Self defense: How to teach your family to be badasses.
A robbery occurs every 1.7 minutes, an aggravated assault every 39 seconds, and a violent crime goes down every 24.6 seconds, according to the FBI’s “Crime Clock.” Are you and your family prepared for the unexpected? Tweet
Highlights
Violence is on the rise across America.
With a violent crime occurring every 24.6 seconds...
the chances of being a victim are ever-present. What to do?
Be prepared — and that includes being prepared to fight back.
We know you’re a badass.
But what about your wife and your kids?
Before you give a hopeless shrug and click your mouse on to the next story, consider this:
A robbery occurs every 1.7 minutes, an aggravated assault every 39 seconds, and a violent crime goes down every 24.6 seconds, according to the FBI’s “Crime Clock.” In a nutshell, according to WebMD, the five best defensive strategies are these:
- Trust yourself.
- Be aware of your surroundings.
- Pay attention to the people around you.
- Act confident and focused.
- Understand that alcohol or drugs can cloud judgment.
With crime on the rise across the country, the best defense is a well-prepared defense.
With crime on the rise across the country, the best defense is a well-prepared defense.
“Nobody’s immune to violent crime so everybody needs to be prepared,” says executive protection expert Bill Stanton, a renowned authority on personal security and author of Prepared not Scared: Your Go-To Guide for Staying Safe in an Unsafe World.
We asked Stanton for some tips on staying alive in a confrontation with bad guys, and here’s what he told us:
1. Always Know Your Landscape:
Bad actors like darkness and isolated places. Be self-aware and know your landscape and how to escape precarious scenarios. Look down a block or two and pay attention to details. This is especially true if it’s a street you routinely travel — often by assumption rather than by observation.
2. When It’s Time to Run…Then RUN!
“My first piece of advice if assaulted is to run,” says Stanton’s friend Sam Arrowood, retired McDowell, NC, county sheriff Chief Deputy. “Running away doesn’t make you a chicken. Staying and fighting should be a last resort.”
3. Scream Your Head Off:
Statistics show that with yelling, a criminal will back off. They don’t want to draw attention to themselves. And chances are that Good Samaritans will come to your aid. It’s what you’d do, right?
No attacker wants to go up against someone trained in any type of self-defense.
4. Do Your Best Bruce Lee:
Seriously, while you’re screaming throwing in a “Kee-yah!” every now and again. Yeah, we’ve all heard that before in lots of cheesy martial arts videos, but when a physical assailant hears you let one rip he might immediately question whether he chose the right mark. After all, in the heat of the moment it suggests that you have training (or that at least you’ve watched movies starring people who have training), and no attacker wants to go up against someone trained in any type of self-defense. Besides, a sincere “Kee-yah!” may buy you a couple of seconds to run or get your hands on to something you can use as a weapon.
5. Fight for Your Life
“Fight for your life, because you are,” Arrowood is famous for saying. “Fight back until you can run away. There are evil people in this world, and you have to be ready in mind, body and soul to deal with that.”
6. Go for the Nose:
You don’t need to be Bruce Lee to defend yourself. It only takes five pounds of force to break a nose, six pounds to break a collarbone, and a quick “spear hand” in the neck will put someone on their knees. The thing least likely to succeed: an appeal to reason. The two words no mugger or rapist ever utters: “Oh, sorry.”
7. If you’re a woman or in a real shitstorm:
“Go for the GET,” says Stanton. “Groin, Eyes, Throat.” According to Tony Farrenkopf, PhD, reports WebMD, you have a greater chance of escaping a rapist by fighting, screaming and kicking than by trying to avoid violence by submitting to the attack.
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