What do folks do who don’t desire to own or carry a firearm? Below are four public safety rules to help avoid violent confrontations. It is my opinion that a firearm is a great equalizer for smaller, weaker, slower, or outnumbered innocent persons. Pepper spray, edged or blunt tools, even hard surfaces are potential defensive weapons. Ultimately, your greatest weapon is your intellect and your will. A weak minded, or weak willed man gives away initiative, and perhaps loses his firearm to an unjust criminal aggressor. Please consider seeking out competent professional training for your self protection needs.
1. Avoid Dangerous Areas
Dangerous geographical areas are plagued by lawlessness. I prioritize the most dangerous areas as those with the highest illegal shots fired calls for service and unjust shootings. Why? Collateral damage. Regardless of a persons level of knowledge and skills, none of us can control where bullets go once they exit the muzzle of an unskilled and unjust criminal aggressor. Those crimes don’t occur in a vacuum. Included in those geographical areas will be a number of other violent, injurious, and deadly crimes.
Pro tip: Know your location. What street are you on? What is the nearest cross street and are you north, south, east, or west of that cross street? What address are you visiting? In recent years 911 county dispatch centers have made giant leaps in identifying a cellular callers location, though this still varies from one county to the next. Computers can and do go down. Know – your – location.
2. Avoid Dangerous Men
Trust your gut (if you’re Catholic trust your Guardian Angel; an angel is a messenger of God). Ignore all forms of political correctness that would urge you to let your guard down when your gut is telling you this, that, or the other person(s) are trying to isolate or corner you. Much like defensive driving tactics you have to observe farther down the road, that you might avoid and escape violent confrontations.
3. Avoid Dangerous Times
Avoid dangerous geographical areas from dusk ‘till dawn. Why? Generally there is an increase in party spirits, angry spirits, and lawless spirits. Folks having these types of dispositions have to sleep sometime, so it’s my preference to visit family or patronize businesses in these areas during early morning business hours.
4. Limit Time in Areas of Vulnerability
When driving into a dangerous geographical area realize proximity is king and time is a precious commodity. Efficiently organize and stage any items in your vehicle you are taking inside to family, work, or a business. This enables you to grab the item(s) and go. Sitting unaware in a parked vehicle gifts opportunities to unjust criminal aggressors to compress in, or to tactically stage, along your logical foot path. Strategies ought to limit or remove unjust criminal aggressor’s opportunities.
There are no guarantees, as vengeance and violence continue to ramp up, this scripture is sage advice:
Luke 21: 21 Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, and let those who are inside the city depart, and let not those who are out in the country enter it; 22 for these are days of vengeance, to fulfill all that is written.