The Unguarded Moment.

[toro]

The first step to thwarting the thugs who use our streets to prey on the innocent is to recognize that they're out there, doing thier thing. But if you're alert and ready for trouble, you'll never be a target. Here are some things my mother would warn me about: Beware of blind dates and new acquaintances. Never get into a car of an acquaintance, know the person very well before entering his car. Be careful who knows your phone number and where you reside. If you're in a situation which makes you uncomfortable, don't wait until you are alone to get out of the situation. Do it while there are people around. Never undress or dress in front of an unobstructed window or where you are silhouetted by a shade. Above all be positive stay alert, you have a better chance of staying alive.

If men no longer respect women, no law can change their views. For what ever reason, we live in a culture which includes an immoral social segment large enough for us to know it could happen to us at any time. We need a mindset to be on guard. I always thought my mother was paranoid. But, as I look back I now appreciate her rules.

Molly


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Psalms 78:5-7
For he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children; That the generation to come might know them even the children which should be born; who should arise and declare them to their children; That they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments.

 

[Carlos Cabeza]

Hi Molly , It's called "Situational Awareness" and everyone should practice it. My mother manages a restaurant franchise and just the other evening it was robbed at gunpoint when the young night manager took out the garbage after dark. The girl was beaten and punched a few times until she complied with her attacker's requests. When she told me this I explained to her some of the points you made, to try to minimize the vulnerable exposure when performing a given task. First step is to not decieve yourself into thinking "this will never happen to me" and you already have thought of that. It is sad that we have to consider these events as common occurrences but it is far better to be alert and aware of them than to be an unsuspecting victim.

Be Smart !

Carl

 

[toro]

Carl

Sorry to hear about the young night manager. I once read in Jeff Cooper's commentaries about a young lady who poked out a man's eye. He soon left her alone. These young girls sometimes have to get tough in order to survive. I would encourage her to take a self defense class. Even if she is not a shooter, maybe she can learn where to do the most damage to her attackers. Of course with several attackers it is hard for a young lady to protect herself without a gun.

It is sad iindeed when the criminal can run wild toting a gun and an innocent person must abide by the law and run away from trouble. Instead of being able to defend themselves, they must be very careful not to get into these situations.

Molly


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1 John 1:1,2
That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the word of life; For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and show unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us;

 

[Carlos Cabeza]

Molly, Basically the girl had broken the management's rules about opening the door after dark. She went alone outside, to the rear of the store, inside the fenced area that hides the bin. I agree with you, this person will have to work to regain her trust in society. She will have to always consider her actions for their consequences.

 

[Trisha]

Hi, Molly!

I call it "Being caught in Condition White," or a very bad blonde moment. . .



It's been well over a decade since the last one also coincided with a worst-case dose of Murphy's Law - and I was hospitalized after being beaten/raped by homophobic bottom-feeders. I survived, and learned my lesson. I've been training full-time in firearms and martial arts ever since; and though I'm a natural blonde, I work very hard at never, ever letting my guard down. . .

Life lessons make it worthwhile to teach any who seek you out, yes?

 

[DrPsycho]

Being under vigilant = being a victim.
Being over vigilant = risk of being labelled paranoid.

Where's the middle ground?

 

[Kalvan]

If someone labels me as paranoid I simply tell them that there is a difference between being paranoid and being prepared. As Clint Smith has said, "What have I got to be paranoid about? I've got the gun!"

 

[Feanaro]

There is an amount of paranoia that is just plain silly but other than wearing tin foil hats and checking your eyeballs for listening devices you cannot be too paranoid. You have one life and you cannot be safe enough with it.

 

[Delmar]

Sadly, most of us have had or are going to have an unguarded moment-those of us who have had one and are logical thinkers will redouble our efforts to ensure the lesson sinks in deeply. What others might think of my preparedness I do not care, because they have not arrived at their moment of truth nor have they prepared for it. If I am going to be victimized, it will be in a court room-not on the streets or in my home.

 

[Jim March]

DrPsycho:

THAT question is why Cooper invented the color codes. The color codes are a way of "deliberately setting" pre-determined mental states for specific purposes, taking "manual control" over what most people just "let happen" with generally poor results.

Here's how it works:

"White": totally unaware of your surroundings, ambling along, "victim to be". Granted, everybody needs to spend SOME quiet time at home in white.

"Yellow": this is a state of "relaxed awareness" - you're looking at the world around you, calmly, and able to not only spot danger, but spot the comical little jokes tucked in the corners that most people miss. You can happily spend MOST of your time in yellow without stress.

Literally, on stepping out my front door, I say "yellow" to myself mentally.

"Orange": heightened awareness when there are specific possible threats around. When actually saying "orange" to myself to trigger this *internal* change, I take a quick inventory of available weapons on my person and possible escape routes.

Example: walking down the street, you see a gang on the corner, and at least one is watching you. No movement yet on their part, but I'd go orange. Or when a cop pulls somebody over, he goes orange for the duration of the traffic stop.

When the threat is past, saying "yellow" to myself backs it down.

RED: "It's on" - there is an immediate threat to myself or others, and it's fight or flight. If I was properly in yellow and spotted it, I'd already be in orange and two key bits of prep have already happened, the weapons inventory and the escape plan. NOW the first thing that has to go through my head is "lethal threat?!" - short for "am I in fear of losing my life or suffering great bodily injury", which is my state's standard for legal use of deadly force. If not, OK, if so, weapons come in to play. Note that if the aggressor is an actual animal (dog, usually) you can be "quicker on the draw" (reduced deadly force scrutiny).

I already know in great detail what circumstances I'd use deadly force, and hence won't hesitate in a "moral quandry" - that's all worked out ahead of time.

In some cases, you'll be in yellow and calmly alert, and spot something that needs dealing with RIGHT NOW and won't even have time for a "progression". That's fine. That's also why I carry the same personal defensive weapons in the same way every day: I don't want to have to fumble if the balloon goes up. About...wow, a year ago, I was walking along and spotted a guy and his small leashed dog getting attacked by two large strays. I started running the instant I saw them and pulled my 5.5" daily carry folding knife at a dead run with no fumbles. On getting between the guy and the two aggressor dogs, they backed up as I told the guy behind me to split. He did . Anyways, that was a "straight to red" moment. I've been involved in another "Quentin Tarantino Moment"[tm] where I did do the whole orange thing (including weapon inventory) and then red in an appropriate fashion. Saved a man's life that time.

Now, here's the neat part:

For those that don't lead a "warrior lifestyle", the color codes help prop you UP into yellow while in public, instead of white.

For those that DO lead a high-threat-level life, be they cops, bodyguards, soldiers in the field or whatever, the color codes help keep them down out of orange (or sometimes red!) most of the time, helping them keep their sanity. Such folks also need a way of "turning it off" at home and deliberately dropping down all the way into white and otherwise not reacting inappropriately to family/friends and that's a subject the color codes aren't 100% successful at *alone*, although they certainly help.

But anyways. This is how you go about setting a balance.

(NOTE: there's at least one variant of the codes taught that separates "red" into "red and black", where red is the immediate ramp-up to a fight with one last attempt at de-escalation, and black is war. I personally use the original four-step codes (faster, and it's what I'm used to) but I can see how five-step has some value for police in particular.)

 

[DigMe]

Feanaro said
other than wearing tin foil hats and checking your eyeballs for listening devices you cannot be too paranoid.

I was beginning to wonder if I was the only one.

brad cook

 

[buzz_knox]

My SO travels around the country as part of her job, which thoroughly freaks me out. But, I'm working on her. The other night, she called me when she got back home and blamed me for her not getting her mail. When I questioned her as to how it was my fault, she said that she didn't stop at her PO Box to get her mail (as she would have normally have done despite it being midnight) because she knew I wouldn't have wanted her to take the risk. I love that woman.

 

[Country Boy]

The exact quote by Clint Smith is...

Clint Smith's exact quote is "If you carry a gun, people will call you paranoid. That’s ridiculous. If I have a gun, what in the hell do I have to be paranoid about?"

It can be found at http://www.thunderranchinc.com/articles/quotes.htm

 

[Betty]

My former roomate once called me paranoid.

This was the same girl who would drive her motorcycle around late at night with an empty gas tank, leaving herself stranded on the side of a road. Luckily, the good samaritan who came to her aid was a friendly off-duty officer. He gave her a lift on his bike to the nearest gas station. "If you feel a lump around my waist, don't worry - it's just my gun," he said.

She was also the same person who would bring in her one-night stand and go to work early the next morning, leaving him in our townhouse with a key.

Gee, it's really nice to exit my room to find a strange half naked man standing in the living room.

 

[Paul Gomez]

It's not paranoia when they really are out to get you.

Seriously, try these definitons of paranoia:

1.A psychotic disorder characterized by delusions of persecution with or without grandeur, often strenuously defended with apparent logic and reason.

2.Extreme, irrational distrust of others.

3.A chronic form of insanity characterized by very gradual impairment of the intellect, systematized delusion, and usually by delusious of persecution or mandatory delusions producing homicidal tendency. In its mild form paranoia may consist in the well-marked crotchetiness exhibited in persons commonly called ``cranks.'' Paranoiacs usually show evidences of bodily and nervous degeneration, and many have hallucinations, esp. of sight and hearing.

Does carrying a gun make one paranoid? Of course not. Do some paranoid people carry guns? Sure.

Words have power. You are no more paranoid simply because you choose to develop the ability to defens yourself, than because you choose to wear a seatbelt or keep a fire extinguisher in your home. I particularly like definition number three. Seems to me that if you fail to take into account the violence inate in our society today and if you fail to take measures to protect you and yours, you might be paranoid.