the safety of both the seller and the buyer. Make it as public and safe as possible. All things I pointed out to Daughter. Good things to learn.

How to handle your mistakes.

/ hsoi

When you make a mistake and flub something, what do you do? Do you stop and start over? Or do you just keep going?

Whatever you do, it’s been my experience that most people always do the same thing no matter the context. Today I write to say we need to consider how we recover from mistakes and choose the right approach based upon the context.

For example, I was doing dry-fire practice working on drawing my pistol from a concealment holster. Typical ways to flub the draw are the shirt doesn’t get out of or remains in the way, or your strong hand gets a poor initial grip. What do you do? As soon as you notice the flub do you stop and start over? or do you acknowledge the flub but proceed and work to recover from it to still reach your end goal? I used to stop and start over, but now I want to keep going. My reasoning? If the day comes and my life is on the line, I could well flub things. In a situation like that, what should my ingrained response be? Recover and move on? Or go “damnit! I screwed up!” reholster and ask for a do-over? I don’t think the latter is reasonable for the situation, so the only option is to recover and move on. Thus I must train myself to acknowledge the flub (must know what went wrong so I know what course of action to take to recover) then immediately recover from it, keeping my cool the whole time. This is the response I would want to have if my life depended upon it, so that’s how I must train.

Let’s consider my martial arts practice, specifically working on forms. If I was working on a form because I was entering a competition, I’d probably want to train myself to recover and move on. You’re performing, and the show must go on! But these days I do not participate in martial arts tournaments, so if I’m working on a form it’s because I want to get it correct, because there’s something in my own body and soul I wish to feel. Plus I’ve been away from Kuk Sool for almost a year and I admit some things are slipping my mind. Thus stopping and fixing is fine for me here because the context may dictate it (i.e. I forgot) or perhaps because I came to a point in my practice where I realized something and wish to focus on it. My goals here are different, and how I contend with mistakes must serve the end goal.

This reminds me of when I was in undergrad and played in a rock band. We were doing some basement recordings. We only had so much tape, so when we’d screw up I’d tell the guy running the board “Rewind and erase that.”  But he never listened to me and kept tape rolling. In my mind there was no point in keeping bad takes, especially when we had a finite amount of tape. However I’m glad he kept the tape rolling because it captured some gems. Looking back I can say we should have handled it both ways. When we’re working out a new song, sure we have to stop when mistakes are made because we’re still learning. But once the song is known, when we’re doing rehearsals for gigs, just keep going… unexpected things could happen during the gig and we wouldn’t come to a halt on stage, so practice accordingly.

Be clear on your end goal(s) and ensure you work towards it. One part we overlook is how we handle our mistakes. The way we handle our mistakes may need to change based upon the context, so be sure to analyze, figure out the plan, and behave accordingly… especially as you practice. Train yourself to handle your mistakes as the context dictates. Your life may depend upon it.

See, that’s the thing….

/ hsoi / 3 Comments

People say there’s no use in having guns. Why would we need guns? We’re not going to have a war here. We’re not going to see the end of the world and societal collapse.

Well, maybe … maybe not.

But ugly things can and do happen.

Take a look at the 1992 riots in Los Angeles. Voters screamed for mandatory waiting periods to obtain guns. Then the riots broke out. People wanted guns to defend themselves… but that pesky waiting period. Doesn’t do you much good. Of course, you could have planned ahead…. yes we don’t expect things like riots to happen, but they do and are usually unplanned and won’t show up on your social calendar. So you just have to be prepared.

Then look at New Orleans and Hurricane Katrina.

And today, we have Chile post-earthquake:

My neighbors and I were all without firearms. That is something I regret. My opinion of those things has changed overnight, believe me. Fortunately, a nearby department building was full of army families and they would start shooting at anyone moving in the street during curfew (18:00 to 12:00 for the first days of curfew). Maybe they were shooting in the air, but the people roving in the street always changed direction after that, so it was enough.

Yeah, we don’t want these things to happen. But you know the old expression… shit happens.

Be prepared.

Yeah life would be better if such things didn’t happen and if we didn’t have to take such measures. But those who deny the existence of predatory scum in this world are lying to themselves.

(h/t) to SayUncle.

Small win for APD

/ hsoi / 5 Comments

Going to give some kudos to Austin Police Department here. It’s a small thing, but it’s little things like this that add up.

As frequent readers know, we have a lot of ducks that hang out at our house.

Well, about 45 minutes ago my kids saw some random Rottweiler trotting across our lawn. I was called to come see, and so I went and saw. He was perked up, looking at something. My guess? The ducks, but a few houses down and out of sight.

I go back to work.

A minute or so later I hear my kids screaming in terror. The Rot was attacking a duck.

Granted my kids understand nature and life, but they are very fond of the ducks… so injury to these ducks is like injuring a member of the family.

I tear down the stairs and run outside looking for the Rot. He was behind/under a truck… apparently it was just some guy driving through and he saw things too and tried to do something about it (I guess… I really didn’t know, my only exchange with him was “That your dog?” “No.”). I chased the Rot, shouting and yelling. The Rot broke off his attack and retreated back into a yard in the cul-de-sac. I don’t know what happened to the duck, but I did see him waddle off… I don’t know his condition, but it is what it is.

The Rot eventually stopped and laid down. I took out my phone, dialed 911, explained, and they said police will be dispatched. My wife was also on the phone to 311 and they took the animal control call. Yes it’s just attacking a duck but my thinking is 1. it’s a Rot, 2. if he’s showing a penchant for attacking things who knows what else he could attack, 3. no collar so who knows if he’s a pet or feral. Who knows. My brother-in-law has a Rot and she’s a sweetie. I know Rot’s aren’t evil, but there’s no question there’s a legit reason for their reputation. I don’t want some unknown Rot wandering my neighborhood.

About 10 minutes after the call goes in, 2 APD cruisers pull up. We point out the dog, explain things, they drive over to the dog. You could tell there was some joking “you get him, no you get him”. A third cruiser pulls in, and that officer had some leashes in his trunk. A little figuring out of who will do what, tasers at the ready, and the third officer approaches the Rot. He tries calling him over and the dog obediently comes, a little unsure, but obeys. Leashed up, “good dog” petting, and into the back of a cruiser. Some handshakes and thank you’s to the officers, and what’s done is done.

My take

I don’t feel bad about what I did. Granted, as the event wore on it was evident the dog is fairly well-behaved. He’s certainly someone’s pet (tho lacking a collar, but hopefully not a microchip). He did show signs of submissive behavior, but he was also constantly alert. That’s good stuff, when it’s your dog. But again, I have no idea about this dog. He demonstrated attacking behavior, and well… I just can’t allow some unknown and potentially dangerous dog to be trotting around my neighborhood with other pets, small children, and people around. No apologies for what I did.

APD took about 10 minutes to show up, and my guess is they were there that “quickly” due to the fact the dog was seen attacking. I can’t fault them… it’s not like there was a cop right here, they did have to drive to get here, so 10 minutes is reasonable. But as with all things, it shows what response time can be.

I did have my gun on me. It shows that situations can happen suddenly and you have to run with what you have. There was no time to run and get my gun or get anything… I ran outside barefoot. If the dog was a problem, yes I had no problem shooting it. I wanted to avoid that at all costs of course, but if someone’s life was in danger (because again, I knew nothing of the dog’s demeanor, other than he was attacking a duck) well… that’s how it goes. While standing off with the dog, I asked my wife for her pepper spray, as that’d be my preference. I had a prior experience with dogs and wishing for OC. I still don’t have OC on me, because I haven’t found something suitable (even tho GT Dist has some decent options).

I do hope the dog has a microchip and can be reunited with his owner… and his owner is a little wiser for the experience so it doesn’t happen again. He was a good looking Rotty, and seemed to be a “good dog”, so I do hope there ends up being a happy ending to this story. But again, dogs are what they are, and I’m not going to take a chance.

APD did well. Took care of things. Thank you to the local Boys in Blue.

Improvised Weapons – Magazine

/ hsoi / 12 Comments

While we all would prefer to have the right tool for the job, sometimes you just have to roll with what’s available to you. Improvised tools and weaponry is better than nothing.

A rolled up magazine? Yes, you could use that as an improvised weapon. A lot of dan bong techniques can be applied using a rolled up magazine.

But really… the best thing about using a magazine as a weapon? The comedy gold:

Updated: hrm. Seems the video changed to private after I posted it. Updated with new link.

Erwin Ballarta Retirement Tribute

/ hsoi

The Edged Weapon Defense seminar I attended a few days ago was headed by a man named Erwin Ballarta. Erwin spent many years as the head of Texas DPS’s Defensive Tactics. When he retired from DPS, a Recruit Cadet made a tribute video:

Pretty cool. 🙂

There’s one quote/voiceover in there that is a great adage for self-defense:

Move and stun, stun and move.

It’s simple. In a self-defense situation, you have to keep moving. Moving, attacking/defending, moving.

Another good quote?

Don’t give up.

Edged Weapon Defense I

/ hsoi / 3 Comments

While I may have put regularly scheduled empty-hand training on the backburner for a little while, that doesn’t mean I’ve stopped practicing martial arts. Yesterday I took part in a seminar on Edged Weapon Defense.

Continue reading →

Surviving Gunfights

/ hsoi

A friend sent me a link to this article on surviving gunfights.

Of course the best way to survive a gunfight? Don’t be in one. Use everything that you can from awareness to mindset to avoidance to descalation. Avoid the gunfight.

But Higginbotham’s article isn’t about that. It’s about actually being in one. Higginbotham’s credentials are well-established, so he’s worth listening to.

The notion of “center mass”, yeah… I’m now of the mind that it’s a silly concept. I mean, I see where it comes from, but look at what “center mass” is of a human. Putting your shots in the center of that mass put them somewhere in the abdominal region. That’s not where you want to put things because there’s nothing vital there.

Realize as well that again, all pistol calibers suck. So what do you need to do? Keep shooting until the threat has stopped. But realize, some people may not know they’ve been hit, some people will keep on truckin’ for quite a while after having been shot even if the shot was in the right places. There’s no guarantee.

Head shot? If you can do it, great. But try some Force-on-Force training and see how many head shots you can get off.

Moving? Good thing. It was Tom Givens that convinced me that even the side-step motion is good (I used to consider the side-step silly in a “real” gun fight and more something done in classes and at the range due to range and administrative realities). That is, while drawing, just step to the side. Givens likes to call it a “WTF? moment” because it’s something that the attacker didn’t plan for and it causes them to reset their OODA loop… a “WTF?”, which could be enough to give you advantage. It also gets you off the line. Sure all sorts of things like j-hooking and other sorts of movement are great if you can, but at least just side-step when you do things like draw, reload, and so on. If you can’t practice that at the range, then make sure you do it when you dry fire.

The only thing about the article that bugs me a bit is how Higginbotham downplays all the caliber stuff, then he gets right into the caliber stuff. So which is it? Does it matter or does it not matter? The reality is it doesn’t matter a whole lot and there’s no guarantee. They all suck. Pick what you can shoot well, fast and accurate, that allows you to practice. Modern expanding ammunition helps. Skill trumps equipment.

Still, a good read.