BOCH/HORTBERG: Protect Your Family!

by John Boch and Tim Hortberg
Americans are deeply concerned for the safety and security of their families.  Between the civil unrest in Ferguson and Baltimore, and now the high-profile Islamic terror attacks in Paris and California, Americans today are more fearful for their personal safety and security than any time since 9/11.

Guns Save Life advocates that law-abiding people with the knowledge, skills and attitudes to use deadly force in defense of innocent life consider acquiring personal defense firearms for themselves and their family.  Proper training in using those firearms can help save your life and at the same time keep you out of trouble with the law.  Good training will also teach you how to avoid needing that defensive firearm in the first place.

Each of us, regardless of whether we have firearms or not, can exercise some basic behavior skills to greatly reduce the likelihood of becoming a victim of violent crime or terror attack.  It’s quick.  It’s easy.  And with practice, these techniques will become second nature.

Keeping your family safe

First off, you must recognize that threats exist.  Denial has no survival value.  Bad things happen to good people, and it’s sometimes random and other times it’s just fate or circumstance.

The single best tool you can employ to keep yourself safe in public is situational awareness.  By being aware and engaged about what’s going on around you, it is possible to identify potential threats and take action to avoid them – or minimize a bad situation.  Trust your intuition, as oftentimes your subconscious will identify
something amiss in your environment that you don’t notice at first.

The number one enemy:  task fixation.

The number one enemy of situational awareness in our everyday lives is task fixation.  Smart phones serve as a prime example.  People engrossed in text messaging, social media updates and posts are magnets for trouble.  Some of these people even wear their earbuds in public while their noses are in their phones.  That’s ideal victim behavior.  Leave your phone in your pocket unless you’re talking on it. Other task fixation danger areas include gas station pumps (Payment options?  Credit or debit?  Are you a rewards member?  Car wash?) and ATM machines.

Part of awareness is identifying your location and nearby exits.  Where is the nearest cover or concealment?  Who is around you?  When in restaurants, movie theaters or other sit-down locations, always identify exits and potential expedient weapons.

One technique to help you identify potential threats in public is to watch for abnormalities in the baseline of activity.  Those anomalies bear further attention.

Particularly for those anomalies, watch for further indicators of trouble and if you detect them, take action!  Leave the area, move to a better lit and/or more crowded location, or otherwise prepare to meet the threat head-on, including confidently looking a potential aggressor in the eye to acknowledge their presence.

Pre-violence indicators

• Grooming: touching of the face or neck, or wiping the hands on clothing.
• Blading or “loading”: angling the body to give advantage to the attack.
• Target glance: looking around for witnesses or approval from co-conspirators.
• Body preparation: taking off the shirt, pumping the fists, shrugging the shoulders or loosening of the neck.
• Furtive movements of the hands (think weapons).

Pre-incident indicators

• “Target Focus”…  bad guy will tunnel vision on target.
• Bad guys will match victim’s movements as they close distance.
• Communication, both verbal or non-verbal, amongst the aggressors.
• Flanking or bracketing of a victim.
• Using direct physical contact (a “target bump”), an unwarranted provocation or an inquiry (“got the time?”) as either a distraction or to assess a potential victim’s submissiveness (or lack thereof).
• Alternating gaze between the target victim and fellow aggressors.
• Negative or dreadful verbalizations.
• Unsolicited promises (“I won’t hurt you.”)
• Discounting your “no”.

Don’t do these things!

We’ve given you some strategies for what to do to make yourself safer.  Here are some things not to do:

• Avoid being (or acting) lost
• Avoid isolated areas
• Avoid looking like a victim (instead, exhibit a command presence)
• Avoid perceived dangers (trust your gut)
• Avoid not being able to communicate
• Avoid unknowns, including people and hidden or dark spaces
• Avoid distractions (put your phone away in public)

Talk with your spouse and loved ones about the importance of situational awareness in their everyday lives.  Teach them how to identify pre-attack behaviors and how to react to them.

By recognizing potential threats and identifying pre-violence and pre-incident indicators, you’ll be able to respond more quickly and efficiently to avoid a critical incident, and in event things go sideways, be able to more successfully manage it.

Don’t be afraid of America’s criminal class or Muslim terrorists.  Be prepared and be confident, while taking wise and prudent steps to ensure your family’s safety.

Special thanks to GSL Defense Training for much of this situational awareness information.