self defense

Good for her

/ hsoi

A 12-year-old girl took matters into her own hands during a home invasion in southeast Oklahoma.

It happened on Wednesday when the girl was home alone. She told police a stranger rang the doorbell, then went around to the back door and kicked it in. She called her mom, Debra St. Clair, who told her to get the family gun, hide in a closet and call 911.

…

During that time, the intruder made his way through the house. St. Clair’s daughter told deputies the man came into the room where she was hiding and began to open up the closet door. That was when the 12 year old had to make a life-saving decision.

“And what we understand right now, he was turning the doorknob when she fired through the door,” said the Bryan County Undersheriff Ken Golden.

Full story, including some of the 911 call made by the little girl.

Good for her.

Good for Mom and her instructions.

This is a Right Thing to do. She didn’t confront, she hunkered down in as safe a place as she could to do her best to avoid the intruder. I personally might handle things differently, like using a command voice to tell them to get out. But for a 12-year-old, I consider what she did reasonable. And she got 911 on the phone and I’m sure kept the phone going… I’m guessing the gunshot is on the recording.

I wouldn’t recommend shooting through the door because you can’t be sure of your target. But I’ll give the girl the benefit of the doubt, because I don’t know all the details and obviously she hit the guy. You can hear her voice calm at first, but as he drew closer she was certainly scared to death. I can’t say I blame her at all for her actions.

It also brings up safe storage laws. The fact she was able to “get the family gun” means a readily dischargable gun was accessible to a minor. Granted, Oklahoma’s laws could be different in specifics, but I’m going to consider Texas’ law and the general notion of this legal concept. It may well be that this is a legal violation because the child was able to get the gun. But Thank God she was able to… because, as the print story doesn’t report but the video does, this same man was previously arrested for abducting a 17-year old girl. What if he found this girl and all she was doing was hiding in the closet with no means of defending herself? Would she still have been in the closet when Mom finally arrived home? Or would we have a tragic event on our hands?

We can also talk about general self-defense concepts. I mean, girl was on the phone with 911 and police were on their way… but they obviously didn’t get there in time. The police want to protect, they try to protect, but they cannot bend the laws of time and space and be everywhere and show up instantly on-demand. What can YOU do to keep yourself safe? What are you doing to take responsibility for yourself and the safety and well-being of your loved ones?

Teach your children. Teach them what to do in a case like this. Teach them how to use firearms in a safe and responsible manner. Help them understand. Help them care for themselves… because that’s what a parent does.

 

Lessons to learn

/ hsoi

Dallas police said a woman shot at two people who kicked in the door to her house late Wednesday morning, killing one.

The shooting occurred at about 11:30 a.m. in the 7200 block of Concordia Drive.

Dallas police said the woman was home alone when she heard a noise — two men had kicked in the front door of her house.

She confronted the two men as they reached the second-floor landing and shot at them several times, police said.

Full Story. (h/t Guy)

Fits the typical profile for a home breakin: mid-week, mid-morning. Most home breakins happen during the work week between about 10 AM and 3 PM, because they expect no one will be home, off at the job working.

Failure of the victim selection process.

I’m not sure if the homeowner had any other lines of defense: alarm system (and using it), doesn’t seem to be sign of a useful dog, and not sure about the state of the home itself that may have made it seem appealing. But the more layers of defense you can have, the more you can do to make your home appear unappealing and “not worth the effort”, the better. It can help you keep a situation from progressing in the first place.

He said he will now teach his daughter how to forgive herself for taking a life.

I’m not sure this was some poetic hyperbole by the article author or fact, but assuming it’s fact well… this is one of those things that hopefully you think about and put into perspective before you consider a gun as a tool of self-defense. No, we don’t “shoot to kill”, we work to stop the threat. But in stopping the threat, yes a life may be taken. The better prepared you are for that reality before the fact, the better you’ll be able to handle it after the fact.

I’m glad the young woman is safe.

Keep fighting

/ hsoi

A former Gurkha soldier fought off a mugger in spite of having a 6in knife blade jammed into his arm – then managed to keep hold of his attacker for 15 minutes while he waited for the police to arrive.

…

Shop owner Taitex Phlamachha had just been to a cashpoint with his wife when he was pushed up against a wall and told to ‘hand over the money’ or get stabbed.

…

The tussling pair fell to the ground and the mugger knelt on Mr Phlamachha’s chest before trying to stab him in the stomach four or five times.

…

But the Gurkha blocked him, then disabled the knifeman with a kick before holding on to his clothes with one arm. However, the blade of the knife had become lodged in his arm, and it was the handle that fell to the floor. During the struggle he was able to free his mobile phone from his pocket and throw it to his wife, who called the police.

…

‘Nothing like this has ever happened to me before and I will do anything to protect myself and family.’

Full Story.

Lesson? Keep fighting.

Just give them what they want

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Barbara, 76, had fallen to the ground, and John, 75, would soon follow. The masked attacker had her purse.

The attacker could have simply left the scene, his prize in hand. Instead, police say, the attacker fired a bullet into Barbara Preidt.

She was dead when emergency crews arrived.

“He could have overpowered them with one arm tied behind his back,” Jamie Preidt said of the attack on his parents. “Why he shot her was completely senseless. He already had the purse, and he was going.

Full story. (h/t TTAG)

We’re always instructed to “just give them what they want”.

The mugger got what he wanted — the purse.

Then he took a little more.

They say to not fight back. This usually comes from Police Chief’s (i.e. the political wing of the PD, not the boots on the ground) and other people that believe they understand violent crime.

What about…

Rape.

Are women to give their rapist what they want?

Are women to not fight back?

Who are you to tell me what’s worth fighting for, and what’s worth dying for.  That’s a decision only I can make for myself.

Sure it might just be a couple bucks, but it might also be my life.

The problem is imparting our own standards and morals upon the attacker. WE would never hurt someone, or even if we did something ugly like stole from someone we’d never hurt them. We’d just take what we wanted and move on.

Isn’t it evident the attacker doesn’t share your standards and morals, because they are mugging, attacking, raping you in the first place? How then can they be expected to stop once they’ve gotten what they wanted?

Yes, it’s generally good mindset to know ahead of time where your lines are drawn. Yes, it’s good to ask yourself “is this worth dying for?”. Yes “beer & tv time” is important to consider.

Blanket statements like “don’t fight back” and “just give them what they want” don’t consider the realities of life and context.

It can unfold so fast, so unexpectedly

/ hsoi / 9 Comments

I was up in north Austin today, and on my way home needed to make a couple stops.

1. to get gas

2. to get lunch

A little win, a little FAIL.

Pumping gas. Keeping my eyes open, watching around. See the restaurants across the street and ask Siri to dig up some nutritional information. I’m a little distracted by my search, and obstructed by my big truck.

Suddenly, as if from out of nowhere (because this is how it always happens, you know), a person comes around the front of my truck. I didn’t see them until they cleared the truck… the angle of approach and everything. But it happened in an instant.

I was happy that, a moment later, I put my extended hand up to say “stop” and verbally said, “Can you stop right there?”  He did, asked me if I knew where to find some place. I didn’t recognize what he was asking for, but it didn’t matter because I really wasn’t paying attention nor trying to process his specific request — I wanted him to go away and not come any closer. I just said “Sorry, I don’t know”. I had a firm enough look on my face, not mean, but not welcoming either. He turned around and went back to the car where his friends were waiting. It appears he was legit lost, but it doesn’t matter.

Win. My reaction was precisely what I wanted. No thinking, just getting them to stop their advance and keep their distance. All good.

The funny part is I always default in my head to “can you stop right there?”. What I want to say is “can you back up?” because it escalates better to “Back up!” then “BACK THE FUCK UP!”.  But for whatever reason when I practice this my brain always wants them to stop, not back up. Will have to work even harder to overcome what is obviously ingrained. 🙂

I also want to rewatch SouthNarc’s Managing Unknown Contacts (MUC) DVD. Just because.

Unfortunately my win gets negated by a FAIL.

I finish pumping gas. Go across the street to McDonald’s (shut up… I know). I go inside. I order. As soon as I’m done ordering and turning to my left to go to the drink dispenser, I hear a “hey, what’s your tattoo say?”… there’s a guy that was literally right behind me. I had no idea. I never heard him come in, no idea he was there, but he was way too close for comfort. Awareness FAIL.

*sigh*

What’s the take home? Well, in part it’s back to my dry fire curriculum change up… focusing more on defensive skills and (re)actions than pure shooting fundamentals. Perhaps some of the dry fire shouldn’t be just shooting skills, but also MUC drills, some first aid stuff, and other non-shooting things. Hrm.

The bigger take home? Shit happens in an instant. It will take you by surprise. It will happen before you even realize it’s happening. It’s up to you — and only you — to take care of yourself. Great if you can have a team of friends to improve your odds, but sometimes we go solo or go in a group that’s got more sheep than dogs.   Just remember that things will happen faster than you imagined, faster than you expected.

AAR – Lone Star Medics, Medicine X EDC, Sep. 22-23 2012

/ hsoi / 5 Comments

Medicine X EDC @ KR Training – FoF Scenario Setup

Some years ago my family and I were driving out of our subdivision and came upon a motorcycle accident. It must have happened a minute before we pulled onto the scene because there were two people down on the road, no police nor EMS, and a lot of people walking around on their mobile phones. I got out of the car to see what I could do to help, and I did… but at the time the most recent medical training I had was my old Boy Scout first aid work. Too long ago. I remembered enough to do some good, but realized how much I didn’t remember. It was sobering and motivated me to seek more medical training.

Lone Star Medics first came out to KR Training about 9 months ago (my AAR of their Dynamic First Aid is here). It was a good and eye-opening time, especially since I got to see how much I forgot and how much had changed in the “first aid” world during my learning gap.

When I learned LSM was coming back, I immediately signed up for the course. But this course was different. This course is Medicine X EDC.

Medicine X EDC

Based upon LSM’s Medicine X course, Medicine X EDC is just that – Every Day Carry. From LSM’s website:

This two-day course was developed for those that wanted to learn how to identify and treat life-threatening injuries in a gunfight; but from a civilian concealed carry perspective. If you’ve taken “Medicine X” before you’ve learned how to work from your chest rig, plate carrier, body armor, etc. Well, what about when you’re not wearing all that kit? How do you carry the contents of an IFAK without the pouch? How do we “run & gun” while in jeans and a T-shirt?

While a fair bit of the material overlaps the Dynamic First Aid course I previously took, it’s not the same sort of course. Yes some things are going to be the same, because bleeding is bleeding and a tourniquet is your first line of defense at stopping external bleeding. But there is NO harm in getting this information again because 1. maybe something changed between the last time you took a course and now (it was constantly evident that medical best practices can and do change often) 2. reinforcement through repetition is always going to help foster learning. But what really sets this course apart is the context and application.

I think Karl said it best, that a course like this really presents the full reality of what an armed-citizen confrontation can be like. So many of the classes just focus on shooting and shooting skills. Some might go further and talk about legal or present some deeper scenarios on force, but again that’s where it ends. What if your spouse was with you and got hurt? What then? Is there any addressing of that situation? Are you prepared to handle that? You carry a gun because you acknowledge the police can’t be here to help you and that at best it’ll take them 5-10 minutes to show up… the same holds for EMS. Thus, this class and the scenarios presented really help to take you through a more complete cycle that could be present in a self-defense situation.

Note that while the class was presented in a defensive shooting context, the skills hold regardless of situation. Maybe Uncle Ted got hurt while deer hunting. Maybe there was a car wreck. Bleeding is bleeding. The need to extract someone and care for someone buying them seconds until medics arrive, that’s going to hold.

Course Content

LSM Instructor Caleb Causey watches Brian Brown patching up “Rescue Randy” while an injured Paul Martin watches for bad guys.

The course was a mixture of classroom and field time. A concept would be presented in the classroom, then we’d head outside to apply it. Sometimes it might just be running through some practical drills. For example, carries and drags was just us breaking into small groups and hauling each other around, practicing the skill. Other times, it was onto the range to put things into a greater context.

Yes we did a mixture of live fire shooting and medical application. Shooting courses, however, weren’t everyone getting up on the line and shooting. Instead, everyone was some sort of a scenario. Barrels, barricades, benches would be placed. Photo-realistic targets erected, and yes lots of “no-shoots” present. And then… there was “Rescue Randy”, a full-sized heavy training dummy that we’d have to haul around. Plus, safer to have Randy downrange than anyone else. 🙂  You’d be given basic instructions, then “Gun!” and away you went. You would have to shoot through the course. Caleb would be watching and giving instructions — and throwing curve-balls. Let’s say you forgot to get behind cover, Caleb might call out that your right arm just got shot and is now out of commission. You’d have to then apply first aid to yourself, then continue with the scenario. Most would end with you applying the medical knowledge just taught… all under Caleb’s watchful eye.

Everything builds upon prior knowledge. A skill is learned, then applied in a simple scenario. Another skill is learned, then the scenario gets more difficult. The scenario may be a solo, then a pair, then a 4-man team. We even did some stuff back in the woods at the KR Training facility (that was pretty cool). Everything jacks up the pressure, jacks up the chaos and intensity. Why? Because that’s how it’s going to be. You’re going to need to perform. And here? You’re going to make mistakes, but that’s how it goes… you come to learn.

We culminated with a force-on-force scenario, using Airsoft and replicating a recent real-life situation. It put everything together and really forced you to have to think outside the box and your comfort zone. Solid stuff.

My Take-Home

There’s a lot of take-home for me: gun stuff, instructor stuff, and medical stuff.

Gun Stuff

This is pretty simple, and actually, not much to focus on.

You see, while shooting is a part of the course, it’s not the emphasis of the course. I don’t know how many rounds I shot, but certainly under 100… maybe even under 50. There’s some minor instruction on gun stuff, but really, you’re expected to know how to shoot and how to handle defensive shooting skills in a private citizen concealed carry context. Don’t look at this as a bad thing tho, because well… there’s lots of courses out there that work on the shooting side of things; you come to this class to learn how to do field medicine.

That said, under all the pressure of the day, I certainly found some things lacking.

The biggest take-home for me was realizing how in all the dry fire practice I’ve been doing, I’ve been focusing too much on basic skill work and not on “defensive shooting” skills. That is, I’m working on the draw, or the press out, but not on things like remembering to top off my magazine before reholstering. I got better at this as I went along, but still was omitting something or other.

I also kept seeing my trigger-slap problem resurfacing. *sigh* There was one point where I had forgotten to “get off the X” and was treating wounds “on the X”. Naturally, Caleb kept calling “contact front!” on me and I’d have to keep engaging. I recall him telling me I need to hit the guy… and I can only assume I was going “low left” from trigger slap. I slowed down, smooth press, heard Caleb say he was neutralized, I continued on. *sigh*

So in terms of gun stuff, my take-home was a few things:

  1. Work on my full defensive response, not just fundamental skills. But of course, make sure those fundamental skills are being worked as I go along. As well, don’t be afraid to work some medical skills and other “post-shooting” skills in (e.g. dialing 911, police contact, etc.).
  2. Continue to work on my trigger slap.
  3. Get more exposure to more weapons systems. You never know what you might have to pick up off the ground to stay in the fight.

Instructor Stuff

Caleb throws Brian a curve-ball and has Paul go unconscious — two patients for Brian.

I can’t help it. I watch other people teach so I can learn how I can improve my teaching.

I have to give Caleb a lot of credit — he’s a great teacher. He’s just got a knack for it. It’s lots of little things in terms of his presentation, his patience, his willingness to listen and give students the attention they require.

I kept finding myself falling back to my recent re-reading of How to Win Friends and Influence People, and it just seemed like Caleb knew that book and applied it. I forgot to ask him if he actually was applying techniques from the book or if it was just his natural knack, but either way, he’s really got something that separates someone that knows material from someone that can teach it. And so, it just gave me some little bits of things to try to do here and there to make myself a better instructor.

One specific item is in doing scenario work. I found myself doing the wrong thing at one point. I had started to do one thing, then Caleb said something and I started to respond to what he said. The problem? My brain processed what Caleb said as a “hint hint… you should be doing this”, and so I started doing that, but it was completely the wrong thing to do. It’s totally my fault, I should have done what I knew was the right thing to do, but brain is in monkey-mode and you often just do what you’re told instead of thinking. That’s the whole point of the exercise, and it tells me some things about how I, as an instructor, have to be aware of what I say during scenarios. My phrasing and timing, vocal intonation, word choice, it can and will mess with people. Sometimes that will be the desired effect, other times it should not. I must be judicious and mindful of what I say in terms of providing scenario details vs. “hints” about what to do to ensure I draw out the desired training lesson.

Medical Stuff

Here’s the real meat of it all.

First, it was great to get the direct medical knowledge: scene safety, carries and drags, tourniquets, patient assessment, pressure bandages, wound packing, burns, chest injuries, shock, equipment selection, talk/communication with your team or your downed buddy, etc..  All that was good stuff.

Some bigger take-homes for me?

Get off the X

This is quite consistent with what we teach in the gun-side of things: it’s better to not get shot than it is to shoot.

During the first scenario, I start to drag Randy when Caleb makes a big point about how heavy Randy is bleeding. My brain says to start applying tourniquet, and as such Caleb has me constantly getting receiving incoming fire. Eventually I get the hint and pull Randy behind cover and begin treatment. After my scene was done, Caleb made the point something to the effect that it doesn’t matter if he’s cut in half and bleeding a gusher, get off the X. Yes, sometimes you MIGHT have to treat on the X, but it’s certainly not your default mode because while he might be bleeding badly here, it’s only risking being worse out there.

Tourniquet

Tourniquet is the go-to for external bleeding. It will work. It’s the fastest thing to apply. In one scenario there was “only a little bleeding” so my brain thought to go for a pressure bandage. After I spent too much time trying to get it out of the package, you realize how a tourniquet would have been on and done with before you even got the bandage out of the bag.

Equipment only matters if you have it (on you)

Why do we carry guns on our person? Because when we need it, we need it right now and really badly. We know we won’t have time to go back into the house or to the car to get the gun, because the scene will unfold in seconds.

Why would a medical situation be any different?

Can you really go run to your car and get what you need, when it only takes a matter of seconds or short minutes to bleed out?

So what can you carry on your person?

Caleb has a good solution in terms of an ankle rig, but I don’t think that works for me because I just can’t wear long pants all year round. But I reckon I can find a way to carry a tourniquet on my belt (find a good pouch), which is better than nothing. I’m also formulating what to keep as a minimal bag in ways that I can carry a bit more gear, like in the bag I take to and from work every day. Yes, I should have picked up this gear back in January, but I feel more comfortable now with the gear and in knowing what to get and apply. And let me just say Combat Gauze is wicked expensive!

Have a Plan

You have to have a plan — and a clear cut, fully thought out plan — before you dive in. If you’re behind cover, make sure you know precisely what you will do, how you will do it, and where you’re going. For example, in the 4-man team scenario, while behind cover we should have planned out precisely who was to pick up Randy, who was to cover, how the pick-up people should have picked up and dragged Randy, where to drag him to, everything. We had some things figured out, but not all things. Chaos ensued.

Granted your plan may not pan out because a new circumstance may arise. But then it’s easier to reformulate and modify vs. having no plan at all. Plus, your plan may be able to be executed completely, which is a far lot better than having had no plan at all.

Conclusion

It was a hard weekend. Tired. Draining. Sobering because it was full of hard lessons.

I’m so glad I went through it.

This may be hard, but lacking this knowledge and finding myself wanting it while the flag is flying? That’s harder. I will always come back to that motorcycle accident and how I felt when I realized how much I had forgotten. I will always think how much better I could have handled the situation if my knowledge was fresh, if I had better equipment.

Would I take this again? Certainly. Will I encourage others to take this course? I hope if you’ve read this far you’ve been convinced of the importance of such training. Should you take it with Lone Star Medics? Why certainly. Caleb admits he’s not the only source of such knowledge and, like any good instructor, encourages us to seek out training from a wide variety of instructors. I will say if you have no training you should at least get some basic first aid — the boo-boo and bee-sting sort of stuff, because those incidents are quite common. I will say you should then go further and learn about these matters, especially if you carry a gun. I highly recommend Lone Star Medics, not just for their knowledge, but the quality of instruction and the unique approach to teaching and learning.

Big thanx to Caleb and his crew for coming out and putting on a great weekend, and to Karl for bringing Caleb back. Do look for LSM to be back on the KR Training schedule.

Paul Martin was another student in the class. Read his write-up of the weekend.

Big thanx to Brian Brown for sharing pictures he took.

APD supportive of personal defense?

/ hsoi / 1 Comment

“You need to protect yourself. If your life is in danger and you have access to a weapon, defend yourself,” said Cpl. Anthony Hipolito, Austin Police Department.

Full story. (h/t Paul)

Doesn’t seem to be an official statement of policy from APD, but it’s welcome to hear. It stands somewhat in contrast to the words of APD Chief, Art Acevedo, who comes across as unsupportive of citizens being enabled to defend themselves.

But it’s not necessarily surprising. All too often the Chief’s are more interested in politics, and it’s the men and women actually on the street who know and understand.

Um… they didn’t work, but I know something that does.

/ hsoi

A man goes to the Family Research Council’s offices in Washington DC and starts shooting.

DC Mayor Vincent Gray doesn’t get it.

…a Herndon man who purchased a firearm on Aug. 9 and brought it “into our city,” Mr. Gray said Thursday on NewsChannel 8.

“He would not have been able to do that in the District of Columbia,” Mr. Gray said,

Not have been able to do what in “your” city? Because it looks like he certainly did. Now I grant, after reading Emily Miller’s trials in obtaining a handgun in Washington DC it’s a tough thing to do, but not impossible. Regardless, this man didn’t seem to care about any laws.

We already have laws on the books that prohibit murder.

We already have laws on the books prohibiting assault.

We already have lots of laws in the books that make it difficult for people to obtain guns and other weapons. Heck, we have laws that can make it difficult to obtain just about anything and everything. I mean, drugs like meth, cocaine, heroin… they’re all banned, but that hasn’t seemed to stop much.

“We don’t need to make guns more available to people,” Mr. Gray said. “There are irresponsible people, there are people who have mental health problems, and the easier access they have to guns the more likely we are to predispose innocent victims, like yesterday, to the use of the guns.”

Actually we do need to make guns, training, and a better mindset available to more people. Why? Because the reason this particular situation didn’t get bad was because someone was willing to fight back. Granted, the extreme cases of someone really hell-bent on causing harm are going to do what they’re going to do. But the vast majority of criminals – petty or large-scale – only do what they do due to lack of opposition. Consider many that do the mass shooting spree stuff… once the cops show up, they commit suicide. They don’t want opposition, they want easy targets. Most criminals wanting to mug someone will hit up the person with their nose stuck in their iPhone as they walk down the street, not the guy with his head up walking like the baddest lion on the plains. Why do most burglaries happen on weekdays between 10AM and 3PM? Because most folks aren’t home thus the burglar won’t face opposition. Why does the rapist attack the woman walking alone a night and not the group of women walking around together? They just want a quick score, not a righteous fight. Consider where many crimes happen — in gun free zones, in places where it’s promoted to curl up and die. It’s rare to see crimes in MMA gyms, police stations, NRA conventions. Why might that be the case?

I don’t disagree with Mayor Gray, that irresponsible people, people with major problems, should be better managed and helped with their problems. But we must remember, someone bent on destruction will do whatever — law will not and do not stop them. I recently read a story where a mass killing occurred via arson, with the arsonist using 2 gallon milk jugs filled with gasoline, and matches. Are we going to ban the corner grocery store? Are we going to require background checks and waiting periods and monthly rationing to fill up our SUV’s? I mean, if grandma’s got a cold, we’ve got laws to make it difficult for her to get a decongestant. We can’t travel in this country any more without being considered a possible terrorist. Why are we looking at addressing symptoms instead of addressing root causes? I grant because it’s easier to make yourself feel like you’re doing something if you can pass a law and ban some talisman of evil… but it doesn’t solve the problem, and typically only makes matters worse.

Mayor Gray, you have lots of laws. Washington DC still makes it immensely difficult for law-abiding people to live their lives. Your laws didn’t stop this from happening. No, what stopped this was a person willing to fight back and stop the madness before it became a tragedy.

If you want to do something to help, Mr. Gray, why don’t you enable good people to fight?

Personal safety is your responsibility

/ hsoi

I was reading about the horrible attack on Jane Dyer, and one line in the article stood out to me:

The [District Attorney’s office] statement added, “The office will make every effort to ensure the safety of all concerned and the community.”

But you didn’t. She was attacked. She was beaten with a shovel. You did nothing to ensure her safety, and there is nothing you CAN do to ensure her safety.

Where were the police?

Where was anyone that could have protected her from this attack?

Dyer, 63, said she was outside her Cummington home when she spotted the teenager standing at the bottom of her driveway with a shovel, but thought nothing of it. The family has a residence in Northampton. Dyer was alone at the time.

She re-entered the house a short time later and surprised the youth, who she said had apparently entered the house unseen and was lying in wait.

Emphasis added.

There are numerous lessons we can learn, like paying more attention to your surroundings, whatever could be done to better secure your home so unauthorized people can’t just waltz in. But again, are these things the responsibility of the state or the police?

Or are they your own?

Because the only person that’s certainly around when you’re being attacked is you.

I could also examine if she ever thought violence would happen to her. From her reaction to the beating she didn’t fight back. The reporting of her attack response leads me to believe she was surprised and in shock that she could get attacked, in such a way, in her own home — like it never occurred to her “this could happen to me”. Some say “I’ve never been attacked”, and I’m sure in Mrs. Dyer’s 63 years she may have figured she beat the odds. We must remember that just because it hasn’t happened yet doesn’t mean it won’t ever happen. Finally, in the past I’ve asserted that tools are only useful if they are handy/available when needed; that “home defense shotgun” in the closet isn’t useful as you’re on the floor being beaten. But your hips are still with you, right? And what can you keep on your hip or in your pocket?

What seems more unfortunate is, at least from the way the article presents it, the Dyer’s don’t appear to take any further responsibility for their own actions:

Dyer’s husband, Tom, said Monday he believes the suspect is receiving foster care at a nearby home. The incident marks the second time someone from that program has allegedly broken into their house, the first occurring about four years ago, he said.

“We’re not waiting for a third,” Tom Dyer said.

Dyer said he’s sensitive to the needs of at-risk youth who need supervision and services like foster care, but believes the rural location isn’t appropriate, and he would like to see it shut down.

“It’s unfair to the kids,” he said.

He said that there is little for the youth in the program to do in such a remote area on a dead-end road, and it may be that a lack of activity options contributed to the July attack.

It’s the second time someone broken in.

They believe the problem is the foster kids, and the solution is to shut down the foster program. The solution isn’t to lock their doors. The solution isn’t to increase their awareness. No, they don’t see solution in improving their own behaviors. Their solution is to shut down the program. Heck, if it is such a bad program, why don’t they try to do something to help fix the broken program? But again, that would require them to change their own behavior. I understand as humans we wish to justify our own behavior as right and can be quick to find fault in others; we also need to be better than that and first look at ourselves to see what we did wrong and how we can improve ourselves.

I could be wrong; it could be the way the article is reporting it. I hope I am wrong and they are taking steps to improve their own behavior so they won’t ever be victims again. What happened to Mrs. Dyer is terrible, and I do hope justice is served. But this isn’t so much about the Dyer’s as it is an illustrative point that personal safety is your own responsibility, and I hope you take it seriously.