What police agencies do best — take reports after the crime occurs. Where were they when you needed them? Probably taking a crime report from some other idiot without enough sense to avoid the trouble in front of him.
is in that car across the way looking at you? Is the streetlight burned- out? Do you return to your car with packages in your hands, keys buried in your pocket or purse, head down — oblivious to your surroundings? You’re asking for it. You’re not doing your part to merely avoid a potential dangerous situation. Do you have a decent fi re
extinguisher at home? Several? I have seven spaced throughout my house. Total cost was about $200 at Home Depot; they’re pretty good ones. How about fl ashlights? Got a good one, or just one of those 99-cent plastic ones, with old batteries sure to emit a dim, orange glow? I just bought a 10-pack of cheap LED fl ashlights at a discount store for $10. They work, and even came with the batteries. I opened it and put ‘em all around. We live in the country and it gets real dark, real fast. There’s simply no excuse not to
be basically prepared. If you can af- ford it, be better prepared. We have
a whole house generator that runs on propane and it’s air-cooled. Virtually zero maintenance. Having it helps me avoid any problems associated with a full-scale power outage. (Editor’s note: Roy and Suzi live in Joplin, Mo. The house wasn’t damaged by the recent tornado, but the power was certainly out … well, not for them anyway.) Just think about it. Where in your
life are you leaving yourself open to danger or attack? Do you have porch lights burned-out and been too lazy to change them? Does the car have bald tires? Are your children unsupervised at times? Does the neighbor’s pitbull roam freely? Look around you and at yourself. The vast majority of these fi xes are easy and only take a change in routine or location to have an impact. Virtually any of these changes can increase the odds of your personal safety a great deal. Factor in a few changes, and you’ve just raised the bar higher than most people.
Where I live in the country, we keep guns handy since the local gendarmes can be hours away from respond- ing. Chances are good we’ll have to solve our own problems; hence, we do everything we can to avoid and deter and keep our fi nal options open.
There’s a term cops use for the
volunteer victims who are basically fodder for criminals. Cops call them “sheeple” and call themselves the sheepdogs trying to protect them. But sheep tend to be oblivious to what’s going on around them, and if danger looms, they run about in confusion. The sheepdogs do the hard work. I’ll bet there’s not a sheepdog out there that didn’t wish the sheep would at least pay attention to help avoid dan- ger on their own! Doing any or all of this makes you
less vulnerable. Which brings us neat- ly to the next word.
Deterrence I’ve talked to burglars; they all
say the same thing about choosing the house they are going to hit. They pick the easy-looking ones. If you have bars on the windows, cameras, good lighting and nosy neighbors, they simply walk on. Sort of doing an “avoidance” dance. Don’t ask for
If guns are a part of your plan to keep things safe, get training. If you don’t, you’re only asking for even more problems. If you don’t train, when the bomb drops you’ll resort to your training — which will be nothing.
14
Ever been in a fi ght — a real one? If not, you should take a class where you get to beat on someone for real. Oh, and get a few knocks yourself so you know what it’s like.
PERSONAL DEFENSE • FALL 2011 SPECIAL EDITION
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