Any sane person who arms themselves for self defense will tell you that they don’t really want any trouble, they carry the gun in case trouble finds them. But life is anything but simple and a recent self defense situation in Denver shows how ugly self defense can get.
An unknown male in Denver had his car stolen from the Northfield parking lot 2 weeks ago. Using an app he had on his phone, he was able to track his vehicle down. Upon finding his car, he jumped out to confront the thieves, one of which was a 12 year old boy. As the owner approached the vehicle, at least one other occupant in the car started shooting at him. He drew his gun and fired back multiple times. 2 of his rounds found the 12 year old driver who died from his wounds after speeding away. Once the gunfire was over, the owner of the vehicle did not continue the pursuit of his car. He called the police who tracked down the vehicle and the deceased driver. The other occupants of the car were long gone.
Video of the shooting has just been released.
The Denver District Attorney announced publicly last week that they don’t intend to file charges due to the unlikeliness of getting a conviction based on the evidence they gathered. The family of the boy who was killed have been vocal about their feelings about what happened. They have indicated that they would like to sue the owner of the car for the death of their son.
It’s easy to get lost in the weeds in a story like this. Why was the 12 year old stealing cars? Where are the parents? Why did the car owner decide to go look for his car instead of letting the police handle it? Who shot first? Was the car worth the life of another human being? Each of these questions is important but nearly impossible to answer in today’s social climate. The reality is that good honest citizens are frustrated with crime, the police are over extended due to lack of staffing as well as policy changes, there are a lot of “kids” out doing bad shit these days and parents are not doing their jobs.
If this story had been in the news 5 years ago, it would be a lot easier to blame the car owner for taking matters into his own hands. But the way our society has seemingly dramatically shifted in the last few years, it becomes much more difficult to expect the good guy not to take risks. The veneer of law and order that existed in years past appears to be gone. The fact is, more citizens are more likely to take more risks than they used to. Whether it’s right or not, it IS happening.
Not only is violence more common, but the potential long term risk is higher. The family of the boy have indicated that they want to sue once they find out the identity of the man who pulled the trigger. Right or wrong, it doesn’t change the fact that this man may be involved in a multi year, multi million dollar legal fight. I’d be interested to know if this man still feels like his car was worth the trouble and the life of another person. He may feel that it is. But the point is that when we defend ourselves we must have a good understanding of what we are risking when we do it.
These kinds of stories also hammer home to me why it’s important to have a legal plan in place before the moment of self defense arises. I hope I am never in the position to have to take lethal action against another person, but the fact is that it is not up to me. I am prepared with a solid legal plan that will make it easy for me to call an attorney immediately. I have a strong feeling that this car owner called an attorney right away, considering how quickly the DA announced that charges would not be filed as well as the fact that the DA has remained silent as to the identity of the man. The aftermath of a self defense incident is a minefield, and I am not planning to do it alone.
This week we’re going to talk about a psychological phenomenon that could impact whether you are really ready to defend yourself.
It’s 10pm on a Saturday night. You and your best friend have just finished dinner at a restaurant that you have been to many times before. As you are walking alone towards your car you see a stranger walking in your direction on the sidewalk. There is something about him that gives you a feeling that he is going to talk to you. No problem, it’s not unusual for strangers to talk to each other. As he approaches his focus is on you and he looks quickly left towards the street as he starts to ask you for a cigarette. His hands don’t look threatening but he’s fidgeting with his belt. Your brain starts sending you signals that this is a dangerous situation but you don’t want to be rude, weird, paranoid or judgy. While he’s asking for a cigarette, you politely tell him sorry you don’t smoke and have a nice night. What you didn’t notice is that he has positioned his body between you and the street, putting your back to a wall. Without any apparent warning, he takes a swing at you and now you’re in a violent robbery.
To most normal people on the street, violence is not normal. But to an attacker, violence IS normal.
Normalcy bias is a psychological phenomenon that causes us to ignore important information about our environment because we can’t or don’t want to accept that things outside the norm can be happening. In the world of self defense, this can be a huge problem for us. It can slow down our recognition of a violent encounter and can impede our ability to act.
In the story above, as the stranger is approaching he is giving signs that he is going to speak to you. While speaking to strangers is not unusual, the circumstance of being alone on a public street at night and possibly no one else around makes this a much higher risk interaction. If things go wrong, they can go really really wrong.
As the unknown contact approaches, your gut is telling you that this is high risk, but your rational brain may be trying to search for reasons to believe that there is nothing wrong here. There is a fight happening in your brain.
As the encounter develops, the unknown contact continues to broadcast signals. Looking around while talking to you, touching his pant line, moving you into a vulnerable position are all pre attack indicators. But you might be distracted by a very normal question, a request for a cigarette. As the encounter continues, your options to keep this from becoming a fight are disappearing. The bad guy is trying to act normal but he’s about to do something very abnormal. These conflicting signals are going 100 miles per hour in your brain.
To most normal people on the street, violence is not normal. But to an attacker, violence IS normal. For good moral people who unfortunate enough to have been in violent encounters, it’s much easier to defeat this normalcy bias and to take this situation as seriously as they should. But if you’re new to the world of violence, your rational brain may be working against you.
How do we learn to defeat this bias without exposing ourselves to a mugger just for the experience? Training and education. Training to be confident in our skills, training in dealing with unknown contacts, to recognize pre attack indicators, training to communicate with skill, and educating ourselves on what violence looks like in the real world. Without having seen the real world consequences of these encounters, it’s hard to take them seriously. Thanks to the internet, you don’t need to look very hard anymore. But you do need the will to learn.
Don’t let your biases blind you to the world around you. Take your self defense training and education seriously.
I strongly encourage you to take the chance to train for actual defensive scenarios. Join us for an upcoming class and build the skills that may save your life!
This week we’re going to talk about why it’s so important to understand the human body and how it works when it comes to self defense shooting.
Most people took biology in high school. Most of us have a general idea where the heart, brain and lungs are. Most of us understand that damage to these parts of the body will reduce someone’s ability to function.
The Heart, Lungs, Major Blood Vessels and Spine are all located in the high center chest
But if you own a gun for self defense, this rudimentary understanding of anatomy isn’t enough if you take your personal safety seriously. The human body is amazingly complex as well as resilient and a lot of people are quite surprised when they learn how difficult it can be to stop a threat effectively even with a firearm.
I don’t expect people to get a medical degree but I am constantly amazed at how little is understood by the average gun owner of how the body functions, how it responds to damage and trauma, and how the ammo fired from their guns relates to damage within the human body.
On some level, the gun is a simple machine that is not hard to understand. It fires a bullet at a high rate of speed in the direction it was pointed. If anything is in front of that bullet, it will be damaged. In a fight, it is a force multiplier, meaning it allows a person to exert more damage than would otherwise be physically possible without that tool. Some call it an equalizer, and to some degree I agree. A physically smaller and weaker person can use it to cause death or serious injury against a larger, more skilled opponent. But it is not a magic wand that guarantees that the user will win the fight.
In order to learn how to fight with the tool, we really need to understand the tool, including its limitations. That’s right, the handgun has limitations. In the realm of weapons, handguns are not even close to the top of the list when it comes to damage. Compared to rifles and shotguns, handguns are relatively weak and ineffective. How do we know this? Statistics. 84% of people shot with one round fired from a handgun survive. 68% of people shot with one round fired from a rifle survive. That’s a big difference, especially when we filter out incidents involving suicide.
The reason we carry these lesser tools is convenience. I can have this tool on my person much more easily than a rifle or a shotgun. Since I’m choosing the more convenient tool, I should learn how to use it in a way that leverages its benefits.
To give ourselves the best chance to stop the threat, we need to be prepared to deliver multiple rounds to the threat, as fast as we are able to, until the threat is over. Our training should always reflect what we are preparing for in the real world.
When we are training with our handguns, we train to fire between 3 to 5 rounds at the high center chest as fast as we can accomplish the task with the necessary precision. Why 3 to 5 rounds? In part, the reason is that in order to ensure that our threat is most likely to change his/her behavior, we need to hit the vital area multiple times. The high center chest contains the heart, lungs, aortic arch, aorta and spine. It’s a target rich environment. But it is also well protected by the rib cage, a structure that turns out to do a pretty amazing job at preventing injury to these organs.
Since we cannot predict what a round will do once it starts hitting the inconsistent structures of the human body, we are training to get at least 3 rounds into this vital area. The goal is to cause traumatic bleeding that will significantly impair the bad guy’s ability to continue to be a threat. If we are really lucky, the bullet may strike the spine, possibly causing temporary or permanent paralysis.
Is it possible that one round can cause this type of damage? Absolutely! But based on what we see in the data, the chances are more likely that it won’t. One round may also be enough to cause a psychological stop, meaning that the bad guy changes his mind about fighting. But relying on a psychological stop is basing your self defense plan on luck, and luck isn’t a responsible plan.
We don’t shoot to kill, we shoot to stop. But we want to be sure of our tactics, and part of that means training for the most likely scenarios. To give ourselves the best chance to stop the threat, we need to be prepared to deliver multiple rounds to the threat, as fast as we are able to, until the threat is over. Our training should always reflect what we are preparing for in the real world.
I strongly encourage you to take the chance to train for actual defensive scenarios. Join us for an upcoming class and build the skills that may save your life!
This week we’re going to discuss how your right to self defense comes with a huge responsibility.
We love talking about Rights. I have a right to speak, a right to own a gun, a right to expect privacy from my government. Individual Rights are the bedrock of our Western civilization. Many people in our society still understand this, and advocate for it.
What often gets ignored in the defense of Rights is a discussion and acknowledgment of our Responsibilities. Guns For Everyone has made Responsibility part of our message from the beginning. For instance, your Right to own a gun comes with the Responsibility to handle that gun safely.
When it comes to self defense, every human has the Right to protect themselves. We are born with that Right and it is sacred. But we tend to not acknowledge the Responsibility that comes with that Right. You cannot expect other people to protect you if you will not accept your Responsibility to protect yourself.
While we are all blessed with the same rights, we are not all blessed with the same abilities.
There is only one person you can guarantee will be present the moment you are faced with a threat: You. You are your only reliable defender. If you take your personal safety seriously, you must accept this. Your mindset must reflect this. Your preparation must respect this.
While we are all blessed with the same rights, we are not all blessed with the same abilities. I understand that not everyone is physically, mentally or even financially gifted with the resources to be a top level fighter. Not everyone is going to be able to deliver a damaging punch with precision. Not everyone is born with the ability to stay calm in a fight. Nor can everyone afford the means to train like an elite athlete or soldier. Life is not fair, life is not equal.
The Responsibility to defend ourselves starts with our mindset and our will to win. Anyone can develop the mindset for self defense. Even if I am not as trained as the next guy, even if I am older, smaller, more frail, I will do everything in my power to be ready to defend myself. If I am targeted for an attack, I will win the fight or I will die trying. Why? Because it’s my responsibility. How can I ask others to do for me what I am not willing to do for myself? How can I ask someone else to risk their safety to protect me when I am not willing to fight for myself?
The Right to self defense must be paired with the Responsibility to prepare for self defense, and the will to defend yourself. If we all took this Responsibility as seriously as we take our Rights, our society and culture would be very different than it is today.
I strongly encourage you to take the chance to train for actual defensive scenarios. Join us for an upcoming class and build the skills that may save your life!
This week we are going to watch a man with extraordinary composure in the face of an armed threat successfully evade an attack, and then make a huge mistake.
The following video is from Milwaukee Wisconsin and shows a 66 year old Vietnam veteran face down an armed carjacker.
Our defender is getting out of his car when he is confronted by a man with a gun. The good guy’s reaction is to simply walk away. This reaction was clearly not what the carjacker was expecting as we can see the confusion on his face and a moment of indecision before he and his 2 accomplices take off running.
This is a win and our good guy could have ended this interaction here. Instead, he jumped into his car to chase down his attackers. This resulted in him getting shot at multiple times, with his car being hit a total of 4 times. Obviously this is not a good way to end your day. But is this something our good guy should have done?
In our Free Concealed Carry Classes, we often discuss the idea of “Could versus Should”. Just because something is possible, or even legal, does not always mean it’s something you should do. The reverse is also true, just because the legal aftermath is unpredictable and high risk doesn’t mean you should do what is necessary to save your life or the lives of others.
In order to answer the could versus should question, a person must have a good understanding of the laws, the nature of violent attacks, the stakes involved and a clear understanding of what is most important to them. We often bring up the idea of protecting property with deadly force. A lot of people value a thief’s life much less than say their vehicle. But the life of the bad guy is not the only part of the equation. There’s also the physical risk for yourself, as well as the potential for legal fallout that could land you in jail. Most people who look at the whole equation will rethink the idea of charging out to take on a car thief in their driveway.
But we have to also consider another motivation when it comes to self defense. Humans are territorial. We haven’t socialized that out of our society yet. It is possible that this 66 year old veteran felt like it was in his best interest to chase away violent people who were threatening not just him, but his neighborhood as well. The instinct to protect is noble and it is innate in some people. While it may seem crazy to some people that this man would risk his life to pursue his attackers, to him it may seem worth the risk of getting shot or even killed.
I used to have a neighbor who was 80 years old. His wife of many decades had passed away. He lived alone, and didn’t go out much at all. We had several problems with thefts in the cul de sac and the police were unable to prevent the problems we were having. This neighbor would spend many hours after dark sitting in a lawn chair in his driveway, sometimes bundled up against the cold. He held a flashlight in one hand and pistol in the other. We would run off any suspicious vehicles that happened to venture into his neighborhood. First he’d shine the flashlight. If that wasn’t enough, then he’d show the gun.
While I’d never advocate that anyone take this approach for dealing with this type of crime, clearly my neighbor had decided that he’d rather spend his remaining years after a long life doing something that he felt was necessary, no matter the risks. And I doubt anyone would have been able to talk him out of that.
The point I am trying to make with this story is that we will all have to evaluate what is most important to us and decide how to act based on that evaluation. But in order to properly understand it we must educate ourselves about what the true risks are to our lives, our freedom, our resources and so on. To live with conviction, we must be certain of our convictions in the first place.
