*this an an excerpt from the book How to Survive an Active Killer
Implementing a planned defensive tool depends heavily on whether you have the money to buy it, time to train with it, willingness to use it, can physically access it, and are legally allowed to carry it. These are many variables added on top of the already dynamic and chaotic situation of an AS event. Our plan should always be built on a foundation of response with no resources available to you. The only two things you can guarantee you will have on you twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, three-hundred sixty-five days a year (three-hundred sixty-six on leap year) will be your brain and your body. Use of a defensive tool or weapon can be a great addition to the plan, if in fact you have clear access to it and the ability to use it. But you should not rely on that tool for protection. If the basis of your personal protection is rooted in a weapon, what do you plan to do if you cannot access or use that weapon? What if the weapon breaks, malfunctions, runs out of ammo, or is taken from you during a struggle? What is your plan now? Instead, if you know the concepts of surviving without the weapon, you can now implement that weapon into your overall plan, if it in fact makes sense. If it doesn’t, it won’t matter because you have prepared yourself to respond without it. You have to understand that a defensive tool is not a fail safe.
This is a hard pill to swallow for a lot of people. If you troll the comments of any social media post about a mass violence event, you’ll no doubt find throngs of people touting that, “If someone had a gun this situation would’ve ended way faster!” or, “The only way to stop a bad guy with a gun, is a good guy with a gun.” Literally as I am typing this, an individual wrote the following comment on a video I posted: “Carry a gun. Plain and simple.” People who make comments like this do not truly understand violence or how these events play out, and they certainly have never been in a true ambush situation. It can be a good option, if the opportunity presents itself and it is utilized properly, but do not assume its presence makes you safe.
You must learn to defend yourself and loved ones unarmed first, to the best of your physical ability. You may than supplement that training with defensive tools, if possible. In the real world, you cannot hide the fact that you are overweight, out of shape, and/or untrained by simply purchasing a gun or a knife.
Be good, train hard, stay safe
-aaron
Aaron Jannetti 