SO much for my wife thinking I'm crazy for staying in the car, and leaving it running until the garage door closes. Guess I'm not crazy after all! Great info, very thought provoking. Thank you Sir for this post.Originally Posted by Tom Givens
Things we take for granted everyday! Great article, and thanks for the reminder.
Rick
Brave men defend themselves, braver men defend loved ones, Warriors defend strangers fools wait! The bravest man I know John 3:17!
Yes, another great article from Greg.
What you do right before you know you're going to be in a use of force incident, often determines the outcome of that use of force.
Good article by Greg and often cited by Jon in Active Self Protection reviews. Closely related to Greg's article is this one by Paul Sharp.
https://sharpdefense.blog/2017/05/09/look-first/
The fundamentals are the same everywhere.
It's really easy for me to fall into the "galloping for the barn door" mentality on arriving home. The last turn into the alley, hitting the garage door opener, and parking the car, my natural instinct is to be already planning out how many trips I'm going to make carrying the groceries in or whatever...
I have to force myself to stop and look around before opening the door, then do a good mirror check before closing it and unloading the car. Fortunately I seem to have largely shed the habit of unloading the car with the overhead door still open.
Last edited by Tamara; 05-29-2017 at 04:44 PM.
Here’s an example to highlight the point being made. This happened 50+ years ago .... long before concealed carry was the norm for most folks.
A relative (who just happened to be a LEO) schooled his wife on coming home during the hours of darkness. Both of them worked during the hours of darkness and she routinely came home from Night Duty nursing while he was away working Patrol.
These folks lived out in the country and while crime was not the norm, my relative knew how vulnerable his wife was during this brief period of time between the car and their house.
She was instructed to have her gun “in-hand” before she exited her car and to remain in that state of readiness until she made in indoors behind locked doors.
Well against all probabilities, she made it to the door one night - with the key almost in the lock - when she was grabbed in a headlock from behind by a bad guy that had been hiding in the bushes.
She instantly stuck the gun over her shoulder (as instructed to do under such a circumstance) and fired a shot that struck her assailant in the face with good results. He did not survive.
The path of least resistance will seldom get you where you need to be.
Here's an example from today. Ladysidheshooter and I are leaving the hipster breakfast place after a nice brunch in the sun at one of the coveted patio tables. Being a holiday, the place is packed, with about a 30 minute wait, so there's a bunch of folks milling around on the sidewalk out front. A third to halfway down the city block and across the street I pick up an early 30-something guy, shirtless and somewhat "streety" looking, coming out from an alley parking area in between two buildings, in full-on outloud rant at the world mode and walking/talking like his head is full of death metal tunes. While I'm watching this guy's vector, I'm aware that none of the other 20+ people in front of hip brunch are looking. My wife is in front of me, asking "are we going? What are you doing?" "Waiting...", as she turns to see what I'm looking at. "Oh..."
Yeah, that. The guy is crossing the street against the light and walking inbetween the front bumper of our car, and the scion A parked in front of us down the block, raving about something that only he can fathom. Point being, it just wasn't hard to see that moving directly towards our parked car would have put us, isolated, within 30 feet of this guy in time and space, but most folks never look.
(In defense of Mrs S, she's told me numerous times that she's practically Matt Graham when she's by herself, but typically takes a powder when she's with me because I'm always on it. Allegedly...)
My job has me in and out of my car all night long and a couple of the places I have to get out of the car are literally dark, deserted alleys. I make it a habit to unbuckle the seat belt pulling in and not to sit in the car once it stops. I get out and get moving.
I also have an acute sense of smell there have been a couple of times where I knew someone was there as soon as I got out of the car because I could smell the cigarette smoke.
It's not quite the same thing but when I have to check a stairwell I alway check top to bottom because if there's anyone in there I want to be coming down to them instead of up to them.
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