Fred Fuller
Moderator Emeritus
http://backwoodshome.com/blogs/MassadAyoob/2014/06/29/three-weeks-later/
THREE WEEKS LATER…
Sunday, June 29th, 2014
===============================
This is an aspect of situational awareness which presents significant challenges, given the reflexive tendency toward 'tunnel vision' in an emergency. Trainers on the firing line today are always harping at students to 'cover down' ... but how deeply is that lesson implanted? Can it overcome reflex, or human nature?
A long time ago I came across what has become my favorite evaluation of human nature versus training. It came from a former Army shrink, sadly now deceased, and went like this: Human nature is to go to the bathroom in your pants.* Well, most of us were potty trained by age three or so, and still remain reliably continent save perhaps under genuinely extreme and exigent circumstances. And we get to practice remaining continent every day, while extreme situational awareness is seldom if ever demanded of us in daily life. After all, how often while you are standing in a checkout line does some stranger nearby in the store produce a pistol and fire a shot into the ceiling?
There are a lot of things to think about, and hopefully to resolve individually, in the process of going armed. This is but one of them. Here's an opportunity to see what others think about it (there are over 100 comments at the link to Mas' article), and to share your own opinion or decision, if you have made one already in this matter.
* http://bohemianadventures.blogspot.com/2009/01/stages-of-faith.html
THREE WEEKS LATER…
Sunday, June 29th, 2014
===============================
This is an aspect of situational awareness which presents significant challenges, given the reflexive tendency toward 'tunnel vision' in an emergency. Trainers on the firing line today are always harping at students to 'cover down' ... but how deeply is that lesson implanted? Can it overcome reflex, or human nature?
A long time ago I came across what has become my favorite evaluation of human nature versus training. It came from a former Army shrink, sadly now deceased, and went like this: Human nature is to go to the bathroom in your pants.* Well, most of us were potty trained by age three or so, and still remain reliably continent save perhaps under genuinely extreme and exigent circumstances. And we get to practice remaining continent every day, while extreme situational awareness is seldom if ever demanded of us in daily life. After all, how often while you are standing in a checkout line does some stranger nearby in the store produce a pistol and fire a shot into the ceiling?
There are a lot of things to think about, and hopefully to resolve individually, in the process of going armed. This is but one of them. Here's an opportunity to see what others think about it (there are over 100 comments at the link to Mas' article), and to share your own opinion or decision, if you have made one already in this matter.
* http://bohemianadventures.blogspot.com/2009/01/stages-of-faith.html