Thursday, August 20, 2015

Lose Your Illusions

Remember what happened to Hitchbot in Philadelphia? Well, it's apparently not an isolated incident.

Dude is standing at the register in a deli, with his gun "concealed" under a tight t-shirt on his right hip when he gets jumped by the guy behind him and the whole fight is recorded for posterity. Go watch the video, I'll wait here.

Rather than re-invent the wheel, I'm just going to republish what John Johnston at Ballistic Radio wrote, with his permission:
"This is of great interest to me.

Bad guy spots Sheepdog™, concealing poorly with a shitty holster/poor cover garment at 3 o'clock, while standing in line to pay at the Deli.
Bad guy initiates contact by trying to disarm Sheepdog™ and then proceeding with a takedown from behind. (But the interwebz told me just having a gun is a deterrent? Did the interwebz lie to me?!)
Sheepdog™ loses his gun in the ensuing struggle due to:
1. Apparent lack of any combatives/retention training
2. Aforementioned shitty holster.
3. What I'm beginning to consider as a sub-optimal carry position.
4. Failure to commit immediately to an all out response.

Sheepdog™ then proceeds to almost get capped with his own gun before bad guy decides that he doesn't actually feel like killing anyone today and un-asses the area.
Some takeaways.
1. No one is aware 100% of the time. Sometimes the first hint of trouble is when the attack begins. If you as a concealed carry think otherwise, then you're kidding yourself. If you interact with the rest of the world in a socially acceptable fashion, then you're sometimes vulnerable.
2. Buy a quality holster that will not dump the gun during a struggle. You do not want your holster to give it up easier than your prom date after a couple of wine-coolers and a near fatal dose of teenage hormones. Which leads to point #3.
3. Go get training outside of "This is how I shoot things". There are a lot of self-defense problems that are not shooting problems. This is a good example of that.
4. Pressure test your gear in training situations similar to this. BUY GEAR DESIGNED BY PEOPLE WHO ATTEND SUCH TRAINING. Dark Star Gear, JM Custom Kydex, Keeper's Concealment, and many others offer purpose built stuff that addresses areas of concern specific to these problems. While there are other incredibly popular holsters coughincogcough that fail miserably in such environments.
5. When it's time to get down, GET DOWN. If you're not prepared to go from "I need to remember to get napkins and mayo after they're done making my sandwich." to "I will fucking kill you motherfucker, die die die DIE." Then maybe you should rethink your personal protection plan?"
It's amazing how many people responded to this with "BUT MAH SITUATIONAL AWARENESS!" to which I can only call bullshit. Unless you stay in your home 24/7, interacting with society has you standing at cash registers all the time. Use your head for something other than a hat rack.

I really need to get to an ECQC class...