I have to respond to Karen

Aloha Karen,

I am not sure what you do for a living, or what training you have. But I am an SRT trainer. I train officers, with and without firearms. I am also a third Dan Black belt in Judo and Akido. The best martial artist training in the world is Krav Maga. It’s purpose is to kill people. If you are young, in EXCELLENT physical condition, capable of taking a punch to the kidney and continuing the fight, you might have a chance at hand-to hand; but I assure you that you will lose to a Pit Bull or an assailant who has targeted you. Predators pick and choose victims. PLEASE ask someone who was well trained and lost a physical encounter. It’s a crap-shoot. One mistake, one second of lost concentration and you lose. I’m now over sixty years old. I have bullet holes, knife scars, broken bones, and I am simply not capable of going hand-to-hand anymore and I am smart enough to realize it. A twenty-one year-old has a disparity of force merely because of his age.

If you MUST suggest something other than firearms (please don’t start on knives.), allow me to suggest two resources. The first is color codes of awareness.

Awareness makes up 90+% of self-defense, The remaining 10% being physical techniques including the employment of firearms. With awareness, you can identify and avoid potentially dangerous situations. Without it, you become an easy target for a criminal.

Colonel Jeff Cooper, my old combat pistol instructor, developed the Color Code system, used by most military and police organizations, to differentiate different levels of awareness.

These color codes help recognize, evaluate, and avoid potential threats. They are used to measure rising threat and make most situations avoidable. The following are the colors in ascending order of awareness of danger: white, yellow, orange, and red.
Code White

* You feel secure, whether or not you are actually safe.
* Awareness is switched off.
* You are unaware of your environment, its inhabitants, and their rituals of attack.
* All attackers look for victims in this state.

Most people live in white. ALL victims live in white.

Code Yellow

* You are cautious. You should spend most of the time in this state.
* Awareness is switched on.
* State of threat awareness and relaxed alertness.
* You have a 360-degree peripheral awareness of such environmental danger spots as secluded doorways, entries, and alleys, as well as such psychological triggers as adrenal dump and attacker ruses. Be aware of people, vehicles, behind large objects, dark areas, etc.

Code Orange

* You are in danger. You are aware of a potential threat.
* State of threat evaluation.
* Specific alert. A possible target has been identified. A particular situation that has drawn your attention and could present a major problem. Someone may be giving oral indicators such as direct threats or using suspicious language. Focus on the potential attacker.
* Check to see if there is an avenue of escape, potential weapons available, and if others around you are friend or foe.
* Decision is made to take action.

I live in orange. I shouldn’t, but it had become ingrained. I see threats before they become threats.

Code Red

* You are in conflict.
* State of threat avoidance.
* Fight or flight. Flee, defend, or attack. You have evaluated the situation, and if there is a threat, you fight or run.
* Never stand or fight if there is a possibility of fleeing.
* Carry out decision to act made in Code Orange. You don’t have to think; no indecision on the course of action; you are prepared.
* If use of physical self-defense techniques is necessary, use the level of force appropriate to the threat. E.g., don’t treat someone who pushes you because he is rude like someone who is trying to stab you with a knife.

How to Use the Color Codes of Awareness

The color codes of awareness are a continuum of your awareness and readiness to defend. The objective is to constantly flow from one color to the next above or below, depending on the situation.

Never be in white. Spend most your time in yellow, even in places where you feel safe, such as at home.

Constantly be aware and alert, and shift from yellow and orange often as you notice potential threats and dangers. While walking down the street, practice imaginary shifts between the 2 colors. Practice thinking of ways to respond to potential attackers.

When in orange, notice what you can do to flee, defend, or attack if it becomes necessary, and make the decision to take a specific action if the situation escalates to red.

What would you do if that person walking behind you picks up the pace and makes a move toward you? What would you do if someone jumped out of the alley just ahead of you? What would you do if someone walking in front of you suddenly cuts your path and raises his hands toward you?
The Color Codes in Practice

Here’s one example of how the Color Codes of awareness could be used. A 100-pound woman is walking to her car, carrying grocery bags. Being aware and alert in Code Yellow, she sees two suspicious men near her car.

She switches from Yellow to Orange. She decides on her self-defense options. They walk toward her and reach for her. She switches to Red, and executes her decisions: she throws the bags at them and runs back into the store.

Another example. You are walking and someone diagonally across the street stares at you for no apparent reason, with an angry expression. He doesn’t avert his gaze. You shift to Orange and decide to run the opposite direction and yell for help.

He starts moving quickly toward you, crossing the street without regard to traffic. You immediately shift to Red, and without thinking or deciding, run the opposite direction at the fastest speed you can, and either lose him or run into a police officer or security guard that can help you.
Conclusion

Starting right now, be in Code Yellow. Throughout your day, identify potential areas of danger and switch to Code Orange as necessary. Switch back to Code Yellow if no threat exists. Do this exercise again tomorrow. And the next day. And so on. Eventually, awareness becomes a habit. Make the most important self-defense skill, awareness, a habit.

The second training aid I recommend is the OODA loop. I am not going to detail it here because it requires training. Search Wiki for OODA loop or John Boyd.

I can recommend a Firearms training facility called Front Sight. I will get you a discount free for the asking. Because your life is important to me.

Tom Burnett | 1 year, 7 months ago
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Hand to hand combat

I and my children spent six years in a self-defense course called “water karate” – the flowing away from an attacker, and the use of his aggression/body weight/momentum against him. It was a great class. The kids would go home and try what they learned on their dad – a 5’9” firefghter, built like a fire plug, who could leg press 600 lbs. He was immovable! His arms were as big around as my thighs. He could stop any assault and flatten his “attackers” by sheer strength and power. In his younger days as a bar fighter, he could be smacked with pool cues or chairs and simply – blink. His fighting motto? “Thou shalt not live without air.” If he got his hands on you, it was all over.

You never know what an attacker might have in mind. You never know what his capabilities are. You cannot assume that your defense, no matter how well-trained and instinctive, will have the same effect on every attacker, or even any attacker. Like using pepper spray, any defense is only as good as the attacker’s weaknesses. If they are determined to perpetrate an attack, if they are hopped up on drugs or physically impervious to your assault by dint of their weight, strength, or body’s ability to overcome “minor” inconveniences such as gashes and broken bones, then you as the victim are at a double disadvantage – you are overconfident because you think that your training can overcome ALL obstacles, and you are not knowledgeable about any attacker’s strengths and weaknesses in a fight.

A weapon that will cause harm to ANYONE, no matter their size or abilities, is the best defense. Yes, the self-defense courses were great in that they taught our children self-confidence, self-reliance, and the ability to spot weaknesses and vulnerabilities in themselves as well as others. But they never assumed that, by holding belts in any discipline, they could always defend themselves from any and every attack. That kind of faith is self-delusional and can prove deadly.

Bea Jones | 1 year, 7 months ago
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Just as soon as I say it rarely happens

It does. A 6 year old girl shot herself in the face with her father’s police issued Glock. He’s a police Captain in Little Rock Arkansas and is required to carry a firearm.

I understand that this will empower the Brady bunch, but I am nothing if not honest. I don’t try to change the facts, or hide them. This tragedy was the fault of the officer, not the gun or the child.

Personal responsibility extends to everyone with whom you interact. There are no excuses for doing it wrong.

Tom Burnett | 1 year, 7 months ago
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Guns not great for self-defense: follow up

I think I need to clarify.

One: I do not believe my fighting training would do anything against a pit bull. This is why I was briefly considering getting a firearm.

Two: As a general rule, the type of human attackers who would be a potential threat to me would be looking for an easy victim. I’m small and female, so there would be no particular bragging rights about having defeated me. I’m neither a police officer nor a soldier. I do not live in a hideously dangerous part of the world, where NO ONE leaves home without an armed escort. I do not need to be able to defeat every possible adversary. I simply need to be able to make myself “not worth the trouble.”

Three: Hand-to-hand may be a technical term that I was misusing. If so, I apologize. The training I received was from an organization known in most places as Model Mugging. They teach situational awareness (staying in code yellow), boundary-setting, de-escalation, how to manage the emotional/verbal aspect of an attack, and full-force knock-out techniques. I suppose foot-to-head would be more accurate than hand-to hand! For survivors of attacks, they also offer “re-scripting”, a way to replay a situation and have it end better. They were founded when someone discovered the hard way that a black belt in martial arts doesn’t give you the skills you need to win a real fight.

I have never had to use the full-force techniques to defend myself. I have come very close once, and was very glad to have the skill. A gun wouldn’t have helped, as I don’t normally hug “friends” with a weapon in my hand. (He was damn lucky he decided to back down and let go.) I have also used the de-escalation skills to talk down a rookie cop who was so scared as to be irrational. A gun REALLY wouldn’t have helped.

In summary: If you have reason to believe you will have to deal with a frontal attack from someone/something you are willing to kill, a gun will be useful. For most of us, the risks come from family, friends, surprises, and looking like a victim. Tom Burnett’s excellent discussion of codes helps in these types of situations. Having some practical physical self-defense skills help in these situations. Guns usually don’t.

Karen Winter | 1 year, 7 months ago
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IF IT'S OBTAINED LEGALLY!!!

Not only should mothers have a gun but I feel all women should obtain a gun permit in their state and learn how to use the gun properly. This world we live in is not as SAFE AS WE WANT TO BELIEVE IT IS!!!

L.C. | 1 year, 7 months ago
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Ravenna

We have to be careful about statistics. They can use and misuse information to promote their (ANY) agenda. Don’t forget, teens include 18 and 19 year old adults. So, they can use 18 and 19 year olds in both teen and adult columns.

Some just outright LIE! FOX News called Senator Craig (airport bathroom sex scandal) a Democrat for a week when we all know he is Republican. ABC News say more men in the US are charged/ticketed for aggressive driving (road rage) then women…..Lie!!

Most people believe what they see and hear and take for granted “the news” tells the truth. Why should they lie? RIGHT! Well, maybe they make mistakes, typing error, or story gets changed as its getting told person to person.

Education is key and don’t take everything we see and hear as absolute truth. Get your source, check opposing source, and check all nooks and crannies. Most people don’t have the time to do that. So, it is just easier to believe what we read or see to be truth.

Thanks

Raymond Kelly McElhiney II | 1 year, 7 months ago
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Statistics. Lie.

Anyone who has ever taken a course in statistics knows that statistics lie. You can make them say anything you want – by asking differently phrased questions, by grouping answers differently, by interpreting numbers to mean what you (consciously or subconsciously) want them to mean. One very bright literal young man I was counseling in a Statistics course he was failing brought this to me. When I explained how the questions could be/should be asked to get his desired results, a light bulb appeared! He passed the course…

In everything from exit polls to the Nielsen ratings, the statistics are suspect. There are humans with beliefs and agendas formulating the questions, and humans with beliefs and agendas answering the questions. Some are in a hurry, and some don’t want to expose their innermost secrets – like they are watching “OXY” when they are asked about the televised political debates. So if you base your arguments on “statistics” you are more than likely in error. Think for yourself; don’t repeat someone else’s opinion as proof of your own.

Bea Jones | 1 year, 7 months ago
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Guns

I don’t think moms should have to carry guns but if they do then they do.

tassey cardwell | 1 year, 7 months ago
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Me Either

I wish it was a decent, honest, responsible world out there. But it isn’t. There are people who will “roll you for a nickel, and stick you for the extra dime”. The whole idea that all of the police, court systems, and even National Guard in the world can make us safe is a dangerous fallacy. Each one of us is responsible for our own safety, and that of our children. Some mothers don’t have a choice but to live in dangerous or depressed areas, or to go through them to daycare and work and back again. Gated communities, rural areas, large and small towns, schools and businesses, even malls and fast food restaurants all have their dangerous people in them. This is fact, not fear. It is irresponsible to assume that one is safe anywhere.

We recently moved to a town of 125 from a city – and even though I know everyone in town, there are still vagrants walking down the highway, folks who drive through, etc. You never know who is out there – or what they intend. Therefore knowing your capabilities, planning your responses, and being able to meet sudden force and aggression with equal or superior force and denial, is the only responsible choice.

Bea Jones | 1 year, 7 months ago
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Cut it out...

Statistics can say whatever you want them to. That makes them entirely subjective. So clearly this issue can’t be resolved by running the numbers.

Do any of you people remember why Michael Dukakis LOST the presidential election to George Bush? This entire debate boils down to ONE THING. Ask yourself this ONE QUESTION: What would I do to keep my family safe? You can lie to us all day long but when you lie down to sleep at night, do you believe in your heart that what you say here reflects your true feelings? Ever heard of March Fong Eu? She was just like you people, you people that decry violence and weapons. She changed her tune when IT HAPPENED TO HER.

Consequences be darned; if someone enters my house in the middle of the night there are no questions or qualms about what I am going to do. Everything you think you value in your life is WORTHLESS without being able to share it with the people you love. Things come and go, money comes and goes, but love and family are all that really matter. Of course, that’s just MY opinion.

James Hops | 1 year, 7 months ago
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