Make YOURSELF "Safer" (Part 3)

I've talked about being aware. I mentioned the illusion that there are "safe" locations where violence does not occur. I've covered the subject of environmental awareness. A cursory investigation into recent events should dissuade anyone from thinking that the police can provide protection to the private citizen. Even if they were mandated by law (and they MOST ASSUREDLY ARE NOT [1][2]) to provide such protection... they can barely defend themselves against violent criminals.

[1] Warren vs. District if Columbia

[2] Linda Riss vs. New York City

So brave traveler... you're on you own! Don't let this get you down. You have an advantage over law enforcement. That's right. In fact, you have more than one advantage:

1) You are under no obligation to "arrest" anyone. You need not worry about taking someone into custody for the authorities. In fact... YOU DO NOT WANT TO DO SO! Attempting to hold someone - at gun point or otherwise - until the police arrive is extremely dangerous for the private citizen to attempt. One of three things is likely to happen: either they get away from you and flee, they attempt to get away from you or attack you, in which case you're going to have to shoot them anyhow... or they manage to disarm and kill you. Lastly, as occurred in Phoenix a few years ago, the police arrive, see the home owner holding someone at gun point... and shoot them multiple times "accidentally". The citizens arrest methodology and the ridiculous "house clearing" training are some of the most absurd and dangerous scams ever foisted on the consumer.

2) You are not bound by any continuum of force malarkey. You can jump from being threatened right to using DEADLY FORCE... provided you are justified in doing so. If you LEGITIMATELY fear for your life... guess what? You are justified in doing so.

True... one must walk a fine line and be fully aware of the laws regarding the use of lethal force... the justification is actually fairly straight forward in all but the most draconian jurisdictions. If you are unfortunate enough to live in the type of metropolitan utopia that doesn't trust its citizens and coddles street trash with more rights and privileges than law abiding citizens... I suggest you move if possible. There are plenty of states and cities in this great nation that allow concealed carry and support the right to self-defense. Move to one! Any city that doesn't allow you the basic right to defend yourself isn't fit to live in.

When it comes to practical, effective, unarmed self-defense most martial arts get it HORRIBLY WRONG. Any system that emphasizes punching, high kicks, grappling, complicated throws or come alongs is a waste of time. Even if those methods were effective (they're NOT!) many of them take YEARS to master at the basic levels. The instructors who teach this garbage are well aware that they do not work or that they take a lifetime to master.... but it's about revenue more than it is about your ability to keep yourself alive.

A truly functional system should be able to provide you with useful techniques in a matter of weeks or months... NOT YEARS! It should not require you to drop to the ground to wrestle with your assailants. I say assailants... because we ALWAYS assume more than one attacker. WE also always make the assumption that said attackers are armed.

There are no rules... which is one reason that it's utterly futile to study a SPORT system of fighting. In order to prevail you're going to need to stack the deck in your favor and "get creative" with your knowledge of dirty fighting.

For instance, may female oriented self-defense schools and courses to confront a man male who accosts them by shouting "NO!" This is wrong for several reasons. Firstly, any individual who is likely to be discouraged by their victim shouting loudly probably isn't a significant threat to begin with. The milk toast could have been sent packing by an exclamation of "I'm not into you." Any VIOLENT individual who is truly intent on doing whatever the hell they want is either going to kill you for yelling or get even more excited because he thinks he has a "fighter" on his hands.

Instead of yelling... smile. Let him think you're into him and encourage his advances. Let him get good and close... then launch a knee strike up into his testicles AS HARD AS YOU CAN. Then do it a few more times. Chop him in the throat. If he has to make a choice between raping you or breathing he'll probably pick the latter. Then you can escape.

Let him bend in to "steal a kiss" and then ram your fingers into his eyes, stomp on his foot, crushing it and breaking bones then get out of there.

Don't bother trying to overpower the dirt bag. Cripple the worthless scum and then vacate the scene. You can call the popo once you're in a safer area. Don't hand around waiting for his buddies to show up.

If you've been paying attention to what's going on around you, you should be able to avoid trouble most of the time. Stay out of bars and taverns. I'm not talking about, clean restaurants that cater to civilized human beings. I'm talking about the kinds of crap houses that attract walking refuse with nothing better to do than drink cheap beer beyond their own physical tolerances and then become everyone else's problem. It's impossible to deal with morons like that, so don't even attempt it.

As I said, stack the deck in your own favor... and as high as you possibly can. There is no nasty, brutal, bloodthirsty technique that is out-of-bounds when you're looking at living or dying. Make it that losers worst day. You want him to be thinking "What the hell! I can't believe this is happening to me!" Give him a story to tell his friends. Or better yet, let them try to figure it out when they are identifying him in the morgue.

In regards to fear: EVERY SANE PERSON feels it when they are threatened. There may be a 1 in a million (or more) exception to this rule, but it IS a rule. Police officers, combat veterans, fire fighters... virtually everyone who has ever faced a life threatening incident will admit that they were in fear. Only idiots, sociopaths or the EXTREMELY RARE individual are "fearless".

So you cannot be "fearless". It's impossible. However, you do not want to lose that fear anyhow. You want to HARNESS IT! Fear is the motivator that launches you into action and gives you the adrenaline dump that helps you deal with that life-or-death moment. Use it! It is fear that's going to enable you to pummel that walking piece of human refuse into the sidewalk. It's fear that's going to turn the tables on your stalker and put him in a wheel chair for the rest of his worthless life.

The fight-or-flight response is a natural response. Freezing is NOT a natural response. As I said earlier... this is the direct result of being programmed into thinking that such horrible things do not happen to good people. This is ridiculous of course. Horrible stuff happens to "good People" all the time. In fact, these are the horrible things that you're most likely to hear about because frankly... nobody gives a damn when horrible things happen to people who are NOT good. That rarely makes the news.

Freezing should also obviously be the WRONG thing to do since it serves no purpose other that to facilitate whatever "horrible" thing is about to happen. Freezing on the train tracks or in the middle of a highway is almost guaranteed to get you killed. So is freezing when some crap bag produces a knife.

You were conditioned to freeze and you can condition yourself out of this. Test yourself in small things. Stress and exercise your self-esteem. (I assume that you are WORTHY of self-esteem.) Start drilling it into your head right now that you'll be harder, smarter and more brutal than the predators who are out there, be they stalkers, rapists, bullies or the average sidewalk pile. Put them on the bloody end.