The Messy Reality of Self-Defense

This is an adult discussion.  I report on self-defense – the good and the bad.  I talk about the messy reality when we defend ourselves from criminal attacks.  By self defense I mean real physical harm.  This is what I’ve noticed as I study violent attacks. First, thousands of ordinary people defend themselves with a firearm every day.  These people are our friends, neighbors, and relatives. They were simply going about their lives when they had to defend themselves.  Second, successful self-defense isn’t magic.  The people who studied and practiced seemed to do a significantly better job.  Third, the reality of self-defense is very different from what we see from Hollywood. That means we are carrying around bad ideas from movies and TV. We need some self-defense training to replace Hollywood fantasy with facts.  Here are some simple lessons that leave this student of self-defense wanting to learn more.

If we study self-defense for very long, we’ll see that robbers practice and plan ahead.  The sooner we interrupt their plans the better.  Right there is where training and practice can give us an advantage.  Once you’re being attacked it is too late to start your home study course in self-defense.  The people who trained for self-defense chose better options than those who had to learn through on-the-job training.  As a bonus benefit, good training before the fact helps us avoid being attacked in the first place. I like that a lot!

We are most likely to be attacked when we are away from home. That means the arsenal in our gun safe is useless most of the time.  Think about that for a minute.  What we have on our body right now is what we will use to win or lose a self-defense encounter.  It is unlikely that we will have time to go to our car or safe room and get our gun, cell phone, flashlight, and trauma kit. That is also why criminals attack people on jogging trails.

Sorry, but there are no magic tokens to save you.  This is reality we’re talking about rather than the role-playing video game you might be used to.

Our real options are limited.  Sometimes we can run away and escape.  Sometimes we can’t.  You will have to stand and fight if you are with your spouse, your children or your friends. You can’t run and leave them behind to face the attackers alone.  That leaves us to defend ourselves from the threat, summon help, and provide aid to the injured.. with what we have in our pockets and in our minds.  The thing we need most of all is a plan, and training lets us make good choices on the spot.

It isn’t a fair fight.  Criminals want to outnumber us and they come prepared to overpower us with fists, knives and guns. Unless we train, we suffer a huge disadvantage because we won’t believe this is happening when we’re attacked.  Precious seconds pass as we process the situation and consider which options are available to us. The criminals have already practiced and rehearsed for this moment with the intent to win at any cost.. while we are trying to mentally catch up to this violent and shocking encounter.

Let’s say that we’ve thought about protecting ourself and our family, and we decided to buy a gun.  That helps a little.  Suppose we’ve even gone to the local shooting range and practiced a few times.  That is better.  The situation will feel like less of a confusing mess with training and practice.

There is a lot to learn from the messy realities of self-defense.  Of course there are the techniques and mechanics of self-defense.  We should also learn how to talk to the police, and how to have a legal plan in place after we’ve been attacked.  You don’t want to face that alone.

You are not alone.  There are almost a million new gun owners every few month.  The number of defenseless victims is shrinking as more of us become well-trained and responsible gun owners.  Training classes with skilled instructors are a Google-search away.  We add millions of new concealed carry holders every year.

Our neighbors have done it, and we can do it too.  We can learn to keep ourselves and our loved ones safe until help arrives.  The urge to defend yourself is both urgent today.. and it is timeless.