Hi, this is Sam Pruett, Director of Training and Edge-ucation, at Jim Pruett’s Guns & Ammo. The following deals with self defense plans and tactics that you can employ to protect you and your family from predators. These are tactics and techniques you can use on the street or at home to increase your safety and even reduce the chances you will be victim.
A self defense plan for you and your family on the street or in your home.
At Jim Pruett’s Guns and Ammo, we are dedicated to bringing you a complete self defense plan that addresses the trinity of surving violent assaults:
MIND
BODY
EQUIPMENT
When you come to our store, you can see a wide selection of equipment to satisfy your self defense needs for a multitude of scenarios to fit you and your environment. You can come to our tactical classes and train your body in the most efficient and deadly moves of a gun fighter – a warrior. And even if you don’t buy your equipment at Jim Pruett’s Guns and Ammo or take tactical classes from us or our highly accomplished staff of instructors, you can learn from these free reports that will teach you self-defense plans for you and your family. Self defense plans you can apply on the street and at home.
The self defense plans will be posted to my blog at Jim Pruett’s Guns & Ammo web site www.jimpruett.net, on our Facebook page and emailed to our contact list. The plans are elements of what I call Tactical Options Defense (TOD) and are partially taught in our handgun, rifle/shotgun and CHL classes. Enjoy and don’t hesitate to tell us what you think.
Here are the titles of my lessons you can look forward to:
PREDATOR DEFENDER TIMELINE
SITUATIONAL AWARENESS
THE TRINITY OF EFFECTIVE HANGUNNING – SPEED, POWER AND ACCURACY
THE TRINITY OF EFFECTIVE SELF DEFENSE – MIND, BODY AND EQUIPMENT
USE OF DEADLY FORCE – HOW TO DRAW OUT THE INTENT OF AN ATTACKER PRETENDING TO BE SOMETHING ELSE
THE MORAL DECISION TO KILL – THE COMBAT MINDSET
HOW TO WIN A GUN FIGHT – SUPERIOR TACTICS
In my first posting regarding my self defense plan – TOD (Tactical Options Defense), I’ll introduce you to the “Predator Defender Timeline” and why having options in your self defense plan is so critical to your survival and developing superior tactics that can win. As it has been said way before me, “If you find yourself in a fair fight, your tactics suck!”
Let’s begin with some statistics. First of all, there are those sheep in our society that say we are more likely to be hurt in a car accident or stuck by lightning than be violently attacked. Tell that to the person that becomes the statistic. Statistics don’t mean a whole lot to one that gets attacked. Now let’s get back to business. Here are the statistics that matter most:
Over 50% of violent attacks are caused by non-strangers
Over 80% of gun fights occur in low light or no light
The average gun fight is over in four seconds
Over 50% of gun fights occur within three yards and 80% within seven yards
Human perception reaction time is 1.5 seconds
An attacker can travel 21 feet (7 yards) in 1.5 seconds
Are you starting to see the picture? With over 5,000 students run through my CHL class, many come to me after having been assaulted, car jacked, held up, etc. And when I ask them if they ever saw it coming, less than one in ten! Violent attacks are up close and personal and usually over before the average person in our society knew it started. And that’s just the way the criminals like it – their targets are ripe and easy pickings. You can start your self defense plan by being de-selected as a target. But before we go there, let’s talk about the “Predator – Defender Timeline.”
The “Predator – Defender Timeline” depicts the timeline of decisions, actions and reactions of a violent encounter.
PREDATOR – Target Selection, Planning, Initiation
DEFENDER – Detect, Recognize as threat, React
As you can see the encounter begins with a predator selecting his or her target, based upon certain criteria we will discuss later (see Grayson/ Stein study). The predator will then plan the method of attack most likely to succeed with minimal resistance and risk, and by the time the victim has any idea something is going on, the predator has initiated the attack. The defender has to first detect that there is something going on in the first place – the eyes have to see it or the ears have to hear it. The information has to be collected by the senses, sent to the brain and processed where it may take some time for the brain to recognize there is a threat and whether it is one that will hurt. Finally once the attacker has revealed himself and acted in a way constituting a threat, and the victim has detected and processed the information to reveal a threat, the mind can react to the circumstances and then the command the body to act. The process the defender goes through is called the “human perception reaction time” and that is estimated to be at least 1.5 seconds for young, alert individuals. For those that are elderly, intoxicated and just not paying attention, human perception reaction time is as much as six seconds. Don’t believe me – have a brief conversation with accident investigators at your local police department.
So let’s imagine for a moment what the brain is going through such a scenario. You are out of town on a business trip and have to stop for gas. Of course the gas pump isn’t printing receipts so you go inside to get one since you’ve got to have the receipt to finish your expense report. As you leave, stuffing your receipt into the space in your wallet where all your receipts go, you are lucky enough to hear a sound to your left. Out of the shadows steps from the corner of the building a shape. The brain receives an image that looks like an adult male. Of course the mind says to you it’s just some guy – not a threat, not a killer, I’m not in any trouble – that won’t happen to me. It appears there might be a dull, but somewhat shinny object he’s trying to hide in his hand. Let’s listen in as the brain processes the information – “What is that guy doing? Is that a knife? That can’t be a knife? I think that’s a knife? Is that guy coming towards me? Is that guy coming towards me with a knife? I think he is. Holy crap, that’s a guy with a knife and it looks like he’s raising the knife at me.” That took at least 1.5 seconds and in that time the attacker traveled 21 feet and has firmly planted the knife in this persons chest. Most people don’t get that much warning – the knife is pressing against their ribs or neck before they see or hear anything. So this example was generous.
So when I tell you at least nine out of ten never see it coming, you now have a better understanding as to why. Many tactical training classes include hand-to-hand combat, weapon retention and shooting from the ground. Why? Because the sad truth is that you most likely won’t see it coming. You will be involved in hand to hand combat, trying to produce the weapon while fighting for your life with your hands. Odds are good that you will be on the ground, which can be a good place to fight from if you use the right tactics – I’ll address that later in my Superior Tactics blog. Some people wonder why the police hit rate of 14% is so low. Trying to shoot attackers while falling to the ground, and fighting over the weapon is tough and adds to an already low hit rate.
So let me wrap us this posting with this understanding, which is the foundation for TOD (Tactical Options Defense) and these lessons I’ll keep posting – the sooner you detect and recognize a threat for what it is, the more options you will have to avoid, escape, evade or deal with the threat. The first step in self defense is to be aware of your surroundings and apply an alert level consistent with the environment you are in – we call this situational awareness and it is the cornerstone of any successful self-defense plan. And let’s be clear, we are not talking about paranoia, we are talking about improving your awareness level consistent with the situation at hand. You do this everyday when you get in your car – your awareness is high on the freeway, but you dial it down as you take your Sunday drive for ice cream with the family. Now that’s a nice vision to end this post on. Now get out there and shoot some rounds. See you one the range.
TACTICAL LESSON FOR THE DAY – the M&M RULE
“Maximize distance to target, minimize self as target”
Sam Pruett
Director of Training and Edge-ucation
Jim Pruett’s Guns & Ammo
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