Thought for the day: A Hero Remembered Never Dies.
Another one killed in the line of duty, dead at 26 years old. Just Fuck…
Saturday Morning Coffee Break: 30 seconds of escapism.
Coffee Break:
Coffee Break:
This is what I was talking about, both the attitude and my patience. This guy needs to die. Now
Thought for the day: Two more brothers slain in the line of duty. All my respect.
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2018/02/10/officers-killed-in-line-duty-in-2018.html
Motivational Monday: Always be ready
The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”
Theodore Roosevelt
Thought for the day (2): For general information
Tuesday’s Tactic: The proper handgun stance.
Note: This is for a square or indoor range, just the basic stance. Dynamic shooting in stress related situations is another ballgame.
The basics of a proper stance
Target –You either shoot or don’t shoot
Feet positioning: Stable or unstable ground, feet shoulder with apart, this can have a direct effect on your round placement on the target. Know what terrain you’ll be standing on and make adjustments as needed.
"make adjustments needed’ is really a vast understatement. city streets, alleys, rocky deserts or mountainous terrain never produce many stable platforms. One SWAT call out took place in the city’s impound lot, with years of rusted car parts everywhere,nothing stable anywhere, another in an abandoned factory, crap everywhere on the floor. Even as flat as Taji was, there was always rocks everywhere.
Squaring up: Shoulders over feet, slightly bent knees, bent at the waist for a well-balanced shot and recoil control.
True, when you have the stable platform and the time to execute.
Grip: hand wrapped around the grip of the weapon, thumb forward, weapon back strap in the web of hand between the thumb and point finger
“web of the hand” most important part of the grip( IMO). get that weapon locked in tight, no space between the web and grip.
Positive connection with support hand: Support hand up and near upper chest to receive the weapon without muzzling the support hand, thumb forward and four fingers pointing down
“four fingers pointing down” is misleading to me, the fingers are not pointed to the ground, but, actually around the grip,basically pointing back at you.
Sight alignment – front sights on target as the rear sights are aligned, the arms are fully extended and weapon is on target
True, but on a square range, not if you are clearing rooms, then the weapon is not fully extended.
Trigger squeeze – (squeeze, press, pull) in essence means the same thing, trigger moves from the resting position toward the grip of the weapon (path of least resistance)
Target reassessment: Just because you fired you weapon doesn’t mean that it’s over, find the target, make sure it’s no longer a threat, keep your gun on “it” until it is safe.
Handguns are not dead rays, go back and watch the video on the knife attack, notice the forward momentum of the suspect after he was shot.
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So this happened to me a few days ago.
I was in a department store, waiting in line for a very long time, and a register opened up about 50 feet away. I sighed in relief, as the lady and her husband in front of me were purchasing 25 discount dresses, tax-free, to resell (I learned this later). The cashier had to remove 3 anti-theft tags from each dress and put in a tax-free code for them. And so I sighed, and started walking over to the line.
Suddenly, the husband chases me down and gets in my face screaming about how I said something about his wife as I was walking away. I did not say anything. Didn’t even open my mouth.
I’m 5’7". The guy was at least 6’2" and “big”. I learned later he and his wife are both army veterans. It was super uncomfortable and I thought he was going to deck me, but I was just frozen from doing anything. Eventually after explaining that I didn’t say anything he said “Well you fucking shook your head!” and I’m like “OK? I have a right to shake my head.” or something like that. He backs off and then comes up with some other reason to be offended and starts yelling again asking if I want to take it outside and charges at me again and this time pushes me in the face. I still didn’t do anything. Still standing there like a dumbass. Eventually he gets tired of yelling and leaves with his wife. I go to the new cashier and tell her what happened and she tells me their whole story (about them being regulars/reselling discount items) and they’re big customers. She calls security. Security did nothing. The wife comes back in the store and starts yelling at me (in front of security) asking if I’m going to press charges against her husband and telling me how I “shouldn’ta said nothin.”
Cops show up. Tell me it’s just a class C misdemeanor and they can’t arrest him. If he disputes the ticket I have to go to court to present my case, even though its on department store security cameras. I have a full-time job. Don’t have time for that. Nothing is done.
I have my CHL, but at no point (being frozen) did I ever think about pulling it. I’m glad I didn’t now, because this situation would have been a lot worse if I killed some guy because he was having a bad day. On the other hand, he was irrational, and closed probably 10 yards on me in seconds and all it would have taken was him to pull a knife or gun himself and I’d be dead.
What to do?
Practice the phrase, “go f**k your mother.”
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Ok, in full disclosure, I am in a evil mood today and I hate fucking bullies, so, take what I say with a grain of salt (as they say in the south):)).
"chases you down and starts yelling in your face". so, contact distance? he was stupid enough not knowing you to get that close? Well, first bully alert here, no trained professional closes distance until they have to. What if you had just escaped from a mental facility or you were off your meds? and just rammed a ball point pen through his eye?
I had a training officer once tell me : "you never know who you are fucking with"
Don’t let the “veteran” part bother you. Hell, only 1% of 1% of 1% of the military actually does any fighting and those people are not going to act like assholes. It takes about 8 to 10 people in uniform to support ONE Warfighter. Just because you serve don’t make you Rambo.
Yes,of course size and weight will always be a factor in a fight, but, some of the meanest bastard killers I ever met weight around 160 and your height. Its in the training, attitude and commitment that destroys the enemy.
Look, that is a natural reaction to violence, only, those trained or familiar with violence would have acted differently. Don’t think less of yourself, everyone starts somewhere in dealing with threats.
Bully alert no 2. anytime someone says “lets take it outside” they are nothing but an asshole bully, screaming to get attention. No professional or someone used to violence will ever say this for the simple reason that you can now control the fight area. You “go outside” your bully may have access to weapons, friends, etc.
Simply say, “There’s plenty of room here, why leave?”
I don’t know what state you are in, but, if he “pushed you in the face”, that was Simple Battery in my state and he just opened the door to you defending yourself in “fear of your life or serious bodily injury” . This is where the 5/7 comes in for your benefit. You were “scared, because he is soooooooooo much bigger than me, that is why I defended myself.”
What the fuck? Were they both crazy? or was there something else too this? Was she distracting you , so, he could get a weapon? steal some dresses? was the cashier in on this too? have the guy raise hell, so all eyes would be off her as she rang up false prices?
I was a street cop before I was a fed and I am telling you that is pure bullshit. I don’t know what a "class-c " misdemeanor is, but we always had a “asshole charge”. Mine was “disorderly conduct, Section 3” and I put a lot of assholes in jail with that offense. I wasn’t there and i don’t criticize my brothers unless i am, but, I would like to know the reasoning behind that statement.
You made a very wise decision, because, if you had shot and killed him. Murder. If he lived Manslaughter.
He wasn’t having a bad day, this was not his first rodeo, he was a fucking bully who had gotten away with this before. nothing you did.
Look, if you follow this thread you know I am constantly talking about situation awareness, tactics, physical training, weapons, etc. One of my life codes is this:
Humiliation is a thing never forgotten
No matter how you feel right now, you came out of this situation safe and uninjured. You are not in jail or the hospital. Use this situation to change your perspective, think about being “froze” and how helpless it made you feel. Start changing now, start running encounters through your mind, spend a few minutes each day saying to yourself :" if X happens again, then I will do Y".
Think about training, what do you do? think about the martial arts, one the best places to confront “safe violence” but, most of all, realized you survived and that’s what matters to your family. There is no blueprint for street situations, every one of them has different dynamics.
I am sorry this happened, brother. But use this to train with fire and anger, because the next time if may be a violent person and you will need to respond with violence.
Ok, I am going to talk about this tomorrow, but, this is perfect for this situation. Never only rely on a firearm for protection, there is so much more to survival. A firearm is just a part of the overall equation.
Lol , yes that was my first reaction.
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I lived in northern New Jersey for a while and that’s how they would handle a loudmouth like that.
Yeah, but if you’re carrying a pistol you really have to avoid escalating confrontations like that. I know it’s easy for me to say from over here on the sidelines, but imagine if you got into a scuffle with this guy and during the course of the altercation he found your gun and tried to grab it. Now what? Are you going to shoot him? He’s obviously not a reasonable, level headed guy. What would he do to you if he got control of your gun?
If you’re carrying it’s best to be always de-escalating. It sucks to have to put up with shit heads like him, I’ve had to do it many times, but never had to put up with someone touching me, not sure how I woukd react to that. But the smartest response is to just keep smiling and walk away. You’ll get over it and in a few weeks you’ll barely remember the situation. But if you had ended up shooting him, even if you were exonerated legally and civilly, you would still have to live with that the rest of your life.
I think get training in unarmed self defense is a great idea, as is carrying a less lethal means of self defense, like pepper spray.
I also think you handled it well by calling the police. What if you hadn’t done that and had encountered this douche and his wife (who was also a threat) again in the parking lot? Just sitting here on the sidelines it looks like what happened was the best possible outcome of this situation.
I’ve got a few thoughts to add. I’ve talked a lot of assholes down from behavior like this during my years as a bouncer. Those all ended well for the most part.
A handful of these guys couldn’t be talked down or just went right to violence. I never beat any of these guys up but I definitely man handled them and made it clear that they weren’t going to hurt me and that I could hurt them bad if I wanted to.
The latter scenario is how you end up with threats and harassment from a coked out unstable brother of the coked out guy whose ego you shattered publicly when he got drunk and picked a fight with the bouncer.
Even though I “won” the encounter that night I’ve made an enemy. I live in a small town and it is likely I’ll cross paths with this guy or his brother, possibly resulting in another bullshit encounter with an asshole or maybe even a whole family of assholes.
Chances are that these guys are all bark, no bite but it doesn’t change the fact that their bullshit doesn’t make my life any better at all.
I think the guy he described is reasonable and even level headed. Note that he didn’t confront someone bigger or his size but smaller. Also, when his “target” came off as scared and defensive, almost apologetic, it didn’t end the confrontation but escalated it. Even the guy’s wife, a woman (sorry if this sounds sexist), felt brave enough to confront him.
It did end well but there was a serious mistake made and that was allowing a hostile person to get close enough to not only be able to make contact but to actually make contact.
The thing about deescalation is that some people interpret it as being calm and nice and trying to reason with someone as though they are a good person inside. Sometimes deescalation means letting the other person know you are unafraid and ready to use violence if necessary.
That’s all true, especially the part about de-escalation, but what were the OP’s options when the guy did close the distance? Considering:
1 The OP is physically smaller, and barring an extreme mismatch in skills, size matters, and the OP doesn’t claim any skills.
2 The OP is out numbered. Yeah, the wife might just be a loudmouthed cunt, but if the OP actually started to fuck up her husband she could get dangerous quick. Ask police officers about domestic violence calls.
3 There is a firearm in play, so this could quickly become a deadly encounter.
I absolutely agree that showing fear encouraged these pieces of shit, but the best way to avoid fear is to build real confidence based on physical fitness and knowing how to defend oneself beyond just carrying a gun. If the OP didn’t have this confidence already when the encounter started I don’t think fake posturing woukd necessarily have created a better outcome. Mindset is something that needs to be squared away before you even get started.
Once he let the guy get that close, it was too late. If the guy was going to get violent and the OP doesn’t have any training to deal with it then he was in for a beating. But, had he assertively told the guy as he was approaching to back off maybe he would have backed down seeing as how he was just being a bully in the end. In other words, what did the OP have to lose had he told the guy to F off?
I absolutely believe that if her husband was getting the worst of it she would interfere. In that case I would have no problems with hitting a woman.
This is the concerning part for me. You carry a gun for protection then when a potential self-defense situation arises it is useless, a liability even. Once the aggressor is close enough to hit you, if he decides to do just that and it becomes a situation in which you could use a gun to protect yourself, it’s too late. If we believe Zimmerman’s account, he was lucky to have been able to get his gun out and use it. If Trayvon had been bigger and stronger than he was or had some skill as a fighter then maybe Zimmerman is out cold and has his gun taken from him.
I don’t know what the law is in the OP’s state. Maybe in Florida because of stand your ground you can draw a gun on an aggressive, larger man approaching you in a menacing manner. And if he doesn’t stop and gets within a certain range maybe you can shoot him.
The bad guy was also faking it so there’s that. But like I said, what did he have to lose? There is still the thing I alluded to above and gets to what you mention about mindset; he has a gun for protection but then is afraid to draw it because he isn’t sure if it’s a justifiable action under the circumstances. This tells me he needs to learn the gun laws. He also comes across as being afraid to draw his gun, even if he could legally, for fear of having to use it. This gets to mindset. If you really don’t want to shoot someone, and I think that’s a sign of being a normal person, then maybe you shouldn’t carry a gun.
I can’t fault the OP for freezing. He seems like a normal person who just wants to live his life the right way. So when faced with a potentially violent person, while also being armed, I’m sure the consequences of using a gun on someone, even if justifiable, was something he was not prepared to handle.
The questions he needs to answer are:
- When can I actually use my gun legally?
- Is this situation (when in a situation) one of those times?
- Can I live with killing someone to keep them from hurting (not killing) me?
There’s a lot to what you say that I agree with, except for the line about the bad guy faking. If you have two men who have almost no ability to fight, and they get into a fight, the larger one is going to win. And if he was in fact a veteran, he had some kind of combatives training.
As to what the OP has to lose, well, a lot. His money in legal defenses, his freedom, if he ended up in jail and perhaps even his life. He lost none of those, so given his circumstances at the start of this conflict, I believe the outcome was the best possible.
As far as legalities, such as your misunderstanding of Stand Your Ground law, I would strongly recommend the works of ANDREW BRANCA. If you listen to podcasts, he has been interviewed on many, and has his own podcast. If you carry a gun I would strongly recommend his book THE LAW OF SELF DEFENSE. Lots of great information.