self defense

Resistance is NOT futile

/ hsoi

Police said the victim resisted and yelled while the suspect remained on his feet and hovered over her. At some point, a man walking a dog entered the area and the attacker ran.

Another assault in Circle C Park here in South Austin. Full story.

While there’s not much information in the story (it does include a description), what there is presents a few things we can learn. Granted, I can only base this off what’s in the story, there’s a lot of context missing, so take this for what it’s worth.

According to police, the victim ran from Escarpment Boulevard onto the jogging trail of the park at around 7:30 p.m. As the victim made her way to the basketball courts on the northwest end and toward a street that runs through the park, she saw a man hiding behind a bush. When she ran past the man, he pushed her down and proceeded to physically assault her.

While the time was in the evening, it was still “broad daylight”. Bad things can happen at any time of the day, not just in the dark of night.

She saw a man hiding behind a bush. Later in the article it described the man as “wearing a black long-sleeved shirt with black pants and a black baseball hat”. I can’t say if she saw what the man was wearing in detail enough to have anything register but… it’s like 100º+ and 110% humidity in Austin right now. Someone in long-sleeves, full pants, hat — and all black — is VERY out of place (not even Austin goths are dressed like that). Throw in “hiding behind a bush” and your alarm bells should be screaming. None of this appears normal; it’s all out of place. This is not someone I would want to continue past – I would do whatever I could to put as much distance between myself and that person as soon and rapidly as possible.

The attacker ran off when someone else came into the area. There is safety in numbers. Having a useful dog has benefits as well.

Most of all? She resisted. She yelled. She fought back. She refused to be a victim.

There’s the biggest lesson.

The Cost

/ hsoi / 1 Comment

…our priorities should always be:

  1. Avoid,
  2. Escape,
  3. Confront,
  4. Resist

When we jump to Confront and Resist before we absolutely need to, we’re being emotionally hijacked by the situation, our pasts, our current influences, and our egos. Allowing an emotional hijacking is no more a recipe for success than going along with any other kidnapping attempt. There’s always going to be a very high cost.

Internet common-taters take note; it’s not you who will pay the cost, so STFU.

Claude Werner once again nails it. There’s a cost involved in killing someone – and it goes far deeper than you may have ever considered.

The cost is not only borne by the individual who does the shooting but also by their family. At some point their children are going to go to school and one of their classmates is going to taunt them with ‘my daddy says your daddy is a murderer!’ No matter how justifiable the shooting may be, someone in the community who feels that self-defense is an unacceptable concept will express their feelings to their children and the children will pass it on to your children.

Yup.

There are legal costs. There are financial costs. But there are also personal, emotional, psychological, reputation, jobs, social, relationships… there are many costs.

Going to guns should be the last resort. We should do all we can to avoid, deter, deescalate, escape. When you truly consider the costs, those are all far cheaper options.

Hebrew Hogger 2016

/ hsoi

What are you doing July 31, 2016?

Can you get yourself to Nashville, TN?

If so, you should attend the Hebew Hogger 2016!

This is a unique tactical conference in that it has no live-fire events. In the wake of the Orlando terror attack, the importance of skill sets tangential to firearms utilization have been heavily underscored…but how do you get, “those,” skills? This conference will help you learn, earn and hone those important, “soft,” skills that can, and will, save lives. Topics include performance paradigms, criminal psychology, threat identification, edged weapons defense, emergency medical skills, legal issues, and more. AND IT’S ONLY $100!

You can read all about it at Dr. Sherman House’s blog

Look at the presenters:

  • Dr. Sherman House
  • Dr. William Aprill
  • Claude Werner
  • Paul Sharp
  • John Jayne

And it’s only $100

Unfortunately I can’t make the event, but bah gawd what a deal!

Some of the top traininers out there. Talking about some of the most important stuff out there. Yeah I know… gunz and ammo and #pewpewlyfe. All that’s good, but I can tell you that the soft-skills being taught at the Hogger are going to do FAR more towards keeping you safe on a daily basis and throughout your lifetime.

And it’s all going to a good cause.

 

Lessons from the Texas Salsa Fight

/ hsoi / 3 Comments

There’s video going around about a fight that broke out at a Mexican restaurant, apparently over salsa.

This is apparently the original video/posting.

There’s a few important lessons we can learn from this video in terms of keeping yourself safe.

First, bad things can happen around you, suddenly, without warning, and without your direct involvement. Yet, you’ll be affected. It’s important to admit and acknowledge this reality of life.

Second, don’t worry about WHY something is happening. It’s very natural that the first thing to pop into your head is trying to figure out WHY this bad thing is happening. Trouble is, it will consume you, you won’t be able to come up with an answer, so it will continue to consume you. Meantime, the bad thing continues to happen and you continue to be at risk. You can think about WHY later on; right now, you need to do all you can to respond to the situation and make yourself safe. Put this into practice in your daily life. It’s difficult at first, but the way to do it is when things happen, if you find yourself asking “why it this happening?”, recognize you’re asking why, defer asking why until later, and shift gears to deal with the immediate situation.

Third, every time you walk into somewhere, identify all the exits. There were two obvious exits in the restaurant, but both were blocked by people fighting. You know where there’s another exit? Through the kitchen. Yeah fine, the kitchen is “off limits”, but in a case like this? I’m heading for the kitchen and out the back door. People backed away and felt trapped because they couldn’t get to the obvious exits. So be sure to identify all possible exits.

Fourth, this is not a time to get involved. In a case like this? My choice is to leave immediately. Head for the back, head for a non-blocked exit, and get the hell out of there as quickly as possible. Once I’m out and safe, call the police. Even if I got somehow “involved” (e.g. I got hit by a flying chair), I cannot let that draw me into this bad (and stupid) situation — this is not my fight, this is not a good thing, this is not something I want to be involved in, this is not something worth dying over or going to jail over when the cops show up.

Make these decisions ahead of time. Have your plan NOW, so when stupid shit like this erupts suddenly and unexpectedly and you find yourself caught up in it, you can proceed in a manner that maximizes your safety.

Car break-ins up in Austin

/ hsoi

A neighbor posted some data regarding vehicle break-ins in Austin.

APD has what’s called COMSTATS, that give information about what kinds of crimes are happening in an area. I’m going on focus Property Crimes and specifically Burglary of Vehicles (BOV’s.) These stats (MTD and YTD) are thru March 2016 and will cover Region 4 Frank and David Sectors. These numbers do not cover any TCSO stats for those unincorporated areas, Sorry

March 2016 #’s YTD #’s
BOV’s- Burglary Of Vehicles

DAVID- Down 1% this year from last to date
MTD-113 Cars
YTD-350 Cars

FRANK- Up 5% this year from last to date
MTD-125 Cars
YTD- 305 Cars

TOTAL Region 4- So far the # of BOV’s is up 2% for the year over last to date
MTD-382 Cars
YTD- 655 Cars broken into this year so far! 655!!! Crazy numbers

655, in just Region 4, in the first 3 months of 2016.

You know what could have prevented a vast majority of these?

Locking your damn doors.

Seriously, that’s it. It’s that damn simple.

Most thieves want a quick score and do not want to attract attention. This car locked? Move on to the next because it probably won’t be. Why waste time trying to break in when people just leave the doors open?

In addition, keep stuff out of your car (or at least out of sight). A fish doesn’t bite on an empty hook.

While you’re at it, lock the doors and windows on your home as well. I’ve been hearing too many stories recently of people finding unknowns in their home, and yes they left their doors unlocked and the dudes just waltzed right in.

Greg Ellifritz has an excellent article on the same topic. Please read.

In fact, don’t bother reading. Just lock your damn doors.

Is it worth dying for?

/ hsoi / 6 Comments

A lot is being said about the man in Arlington, TX that inserted himself into a situation and died as a result.

Claude Werner has a fine take on the whole incident.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: make choices that maximize your enjoyment of beer & TV.

Or put it even simpler: is it worth dying for?

I can totally understand the man’s feeling, the pull to want to intervene and help. We often lament about how good people stand idly by and don’t step in to help. The whole
“All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.” thing. But we must look deeper than a quotation, and we must consider: is it not evil that this man has now left behind a wife and children? Did this man’s choice actually allow evil to triumph? Would it not also be a good thing for a good man to continue to be a good husband, a good father, a good business owner, a good citizen of his community?

If you are going to carry a gun, you also carry a great responsibility.

You must look beyond the hard physical skills of marksmanship, and look towards the deeper issues of mindset and mentality. You must understand the legal factors. You must understand the deeper philosophical requirements. You must know what you can and will do, and what you will not do. Your line must be clear, it must be articulable to yourself, your family, the police, the judge and jury, to God, to whomever. It may come off as hard, cold, callous, and you may have to find your balance, you may have to come to terms with such dichotomy. Regardless, you must do it. You must know before you must act upon it.

Else, you get what you have here.

No one helped – two sides to every story

/ hsoi

Via Greg Ellifritz, I read an article about 7 self-defense cases and their implications.

In discussing one of the cases:

Finally, you need to be able to handle it yourself: John told us that of some 30 people who witnessed this struggle in a public place, not a single one came forward to help him.

Now, this statement can be taken for what it is: you’re in a struggle, lots of people around you, no one steps in to help, which means yes you are on your own so you ought to be prepared to handle things yourself.

What stood out to me is depending which side of the story you’re in, the fact that “no one helped” gets either condemned or praised. And it’s as if we want it both ways.

On the one hand, people want other people to help. They are of the mind that if I saw something bad happening, I would step in. Certainly this is a good thing, to help someone in need. And if you are the one in need, you’d likely welcome all the help you can get. As well, people often view the fact that “no one helps” as a sad commentary on society today, and thus state that as demonstration that they are not part of that particular societal problem.

On the other hand, often people of this same group discuss the realities of getting involved in someone else’s problem. You could wind up hurt or dead. You may not understand the complete context of the event and could wind up helping the wrong person, or making a bad situation worse. You could cause problems for yourself, and there may be nothing done in return by those involved to contend with your problems brought on by helping them with their problems (e.g. medical bills, loss of job, loss of life, etc.). So it is often suggested that it could be a very bad thing to get involved.

This is something I personally struggle with, because it’s in my nature to want to help people, yet I know if I help it may not have the desired effect and things could wind up worse for those involved and myself. My personal safety and well-being does matter more to me (if I’m hurt, can’t work, die, get sued, etc.; who is going to take care of my wife and children?), but yet I have a hard time standing by and watching others suffer. It’s a tough spot.

At least what’s needed is for us to stop viewing it from just one side. That no one came to help, maybe there’s good reason why they didn’t, and if the tables were turned you may not have helped either (despite your well-intended fantasies to the contrary). Work to understand the complete picture, which from one person’s perspective may have been an incomplete picture thus the choices they made. Work to ensure you can take care of yourself, both in the moment and afterwards. Work to ensure you have full understanding before you plunge headlong. Don’t just work to have good intentions, work to be able to do actual good.

The news media will paint your picture

/ hsoi

…and you probably won’t like how the news media paints your picture.

I first wrote about “LittleLebowski”‘s self-defense incident on “How We Each Draw Our Lines Differently“. In my reading of his retelling, another thing stood out to me:

How the media paints your picture.

Here’s the full text of a story from KHON:

Honolulu police have arrested a suspect in a Waikiki stabbing.

It happened on Nohonani Street at around 8:30 p.m. Tuesday.

Sean Hogle, 39, was arrested after police say he and a 38-year-old man were involved in a fight.

The victim was stabbed multiple times and taken to the hospital in serious condition.

There is no official word yet on what the fight was about. A witness at the scene said the altercation may have started with an argument between a man and a woman.

HPD has opened an attempted murder investigation.

Hogle has not been charged at this time.

When you read that, what impression are you left with?

Probably that Sean (LittleLebowski) is the bad guy.

Now in fairness, the article is pretty straightforward; there really isn’t editorializing or commentary. But the way it’s presented? It sure makes Sean seem like the bad guy.

Another report did say:

A witness… said the suspect stepped in to break up a domestic altercation involving an assault on a female. The suspect then stabbed the 38-year-old man.

Which is another fact, and when you hear it does paint a different picture.

Why did the first news story omit that fact? It could be for a nefarious reason, or it could simply be that reporter didn’t get to speak to any witnesses and simply didn’t know.

Regardless of why, the picture is still painted.

I know from my own incident that the news media will paint a particular picture. Once that picture is painted, opinions and perceptions and understanding will be formed. It may not be correct, but it will be what it is. Unfortunately it will likely remain the primary and only picture that people will have about the incident. You may have to fight an uphill battle to combat the image.

One way to start? Live a good life and provide a proper image of yourself online. The moment a story hits, news reporters know how to work Google, Bing, and DuckDuckGo, and work it they will to find whatever information they can about you. If they can use it to create a larger story, they will. You’re welcome to cultivate whatever image and reputation about yourself that you wish: it’s your life, live it as you want. Just be aware how the public could, can, and does perceive you.

The court of public opinion has potential to do far greater damage to you than any court of law ever could. Just look at how the mob rules today with “Internet shaming”. It’s wrong, but it’s unfortunately part of how things are today.

On the same token, when you read news stories, consider your own responses and reactions. Do you have the whole story? Could the media be incorrect or incomplete in their report? Can you have empathy to those involved, instead of rushing to judgment? Use this as a way to improve your own personal responses, because someday that story may be about you.

Be sure to consider the news media, their impact, and how it affects the information of your story and thus your life. It’s an important part of figuring out “where you draw your line”.

We each draw our lines differently

/ hsoi

Where do you draw your line (in the sand)?

When was the last time you articulated where that line was drawn?

When you articulated that line, have you subjected it to scrutiny? Have you read stories, considered scenarios, applied it (as a training exercise, in your head) while you go about your daily life? Does it hold up? Does it need adjustment and refinement?

Over on pistol-forum.com “LittleLebowski” recounted his experience of when he had to defensively use a knife in a Hawaii hotel. It’s a very detailed story, including details of his arrest, references to news media reports, and all that he went through. I empathized and identified with a fair portion of what he went through.

What was more interesting to me was flipping through all the forum discussion of his account. The majority of it was comments such as “you shouldn’t have gotten involved”, or “wasn’t your fight”. But there were also counters such as “JV_” saying:

It’s interesting to watch incident videos, like the thug beating up on a big bus driver (who won in the end) and many people seemed surprised that no one stepped in to help the bus driver.

And here we have an incident where someone does step in to help out, and we’re back to the “it’s not my fight”. On the other hand, it’s a domestic incident, and if she turned on the helper, he’d still be in jail.

I don’t look forward to living in a society where everyone stands around and watches bad things happen.

And the discussion raged on, as Internet forums do, tho was overall quite civil.

Still, the armchair quarterbacking was interesting for me to observe and it mirrors responses I received in regards to my own incident.

It’s not really that people are trying to tell me or LittleLebowski that we were right or wrong (tho yes, some are certainly trying to scold or correct), it’s more that people are articulating their own feelings against the backdrop of our event. They might be saying “you shouldn’t have gotten involved” but they really mean “I wouldn’t get involved”.

Really, it’s tough to tell someone they shouldn’t have gotten involved – especially after the fact. “Gee, thank you for pointing out my mistakes… as if I’m totally unaware of them.” You may mean well, but think about what you’re really trying to say and why you are saying it. Someone telling their story is making themselves vulnerable, in hopes of helping you (including learning from the mistakes made). Don’t punch them in the gut over it.

And from that, work to learn. If after hearing the story you find yourself (re)assessing how you would respond to such a situation, good! That’s the point of sharing. You should be using the story to figure out where you stand, and if you need to adjust, if you need to change yourself, if you need to further your education.

Remember: as a result, we will all draw our lines in different places. What’s right for you may not be what’s right for me. It’s good to help guide people towards finding, improving, and making articulable where their line is drawn; just don’t look down on them or chastise them for drawing their line differently from yours. So long as they have a clearly defined and defensible line, so long as they can reasonably articulate where and why, that’s what’s important.

An unorthodox drill – my results

/ hsoi / 5 Comments

Grant Cunningham proposed “An unorthodox drill”:

How do you internalize the idea that it’s the other stuff you do that really keeps you safe? How do you get over the irrational notion that it’s your CCW that does this? As I’ve told more than one class, I think a valuable drill is to occasionally practice NOT carrying your gun. I know it sounds odd, and I know the overly-shooting-oriented defensive training community will excoriate me for saying that, but I believe there are benefits to be had by occasionally doing such an exercise.

About a week ago, I responded to a Letter to the Editor about how “My gun kept you safe” saying “No, it didn’t. My original response to that letter had nothing to do with Grant’s proposal, but Grant’s proposal came in while I was composing and it was good food for thought, so I changed my response. As well, I figured that it’d be worthwhile to partake in the drill myself. I already have times when I don’t carry a gun, such as when I go to concerts. While I lose the use of a tool, I don’t necessarily feel “unarmed”. Again, it’s not the gun keeping me safe, it’s me keeping me safe. But I thought it’d be good experiment to try in a different context.

Different Context

I spent the past week on a business trip. Due to the nature of the trip and the events that would be participating in, having a gun on my person was going to be complicated. I’m sure I could have found ways to manage it, but I thought this would be an interesting context in which to try Grant’s drill. So I made the decision to leave the gun at home.

I also started going “naked” a couple days before the trip, just because I could. But those couple days started to give me my first insights.

Alternative Tools

There are other tools one can utilize.

Knives are a good example. Pepper spray is another. There are times I have a hickory or oak cane. What I might have can be affected by circumstance and situation, but realize there’s more out there. And if you opt to handle one of these others, it behooves you to obtain some sort of training and skill with that tool. Yes, even pepper spray. No, you don’t have to spend 10 years and become a black-belt in it, but knowledge and skill will aid you if you have to use the tool.

One downside? I lost a good ranged tool. While typical self-defense incidents happen in the 0-5 yard range (within the length of a car), there’s still more than enough data on incidents happening at longer ranges. But even 0-5 can be out of reach for some of these tools. A knife is really only useful if the person is WITHIN arms reach, which is already too close. Pepper spray has a degree of reach, but it’s limited and even more so if there’s wind blowing (which there always is to some degree). That is one thing that I was bummed about losing was the ranged weapon.

Change of Habits

For years I’ve carried my keys in my left front pocket. I’m right-handed, but use my left hand for keys. Why? Because it keeps my right hand free for other things. When I started carrying the ASP Defender (pepper spray, and quasi-kubotan), I actually retained my existing habit of the left-hand pocket. Well, going naked for those couple days made me think more about the Defender being a primary tool, and I realized I needed to switch and put my keys (and thus the ASP Defender) into my right-front pocket. Granted I could still work it from my left if needed, but it makes more sense for me now to have it on the right. The unorthodox drill forcing me into this different paradigm paid that benefit of having me rethink and improve my strategies.

Awareness of Awareness

One of the biggest take-homes from the drill was regarding awareness.

For sure, you perk up your awareness. What does that mean? That you weren’t running as aware as you thought you were.

Throughout the week my awareness went to various places.

When I was walking the dog, I realized how easily she caused distraction and my focus to shift. Same thing would happen when I’d be walking around with other people, talking to them. There just are times you have to pay attention to other things, to have the majority of your focus on something else. Your attention is easily divided, and you likely don’t realize it.

This is reality, I’ve known this, and anyone that denies slipping into Condition White from time to time is dishonest with themselves.

I did find myself paying more attention to things. Had one opportunity for some light MUC (Managing Unknown Contacts) practice. Being in semi-familiar surroundings, I spent time looking, watching, orienting myself in ways to survey what was going on and adjust behavior. But that’s another thing: when you’re “just passing through” there’s only so much you can fully assess.

The bottom line is: we can never be 100% dialed in, 100% aware, 100% knowledgable of all things. So what can we do to help manage that reality? How can we make decisions, have behaviors, etc. that, if they can’t help us gain advantage, at least minimize the loss.

There’s no single answer here. It’s just something to think about. It’s something to seek solutions on.

Sometimes you gotta go

There’s sayings like “don’t go to stupid places, with stupid people, and do stupid things” (Thank you, John Farnam). For sure, that’s a valuable piece of advice to keep you out of most trouble. But sometimes, you have to go to less than desirable places. For example, the place I had to go on business, I had no control nor choice over. Is it in a bad part of town? Not really, but for sure there are elements of “less than desirable”. Even speaking with other people working in the area, they all had minor reservations about the area. In fact, I spoke with someone else during the trip that said he was walking to get lunch and came onto an encounter with some dudes, a gun, and something “going down”. He immediately removed himself from the situation (he was no way involved; just walking down the street), but still.

Or on a more mundane note, some of the evening activities were known to be “unfriendly” to someone carrying a gun. For example, attending a Dallas Stars hockey game denies licensed firearms carry by law, and also requires passing through a metal detector. Or having a happy hour at a microbrewery that would have 51% signs posted. How to manage your carry gun, on a business trip, in such situations?

Sometimes you gotta go. And if you gotta go, what can you know ahead of time to help you with your decisions and course of action? The more you can know, the more you can learn ahead of time, it will be helpful in determining your course of action.

Drill Conclusion

I’m back home. My gun is back on my hip.

Of the drill, Grant writes:

If you find yourself feeling different, more careful or less confident without the gun, that’s your cue that you haven’t been paying nearly enough attention to your real safety. It means that you’ve assigned too much of your well being to a device of very limited utility. Your gun is a talisman, not a tool. It also means that you need to devote some of your training resources to those other skills I listed above and integrate them into your life.

If, however, you feel completely confident and change nothing about your routine or your habits, then you probably have a good understanding of your concealed gun’s real place in your personal security planning. That’s how you know you’re at a point of balance, which means you’re safer overall than someone who isn’t.

Strive for balance.

I didn’t feel too different. I changed a couple of things, I was given opportunity to think about some things from a different angle. But overall? Didn’t feel too odd or weird, I didn’t feel naked, I didn’t feel vulnerable.

I’d say, at least in terms of how Grant summarizes things, I have a good understanding of my gun’s real place in my personal security planning.

Of course, there’s always room for improvement, and I’m happy for having undertaken the drill.

Thanx, Grant!