Last week, we sent an email discussing common legal myths in the self defense world. This week we’re focused on a video of a crazy fight at a gas station in robbery.
The following is video of a fight that took place at a gas station and this video does a fantastic job demonstrating a range of truths about dynamic critical incidents.
Notice first the victim profile of the group of guys. Think about this to yourself, would you expect a group of young men to be targeted by a single attacker? Yes there is probably a lower probability than a single person of less ability but you are not guaranteed to not be targeted just because you are young, capable, male, or in a group.
Next we notice the awareness level of our group. No one was really paying attention to the surroundings, and this ends up putting everyone on their heels when confronted with the threat. Our bad guy gets very close to the victims before they even realize they are in trouble.
The bad guy holds the initiative as he starts trying to take items from the victims and this is where things start going badly for the bad guy. SOME of our good guys decide to try to disarm the bad guy. Even though the bad guy is outnumbered, the act of disarming the threat is by no means easy at all. A prolonged fight ensues for control of the gun. Notice that at least one of the victims refuses to get involved in the fight at all. He is completely useless to his friends. In fact he’s not even paying attention to anything other than the fight. He’s in a freeze response, even though he’s mobile.
As the fight continues on the ground, the bad guy’s partner rushes from the getaway car and joins the fight. This fight went from 3 vs. 1 to 3 vs. 2 very quickly and the balance of the fight changes. Thanks to outnumbering the bad guy, as well as the ferocity that our good guys fought with, our good guys were able to wrestle the gun away from the bad guy. Fortunately our good guys did manage to get not just the gun, but also get and maintain the distance needed to use that gun to threaten violence enough to end the physical fight.
Our good guys have now taken the gun and gained the initiative in the fight but they don’t really know what to do next. In fact, the bad guys don’t seem to know what to do either. An argument ensues and the good guy who now possesses the gun has to point the gun at the bad guy a couple more times to ward off another fight. One of our good guys finally decides to call 911.
Much of what is going on after the immediate hands on fight is over relates to situational awareness. Our good guys need to maintain their position of advantage, which in this case is distance. They need to contact people who can help them, in this case calling the police. Notice that our freeze guy still has not done anything to engage in the fight or in the aftermath.
This attack demonstrates many of the principles we talk about in our Free Concealed Carry Classes, and the principles that we train around in our Defensive Shooting courses. We have a responsibility to be as prepared as possible if we carry life and death tools on us.
Even though the bad guy is outnumbered, the act of disarming the threat is by no means easy at all. A prolonged fight ensues for control of the gun.
I strongly encourage you to take the chance to train for actual defensive scenarios. More training and education is always the best answer to these tough questions. Join us for an upcoming class and build the skills that may save your life!
