Suppose you are attacked and nobody is around to help. You probably want to be prepared to defend yourself. And in that case, says Owen Megonow, awareness of your surroundings is the first order of business...every waking moment.
posted 12.12.05
BASICS OF SELF-DEFENSE
With crime statistics climbing over the years, chances are that you too will find yourself in a self-defense situation one day, if you haven't already.
It can happen to anyone, from the president of the United States on down to the average person on the street. Unfortunately, the rest of us don't have the benefit of a highly trained detail of Secret Service agents to protect us. We are basically on our own when it comes to dealing with violence directed at us.
Realize that the police are outnumbered and when it comes down to it are a reactionary force—responding only after the 911 calls are made—unless they happen to witness an assault in progress.
Calvary can't be everywhere
I know from experience in my younger days that the cavalry usually arrives well after the fact. Not that we didn't care. But we couldn't be everywhere at once—then or now. Waiting for some good Samaritan to come along and save you is wishful thinking at best. At worst, it could leave you or a loved one injured or dead. So it is up to each of us to take personal responsibility for our own safety as well as that of our loved ones. (Let's ignore for now that personal responsibility—let alone taking appropriate defensive action when attacked—is not politically correct today. More on that later.)
In any circumstance requiring self-defense you are unarmed, semi-armed, or armed. No matter which of these is the case, one key element of self-defense must be in effect whenever possible: awareness. If you're not aware of your immediate surroundings then you're setting yourself up for a very nasty surprise.
Criminals look for easy targets. Walking the streets with your head down and hands in your pockets is all but screaming for some punk to take a chance that he will find little if any resistance. Walking with a purpose, head up and alert, with a confident stride, changes things. And sometimes all you have to do is make them think you're prepared and willing to fight back. Criminals hate taking a good whomping from a potential victim. Not exactly good for the self-image.
So how do we apply this philosophy of self-defense in our daily lives?
The first step is to realize that there are stages or conditions of awareness. Condition White occurs when you're sleeping or, say, in the shower. Awareness is at an all-time low. Condition Yellow (caution) is what we all need to be in when fully awake. Condition Orange is a heightened state of awareness in which we realize that danger is imminent. Condition Orange, unless ignored, will probably get the hairs on the back of your neck standing straight up; and that's a good thing. We're in Condition Red when we realize that we are in fact under attack. The adrenaline flows and we are energized and ready to fight. The trick is to keep panic under control as much as possible. Obviously there are some situations in which we realize that things are beyond our ability to control. The attack on the World Trade Center is a prime example.
Realizing that you are under attack, the mind exhibits the "fight or flight" syndrome psychologists are fond of talking about. Translation: at this point you must either defend yourself or run like hell! There's no middle ground here. Many people panic at this point in the game and sadly end up as victims due to a severe case of cement feet.
When I was a teenager studying Kenpo Kung Fu, my sensei taught us that the best fight you could have was one that you avoided. I know that sounds like we were all trained to run away, but there was a lesson here. It's not glamorous, macho, or any other name you want to call it, to walk away from a confrontation. But it's a lot better if only our fragile egos suffer. The bottom line is that there are no real winners in a fight.
But we also learned that there are circumstances when avoiding a fight or running away from it isn't possible. I've found myself in those situations more times than I care to remember. Working off-duty in the military as a bouncer breaking up fights was part of the job. That is the point of this article. Sometimes there's just no getting around violence.
Unarmed defense
Let's face some facts here. Not everyone carries a weapon on his person every time he leaves the relative safety of his home. Most people have little or no real-world experience with weapons. So the idea of packing heat often isn't any more practical than carrying a samurai sword for protection. Duncan McLeod did carry a sword in the TV show "Highlander," but gangsters still shot him. He just healed faster than the rest of us.
Most people are far better off practicing avoidance. Avoid walking or driving through poorly lit areas at night if at all possible; or travel with a friend. If confronted and it's feasible, run away! It's not cowardly, just smart. Forget being macho because that can get you badly injured or killed in a hurry.
Let's look at a possible confrontation.
Say you're in a market and some jerk wants to pick a fight. You probably already have a metal grocery cart in front of you. That can keep him from making contact. If this fails, many aisles have products suitable for defense. I once saw a security tape of a woman throwing canned goods at an aggressor. He wasn't so determined to steal her purse after getting hit by a can of vegetables. He ran toward the door after a third can nailed him in the back of the head. It was funny as hell to watch.
Semi-armed defense
"Semi-armed" means different things to different people so I'll give some simple examples of what I mean. Since the age of 15 I've carried a kuboton on my key ring. The first one I had was made from a dowel stick, and was a little over a half-inch in diameter and five and a half inches long. Used as an impact weapon, it has saved my hide on many occasions. When I was a bouncer it was my weapon of choice.
I still carry one, and so does my wife. Made by a friend from exotic hardwood, it serves as both a self-defense weapon and a great way to remember where your keys are. Martial arts students quickly learn pressure points to get the desired results. Of course, I'm talking about stopping an aggressor, not killing him.
Flashlights are also useful when applied correctly. I always carry a C-Cell Maglite when walking the dog at night. Unless you're a Shaolin priest in a TV movie, fighting blind usually isn't very effective. And four-legged aggressors like dogs and coyotes hate the bright light in their eyes. The longer-length models can also be used as a makeshift baton, while in a pinch the Mini-Mags can double as a kuboton. Why do you think cops and security personnel are so fond of them?
When using pepper spray, remember to keep the wind to your back and to maintain at least three to five feet of distance between you and your attacker before activating the spray. Having the wind shift and blow the spray back into your face is not very pleasant. It happened to my old bounty-hunting partner and he didn't enjoy the experience at all.
Juries and the courts generally frown upon knives for self-defense. The reason is that they still carry that negative connotation of being the weapons of assassins and murderers. Even an expensive folder by Benchmade or a custom knife maker can get you into trouble. Just try to get into Disneyland with a pocket knife these days without being branded a potential terrorist.
Since I'm legally handicapped I use a walking stick daily. Like many people I started out with a crook-shaped cane. It was fine for walking but I never liked it much as a defensive weapon, even after learning to block and use the hook effectively to trap an opponent's arm or leg. Using it correctly definitely works but it's not my preference.
Now the straight stick is a different story. Mine has a one-and-three-quarter-inch diameter knob tapering down to a shade under an inch at the tip. When you hold it at the balance point, the stick feels like a wooden sword in your hand. No other stick I've tried feels quite this way. I do own a real samurai sword so I'm more than a little partial to the style.
The straight walking stick has become my favorite self-defense weapon because it's always in my hand. Made from exotic hardwood like my kuboton, it gives me exceptional reach. It's extremely hard and, when used properly, can easily stop a determined attacker. As a martial artist I naturally gravitated toward using my walking stick with the basic strikes of Kendo. To me it's a wooden samurai sword on the street.
Best of all it's completely legal. I've taken mine into courtrooms and through the boarding gate at the airport. But then, as I said, I'm disabled. Unless you have a similar disability, you would have a difficult time justifying such a stick in areas with security checkpoints.
My friend makes these walking sticks out of imported exotic woods from around the world. My favorite is African Bubinga wood. It's naturally beautiful, as are some of the others he makes, including some custom laminates. For anyone who is handicapped and can't run from danger it makes perfect sense to carry one of these custom walking sticks.
Armed and dangerous
Now we get to the big boy's toys. There was a popular poster back in the early 70s with a pretty brunette wearing hip hugger jeans with a .38 special jammed into the front of her waistband. No question about it, no one ever raped a .38.
Of course in our politically correct society here in California it is taboo to even dream about packing heat, not even a mouse gun. The socialists claim that all guns are evil, ready to blow someone's head off without warning. Guns kill people!
Yeah, right. I've kept loaded guns around the house for many years, and my wife of over twenty years has never been afraid of any of them. In fact she owns her own .38 snub. In all those years not one of my guns have ever shot at my wife or me! How could that be? Aren't all guns supposed to be evil or something?
Well, the bottom line here is that there are times when only a firearm will stop an attack from turning deadly. Back in the 90s, some idiot was trying to break in our front door around one in the morning. My wife woke me up and I took one look before leveling a rather large muzzle at him from the window overlooking the door. He got the message all right. He seemed grateful that I didn't shoot him and finally let him go since there was no real damage. Besides, I had to get up early for work. So he got a free pass that time. I wonder if he tried his luck elsewhere?
The obvious choice for a personal-defense weapon is a handgun. The age-old argument between revolver aficionados and those who adore their high-capacity semiautomatics will probably outlive us all. I own and shoot both. I actually started my bounty-hunting career carrying a stainless Ruger .357. Yeah, I took a lot of heat from people for carrying a wheel gun, but no one ever refused an order while staring up the barrel. Switching over to a semiautomatic wasn't too difficult. The Sig Sauer P239 in 9mm shoots almost as comfortably as the older revolver.
The major difference between the two is the number of rounds you can fire without reloading. Six in the wheel gun, and eight plus one in the chamber for the 9mm. Having been in live shootouts with both guns I never felt at a disadvantage with either. The 9mm is faster to reload, but back in 1983 at a police range I was only three tenths of a second off the world speed record for six rounds fired from a duty-tuned Smith & Wesson Model 66. In a real gunfight, he who hits first usually wins.
The .357 round is faster and more powerful than a standard 9mm, but not by much. The experts will argue about the pros and cons of stopping power of one round over the other, but one fact settles everything: If you don't hit your target it doesn't count. I'd rather be missed by a .44 magnum than hit by a .22 any day! Back in infantry training I got "sniped" by a guy in a tree who was shooting at our squad with a BB gun. I've never forgotten that lesson.
The one that feels best
The best advice I can give is to shoot the gun that feels best in your hand. No two shooters are alike. What feels good to me may be completely unsuitable for you. Just make sure that it's accurate and that you can hit with it. Remember that when the stuff hits the fan your stress level will already be pushing you to the limits. An unfamiliar weapon in your hands is not the way to go.
And of course, you must be knowledgeable about the laws governing self-defense in your community and state, and you should by all means have training in the legal use of your weapon.
Make sure your training is real-life oriented. Indoor ranges are fine for casual target practice, but those targets aren't shooting back. I prefer the local desert with a box full of over-ripened fruit from a market. The fruit is free, makes for great exploding targets, and feeds the critters. Another idea is to find an old tire, stuff cardboard in the middle, and have a friend roll it past you from side to side. Hitting a moving, bouncing target is really challenging and great practice for real-life situations.
Our society frowns on almost any attempt to defend yourself or loved ones. You may be in trouble unless you can prove that the attacker was a confirmed serial killer, just murdered a family that looks like yours and only a last ditch effort on your part saved lives. It seems that anything less is reason enough to brand the average working guy a menace to society.
Sound silly or unreasonable? Well, you can thank political correctness for that. But don't expect those politically-correct people to be around to save you or your family when things go south.
Twelve versus six
There's a lot to be said for being tried by twelve rather than carried by six. Just make sure in your heart and mind that you have no other options, and do your best with what you have available.
Reprinted by permission of the publisher from modernsurvival.net. Owen K. Megonow is a former bounty hunter who has served in the military, law enforcement, and private investigations. He teaches self-defense.
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Read Attack Proof: The Ultimate Guide to Personal Protection by John Perkins
Read Armed: New Perspectives on Gun Control by Gary Kleck and Don B. Kates, Jr.
Read The Dirty Dozen: 12 Nasty Fighting Techniques for Any Self-Defense Situation by Larry Jordan
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