The Advantage of a Criminal and the Disadvantages of Being the Defender
by Cody S. Alderson
“…My purpose is to point out how trying to defend life within the parameters of good society may result in catastrophic failure of the endeavor. That is . . .YOU DIE!….”
United States Concealed Carry Association
USA - -(AmmoLand.com)- When it comes to protecting yourself, the defender has to consider the law in addition to the act of defending. The criminal who is doing the attacking is under no such compunction.
What does a sociopath care about breaking any laws? The defender has to have the additional burden of not breaking the law during their act of defense so that surviving the aftermath, if they happen to be the victor, is bearable. This puts a defender at a disadvantage from the beginning.
A defender is further disadvantaged by not having the mindset of a sociopath. We don’t want to hurt anyone. I remember being physically attacked and having a thought in the back of my mind, wondering why is a fellow human being trying to do this to me. I wouldn’t be trying to hurt them, so why would they want to hurt me? That kind of stuff has to do with warrior psychology, but it is very important for purposes of this article geared toward seniors and the handicapped as well.
As I go on with this, I want it clear that I am not advocating anyone to break any laws for any reason. My purpose is to point out how trying to defend life within the parameters of good society may result in catastrophic failure of the endeavor. That is . . .YOU DIE! Also to show that under the law we should vehemently defend our own lives when threatened with death or grave bodily harm.
In a war zone the opposing forces don’t shake hands and then take up positions waiting for the bell to sound the first round. Engagement of enemy forces is quick, brutal, and bloody. Modern weapons rend flesh, crush bone, and spill blood. Soldiers wet their pants and soil their shorts on both sides. Friends die in the blink of an eye. Your buddy can be dead in an instant with his unfinished MRE right next to him, and with that photo he was showing you of his wife and children still in his hands. Worse yet, you could be the dead buddy!
Our forces are hampered more now in their theaters of operation than ever before. Urban warfare with an enemy who doesn’t wear a uniform is the norm today. In wars past the enemy wore a uniform, and most everyone in the area of the fight was considered a hostile. The same problems facing our Armed Forces today are similar to what a civilian defensive operator will face in an attack scenario where life and limb are in danger.
Criminals don’t wear a uniform clearly establishing themselves as the enemy. That dude with his hat on sideways and his pants slung low walking toward you could be the kindest young man you’d ever care to meet while the guy in the expensive clothes could be a serial killer. We take mental cues based on where we are, what time it is, and basic behaviors, but it is not cut-and-dried as to who is a criminal and who is an innocent bystander until that moment of attack.
Being attacked in public with innocent bystanders within feet, maybe even inches, of what is happening is no concern for the criminal doing the attacking, but needs to be of great concern for the defender. Then there is the concern of a uniformed peacekeeper (law enforcement) being present and not knowing who is attacking whom, and a defender being killed by so-called friendly fire. The criminal will just attack you, law enforcement, civilians, and whoever else gets in the way.
Okay, so being attacked puts the defender at a disadvantage for several reasons, with number one being that the defender is the one being attacked and not initiating the attack. Clearly the first aggressor always has the advantage. But that’s how it goes in the real world. People die every single day because of a relatively few sociopath’s who choose not to conform to the rules of our polite society. Now add in the facts of being a senior citizen, handicapped, or possibly both, and then it is even worse for the defender.
Criminals Look For Easy Prey
Some parts of the rest of this article assume that the defender is under an immediate attack where the defender is one-hundred percent convinced that there is the certain threat of death or grave bodily harm that the attacker intends to commit to him or her. I am under Pennsylvania law of self-defense. The laws in your socio-political region may indeed vary.
How can I keep all of this stuff in my head when I can’t even remember at times if I took my prescription medication today? Is that close to what you, the reader, are wondering? Okay so I’m breaking all of the conventional rules of writing and speaking directly from me to you in this paragraph. Don’t have a brain fart, I’m just trying to get your brain ready to absorb a few things. Bear with me because we are going to have a conversation!
So what is it? Are you old, fat, bad knees, bad back, lousy lungs, toting an oxygen tank or have a rescue inhaler in your pocket? Maybe it is brittle bones, a missing limb, an arm or leg that just won’t move right? Can’t run up or down a flight of stairs? Can’t run at all period? Maybe you can’t see an elephant in the room without your glasses on? So do you just give up and die when a thug wants to cut your throat? Let me give you an unequivocal NO as an answer.
I asked some questions of a young man in his early twenties who is my friend and in a very fit condition physically. At work he vaults over a four-foot railing like he is stepping over a crack in the sidewalk. He’s fast and strong. I could have a five minute head start and he could probably run me down without getting out of breath. In conversation we got brutally honest about attack and defense. I put him in the position of being the attacker and me the defender.
I asked him what he would do to try and disable me so that he could completely defeat me in an attack. He thought about it for a moment and said that he would push me over. Instinct let him know that having me on the ground would be an advantage to him, but a disadvantage to me. He knows that I’m not going to be able to just jump right up like the action hero does in the movies. He knows that if I’m on the ground that he can work me over to his satisfaction. That would be his primary goal to accomplish if he was robbing me, and just wanted the money. That would be what he would try to accomplish if he wanted me disabled but not dead yet.
Unbeknownst to him, I have considered this handicap and have made preparations for some defenses. Though I may not be able to jump right up in a split second, I am more than capable of rolling and twisting, and turning while on the ground. I can get the gun out while on the ground just as fast as when I am standing. The Crimson Trace LaserGrip on my primary gun is my backup to getting a good sight picture in such situations. Plus I have an impact weapon, a blade, and some pepper spray that can be deployed as fast as the primary gun can be. Oh, and I’m not going to give all of my little secrets away just in case.
The Mind of the Defender Makes All the Difference
Does the above mean that I would absolutely be the winner if my friend ever tried to kill me? Absolutely not. Though we run through all kinds of scenarios in our heads to help us with the “what-ifs”, a real fight is a dynamic that WILL NOT conform to the way we played it out in our heads. However, it is vitally important to imagine scenarios. The mechanics of thought actually prepare the body for something to happen. It has been proven that athletes who imagine succeeding actually perform better.
Our imaginations, if we are intelligent enough to really apply the simple laws of physics like gravity for instance, will make scenario imaginings more productive. Instead of thinking of yourself as Jackie Chan, or Bruce Willis’ Die Hard character, think of being the real you. Are you terrified of being in a life and death situation? Imagine how that would play out in a real encounter. Do you only have one working arm? Imagine how you would get your gun out if you are on the ground with someone on top of you. Thinking through things may get you to make a real world change of something, such as the holster and where you carry the gun.
Now don’t be obsessive about such thoughts. Make it part of your training. Do it when there is some down time. It’s not a cure-all-fix-all. It’s just a segment of becoming a bit better at the defense of self. We are not engaged in life and death situations daily. A whole life can pass without the need to ever resort to violence to defend the self. But if there is that one time that violent action is needed to defend, you certainly want to be able to hold your own! This is another advantage of criminals–they usually have much more experience with life and death violence than the defender.
Watch Their Hands
WATCH THEIR HANDS! Hands kill. In the reality cop shows the loudest yell from the officers is, “Lemme see your hands!” Hands can stab with a knife, pull the trigger of a gun, swing a club, punch, choke, and anything else to cause death or grave bodily harm. A trained fighter will be able to take in visual cues of attack intent from the eyes, body movement, and other behaviors from their attacker. A fighter knows that feet can kill too so they will be watching for cues that a kick is coming. I would recommend starting your awareness training by watching hands.
As an exercise that doesn’t require any new equipment purchase, unless you need new glasses, just start paying attention to peoples hands. Try to watch out of your peripheral vision. Focusing like a laser beam on hands isn’t the intent, but you certainly want to know where those hands are moving to and what is in them. Try watching people interact. At a convenience store cash register when a person is paying for their items, take a look at what the cashier’s eyes are looking at while the person paying is reaching for their money. A cashier that has been robbed recently will be watching those hands. Someone who is lackadaisical about self-defense will be looking like they aren’t really even there.
Watching hands will automatically get you looking at what most refer to as body language. Listen to victims of violent crime talk about their encounters. Almost always you will hear a victim say, “I had a feeling . . .” Those “feelings” are honed over a lifetime of experience of our minds recording what happened just prior to a bad experience. Many people today have zero experience with any animals so they have no points of reference for predator type behavior. They’ve never seen the family cat go after something in the yard. They have lived sheltered lives of videogames and operating under freedom to move in their environment without any fear of predatory attack. Well . . . Until it comes to them eventually. Then there is the sudden realization, if they survive, that no one is “free” to move about in any environment without at least a little concern of becoming prey to a predator.
Criminals Take Advantage of the Naive
When the late movie lets out on a Friday night, it’s not a good idea to go to the 24-hour diner where the drunks hang out. It’s not a good idea to take an evening stroll through the rundown neighborhood of crack houses just to see how other folks live. That’s obvious. But it’s also not a good idea for twenty-two year-old Monica to be wearing a short skirt with that blouse that showcases the effect her push-up bra has on her cleavage while out at the nightclub. Monica is certain that everything will be okay because it always has been. And it is not a good idea for grandma to be carrying her Gucci purse and wearing her big diamonds out at that new restaurant tonight to celebrate fifty years of wedded bliss.
Some things are just not a good idea but people do them anyway. We make ourselves targets for predators. Criminals want something, and they want to get it with the least amount of risk to themselves. That is natural predatory behavior. If you are advertising M O N E Y or S E X, then it pushes you up on the list of likely targets. Does that make it your fault? Absolutely not! The fault is the cause of an attack, and that rests solely with the sociopath who initiates an attack. Your goal is to lower the probability of an attack being initiated on your person.
I can hear it now, “I’m not changing my lifestyle just because there is crime in this world.”
Fine. I’m not talking to those folks. I’m talking to those who recognize that this world can be an extremely violent place, and those who want to minimize their chances of ever having to face such violence. I’m not telling anyone to become anthropophobic (fear of people), but all of us can make a few small changes that will push us lower on the list of becoming potential targets of criminals.
So all that stuff is all well and good, but what should we do when violence happens to us? What can you do when there is no recourse other than to be violent in order to defend yourself from death or grave bodily harm? If you are a senior or handicapped (or both), the brutality of your defense will be a factor in whether or not you survive. Once again this assumes that your attacker is intent upon killing or maiming you. If there are avenues that will assure no violence occurs simply by handing over the Gucci purse, then avoid the violence.
Patterns of Violent Crime
Most of the crimes we read about or see on the evening news involving seniors or disabled have young strong criminals initiating the attack. It’s not too often, but it does occur, that grandma is out busting heads. Surveillance footage usually shows one or two thugs initiating a brutal physical attack on an older person with an obvious disparity of physical capabilities. And unfortunately the old folks never saw it coming, or they ignored the “feeling” they had just prior to the attack.
Watching video footage for the first time and not knowing exactly what will occur, I have been growing in the ability to know what is going to happen next. I’m rarely surprised now. The criminals repeat the same patterns over and over. They pick a target, act like they aren’t up to anything bad so they can get close enough to attack, then they attack. It’s all over in a few seconds. I can’t recall how many times I have seen video footage of a crime, and thought to myself how I would have just went the other way right there. I can pick the video frame where the point-of-no-return is.
I’m no super duper crime detector. I’ve been attacked a couple of times, and have been thrust into a couple of situations where I still get shivers thinking about how I even survived after all I did wrong. But I took an interest in learning if there is some secret to self-defense that I could share with the world to make all of polite society safe. I found out that there really is a secret, and it is contained within the act itself. S E L F – Defense. I can’t do it all for you because it is up to your SELF to learn as much as you want in order to become more proficient in the defense of your SELF. Get it? Good.
For the time when there is no other choice, those who are disabled to one degree or another need to meet the force against them with a great enough force to either stop the attacker from physically being able to continue or make the continuation of the attack not worth the perceived gain. Though there are all kinds of laws about brandishing a weapon, it is a simple fact that there have been huge amounts of criminals stopped in their tracks just because the victim showed them they had a gun. I’m not going to delve into the wisdom of when, where, and if it should be done in this article, but guns stop crime many times simply because the criminal becomes aware that their potential victim has one.
Force Multiplication
A little .38 snub nose is a force multiplier. Ninety-eight pound grandma can’t throw a punch hard enough to take out her nineteen year-old assailant, but the 110 grain jacketed hollow point traveling at 980 feet per second with an energy of 235 foot pounds from that little .38 Special can do her punching for her. The little .38 Special has ended the careers of many a sociopath over the years and is still protecting grandmas everywhere.
My first combat shooting instructor told me to “shoot to kill because you’ll probably end up just wounding them anyway.” Of course he meant when the lawful moment to use a gun has occurred. He said that when the perpetual question asked by at least one student of every class asks, “Should I just try to shoot them in the leg?” This one was in the eighties so we were learning to double-tap (two rounds fired in quick succession) the center mass of the target.
It needs to be understood by defenders that guns can kill. Oh we hear it all of the time from antigunners when they shout their mantra, “Guns Kill. Guns Kill.” But we may not think about it much depending on where we are in the learning curve of the defensive use of firearms. There is NO shooting to wound. Shooting someone in the leg like they do in the movies can kill as fast as some heart shots. Hitting the femoral artery in a leg would only be a “flesh wound” for the movie hero, but it would be a quick bleeding death for the real world victim.
Knowing what we just went over it is important to understand the brutality of defending yourself from death or grave bodily harm. Though there are instances every day where simply showing a gun stops the crime from being carried out, it is not the norm. The dynamics of violent crime are usually quick and violent to the extreme.
When it comes time to use your gun you need to have it out and putting bullets on target in less than two seconds. Can you draw from your concealment position that fast? The primary gun needs to be in a holster on the body in a position that one can successfully learn to draw and fire from as fast as his body will allow. Don’t further handicap a handicap by carrying your primary gun in a manner that takes too long to deploy it.
Here is the final word on manner of dress. If you decide to carry a gun, your wardrobe needs to adapt to the carrying of the gun, not the gun adapting to your wardrobe. Of course we compromise all of the time, but at what cost? What good is it to carry a pocket gun as a primary weapon just so you can wear shorts and a tee shirt if you can’t successfully deploy that weapon quickly from your pocket? Better than nothing? Of course. Optimal? No. You decide. I’m just letting you know the facts.
If you can’t run. If you can’t “step off the X” as they instruct in classes. If you can’t use the Secret Squirrel Ninja Death Move. Simply if you can’t do all those fancy self-defense things (and truth be told even if you can) the gun will be your lifesaving tool. If a criminal is in the act of trying to maim you or end your life, you need to put bullets into him (where legal of course) fast. Not only fast, but several of them. And not only several of them, but ones of a sufficient mass and velocity to STOP his attack.
Though my instructor in the eighties said to “shoot to kill” the truth is that we are not soldiers, we are not assassins, we are shooting to save our lives, and that means shooting to STOP the attack. That’s it. No more, no less. But in the real world it takes one of a few things to happen in order to stop a determined attacker. The attack is either stopped because the attacker fears getting shot or is in fear because they have been shot. It can be stopped by pain the attacker might be experiencing (unlikely due to adrenaline rush). And the attack can be stopped because the attacker has been physically disabled from continuing due to damage from the bullets. That is unconsciousness or death.
Now that we have some preliminary stuff out of the way I can delve further into specifics in my next article. What to carry, where to carry, comfort versus real comfort, improvising, avoidance, how to initiate brutal self-defense, and weapons other than firearms.
Sorry that a lifetime of experience can’t be said on a thousand words or less, but I do hope that you walk away with some things to think about.
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