Given the number of active shooter situations that have occurred in recent weeks, I felt that it might be appropriate to repost this article. If you have a carry permit and don’t carry your pistol, WAKE UP!! The absolute worst feeling in the world has to be NEEDING YOUR GUN and NOT HAVING YOUR GUN. I’d much rather HAVE IT and NOT NEED IT. Continue reading
No, this article is not about National Guardsmen (or women). It’s not about any state or county run organization that empowers citizens to act as a group during any crisis. This article is about Joseph Average Citizen – otherwise known as Joe Citizen – and what power Joe Citizen has against both crime and terrorism in this country. I don’t think many people realize just how powerful of a person Joe Citizen is. In fact, I think many Joe Citizens walk around day in and day out in a haze… a haze brought on by being blissfully unaware of what is going on around them. I believe that many citizens stay in this state of unawareness until something happens to wake them up. Usually that something is an emergency that mandates an immediate reaction from them. Unfortunately, what they decide to do – how they react – will be entirely dependent on what they’ve observed and how it affects them. If they’ve not observed anything because they’re in their own little world, then their reaction may not be appropriate or effective. If Joe Citizen would simply sometimes pay attention the power of our collective citizenry would be formidable. Here’s how… Continue reading
A while ago I wrote an article that brought great response about how some training circumstances and tools used by our military services today may actually be teaching our soldiers to die. What I mean to say is that the training may be conditioning them to expect their own death. In recent months I’ve been studying instances of violence where American citizens didn’t fight back; didn’t defend themselves; essentially were willing victims. As I’ve examined these instances I noticed somewhat of an age cap on the “willing victims” and I saw a link to our public school system and some policies that were developed in the late ’70s and early ’80s. This is a topic I’ve written about before, but I felt I needed to do some further study, and in this article I’m going to share some of that newly gleaned information with you. Additionally, I’m going to share a story about a thirteen year old 8th grader who, just in this past week, observed a set of circumstances in her school that led her to believe something might not be right. She shared her story with her father and he became VERY alarmed. We’ll discuss why. Continue reading
It is an observable oddity of the American society that we sometimes act or behave exactly opposite to what is in our best interests. I know a great many people who act oddly when they are falling in love, but that’s not really a surprise is it? Some people say that a soldier who sacrifices himself for his fellow soldiers has acted oddly, but others understand the selfless sacrifice he made – and should be honored for. What strikes me this week that I’ll write about in this article is how our American society seems to be structuring itself to raise ever more pacifist citizens at a time in our history when we are most in need of warriors. Continue reading
Most recently I had a conversation with a gentleman who is a Marine, a veteran police psychologist and an avid supporter of self-defense. The conversation started because I had been asking questions about families and the environment set dependent on whether the family itself – that being the mother and father (or other primary care-givers) – either taught self-reliance or they taught dependence. I was amazed to find out that studies had been done which revealed children were born predisposed in their reactions to challenging events. I’m having to be very careful in my wording but to simplify it some, what I discovered was that some babies are born apparently less fearful of certain events than others. When such children are raised in households that teach self-reliance and over-coming challenge, then the adults that result stand a better chance of dealing with traumatic events without negative side-effects. Continue reading