Self-Defense Sense

July Instructor Certification Courses in Phoenix

2009-06-26T18:43:00.000-07:00

Instructor certification courses for the Fight Like a Girl and Girls on Guard modules will be held in Phoenix on July 18 and 19 respectively.

More information on the courses as well as the benefits of becoming a certified instructor can be found at the Women's Self-Defense Institute's Rape Escape site.

In Crisis Never Fighting Against an External Enemy

2009-06-16T09:35:00.000-07:00

"It struck him that in moments of crisis one is never fighting against an external enemy, but always against one’s own body... On the battlefield, in the torture chamber, on a sinking ship, the issues that you are fighting for are always forgotten, because the body swells up until it fills the universe, and even when you are not paralysed by fright or screaming with pain, life is a moment-to-moment struggle against hunger or cold or sleeplessness, against a sour stomach or an aching tooth."

— George Orwell (1984)

Kan. man convicted of Craigslist rape found dead

2009-06-10T08:28:00.000-07:00

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) - A man facing nearly 30 years in prison for raping three women who had advertised in the "erotic services" section of Craigslist apparently committed suicide in his Kansas jail cell.

The Sedgwick County Sheriff's Office says David Lee Gage of Wichita was found dead around 6:10 a.m. Monday at the county jail.

The 52-year-old from Wichita had been in custody since August 2008. He was awaiting transfer to prison after being convicted in May of seven felony counts, including three counts of rape.

Prosecutors say Gage met the women at motels, then flashed a federal marshal's badge and threatened to arrest them for prostitution if they didn't have sex with him.
The sheriff's office says it's the first suicide in that jail since 2006.

Embrace your pregame jitters: A little stress can improve your athletic skills.

2009-06-08T09:34:00.000-07:00

British scientists who studied 40 collegiate athletes concluded that those who tried to quiet their nerves reduced not only their heart rates but also their confidence levels, which dampened their reflexes.

Instead, see the mantra below created by Jennifer Cumming, Ph.D., the study's author. When the athletes in the study chanted it, they were able to keep their heart rates up without feeling overwhelmed with anxiety:

"I am mentally and physically ready.... My body is signaling that it is prepared.... I have butterflies in my stomach and slight feelings of nausea...telling me that adrenaline is pumping round my body...confirming that I am prepared to begin...my body is in its optimal state...I am supremely confident that I can dominate the situation.... My muscles feel tight...they will react to my every command.... I am totally in control of my body and this focuses me on the task ahead.... My heart is racing faster...and faster...and my breathing is rapid.... I know that oxygen is coursing through my body.... I recognize these as feelings that I always experience prior to my best performances.... This makes me even more confident in my own ability.... Any thoughts of the competition that I experience just prove to underline my level of readiness.... All the other competitors can see that I am a well prepared, supent athlete who will succeed...."

Drug War Violence Hits Tourists in Acapulco

2009-06-08T08:49:00.000-07:00

Tourists had to be evacuated as Mexican soldiers and drug cartel outlaws had a major shootout in Acapulco, one of Mexico's most popular tourist spots.

Instructor Certification Courses in June and July

2009-06-04T23:03:00.000-07:00

There are Women's Self-Defense Instructor Certification Courses scheduled in the East in June and in the West in July:

June 20 -- Westchester, New York, Fight Like a Girl Instructor Certification (FLAG)
June 21 -- Westchester, New York, Girls on Guard Instructor Certification (GOG)

Steve Kardian will be running a weekend Instructor Certification Course for both the Fight Like a Girl and Girls on Guard modules from the Women's Empowerment Series. Contact Steve at (914) 760-8246 for more information and to register. Or go to his website at www.nydefendu.com for more info.

July 18 -- Phoenix, Ariz., Fight Like a Girl Instructor Certification (FLAG)
July 19 -- Phoenix, Ariz., Girls on Guard Instructor Certification (GOG)

These two modules are being taught by Brad Parker in Phoenix at the Paradise Valley School of Karate. Go to www.rapeescape.com to get a description of the courses, costs, information on where to stay and registration information.

If you want to learn more about the benefits of becoming a Women's Self-Defense Instructor, go here for more information on Instructor Certification.

Fear and lack of confidence

2009-06-01T09:40:00.000-07:00

Fear and lack of confidence will undermine all training.

Throwing more training on top of the student will have some incremental gains, but to really make headway, you'll need to address the confidence issue.

Do yourself a favor and structure your training to develop your confidence first. If you are having problems with this, then find an instructor who is experienced in producing results in this area. I'm not talking about false confidence here i.e. "you just kick him where it counts and I guarantee he'll go down". I'm talking about a structured program that gives you real skills that go hand-in-hand with the development of the mindset that says "I can do this" and "I could do this if I had to".

She Cried Rape, But No One Stopped to Help

2009-05-18T07:32:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Cindy Coughenour for forwarding this story about a woman attacked in a subway station in full view of a subway clerk and a train conductor.

Police were called, but there is no information on when or if they actually responded to the attack.

There are a number of lessons that this case points out, but the main one I want to emphasize is that you must be prepared to save yourself when no one else can -- or when no one else will.

Attack on Netherlands Royal Family

2009-05-01T11:08:00.000-07:00

Check out the video of the car attack which was directed toward Queen Beatrix.

"Loner" shoots 13 dead at Azerbaijan college

2009-04-30T08:54:00.000-07:00

By Afet Mehtiyeva
BAKU (Reuters) - Thirteen people were killed at a university in Azerbaijan Thursday when a gunman went from floor to floor firing on teachers and students after the bell rang for morning classes.

The gunman, a Georgian citizen of Azeri origin described as a loner by local media, was among the dead.

Witnesses said the shooting began shortly after classes began at 9.00 a.m. (0400 GMT).

"He climbed from the first floor to the sixth, shooting people mainly in the head from a Makarov pistol," the state prosecutor's office said. The Makarov is a Russian-made semi-automatic pistol.
Thirteen people were killed and 13 wounded. Blood stained the steps to the university and staff and paramedics carried out bodies in bags.

A witness said one student had tried to stop the gunman, approaching him and shouting: "Don't shoot, don't shoot!" He was shot in the head.

The gunman killed a security guard and a cleaner as he entered the building, before opening fire on students and teachers, Azeri ANS television reported.

Police found three ammunition belts and 71 bullets on the body of the gunman, reported to be 29 years old. Officials could not confirm how he died, but Azeri media reported he shot himself in the head.

A senior aide to Aliyev said the motive did not appear to be political, Azeri Trend news agency reported. "Such incidents happen in many countries," Ali Hasanov said.

Novosti-Azerbaijan agency said the man had gone to Baku looking for work, having recently left his family in Russia to return to Azerbaijan. They described him as a loner who had fallen out with his father.

Gunman Opens Fire in Rotterdam Cafe

2009-04-30T08:11:00.000-07:00

A gunman has opened fire in a busy cafe in Holland, killing one person and injuring three others, police have said.

The man attacked customers in the premises and then ran outside where he shot at bystanders on the street.

A police spokesman said people outside the cafe wrestled the gunman to the ground and held him until officers arrived.

The motive for the shooting, which happened in the early hours in Rotterdam, is not yet known.
But it may have begun with an argument in the cafe, where a talent contest was taking place.
One person was wounded inside the premises and three people were hit on the street, one fatally, the police spokesman said.

Officers said the man was a 46-year-old resident of the city but gave no further details.

Americans Support Second Amendment

2009-04-29T09:03:00.000-07:00

A new Rasmussen poll shows that 3 out of every 4 Americans believe the U.S. Constitution's Second Amendment protects their individual right to own firearms.

A sample of 1,000 American adults were asked, "Does the U.S. Constitution guarantee the right of an average citizen to own a gun?"

75% answered yes.

14% answered no.

11% were unsure.

More Examples of Armed Homeowner Confrontations

2009-04-29T08:24:00.000-07:00

In regards to Sunday's post (below) on what to do when confronting a bad guy in your house when you are armed, here's some additional examples of what can happen. My contention is that you are placing yourself at a huge tactical disadvantage if you try to disarm or detain a bad guy. In reality, you are going to have very little control of an intruder, even if you hold them at gun point.

In Sunday's post, I gave some examples of things that can (and have) happened when a homeowner confronts the bad guy. After a very quick and informal look, I found some additional real-life examples. All of these happened during the months of January and February of this year in the U.S.

Case 1 – Homeowner and wife are awakened by their barking dogs in the middle of the night. An intruder has gained entry through the home's sliding glass doors. Homeowner arms himself with a .38 caliber revolver and stays in his bedroom with his wife. A masked intruder began to enter the bedroom and, almost simultaneously, homeowner and intruder exchange shots. Intruder hit, homeowner not hit.

Case 2 – Homeowner pulls into his driveway and witnesses a burglar is carrying homeowner's possessions out the back door. Homeowner challenges bad guy. Bad guy draws a knife and slashes the homeowner. A wrestling match ensues which ends up in the homeowner's swimming pool (this is in February b-r-r-r-r). Homeowner manages to get out of the pool and retrieve a rifle (the account does not detail from where) and holds the burglar at gunpoint until police arrive.

Case 3 – A woman and her children are in their apartment when a man breaks in. She takes her children and retreats to the bedroom, locks the door behind her and retrieves a handgun. When the intruder tries to get into the bedroom, she fires one shot. Intruder is found suffering from a gunshot wound outside the apartment complex by police.

Case 4 – Homeowner comes home and finds a burglar carrying homeowner's possessions (similar to Case 2). Homeowner reaches into his pickup truck and retrieves a .22 caliber rifle and challenges to burglar to put the stolen goods down. Burglar panics, runs back into the house where he slips on the linoleum tile and falls. This allows the homeowner to hold the bad guy at gunpoint until police arrive.

Case 5 – Homeowner is awakened in the middle of the night by a noise downstairs. He retrieves his semi-automatic handgun from his bedside nightstand. He goes downstairs to investigate and finds himself in a confrontation with 3 intruders. The homeowner fires "several" shots causing the bad guys to flee the house. Later it is determined that one of the intruders was hit.

Five different cases. Because we were looking for information on confronting a bad guy in your home while you are armed, by definition they have many similarities. But what is striking to me is the crazy kinds of situations that can unfold. A wrestling match that ends up in a swimming pool? A guy slipping and falling the tile floor? In 2 of these cases no shots are fired and the bad guy complies with the homeowner's demands. Note that both of these scenarios (Case 2 and Case 4) involve a strict "burglar" who is robbing an unoccupied home. When confronted, they complied. However, the "intruders" who invade an occupied home (Cases 1, 3, and 5) have a different mind set, a more predatory mind set. In these cases, it appears that they pressed the confrontation with the homeowners. Don't assume that someone who has the mind set to break into your home when you are home will be deterred by threats alone. You must be prepared to access different levels of force options to protect yourself and your family.

The case that is most like the course of action recommended in Sunday's post is Case 1. The homeowner did not give up his strong tactical position (he stayed in his bedroom). This allowed him to control the doorway (a fatal funnel) and to shield and protect his wife. Presumably they had access to a phone while defending the bedroom and were calling 911.

Remember, our strategy is to gain and maintain a position of tactical dominance.

Man, 84, fights off carjackers with groin kick

2009-04-27T16:51:00.001-07:00

Apr. 26, 2009 02:26 PM Associated Press

TACOMA, Wash. – An 84-year-old man has a black eye, but he still has his car, after fighting off two would-be carjackers. Ted Mazetier said he stopped Wednesday night to help two men with a disabled car when one punched him in the face and demanded his keys. Mazetier said he kicked the man in the groin and the other in the belly. The two men fled as a passer-by stopped to help.
Police later arrested two suspects for investigation of assault. Mazetier said he'll think twice before stopping again to help someone on the street. He'll be 85 in June.

He's in My Home, How do I Safely Disarm Him?

2009-04-26T00:21:00.000-07:00

Q: I now have a handgun for home protection. (Been burglarized twice).

What I would like to know is if I come upon someone in my home, I have my gun on him/her, announce myself and for them to freeze, how then do I disarm and detain them SAFELY while my heart is racing a mile a minute?

A: To make sure I get your scenario, you say "come upon someone in my home". That could be because you've come home from being gone or you either intentionally or unintentionally encountered them while you were in your home.

Here's your main principle to follow: You should seek to gain and maintain a position of tactical dominance.

I don't see my immediate objective as "disarming" or "detaining" anyone. You and I are not going to act as a cop here. I'm more interested in controlling my space and my environment to keep the bad guy from hurting or killing me or my family.

If I'm coming home, I might feel that backing out of the house while covering him is my best choice. If I'm already home, I'm going to cover the area that has my family or move to get my family into an area behind me while I cover the approach.

It's important to note here that in most -- if not all -- states you cannot use deadly force (shoot someone) to protect property (with the exception of someone preparing to burn an occupied building). You can threaten to use deadly force, but you cannot actually use it. "But, Brad, he's in my house! Can't I legally shoot him?" That's a complicated question and the answer is "it depends". Most of the time the answer is actually no (you can see some additional thoughts here at http://www.defendu.com/questions/quest56.htm).

Figure out where your safest and tactically sound areas of your house are. In the story linked to above, I intend to control a hallway or staircase for my position of tactical dominance.

You are right, your heart will be RACING! As your heart rate increases, your fine motor skills diminish, you get tunnel vision and audio exclusion. Force yourself to take deep breaths, get oxygen to your brain and calm down. Breathe. Keep your finger off the trigger and straight along the frame until you need to come up on target and engage. Breathe some more.

Now that you and your family are in a controlled area call for backup. Just like a cop would, you want the good guys coming to help you. Call 911 and tell them your situation. Tell the dispatcher you are the homeowner and you are armed and describe what you are wearing.

Now you can announce your presence and make your demands on the intruder. Take a deep breath and announce with command authority, "STOP! DO NOT MOVE! IF YOU MOVE YOU WILL BE SHOT! I'VE CALLED 911 AND THE POLICE ARE ON THEIR WAY. SLOWLY TURN AROUND AWAY FROM ME AND GET ON THE FLOOR!

Do not try and impersonate a police officer by saying "FREEZE! POLICE!" Or try and be cute and say what you really said was, "FREEZE, PUL-EEZE!" (Don't laugh, I've seen an instructor advocate this). Resist the strong temptation to yell, "SHOW ME YOUR HANDS". I've seen countless students doing in role playing. You are at a disadvantage in reaction time if he produces a firearm. You've commanded him to move his hands, you are expecting him to move his hands and when he does, you will be behind the curve to react if he has a gun in his hands.

After you've verbally challenged the intruder a million variables can happen. The bad guy can turn and run out the door. He can yell back at you, "I've got a gun too". He can knock himself out trying to run out a closed sliding glass door. He can fire a shot in your direction. He can ignore you. Or he could actually comply with your commands. All of these things have happened in real situations.

That's why you want to already have a position that you can control, because you really don't have any control over him at all. Best case, he turns and runs out of the house. Worst case, he charges you or challenges you by walking your way. It seems reasonable to assume that someone who has invaded your house and knows you are armed most likely wishes ill intent on you if they confront or charge you. You need to make the decision now if you can or cannot actually use deadly force against someone like that.

In either case, do not voluntarily give up your superior position unless you are forced to. Defending is easier than attacking. Use your cover to protect you. Whether the bad guy leaves or forces you to defend yourself, do not come out from your cover until the cops arrive. Do not feel that you need to rush out and somehow detain the bad guy. What are you going to do? Tie him up with your belt? Wrestle him in your jammies? Keep the distance that the handgun provides you as you wait for the cops.

Wait for the responding officers to announce their presence. Yell back where you are and lay down your handgun. Don't be surprised if you are taken to the floor by the cops, frisked and handcuffed. Hey, they are as jacked up as you are with the prospect of gunplay in an unfamiliar house and they don't know if you really are the good guy. Don't take it personally.

If you are serious about this scenario then I need to advise you to get a flashlight. Either a handheld light or a weapon-mounted light. One of the four basic rules of firearms safety relates to being able to identify your target and it will certainly be one of the things you'll be asked about at your trial if you have to shoot the guy. I'm talking about a white light, not a laser sight. You must be able to SEE your target so you can identify that it is truly a bad guy and not your teenaged son or knuckleheaded brother-in-law. While a laser sight might be able to help you shoot more accurately in the dark, it does nothing to help you see what you are shooting. You might change your mind about shooting the intruder if you see that it's really the 13-year old kid that lives down the street and he's trying to steal your XBox 360. Or, as noted in the item above, if the "intruder" actually is a confused old-man who wandered into your house through the open garage door that you forgot to close.

You don't mention what type of handgun you have, but it needs to be in good working order and maintained for reliability. Also, use factory ammo, not some sort of reload or handload. Also, keep your magazines full, minus one round.

As you can tell, this scenario holds countless variables, is extremely complicated and has no simple answer. Best advice, get firearms training related to this topic and also contact an attorney who is knowledgeable about the use of force in your state.

Keep training and stay safe.

Self-Defense Sense Named to Top 50 Blog List

2009-04-25T23:09:00.000-07:00

This blog has been named one of the Top 50 Self-Defense Blogs on the Web by ForensicScienceTechnician.org

The organization picked Self-Defense Sense to be:

"...what we consider to be the 50 best websites, arranged by category, dedicated to teaching and applying various self defense techniques, as well as information on preventing crime through awareness and knowledge."

Thanks for the vote of confidence from the CSI types!

Can Americans Cope?

2009-04-23T18:42:00.000-07:00

So, how will we react to an economic or social collapse?

Consider this:

In 1977 New York City suffered a power failure for one night. Over 3,000 arrests were made for looting, 400 policemen were injured, 500 fires were started, more than 25,000 emergency calls were placed and four times the usual number of hospital emergency cases were admitted -- all following one lightning strike.

I haven't taken the time to document this information, but I don't think it's way out of line with what I've heard before.

Consider the Rodney King riots in L.A. I remember being in London at the time watching on TV with disbelief at what I was seeing -- an orgy of looting, burning and crime. Grocery store owners posted on the roofs of their businesses with rifles? (Not surprisingly, these stores didn't suffer the damage that other stores did...) The breathless anchors were describing spontaneous outbreaks of violence in several other cities as well.

However, later discussions with my L.A. friends revealed that the violence was highly localized and the city continued to operate as normal or as normal as can be considered when there is a riot going on for a couple of days just south of downtown.

But, it is a legitimate question to ask yourself: Given what my experience has been in the past, can I expect current social conventions to protect me and my family if there is some spasm in our system?

Fear Driving Gun and Ammo Sales?

2009-04-23T18:02:00.000-07:00

The earlier post on the surge of gun and ammunition sales came from a story covered by the Wall Street Journal which indicated that some purchases see the increase in prices as sort of an "investment" that could possibly bring a return better than they can get at the local bank with your typical Certificate of Deposit.

That might be true in the upper stratosphere of income earners that are the WSJ readers, but my own experience tends to indicate there is a level of fear among Americans that I have not seen in many, many years.

I've never had more people ask me how to buy a firearm, which is the "best" firearm to buy and if I could recommend where to buy one. Frankly, I've been somewhat surprised by some requests because they have come from people who previously had no interested in firearms or were even opposed to owning one.

These are not people who are looking for a return on their investment. These are people who are reacting to some very strong fears:

The fear of the Obama administration's probable move to enact draconion gun control laws;
The fear of rising street crime;
The fear of economic and social collapse.

Obviously, there is a LOT of hording going on. It will be interesing to see if and when the panic buying subsides.

However, having said that, are you in a position now to be able to provide security for your self and loved ones if any of the above scenarios unfolds?

Bring the Others Back

2009-04-16T14:04:00.000-07:00

"Out of every 100 men, ten shouldn't even be there, Eighty are just targets, Nine are the real fighters, and we are lucky to have them, for they make the battle. Ah, but the one, one is a warrior, and he will bring the others back."

Hericletus, circa 500 BC

Train as if your family members will depend on you to bring them back.
Train as if your team mates will depend on you bring them back.
Train as if your life depends on it.

Gun and Ammo Sales Surge

2009-04-16T07:47:00.000-07:00

This news item is no surprise if you've been anywhere looking to purchase ammo lately.

According to today's Wall Street Journal:

"Purchases of guns and ammunition are surging across the country. Nearly four million background checks -- a key measure of sales because they are required at the purchase of a gun from a federally licensed seller -- were performed in the first three months of 2009. That is a 27% increase over the same period a year earlier, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation."

The Bully's Choice Threat

2009-04-15T07:44:00.000-07:00

This Easter's rescue of Capt. Richard Phillips by Navy SEALs prompted a response from the pirates -- "Now we are really mad and are going to have to hurt you."

I'm paraphrasing here, but the immediate response was a threat of escalated violence against us for having dared to break up the pirates' commercial venture.

It struck me as the same kind of threat you hear from the bad guy that you just took down -- "you'd better let me up or I'll kick your a**".

Obviously, you don't let him back up. And when you finally hand him off to local law enforcement personnel or put yourself in a position to be able to escape without being harmed, you don't let your guard down.

Yes, there is a good chance that the bad guy will retaliate. That is a very real consequense of defending yourself. There are some gangs that feel they can never endure an insult without retaliation.

But there is also a good chance that you won't face any real retaliation either. In my experience, the retaliation I've endured was never the face-to-face kind. It involved either implied threats from a distance that they would "get" me or it involved minor vandalism to my house.

Discussions with others that have gone through this seems to indicate that the bad guy's interest in retaliating falls off in direct proportion to the certainty that you will defend yourself. In other words, if its clear that you will stand up to them, the situation tends to diminish.

It doesn't mean they won't posture or even throw the odd rock through your window. Stay vigilant and don't let your guard down. Get help from the local authorities. Let your neighbors know what's going on. Find out who the bad guys are.

If it's not easy to intimidate you and their antics can potentially cost them more than the fun they get from hassling you, then they tend to take their aggression somewhere else.

Sounds a bit like what our fathers told us about standing up to the school yard bully.

Does Down Economy Increase Crime?

2009-04-15T07:40:00.001-07:00

Article here from the Wall Street Journal questioning whether a perceived rise in crime is a result of a faltering economy.

The general take:

"By and large, the studies show that lousy job markets -- particularly for young or unskilled men -- are linked to more thefts. But the connection isn't so plain with violent crimes like murder and rape. That bolsters the theory of a more rational criminal: When the economy flags, people inclined to crime opt for dishonest income; they don't start shooting people."

San Francisco Women Against Rape Walk

2009-04-14T07:48:00.000-07:00

SFWAR (San Francisco Women Against Rape) is organizing its fourth annual event Walk Against Rape on April 25th, 2009. This event is an effort to raise awareness against sexual assault. Walk Against Rape is a collective stride of all individuals as well as communities, who will come together to walk a distance of 3.1 miles, to mark their solidarity in the fight against rape. This rally, which will also recognize the month of April as the Sexual Assault Awareness Month, will start at 10 AM from Justin Herman Plaza and end at Mission Dolores Park.

For 35 years, SFWAR has been providing healing support to sexual violence survivors. Our mission is to provide resources, support, advocacy and education to strengthen the work of all individuals and communities in San Francisco that are struggling relentlessly to end sexual violence. By way of free counseling, free workshops, and a 24 hour hotline, SFWAR is working continuously towards making a safer social environment for all of us to live in.

For more info, contact: walkagainstrape@sfwar.org.

Changing Pattern of Attacks Dictate Change in Your Self-Defense

2009-04-02T08:32:00.000-07:00

It looks like there is a lot of evidence coming in from both the U.S. and the UK that you are increasingly at risk of being attacked by multiple opponents.

I'm pulling in some numbers from the UK which is showing a definite trend that is disturbing -- it is likely that you could be attacked by a number of bad guys.

More info to come.

U.S.-Mexico Gun "Fact" Wrong

2009-04-02T08:29:00.000-07:00

The Myth of 90 Percent: Only a Small Fraction of Guns in Mexico Come From U.S.

While 90 percent of the guns traced to the U.S. actually originated in the United States, the percent traced to the U.S. is only about 17 percent of the total number of guns reaching Mexico.

By William La Jeunesse and Maxim Lott
FOXNews.com
Thursday, April 02, 2009

You've heard this shocking "fact" before -- on TV and radio, in newspapers, on the Internet and from the highest politicians in the land: 90 percent of the weapons used to commit crimes in Mexico come from the United States.
-- Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said it to reporters on a flight to Mexico City.
-- CBS newsman Bob Schieffer referred to it while interviewing President Obama.
-- California Sen. Dianne Feinstein said at a Senate hearing: "It is unacceptable to have 90 percent of the guns that are picked up in Mexico and used to shoot judges, police officers and mayors ... come from the United States."
-- William Hoover, assistant director for field operations at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, testified in the House of Representatives that "there is more than enough evidence to indicate that over 90 percent of the firearms that have either been recovered in, or interdicted in transport to Mexico, originated from various sources within the United States."
There's just one problem with the 90 percent "statistic" and it's a big one:
It's just not true.
In fact, it's not even close. By all accounts, it's probably around 17 percent.
What's true, an ATF spokeswoman told FOXNews.com, in a clarification of the statistic used by her own agency's assistant director, "is that over 90 percent of the traced firearms originate from the U.S."
But a large percentage of the guns recovered in Mexico do not get sent back to the U.S. for tracing, because it is obvious from their markings that they do not come from the U.S.
"Not every weapon seized in Mexico has a serial number on it that would make it traceable, and the U.S. effort to trace weapons really only extends to weapons that have been in the U.S. market," Matt Allen, special agent of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), told FOX News.

A Look at the Numbers
In 2007-2008, according to ATF Special Agent William Newell, Mexico submitted 11,000 guns to the ATF for tracing. Close to 6,000 were successfully traced -- and of those, 90 percent -- 5,114 to be exact, according to testimony in Congress by William Hoover -- were found to have come from the U.S.
But in those same two years, according to the Mexican government, 29,000 guns were recovered at crime scenes.
In other words, 68 percent of the guns that were recovered were never submitted for tracing. And when you weed out the roughly 6,000 guns that could not be traced from the remaining 32 percent, it means 83 percent of the guns found at crime scenes in Mexico could not be traced to the U.S.
So, if not from the U.S., where do they come from? There are a variety of sources:
-- The Black Market. Mexico is a virtual arms bazaar, with fragmentation grenades from South Korea, AK-47s from China, and shoulder-fired rocket launchers from Spain, Israel and former Soviet bloc manufacturers.
-- Russian crime organizations. Interpol says Russian Mafia groups such as Poldolskaya and Moscow-based Solntsevskaya are actively trafficking drugs and arms in Mexico.
- South America. During the late 1990s, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) established a clandestine arms smuggling and drug trafficking partnership with the Tijuana cartel, according to the Federal Research Division report from the Library of Congress.
-- Asia. According to a 2006 Amnesty International Report, China has provided arms to countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Chinese assault weapons and Korean explosives have been recovered in Mexico.
-- The Mexican Army. More than 150,000 soldiers deserted in the last six years, according to Mexican Congressman Robert Badillo. Many took their weapons with them, including the standard issue M-16 assault rifle made in Belgium.
-- Guatemala. U.S. intelligence agencies say traffickers move immigrants, stolen cars, guns and drugs, including most of America's cocaine, along the porous Mexican-Guatemalan border. On March 27, La Hora, a Guatemalan newspaper, reported that police seized 500 grenades and a load of AK-47s on the border. Police say the cache was transported by a Mexican drug cartel operating out of Ixcan, a border town.
'These Don't Come From El Paso'
Ed Head, a firearms instructor in Arizona who spent 24 years with the U.S. Border Patrol, recently displayed an array of weapons considered "assault rifles" that are similar to those recovered in Mexico, but are unavailable for sale in the U.S.
"These kinds of guns -- the auto versions of these guns -- they are not coming from El Paso," he said. "They are coming from other sources. They are brought in from Guatemala. They are brought in from places like China. They are being diverted from the military. But you don't get these guns from the U.S."
Some guns, he said, "are legitimately shipped to the government of Mexico, by Colt, for example, in the United States. They are approved by the U.S. government for use by the Mexican military service. The guns end up in Mexico that way -- the fully auto versions -- they are not smuggled in across the river."
Many of the fully automatic weapons that have been seized in Mexico cannot be found in the U.S., but they are not uncommon in the Third World.
The Mexican government said it has seized 2,239 grenades in the last two years -- but those grenades and the rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) are unavailable in U.S. gun shops. The ones used in an attack on the U.S. Consulate in Monterrey in October and a TV station in January were made in South Korea. Almost 70 similar grenades were seized in February in the bottom of a truck entering Mexico from Guatemala.
"Most of these weapons are being smuggled from Central American countries or by sea, eluding U.S. and Mexican monitors who are focused on the smuggling of semi-automatic and conventional weapons purchased from dealers in the U.S. border states of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California," according to a report in the Los Angeles Times.
Boatloads of Weapons
So why would the Mexican drug cartels, which last year grossed between $17 billion and $38 billion, bother buying single-shot rifles, and force thousands of unknown "straw" buyers in the U.S. through a government background check, when they can buy boatloads of fully automatic M-16s and assault rifles from China, Israel or South Africa?
Alberto Islas, a security consultant who advises the Mexican government, says the drug cartels are using the Guatemalan border to move black market weapons. Some are left over from the Central American wars the United States helped fight; others, like the grenades and launchers, are South Korean, Israeli and Spanish. Some were legally supplied to the Mexican government; others were sold by corrupt military officers or officials.
The exaggeration of United States "responsibility" for the lawlessness in Mexico extends even beyond the "90-percent" falsehood -- and some Second Amendment activists believe it's designed to promote more restrictive gun-control laws in the U.S.
In a remarkable claim, Auturo Sarukhan, the Mexican ambassador to the U.S., said Mexico seizes 2,000 guns a day from the United States -- 730,000 a year. That's a far cry from the official statistic from the Mexican attorney general's office, which says Mexico seized 29,000 weapons in all of 2007 and 2008.
Chris Cox, spokesman for the National Rifle Association, blames the media and anti-gun politicians in the U.S. for misrepresenting where Mexican weapons come from.
"Reporter after politician after news anchor just disregards the truth on this," Cox said. "The numbers are intentionally used to weaken the Second Amendment."
"The predominant source of guns in Mexico is Central and South America. You also have Russian, Chinese and Israeli guns. It's estimated that over 100,000 soldiers deserted the army to work for the drug cartels, and that ignores all the police. How many of them took their weapons with them?"
But Tom Diaz, senior policy analyst at the Violence Policy Center, called the "90 percent" issue a red herring and said that it should not detract from the effort to stop gun trafficking into Mexico.
"Let's do what we can with what we know," he said. "We know that one hell of a lot of firearms come from the United States because our gun market is wide open."

UK Driving Risky for Foreigners

2009-03-05T16:38:00.000-08:00

Driving on the left-hand side of the road presents serious problems for foreigners visiting and living in the UK.

In the Protection Security Operator Course (PSOC), I often cite that one of the top killers of traveling executives -- after medical emergencies -- is motor vehicle accidents (including being hit by a car).

It's incredible how accustomed we are to our own custom of driving in the left-hand side of the car on the right side of the road. Changing to driving on the right side of the car (shifting with your left hand) and on the left side of the road is a constant challenge.

Personally, I enjoy driving in the UK and Ireland, but I will say from experience that old habits are hard to break.

And this is born out by recent statistics from research done by London Councils:

Foreign vehicles are 30 per cent likelier to be in a crash than a British-registered vehicle, according to research by London Councils.
The number of crashes caused by foreign vehicles increased by 47 per cent between 2002 and 2007.
There were almost 400 deaths and serious injuries and 3,000 slight injuries from accidents involving foreign vehicles in 2007.

It's easy to extrapolate similar results for visiting drivers.

Stay alert if you are planning to self-drive on your next trip to the UK or Ireland.

Phoenix No. 2 in Kidnapping

2009-02-24T06:43:00.000-08:00

If you've been following this blog for any amount of time, I've been warning that the kidnapping business is being imported into the U.S.

Now, Phoenix is named the second worst city for kidnapping behind Mexico City -- all a product of the increasing violence surrounding the drug business.

Forced to Defend Self, Congo Town Defeats Rebels

2009-02-12T23:10:00.000-08:00

Rebels sent torture victims into the Congolese town of Bangadi to intimidate the townspeople to surrender.

The town's three police officers fled in terror and repeated calls to the military and U.N. were unanswered.

"We were sending warnings and begging for help practically every day for two weeks. And nothing happened," said community leader Nicolas Akoyo Efudha. "We finally understood that we were abandoned — in danger and without protection."

So, in an act of desperation, the townfolk decided to arm themselves -- mostly with antique firearms, swords, machetes, and knives. They came up with a plan and fought back.

To the suprise of the Associated Press reporter who reported this story, the residents of Bangadi have successfully driven off two attacks by the Ugandan rebels, who have killed at least 900 people in this remote northeastern corner of over the past seven weeks.

It should not come as too much of a surprise that simply having the will to resist can significantly increase your odds of surviving a violent attack. This town's success has encouraged other villages in the area to resist as well.

But wait for this -- Michelle Faul, the AP reporter on this story, says aid workers and human rights activists are watching this with "trepidation" because they "fear these self-defense groups could transform into a menacing force."

This has to be taken out of context somehow. It can't possibly be true that "aid workers and human rights activists" are worried about people rightfully defending themselves? These workers and activists are presumably there to ease the suffering of the poor villagers dying and suffering at the hands of savage rebels. But if the villagers actually fend for themselves and protect themselves from being killed, that provokes concern?

I'm concerned that we could also be facing an growing segment of our culture that frowns on self-defense and self-reliance. Their answer is "let the police handle it." Cops can't be everywhere and most response times are minutes to tens of minutes long before they arrive. We've also said it before -- public safety officials are under no obligation to protect any one individual's property or person.

Bad guys strike precisely when there are no cops around. When you are attacked, you can expect to be on your own as well.

Women's Self-Defense Course Phoenix Feb. 18

2009-02-12T22:56:00.000-08:00

Phoenix-area Self-Defense Class Feb. 18
Fight Like a Girl (FLAG) course
Wed., Feb. 18
6 p.m. -- to 9 p.m.

Kyrene del Cielo Elementary School library
1350 N. Lakeshore Dr.
Chandler, AZ 85226

The instructors will be Rob Pickett and Cory Kahabka. Contact either for more information. Rob is at dojorat@hotmail.com and Cory is at 602-867-9204.

Executive Protection Certification Course Mar. 2-6

2009-02-12T22:48:00.000-08:00

Protective Security Operations Course March 2-6, San Jose, Calif.

Certification course for those interested in executive protection, corporate security and close protection for "at risk" or high-value personnel. 5-day, 60 hour course is extremely comprehensive and highly recommended. Hosted by the San Jose Police Department. Cost is $1,400 and more information can be obtained by contacting Progressive F.O.R.C.E. Concepts at info@PFCtraining.com.

New Year's Day Attack Thwarted?

2009-01-01T14:25:00.000-08:00

I just received this from a college-aged woman that I know who is asking for the schedule for women's self-defense classes locally:

"Last night I spent the night at a friends house and got home a little after 7 this morning, (sober! don't worry I don't drink) and while it was pretty light outside there was a guy that was following another person with a hoodie on (I couldn't tell if it was a girl or a guy) to their building and was bothering them. Then he saw I was walking that way so he started walking towards me. I called my boyfriend just so I had someone on the line with me in case anything happened. As he got closer to me he goes 'How much have you had to drink tonight sweetheart?' and I just ignored him and walked past him, telling my boyfriend that there was a weird guy right by me. Then he started following me to my building. He then said 'Hey I need you to come closer to me so I can sample your breath, I just need to sample your breath!' He was trying to impersonate a cop or something, but all he had was a phone in his hand and obviously no badge or anything. So I yelled, 'No! You're not a cop, you don't have a breathalizer, get away from me. And if you don't stop following me I WILL call the cops'. He slowed down and stopped and walked away after that, and I got into my building quickly. I'm glad it was sort of light out and he seemed too drunk to realize what was going on thankfully, but it just totally creeped me out and I realized that I wasn't that prepared to take him on if need be, especially in heels! So i just wanted to make sure I knew how to handle it if a guy were to physically come after me."

My initial thoughts:

1. I think she did a really good job in handling the situation. She recognized the threat early, she got on her cell phone with someone who could be a virtual "witness", and she indicated she was willing to resist by verbally responding in a forceful and non-ambiguous way;
2. College campuses are a hotbed for sexual assault and college-aged women are in the highest of risk groups for being attacked;
3. It's not uncommon for an attacker to try and coerce you through the power of authority whether they use their real position (like your boss or a school administrator) or try to impersonate one (like a police officer).
4. I would have liked if she would have gotten a good description of the suspect and called the cops. This guy could have successfully lured another woman into a trap later.
4. If you've been exposed to any of our Women's Empowerment Series of women's self-defense classes, we cite the research that shows that half of all attackers will break off their attack if you even indicate you are willing to resist. The problem then becomes what do you do with the other half?

Consider taking a women's self-defense course in 2009. It could be one of the best New Year's resolutions your make.

Importance of Resisting Stranger Rape

2008-12-28T16:49:00.000-08:00

"In a stranger-rape situation, if he allows you to see his face, you get his name, or you can somehow otherwise identify your attacker, and he knows it, it’s all the more important to get away from him, even if he has a knife and you are risking injury. Because unless he’s quite inexperienced, he’s likely to kill you to leave no witnesses."

John Douglas, legendary FBI profiler

Woman stops attack with sword

2008-12-08T07:44:00.000-08:00

There are many times we talk about using weapons for defense. I would guess that 150 years ago, this news item would not have been very unusual. But, nowdays, using a sword in your home to defend yourself does qualify as interesting.

However unusual, it proved to be effective and that's the bottom line: be committed to doing whatever it takes to defend yourself.

Deadly India Attacks Showcase Lack of Security

2008-11-29T15:38:00.000-08:00

It's finally over after 60 hours.

Just 10 young Muslim men armed with rifles and grenades killed at least 195 people and wounded 295 in one of the deadliest attacks in India's history early Saturday. Among the dead were 18 foreigners, including six Americans.

Early reports are that multiple, well-coordinated attacks were carried out by well-trained terrorists.

As to how they could massacre so many innocent people so quickly -- about the only answer at this point is because they could. There apparently was little or no coordinated security at the tourism sites which bore the brunt of the attacks.

Second Amendment not just for elite

2008-11-08T07:34:00.000-08:00

"We start therefore with a strong presumption that the Second Amendment right is exercised individually and belongs to all Americans."

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia

June 26, 2008

Angelina Jolie's Guns

2008-11-08T07:25:00.000-08:00

"Brad [Pitt] and I are not against having a gun in the house and we do have one. And yes, I'd be able to use it if I had to. If anybody comes into my home and tries to hurt my kids, I've no problem shooting them."

Angelina Jolie

Executive Protection Operator Certification

2008-07-23T21:49:00.000-07:00

Executive Protection Operator Certification

Here's the line up for upcoming operator certification courses from PFC in Las Vegas:

Aug. 25-28 University of Nevada Las Vegas Protective Security Operator Certification
Sept. 14-18 Protective Security Operations Certification (PSOC)
Sept. 19-23 Protective Driving Operations Certification (PDOC)
Sept. 24-30 High Threat Security Operations Certification (HTSOC)

The PSOC courses are required if you want to work EP for PFC Safeguards. Get the course information and flyers from the PFC site at: www.pfctraining.com. Go to the "Schedule" button on the top navigation bar to get all the information.

Empowerment comes through education

2008-07-03T10:27:00.000-07:00

"Empowerment comes through education."

Brad Parker

Panic begins when knowldege ends

2008-07-03T10:26:00.000-07:00

"Panic begins when knowledge ends."

Brad Parker

Don't Throw the Baby Out with the Bath Water

2008-06-18T23:09:00.000-07:00

In your pursuit of paring down your defensive tactics catalog to "just the realistic" techniques, don't be too quick to toss out concepts and techniques that have worked just fine for others in the past -- including "sport" techniques.

When Gracie Jiu-Jitsu burst onto the H2H scene in the 1990s, it seemed like everyone was flocking to it. I was busy teaching a number of courses to officers, agencies and corporate security departments. We ran regular morning classes for LEOs. However, in the past couple of years, it now seems fashionable in some circles to brand Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu as too "sporty" and not realistic enough to be used outside of the octagon.

Take a look at the video here of Officer Bob Hindi subduing an armed suspect during a robbery attempt at a convenience store. If the video will not open, try this link:

http://blutube.policeone.com/Clip.aspx?key=A40EFEB9F1D386B9

Or, let me describe it to you:

Surprisingly high-quality surveillance camera footage shows a suspect thrusting a handgun across the counter at a female store clerk. At the very bottom edge of the video, a man appears to be at the next register, presumably another customer. The clerk looks to be getting some money out of the safe and placing it on the counter when the suspect snatches it and makes a beeline for the front door. When you first watch the video, it almost looks like the clerk and the criminal are doing a bit of a tug-of-war over the gun, but when you watch it again, you see the suspect's sudden move to grab something off the counter.

The man at the bottom of the screen (Officer Hindi in street clothes) now leaps into action, closing with the suspect and going for a side clinch as the man runs for the door. As the suspect runs for the door, Officer Hindi stays committed to the side clinch and goes for a take down, which pretty much ends up as a semi sacrifice throw on the slippery tile floor. However, Hindi has a plan and it is classic Gracie Jiu-Jitsu. As he and the suspect tumble to the floor the suspect (naturally) orients himself on his knees. Hindi scrambles to the side and smoothly takes the bad guy's back, starting with one leg hooked around the guy's waist and calmly working to get his second leg hooked in as well. Then Hindi flattens out the suspect onto his stomach by stretching out his own legs.

With Hindi mounted on the man's back, it appears that a handgun skitters across the floor away from the suspect. It's not clear if Hindi has cleared the gun or if it came out during the struggle. The fact that it slides out away from the suspect a good six feet would lead me to think that the officer cleared the gun out. Hindi is completely in control at this point looking relaxed and taking his time. The clerk is shown closing and locking the store doors as Hindi keeps the back mount with the suspect putting up a mild amount of resistance. Clearly, the suspect has no idea of what to do and Hindi might as well have a sandwich at this point. After another 20 seconds of Hindi controlling the bad guy's body and arms, another object slides out on the floor, this time it's possibly a cell phone since neither Hindi or the clerk seem too concerned with it. The video fades out after about a minute and a half with Hindi still in the back mount position. Presumably, the boys in blue arrive a short time later and take the the suspect into custody.

Nice job, Officer Hindi.

But, that's too much of a sport technique to be useful on the street, right? So you shouldn't use it or teach it.

Okay, another example. This time a personal experience. If you've been around me or been on the Defend University site for any amount of time, you'll know that I'm pretty forthcoming with self-disclosure. It's valuable for us to debrief with accurate information -- including the semi-embarrassing things that haven't worked out in real confrontations.

I was contracted as a pointman for a takedown team tasked with securing the head of an internal theft ring for arrest. We had two teams of two and I was to lead one team and make the contact to take the suspect down to cuff.

There are some pretty funny aspects of the initial approach which I could tell some other time, but the main gist is that the suspect was sitting on a pickup truck tailgate. I couldn't approach from the side or the rear, I had to approach him from the front. With the help of an impromptu distraction from my teammate, I had to bound across the last 5 yards and grab the guy and pull him off of the tailgate.

He reacted by figuratively slamming on the brakes, digging in his heels and pulling back. I responded by stepping in with him and using an inner thigh throw (uchi-mata) taking him forward onto his chest. I took the back mount and used the bottom of my feet to push down on his thighs to keep him from getting to his knees. He struggled briefly but chose to stop resisting relatively quickly.* (see below for a tangent on this). He was secured, a knife was taken from his person, and he was transferred to the local cops for processing.

At the debrief I asked everyone what the takedown looked like. Most of the answers were along the lines of "smooth", "good", "went fast and put him in a position to cuff". The interesting thing to me is that I hate that throw! I tell students never to use uchi-mata in the street; it turns your gun side into him, you give up your back, it's too sporty, blah, blah, blah. Yet it worked perfectly for this situation.

The lesson for me was that I had the technique buried in my catalog somewhere. Even though I had not drilled that takedown for years, it still jumped to the front of my options when I needed it. Simply, it was the best technique to use for that situation at that point in time.

Don't flush a technique just because it comes from a sport environment. It may still have validity in a hand-to-hand environment. And, it would also behoove you to get exposed to, and train with, as many solutions to different problems as you can. Then drill them until you can perform them against a resisting opponent.

I've used the example plenty of times about the judo champions who -- while they "know" about 250 different techniques -- rely on about 5 techniques for the bulk of their points. So they use just a handful of their strongest techniques the majority of the time. But they still have a deep well of knowledge to pull from when those handful of techniques don't work.

Dont' throw out the techniques that work, just because you think you'll never use them.

*Interesting side tangent from the takedown noted above. The suspect initially began struggling violently. But he didn't have much to struggle against with a well-executed inner thigh throw which literally took him off his feet. As I completed the throw, I twisted his shoulder around so he landed mostly face down. I followed him to the ground with my chest against his back. When we hit, I saw his mouth bounce off the pavement. He began to struggle and I forced his legs straight with soles of my shoes on top of his thighs. He continued to resist as the other team members worked to control his arms. Since my face was just behind his head and I saw his mouth impact the pavement I said to him, "Oh man, are you alright?" And the weirdest thing happened. He grimaced, licked his bloody lips, and I could almost see his mind shift from "fight" to "I'm hurt" modes. He mentally gave up and I immediately could feel his body relax. I put the thought into his head that he was hurt. No doubt he knew he face planted, but during the fight you can go a long time and not know you are hurt. I think my question triggered a process that he had to investigate whether or not he was hurt. The blood confirmed it so his mental answer was "yes, I'm hurt". The fight, for him, was over.

Hock Hockheim tells an similar story about trying to evacuate a man from a burning building. The man was resistant and would not leave until Hock yelled at him that his hair was on fire. The guy looked in the mirror, confirmed that his hair was on fire and ran out of the building screaming like a little girl.

Girl Takes Photo of Potential Abductor

2008-06-18T08:57:00.000-07:00

Police arrested a man Tuesday in connection with an attempted child enticement case in Denver.

Mohammed Al Hamdani, 39, was taken into custody after an 11-year-old girl snapped a photo of a man with her cell phone who was allegedly trying to abduct her at Bible Park in southeast Denver.

It was unclear from a Denver Police Department press release whether the photo led to the arrest of the man.

The 11-year-old girl told police a man approached her at the park and asked her to get in his car, MyFOXColorado.com reported.

She said no, snapped a picture of the man with her cell phone and ran away from him, according to the TV station.

The girl turned the cell phone image over to police, who distributed the man's photo to the public.

Serial predator suspect admits sex with two victims

2008-06-09T17:52:00.000-07:00

by Jim Walsh and Michael Kiefer - Jun. 9, 2008 03:23 PM, The Arizona Republic

Accused serial predator Trent Christopher Benson admitted to Mesa police that he had sex with two women who later turned up dead and ran over one of them after dumping her naked body in the middle of a street.
But Benson stopped short of confessing to the murders, according to court records released Monday after a Maricopa County Superior Court judge granted The Arizona Republic's request to unseal court records that were sealed when the suspect was arrested.
Benson also is charged in two rapes. One of those victims said she was attacked from behind by two Asian men, was drugged with a rag soaked with a chemical, and lost consciousness, according to the records. She awoke to discover she was being sexually assaulted by one man while being filmed by a video camera mounted near the ceiling. She said there were several monitors in the room and could see herself on them. The assault was interrupted by screams. “The two males left her to attend to a screaming voice. This brief lapse gave the victim time to gather her clothes and flee the residence'' during the Aug. 16, 2007, attack, according to the report. There was no elaboration in the report about the screams.
Benson, 35, was linked by police through DNA evidence to the sexual assault of four women, two of whom were strangled. The report specifies that both victims, Alisa Marie Beck and Karen Campbell, were murdered by ligature strangulation.
Benson recalled picking up Campbell near Main Street and Extension Road in Mesa and said he became enraged when she asked for more money than the agreed upon price for sex acts, according to the court records. He claims to have memory loss and waking up to find her dead. He grabbed her by the wrists and dragged her to his car. He then told police that he drove to a nearby side street.
“As he sped away, he heard a thud which he believes may have been from running her over,'' the court records said. Campbell was found dead Oct. 14, 2007.
Benson also admitted he had sex with Beck, who he picked up after he left a stripper bar. He told investigators he got angry with her during the sex act and that he choked her until she was unconscious.
He also said he grabbed her hair and hit her head against the steering wheel. Beck was found dead Nov. 1, 2004, in a Mesa alley.
The last attack attributed to Benson was the abduction and sexual assault of a Phoenix woman near Seventh Street and Osborn Road on Nov. 4. The victim told police she was attacked from behind by an Asian male, the report said.
“He subdued her by placing a cord over her neck then strangling her before being drug into a white car. She lost consciousness and does not recall what occurred at the time of the attack,'' the report said. Police said the woman was dumped near the spot where she was abducted and appeared to have been left for dead.
But it was the Aug. 16 attack, in which the victim escaped, that first led police to Benson. A “street source'' sent police to a pub in north Mesa, where they talked to Benson and discovered he drove a white car. Police discovered he had a history of prostitution arrests and put him under surveillance.
Police learned that Benson and his brother, Andrew, were living together at a north Mesa townhouse complex. They tracked Trent Benson to the Water and Ice store he owned in the 400 block of North Lindsay Road and saw him smoking outside throughout the day. Officers seized a cigarette butt outside the building.
Andrew Benson has not been named as a suspect and has not been arrested in the case.
The cigarette butt proved critical, because police found DNA evidence that linked Benson to all four attacks.
Officers served search warrants on Benson's house, car and business. They found handcuffs and took 15 videotapes, a video camera and computer equipment, among other things.
The court documents indicate that prosecutors believe that they eventually will seek the death penalty in the case.
Police wanted to keep the records sealed to protect the investigation, including information about a potential accomplice.

Las Vegas Mayor Thanks PSOC Instructors

2008-06-04T06:36:00.000-07:00

Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman (c.) called for a meeting with the instructors from the Protective Service Operator Course (PSOC) to discuss the success of training the Marshals who provide his daily protection.

Pictured (from right) Mike Gillette, Brian Hartman, Steve Krystek, and Brad Parker, graduated the mayor's protective detail from the most recent PSOC course in Las Vegas.

For a schedule of upcoming PFC courses, including PSOC, go to www.pfctraining.com.

Reasoning with evil

2008-06-04T06:35:00.001-07:00

"Great danger lies in the notion that we can reason with evil."

Doug Patton

Alpharetta woman's shouts help cops catch would-be rapist

2008-04-01T09:32:00.000-07:00

By MARCUS K. GARNERThe Atlanta Journal-ConstitutionPublished on: 03/31/08

An Alpharetta woman's struggle and shouts helped police arrest a would-be rapist Sunday night, authorities said."He was obviously going to drag this woman off and rape her," police spokesman George Gordon said. "We absolutely applaud the victim for fighting back and giving us time to get on the scene."

According to police reports, a man approached the victim just before 9:30 p.m. Sunday at the Westside Commons town home complex off Westside Parkway and Maxwell Road.As she unloaded groceries from her car, the man put a sweatshirt over her head and tried to drag her to a secluded area where his car was parked, the report stated.

But the victim, in her early 20s, put up a fight."She was kicking, scratching, screaming ... whatever it took," Gordon said.

The attacker let her go and ran back to his car. But the victim's commotion brought out neighbors to her aid. She ran to her home, and Gordon said several calls came in reporting the attack. Within minutes of the incident, police identified a man fitting the attacker's description, and tried to arrest him. The man attempted to fight off two officers, and had to be subdued with a stun gun, police said.

Officers found pepper spray, a box cutter and knit cap in his car.

The victim was treated for small cuts and bruises.

Arnold Ray Harris Jr., 30, of Atlanta was charged with kidnapping, battery and sexual battery. Harris' charges are felonies, and he could face up to 30 years in prison. He is being held at the Fulton County Jail in Atlanta.

"We're just glad to get him off the street," Gordon said.

Lessons from Meredith Emerson's Murder

2008-03-30T09:06:00.000-07:00

The savage and depraved murder of Meredith Emerson by Gary Hilton (see the whole story in the post below) in Georgia offers dramatic lessons for the rest of us.

First and foremost, Meredith's immediate and committed resistance almost allowed her to escape. The killer said she would not stop fighting and her continual resistance almost got the better of him.

Some important items to note:

Hilton targeted Meredith "because she was a woman". If you are female, you are at risk.
Meredith was hiking with her dog. While it's recommended that you hike or run with a dog, don't count on one for protection from an attack.
Hilton has done this before. He is also under indictment for a similar murder in Florida.
Hilton was armed with military-style knife and a baton. You should be trained and prepared to face an armed attacker.
Hilton told investigators. "She wouldn't stop fighting. And yelling at the same time. So I needed to both control her and silence her." This is the bad guy's prime goal at the time of attack.
Hilton initially controlled Meredith by repeatedly punching her in the face. If you Fight Like a Girl, you'll learn to protect your head while being able to attack his weakest spots with your strongest weapons.
Unfortunately, she allowed herself to be tied to a tree where Hilton eventually beat her to death with a tire iron and then decapitated her. Don't let your attacker take you somewhere or to tie you up, no matter what he promises. It's a bargain you're going to regret.
Hilton said he could not bring himself to kill Meredith's dog. But, he could "bring" himself to kill an innocent 24-year old woman. How can you attempt to reason with this type of deranged behavior? Don't count on being able to "talk your way out" of an attack.

Don't let Meredith's fight for her life be in vain. Learn from her situation. Get training in a realistic self-defense method.

RIP Meredith Emerson.

Killer says female hiker fought him to the end

2008-03-30T08:27:00.000-07:00

Drifter’s confession shows 24-year-old victim ‘nearly got the best of him’

ATLANTA (Assoc. Press) - Meredith Emerson (photo below) used her wits and martial arts training when she was attacked in the north Georgia mountains by a drifter who eventually killed and decapitated her, the convicted killer told investigators.

Gary Michael Hilton described his four days with Emerson, and how she fought him from the moment he tried to overpower her as she hiked with her dog, Ella, according to the interviews that The Atlanta Journal-Constitution obtained from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.

Hilton pleaded guilty to charges he killed Emerson and was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 30 years. He had agreed to lead investigators to her body if prosecutors didn't seek the death penalty. He also has been indicted in Florida in the slaying of another woman whose decapitated body was found in a forest on Dec. 15.
He told investigators he targeted the 24-year-old University of Georgia graduate because she was a woman.

For a time, they had hiked together on New Year's Day near the Appalachian Trail in Union County, but the 61-year-old Hilton couldn't keep up.

When Emerson turned and headed back down the trail, Hilton was waiting with a military-style knife. He demanded her ATM card and Emerson immediately went on the defensive, grabbing the blade and a baton Hilton used to counter her struggle.

"She wouldn't stop," Hilton (photo at right) told investigators. "She wouldn't stop fighting. And yelling at the same time. So I needed to both control her and silence her."

Police: ‘We didn’t get there in time’Hilton said he did that by punching her, blackening both her eyes and possibly breaking her nose. He said the blows also broke his hand.

When he thought he had worn her down, Emerson fought him again, he said.

Hilton said he calmed her down by telling her that he just wanted her credit card and PIN number, then avoided established trails as he led Emerson back down from the mountains and placed Emerson and her dog in his van.

Emerson bought herself three days by giving Hilton the wrong PIN for her ATM card, telling him each time that the numbers were correct.

On the day Hilton killed Emerson, he told her "she was going home." He secured her to a tree, walked back to his van to collect himself and make coffee, and when he returned, he said, Emerson told him: "I was afraid you weren't coming back."

He said he walked behind her and hit her several times with the handle from a car jack.
Hilton said he couldn't bring himself to kill Emerson's dog. When Bridges asked if Hilton had the same equivocations about Emerson, Hilton described the experience as "surreal."

"It was hard," Hilton told the investigator. "You gotta remember we had spent several good days together."

The concealed-carry bogeyman

2008-03-11T09:50:00.000-07:00

"Lots of kids, when very young, worry about monsters under the bed. Even when Mom or Dad comes in to reassure them, the kids may still worry. But as they get older, they begin to check under the bed themselves. And eventually, after many monster-free nights, they figure out that the danger is purely imaginary and they stop worrying. You would think by now that gun-control supporters would have made the same progress on one of their most fearsome demons: the licensing of citizens to carry concealed firearms. But they seem to be trapped in a recurring nightmare that exists only in their minds."

Steve Chapman, "Concealed weapons a threat - to ignorance", Baltimore Sun, Nov. 29, 2007

Unpredictability and vulnerability

2008-03-03T09:32:00.000-08:00

Remember that the professional may be predictable, but the world is full of amateurs.

So, while you work with and against "trained" fighters, your attacker will almost certainly be of the "untrained" variety. Does that make them less dangerous? Don't bet your life on it!

The street thug has learned his craft well, by actually employing his strategy against real victims in real circumstances. He knows what works and when it works, which gives him a huge dose of confidence.

Unorthodox or unexpected attacks can cause havoc with your "trained" responses.

I once saw Royce Gracie almost get KO'ed in a seminar (this was during the height of his UFC fighting days) when a raw beginner did a completely unexpected move and kneed Royce right in the face. The kid was not being malicious, it's just that he had no idea of what to do next so he did something completely unpredictable.

Expect the unexpected.

If you are female, you're at risk

2008-01-17T21:30:00.000-08:00

I've talked with a number of women who brush off their chances of being raped.

"I'm too old to be raped". Or too heavy. Or not attractive enough. Similar variations on these themes.

But the reality is, if you are a female, you are at risk. Take the case two days ago in New York when a 59-year-old woman was raped when a masked man pushed his way into her house after she answered the door. There have been cases of women in their 80s and 90s who have been attacked, raped and robbed.

Why do the rapists do it? Because they can and they know that you cannot or will not stop them.

Don't brush off the threat no matter your age, your looks, your weight, your location.

Be aware, get trained, stay on guard.

U.S. Prosecutor Accused of Seeking Sex With Girl, 5

2008-01-01T09:39:00.000-08:00

Fox News
DETROIT — A U.S. prosecutor was arrested in an Internet sting operation after flying from Florida to Michigan allegedly to have sex with a 5-year-old girl, officials said.
John David Roy Atchison, 53, appeared Monday in U.S. District Court in Detroit on a charge of interstate travel to have sex with a minor. He is an assistant U.S. attorney in northern Florida.
The arrest followed several weeks of Internet conversations between the prosecutor and a detective posing as the mother of a 5-year-old girl, authorities say.
The prosecutor is charged with using interstate communication to entice a minor to have sexual contact and with traveling across state lines with the intent of engaging in illicit sexual contact. The charges carry a possible sentence of up to 30 years in prison.
Atchison, of Gulf Breeze, Fla., was arrested Sunday at Detroit Metropolitan Airport as part of an undercover sting operation by the Macomb Area Computer Enforcement Team.
"There wasn't much reaction from him at all," said Macomb County Sheriff Mark Hackel, whose department runs the team. He said Atchison was cooperative with authorities.
Atchison brought a Dora the Explorer doll, hoop earrings and petroleum jelly with him from Florida, the Detroit Free Press reported.
Click here to read the Detroit Free Press report.
According to court records, Atchison initiated an online chat Aug. 29 with an undercover officer posing as a mother interested in letting men have sex with her daughter.
In several conversations, he said he wanted to have oral, vaginal and anal sex with the woman's fictitious daughter, Hackel said.
"I'm always gentle and loving; not to worry; no damage ever; no rough stuff ever ever," Atchison said at one point, according to an affidavit filed in court.
"I've done it plenty," he said.
Hackel said his department brought in federal authorities after it became clear that the case involved an out-of-state suspect.
The arrest has come as a shock in Florida, where Atchison is president of a community sports organization, the Gulf Breeze Sports Association, where girls as young as 4 can participate in the soccer program.
Teresa Hawthorne, the organization's youth sports coordinator, told FOXNews.com no one from the association would comment on the case.
Atchison was a soccer and baseball coach, Lt. Rick Hawthorne of the Gulf Breeze police told the Detroit News.
Click here to read the Detroit News report.
"I'm shocked," Edwin "Buz" Eddy, the city manager of Gulf Breeze told the Pensacola News Journal. "That's about all I can say. I hope this is something that can be cleared up by some explanation. What that might be, I don't know."
Eddy told the paper that he had known Atchison for more than a decade and considered him a "pillar of the community."
Click here to read the Pensacola News Journal report.
Atchison's wife is a science teacher at Gulf Breeze High School.
The couple have three children high school age or older, according to the Detroit News.
The fact that an Internet child sex suspect is a law enforcement official shouldn't be unexpected, Hackel said.
"The people who are doing it come from all walks of life," the sheriff said. "It doesn't surprise us anymore."
Atchison asked for a court-appointed lawyer. A detention hearing was scheduled for Tuesday.

NYC Cop Charged With Raping Teen Karate Student

2008-01-01T09:34:00.000-08:00

Friday, December 28, 2007
Associated Press

MIDDLETOWN, N.Y. — A New York City police officer is accused of raping a teenage student in his martial arts school during a sexual relationship he claimed was one of the school's rites, police said Friday.
Middletown police said Trent Young, 39, sexually abused and then began having sex with the 15-year-old girl, a student at Iron Tiger Martial Arts in West Milford, N.J., in 2005.
Young, who also teaches karate at his Middletown home, was arrested Thursday on his way to work and charged in Orange County Court with felony counts of second- and third-degree rape, police said. He was free on bail Friday.
The girl told police she'd been a student at Iron Tiger for a year when Young asked her to sign an oath of obedience in 2005. She told police that Young made her take off all of her clothes as part of the oath, and then sexually abused her. She said he then told her to get dressed and that the encounter was part of a test.
Young then began a sexual relationship with the girl, leading her to believe it was part of the karate school's program, police said. Young is accused of having sex with her 20-40 times at various locations, including his home and at the school.
Investigators said Young told a second 15-year-old to take off her clothes as part of her obedience oath, but she refused.
There was no answer at Iron Tiger Martial Arts Friday and police were not sure who is representing Young in court.
The New York City Police Department declined comment Friday, but Middletown police said Young has been with the NYPD for nine years and worked in the 26th Precinct in upper Manhattan.

Disengage Safely from the Fight

2007-12-17T19:28:00.000-08:00

"The greatest danger occurs at the moment of victory."

Napoleon Bonaparte

The argument or fight is over. You've either won or gained a position of tactical superiority (a good break in the action when you've got an advantage) and you feel it's time to go to a safe place or call the police.

Be careful here. There are plenty of real-world examples of the good guys getting clocked by the bad guy, who just seconds before was pleading for mercy. You turn to leave and -- BAM! Blindsided.

You have to "remain" in the fight long enough to make a safe withdrawal:

Don't relinquish your superior position until you are sure he cannot counterattack;
Don't turn your back on the attacker when leaving;
Don't let your guard down as you round the block, get into your car or even while driving home;
At the first safe opportunity, call the proper authorities to summon police or emergency medical services if needed;
Keep your mental guard up the next couple of days in the event that your attacker is planning an act of revenge (sometimes called a "comeback").

Okay, Brad, what exactly do you mean?

Let's say you've been confronted by an unarmed adversary. You've tried to talk your way out of the situation. You've even tried leaving (or you are in a position where you cannot leave). The situation is rapidly deteriorating and it's apparent that he is going to try to grab or hit you.

Get your hands up to cover your face and your centerline and move backwards to gain distance (good) or circle away from his strong hand (better).

If he is, in fact, going to attack you he MUST close the distance between you two. If he doesn't close, then he's simply woofing.

Here's one scenario:

I keep my hands up;
I move off at an angle forcing him to turn and track me for his attack;
When he launches his attack, I do a foot check to his front leg and aggressively move into a clinch;
I get to the side to evade his blows and decide to tactically disengage or, if he's still attacking, take him down. If he has friends or I'm in an unfriendly place, I want to use a takedown that allows me to dump him and remain standing. If it's just him and I'm not liable to get stomped by the crowd, I might decide to take him down and follow him to the ground (many times you don't have a choice and you both end up going down in the tussle);
I work to gain superior position on top (knee ride, side mount, top mount);
I work for his back by persuading him to roll over onto his stomach (by either manipulating one of his arms or some slaps to his face);
I can now be temporarily safe from his blows when I have his back. The level at which you feel you will be seriously hurt or even killed will dictate what you do from here. At the lower levels of force you might elect to disengage without further techniques. At the higher levels of force you might be required to strike the guy to end the attack or apply a neck restraint;

Now -- here is the critical part. You feel like you are temporarily safe or you've "won". You stand up looking down at your vanquished foe. That's when he rolls over and kicks you in the groin, throws dirt in your face, pulls a weapon, gloms onto you and beats/stabs/kicks/shoots you to pieces.

Be careful. When you get up off of his back, keep your weight on him. Keep your weight centered on your chest in the middle of his back, swing both your legs to one side of him and assume a push up (press up for our UK friends) position on him.

Pull one leg up under you (like a sprinters start position) and quickly push off of the attacker. You keep your weight on him to pin him to the ground until you and press off and gain distance from him.

Keep your guard up and retreat.

When there is trouble and you are not professionally required to stay and resolve the issue or protect someone, I would recommend you leave as soon as safely possible. You have an altercation, he gets kicked out. You stay to party (Hey, why should I be the one who has to go?) and he comes back with his friends (human) or his special friends (Smith and Wesson).

Disengage safely and live to party another day.

3 Arrested in Holloway Case

2007-11-21T15:43:00.000-08:00

ORANJESTAD, Aruba - Three young men previously detained as suspects in the 2005 disappearance of American teenager Natalee Holloway were re-arrested Wednesday, the Aruban public prosecutor's office said, citing new evidence in the case.

Joran van der Sloot of the Netherlands and two Surinamese brothers, Satish and Deepak Kalpoe, were arrested on suspicion of involvement in voluntary manslaughter and causing serious bodily harm that resulted in the death of Holloway, the prosecutor's office said in a statement.
Holloway, of Mountain Brook, Ala., was last seen leaving a bar with the three men on May 30, 2005, hours before she was scheduled to board a plane home with high school classmates celebrating their graduation on the Dutch Caribbean island. She was 18 at the time.

W.E. C.A.R.E. Kids Program Instructors

2007-10-15T21:42:00.000-07:00

Bruce Gunderson is now offering to certify instructors in the Winning Edge Child Awareness Rapid Escape (W.E. C.A.R.E.). The program is designed to teach three different age groups of children in safety, awareness and physical escape techniques designed to defeat abduction attempts.

Contact Bruce or Kelly Gunderson at 847-292-0900 or 630-567-7686 or email at BruceGunderson@TheWinningEdgeGroup.com or KellyGunderson@TheWinningEdgeGroup.com

It's not if, but when

2007-10-06T10:28:00.000-07:00

It was incredibly uncomfortable as she recounted her tale to us, because you could see her reliving the fear. Her young teenaged son nervously looked down and shuffled his feet as we listened.

A woman came into Bruce Gunderson's school with her son, who was a former karate student, to ask for our advice on a situation.

She and her family had been hassled, intimidated, then physically attacked by a group of young men at a resort -- a resort that she had specifically picked out because it was in a safe part of a safe country.

This woman had planned a family vacation for her Chicago-area family at a very upscale French resort which is known to be frequented by mostly French. She indicated that she chose that very resort because it was considered safe.

At some point a group of young men began verbally intimidating the family and then culminated in a physical confrontation and attack in a laundry room. The details of the attack were jumbled by this woman's outright shock of the situation, "This was not supposed to happen here!", she said choked with emotion.

It sounded like the confrontation escalated in a couple of different areas by the group whose leader appeared to be drunk. The woman indicated that at one point she physically placed herself in between her husband and the big mouth because "I felt that he wouldn't hit a woman". We won't go into the tactical pitfalls of this move because that's not the point of this post.

The point is -- don't wonder IF your next confrontation is going to occur. Wonder WHEN it's going to occur.

This family picked a French resort, visited by French locals precisely because it is considered to be safe. Yet, they were attacked by a group of French men. The denial that was occuring was palpable, "I specifically chose this resort so this wouldn't happen!" She said she was further upset because none of the other guests would help them and the police took an intolerable length of time to respond.

Why was this family attacked? Was it because of increasing anti-Americanism in Europe? Or was it simply because the group of toughs could? Who knows and who cares. YOU are responsible for your own safety and the safety of your family. You can't count on others to help you.

Your attitude (or "mindset") plays a huge part in your ability to react. If you have the mindset that I am willing to fight for my family WHEN we get hassled or attacked you don't have to sit around and fret whether or not you MIGHT be attacked.

Brian Hartman at PFC Training teaches his students during his "Searching for Adversaries" class to go into a building expecting to find a bad guy, not wondering if you might find one hiding therein.

Relson Gracie, in the indomitable Gracie family fashion, tells anyone stupid enough to hassle him, "I don't fight for free." The meaning should be clear. If someone attacks his family, the message is even more concise, "It's a good day to die, man."

I remember Jim Peterson from the old SCARS tapes making a similar point about deciding beforehand what you are willing to fight for.

Make the decision now, not then -- "I love my family. I will fight for my family if someone attacks us." Don't worry about being embarrassed. Don't worry about the legalities. Don't worry if it will happen or not.

Think about it for a moment because this shift in your mindset is incredibly liberating. Now I don't have to worry about being attacked. In my training method we already have a plan (I know WHAT to do) and I have a specific trigger point to set off the plan (I know WHEN to do it). But I don't have to wonder every minute what to do if there is trouble.

There is either going to be trouble or there is not going to be trouble. That's it. Either I'm under attack or I'm not. I don't have to waste precious energy and time worrying about a non-existent situation.

It's not IF you are going to be attacked, but WHEN you are going to be attacked.

Train hard.

Who is going to stand up for you?

2007-10-06T09:52:00.000-07:00

Last year, 54-year old Guido Demoor was working his job as a conductor on a train in Antwerp, Belgium. Six youths got on the train and began intimidating the riders on the train. Demoor asked the young men to knock it off. They promptly began to beat Demoor.

None of the other 40 passengers did anything to intervene. In fact, at the next stop 30 of them actually got off the train, leaving Demoor to be beaten to death by the six youths.

Forty people sat there and did nothing as a decent person was kicked and punched to death. I'm sure the passengers were scared, terrified in fact, of the event unfolding before their eyes. Nonetheless, to be so impotent as to offer nothing to help a fellow citizen?

A clue into the local mindset comes from a fellow rail worker quoted in the paper, De Morgen, "You see what happens if you intervene? If Guido had not opened his mouth he would still be alive."

I see two lessons from these kinds of stories:

1. You can not count on help from anyone during your particular physical confrontation. You have to manage it yourself and continue as if you will not receive any help. The police will not be there (bad guys have an annoying habit of perpetrating their crime when the cops are not around) and people walking around you may not have the skill or the will to help you. You have to startle onlookers out of their paralysis by loudly and clearly giving orders -- "YOU, call the police!" "YOU TWO, pull these guys off me!" Start to call for help on your mobile, on your radio, or even just out loud. You need to divide the attention of your attackers, enlist help and put the thought that help could be coming into the attackers' minds.

2. Make the conviction now, that you will stand up to the forces of evil and come to the aid of your neighbors. Now. You can't wait until the crisis occurs because you will be overwhelmed by the situation. Make the commitment. I will stand up for my neighbors. There is strength in numbers. If we saw any positive come out of Sept. 11, 2001, it was the manifistation of good standing up to evil on Flight 93. The actions of those passengers -- a completely disparate bunch of strangers congealed into a single group by need -- probably saved either the U.S. Capitol or the White House and offered us a glimpse of the heroic heights ordinary people could attain. If you do not stand up for your neighbors, who will stand up for you?

Instructor Certification Courses Set for November

2007-09-21T00:13:00.000-07:00

People wishing to be certified as women's self-defense instructors in the Fight Like a Girl module and the Girls on Guard module have a couple of options in November.

Phoenix is the location for certification courses Nov. 3 and 4.

New York is the location for certification courses Nov. 10 and 11.

There will probably be a Defense Against Weapons and a Weapons for Women certification course in Phoenix in March and we are planning to go to Ireland and England in the spring for additional certification courses.

New Senior Instructors Named

2007-09-02T19:03:00.000-07:00

Six new senior instructors have come out of the Aug. 25 Weapons for Women instructor certification course in Chicago.

Bruce Gunderson, Shannon Mahoney, Ellen McGrath, Mark Grove, Maire Dempsey, and Dave Scorza are all certified Rape Escape instructors and their certification in this course makes all of them Senior Instructors. A Senior Instructor is an instructor who is certified to teach four or more Defend University modules.

The Weapons for Women course teaches students how to use commonly found weapons for self-defense, how to use a weapon that has been taken away from an armed attacker and how to keep an attacker from taking your weapon.

Additional instructor certification courses are being planned for the Phoenix area this fall. Interested candidates can sign up for more information on the Rape Escape web site at www.rapeescape.com.

Don't fight fair

2007-09-02T18:47:00.000-07:00

Always cheat. Always win.

The only unfair fight is the one you lose.

Big Government

2007-09-02T18:46:00.000-07:00

A government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong enough to take everything you have.

Thomas Jefferson

Victims had chance at attacker's gun

2007-08-08T11:32:00.000-07:00

During the trial of Mark Goudeau, known as the "Baseline Killer, " testimony from two of his victims revealed that they both had opportunities to turn the tables on him with his own gun.

The sisters were walking home from a park when they were suddently confronted by a man wielding a gun. He took them into the bushes and assaulted them. The sisters recounted how the attacker made them remove their clothes and then get on the ground where he took turns attacking them repeatedly.

As one of the victims was being raped she said, "He told me not to open my eyes, but I did. And I looked toward the wall and saw the gun was there. I grabbed it."

During the attacks both of the sisters wrestled with the with the attacker over the gun, each of them getting it at some point.

Unfortunately, the attacker retreived the handgun each time and continued his attack.

Mark Goudeau, 42, is on trial facing 19 counts of sexual assault, sexual abuse, kidnapping and aggravated assault stemming from this attack which happened in September 2005.

Goudeau is facing 74 additional counts, including nine murders.

Kelsey Smith Found Dead

2007-06-06T22:52:00.000-07:00

You knew it was going to end this way.

Kelsey Smith's body was found at a lake in Grandview, Mo. after her abduction Saturday at an Oveland Park, Kan., Target parking lot.

Surveillance video shows her being forced into her car in the parking lot in much the same way that Meagan Holden was abducted from a Wal-Mart parking lot -- as she opens her car door and begins to load packages, the attacker runs up behind her and forces her in.

Sadly, she's never seen alive again. Kelsey had just graduated from high school. A beautiful girl with a full life ahead of her, but snuffed out by an evil predator. Police have made an arrest in the case -- Edwin R. Hall, 26, of Olathe. Apparently, he was identified from the store's surveillance video.

It could have been different for Kelsey and it doesn't have to happen to you or one of your loved ones.

Being taken to what cops call a secondary crime scene almost always means you are not coming back. Learn to resist being forced into a car, truck or van at all costs.

The Fight Like a Girl module that is taught in the Women's Empowerment Series uses the DON'T GO concept to counter just this kind of attack. Parking lots are transiatory areas and offer good hunting grounds for predators.

DON'T GO!

If Kelsey had only known how to resist, this story could be different.

Tolerance

2007-05-07T08:53:00.001-07:00

"Tolerance is the virtue of a man without convictions."

G.K. Chesterton

Nugent: Gun-free zones are recipe for disaster

2007-05-02T16:08:00.000-07:00

By Ted Nugent
Special to CNN

Editor's note: Rock guitarist Ted Nugent has sold more than 30 million albums. He's also a gun rights activist and serves on the board of directors of the National Rifle Association. His program, "Ted Nugent Spirit of the Wild," can be seen on the Outdoor Channel. Read an opposing take on gun control from journalist Tom Plate: Let's lay down our right to bear arms

WACO, Texas (CNN) -- Zero tolerance, huh? Gun-free zones, huh? Try this on for size: Columbine gun-free zone, New York City pizza shop gun-free zone, Luby's Cafeteria gun-free zone, Amish school in Pennsylvania gun-free zone and now Virginia Tech gun-free zone.
Anybody see what the evil Brady Campaign and other anti-gun cults have created? I personally have zero tolerance for evil and denial. And America had best wake up real fast that the brain-dead celebration of unarmed helplessness will get you killed every time, and I've about had enough of it.

Nearly a decade ago, a Springfield, Oregon, high schooler, a hunter familiar with firearms, was able to bring an unfolding rampage to an abrupt end when he identified a gunman attempting to reload his .22-caliber rifle, made the tactical decision to make a move and tackled the shooter.
A few years back, an assistant principal at Pearl High School in Mississippi, which was a gun-free zone, retrieved his legally owned Colt .45 from his car and stopped a Columbine wannabe from continuing his massacre at another school after he had killed two and wounded more at Pearl.
At an eighth-grade school dance in Pennsylvania, a boy fatally shot a teacher and wounded two students before the owner of the dance hall brought the killing to a halt with his own gun.
More recently, just a few miles up the road from Virginia Tech, two law school students ran to fetch their legally owned firearm to stop a madman from slaughtering anybody and everybody he pleased. These brave, average, armed citizens neutralized him pronto.

My hero, Dr. Suzanne Gratia Hupp, was not allowed by Texas law to carry her handgun into Luby's Cafeteria that fateful day in 1991, when due to bureaucrat-forced unarmed helplessness she could do nothing to stop satanic George Hennard from killing 23 people and wounding more than 20 others before he shot himself. Hupp was unarmed for no other reason than denial-ridden "feel good" politics.

She has since led the charge for concealed weapon upgrade in Texas, where we can now stop evil. Yet, there are still the mindless puppets of the Brady Campaign and other anti-gun organizations insisting on continuing the gun-free zone insanity by which innocents are forced into unarmed helplessness. Shame on them. Shame on America. Shame on the anti-gunners all.
No one was foolish enough to debate Ryder truck regulations or ammonia nitrate restrictions or a "cult of agriculture fertilizer" following the unabashed evil of Timothy McVeigh's heinous crime against America on that fateful day in Oklahoma City. No one faulted kitchen utensils or other hardware of choice after Jeffrey Dahmer was caught drugging, mutilating, raping, murdering and cannibalizing his victims. Nobody wanted "steak knife control" as they autopsied the dead nurses in Chicago, Illinois, as Richard Speck went on trial for mass murder.

Evil is as evil does, and laws disarming guaranteed victims make evil people very, very happy. Shame on us.

Already spineless gun control advocates are squawking like chickens with their tiny-brained heads chopped off, making political hay over this most recent, devastating Virginia Tech massacre, when in fact it is their own forced gun-free zone policy that enabled the unchallenged methodical murder of 32 people.

Thirty-two people dead on a U.S. college campus pursuing their American Dream, mowed-down over an extended period of time by a lone, non-American gunman in possession of a firearm on campus in defiance of a zero-tolerance gun ban. Feel better yet? Didn't think so.
Who doesn't get this? Who has the audacity to demand unarmed helplessness? Who likes dead good guys?

I'll tell you who. People who tramp on the Second Amendment, that's who. People who refuse to accept the self-evident truth that free people have the God-given right to keep and bear arms, to defend themselves and their loved ones. People who are so desperate in their drive to control others, so mindless in their denial that they pretend access to gas causes arson, Ryder trucks and fertilizer cause terrorism, water causes drowning, forks and spoons cause obesity, dialing 911 will somehow save your life, and that their greedy clamoring to "feel good" is more important than admitting that armed citizens are much better equipped to stop evil than unarmed, helpless ones.

Pray for the families of victims everywhere, America. Study the methodology of evil. It has a profile, a system, a preferred environment where victims cannot fight back. Embrace the facts, demand upgrade and be certain that your children's school has a better plan than Virginia Tech or Columbine. Eliminate the insanity of gun-free zones, which will never, ever be gun-free zones. They will only be good guy gun-free zones, and that is a recipe for disaster written in blood on the altar of denial. I, for one, refuse to genuflect there.

Kansas City mall shooter had a plan to 'cause havoc'

2007-04-30T15:40:00.000-07:00

Associated Press
Apr. 30, 2007 02:59 PM

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - A former Target employee who was turned down for a private security license and planned to "cause havoc" was identified Monday as the man suspected of killing two people in a crowded mall parking lot before he was shot by police.

David W. Logsdon, 51, had been stopped by police while driving the car of his next-door neighbor, who police had found dead in her home hours earlier. Police did not say how Patricia Ann Reed, 67, died or if Logsdon was a suspect in her death, but they believed the events were connected.

"David Logsdon had a plan," police chief James Corwin said. "And that plan was that he had been an employee of that Target store and had been turned down for a private security license. His objective was to go to the mall and cause havoc."

Logsdon applied for a private security permit from the police department, but was turned down because he had two outstanding city warrants, police said.

After the officer pulled Logsdon over Sunday, police say he shot the officer in the arm. The officer, whose wound was not life-threatening, returned fire and shattered the window of the gunman's car.

Logsdon drove to the shopping center, fatally shot two people in the parking lot and wounded several others, then went inside the mall where he was killed by police, authorities said. Corwin said bomb squad crews were also called to Logsdon's home Monday after police reported his house had been "booby-trapped with a self-made bomb." Police ordered a voluntary evacuation of the immediate area, a suburban residential area of lower income homes and apartments.

Gunman, 2 others killed in Kansas City shooting

2007-04-30T10:16:00.000-07:00

Associated PressApr. 30, 2007 12:00 AM

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - A gunman shot a police officer then opened fire in a parking lot and a mall Sunday, authorities said. By the time the violence was over, the shooter and two other people were dead.
The gunman was shot to death inside Ward Parkway Center in south Kansas City, police spokesman Tony Sanders said.
He was apparently killed by police gunfire, officials said.
Police said the violence began early Sunday afternoon, when they went to a home to check on a woman relatives hadn't seen for days. The victim was found dead and her car missing, Sanders said.
The car was spotted later in the day by an officer, who pulled the driver over and was shot in the arm, police said. The officer, whose wound was not life-threatening, returned fire.
The car took off and was spotted later at the shopping center. The man fatally shot two people in the parking lot, then went inside the mall and fired more shots, wounding at least two others, Sanders said.
Target employee Caffie Bradshaw, 19, said she was in a break room with two other people when they heard shots. She said co-workers saw a White man with a rifle who was "spraying bullets."

____

At this early juncture, it would appear that the criminal was actually stopped by police response. Nice. Although most active shooter scenarios are NOT stopped by the intervention of police officers, it looks like the officers on scene responded quickly. News footage that I saw yesterday showed officers sprinting into the mall. A decidedly different image than other incidents (like Virginia Tech) where officers were taking up defensive positions behind trees and patrol cars.

Copy Cats Coming out After Virginia Tech

2007-04-27T09:16:00.000-07:00

Keep your guard up at work. Following highly publicized events, there is always an increase in copy cat threats.

It's already started after Virginia Tech -- an employee at SeaWorld in Orlando threatened to go on a shooting rampage and then, after he was fired, threatened to come back to blow up the park.

Twenty-year-old Gilbert Alexander Garcia admitted that he told a co-worker, "I am going to do what happened at Virginia Tech here at SeaWorld," and that he idolized the shooter, Seung-Hui Cho, who killed 32 people on April 16, according to an Orange County sheriff's report.

Two hours after Garcia was fired and escorted off SeaWorld premises, a co-worker recorded a phone call with Garcia, who said he was mad about being fired and was "going to blow up SeaWorld."

Garcia, was arrested a few hours later at his home and charged with threatening a place with a destructive device, a felony. Deputies found several baseball bats and a knife in Garcia's car, but no firearms.

Don't fall into the trap of thinking that "it can't happen here." Have a plan. If you are a professional, get your plan in place and rehearse.

Dig your well before you are thirsty.

Cho Killed 30 in 9 Minutes

2007-04-25T14:24:00.000-07:00

You've heard the numbers before -- most active-shooter scenarios last between 4 and 17 minutes...

According the the Associated Press, initial police estimations are that the Virginia Tech murderer, Cho, killed 30 of his victims in the engineering within nine minutes.

Nine minutes.

Is nine minutes a short time or a long time? Depends on which side of the equation you are on. If you are a campus cop or local constable, then nine minutes is a flash when you have to respond to a confusing and chaotic situation that may be completely across campus. It's impossible for the SWAT team to suit-up and deploy in that time frame.

It's an eternity if you are one of the students trapped in the engineering building. You hear the loud shots ringing out. All of you look at each other, what is that -- gunshots? You are trapped in a classroom that only has one doorway. Do you flee? Do you hide under a desk? Your mind is reeling, what are you supposed to do?

Some witnesses reported several encounters with Cho as he approached, tried the classroom door handle, and returned to shoot into the classroom door. That entire cycle could have happened in just 20 or 30 seconds. Think about how long it must have felt like during that entire massacre. Cho may have fired anywhere from 50 to 170 shots during that time.

Nine minutes and 30 students lay dead.

We've said it before and we'll say it again -- the cops can't save you during an active-shooter scenario. There's just not enough time.

You have to save yourself.

Road deaths No. 1 killer of the young

2007-04-20T13:37:00.000-07:00

Washington Post
Apr. 20, 2007 12:00 AM

WASHINGTON - Traffic injuries are the leading cause of death in people ages 10 to 24 around the world - a huge, overlooked and largely preventable public health problem, the World Health Organization said Thursday.

In a new report, the organization promoted a long list of suggestions to developing countries, where most of the deaths and disabling injuries occur. The improvements include safer roads and vehicles, better urban planning, helmet laws, prosecution of speeders and drunken drivers, better education of the driving and walking public, and simple interventions such as putting reflective tape on backpacks.

"It is a big public health issue for kids, and we can do something about it," said Etienne Krug, a physician who heads WHO's department for injury and violence prevention.

About 30 percent of all traffic deaths worldwide - roughly 400,000 each year - are of people younger than 25. Although teenage and young-adult drivers are at greatest risk, younger age groups also have high mortality. In 2002, traffic injuries were the third leading cause of death for children ages 5 to 9, behind pneumonia and AIDS. About 46 percent of traffic deaths in sub-Saharan Africa occurred in that age group that year.

Woman Raped, Tortured Over 19 Hours

2007-04-20T13:34:00.002-07:00

Tom HaysAssociated Press
Apr. 20, 2007 12:00 AM

NEW YORK - It was an ordeal that lasted 19 hours. In that span, a man bound a Columbia University graduate student in her apartment, raped her, doused her with hot water and bleach, slit her eyelids and finally set a fire before fleeing, police said.

Police pressed a manhunt for the assailant in the April 13 attack, with investigators hoping any surviving DNA and a $12,000 reward for information leading to an arrest would produce fresh leads.

The victim, who managed to free herself before the fire spread, was still in the hospital Thursday, police said.

The woman was nearing completion of her degree at the Graduate School of Journalism when the attack occurred at her apartment more than 20 blocks north of the Ivy League campus in upper Manhattan, classmates have said. Dozens paid tribute to her Monday with a candlelight vigil.

Female students throughout the school were rattled, especially because the attacker is still on the loose, said Lindsay Miller, 23, an architecture student who, like the victim, lives blocks from the campus.

Witnesses told police they had spotted the attacker loitering around the victim's building on the night of the attack. At about 9:30 p.m., he slipped inside, got on an elevator with her and pushed a button for a different floor than hers, police said. He followed her out of the elevator and pretended like he was lost, police said. Then he followed her to her apartment door and forced his way inside, where he beat her.

Over the next several hours, he raped her on her futon bed, tied her up with computer cables, force fed her drugs and alcohol and used a knife to slit her eyelids, police said.
Before fleeing at about 4:30 p.m. Saturday, he ignited a corner of the futon, unknowingly providing his victim a means to escape and get help from a building handyman, police said.

"It appears she was able to escape as a result of the fire," Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said. "She was tied, and the flame was used by her to break the bond."

Investigators recovered a videotape from a neighboring market showing the suspected attacker walking in.

Vulnerable Society

2007-04-20T13:34:00.001-07:00

"A free society is open, and an open society is vulnerable."

Robert Robb

Virginia Tech Murderer

2007-04-19T15:52:00.000-07:00

"Let's also drop the nearly universal moral absurdity of counting murderers among the dead. As of this writing, eight hours after the massacre, I see on all the networks "32 dead." It should read "31 murdered." I do not know when exactly this notion of counting murderers along with their victims began, but it is a moral travesty.

"No news organization would have imagined giving the number of dead at Pearl Harbor so as to include Japanese pilots shot down. But in our age of moral neutrality, all dead are given equal weight -- the terrorist along with his victims; the shooter along with the students.

"Why is the Virginia Tech murderer always referred to as the 'gunman' and not the 'murderer'? Had he stabbed a dozen students to death, would he be the 'knifeman'?

"And why is it always referred to as a 'tragedy'? Virginia Tech wasn't hit by a cyclone. That would be a tragedy. This was evil. Call it that."

Dennis Prager

Wanted: A culture of self-defense

2007-04-19T15:28:00.000-07:00

Wanted: A culture of self-defense

By Michelle Malkin
Wednesday, April 18, 2007

There's no polite way or time to say it: American colleges and universities have become coddle industries. Big Nanny administrators oversee speech codes, segregated dorms, politically correct academic departments and designated "safe spaces" to protect students selectively from hurtful (conservative) opinions -- while allowing mob rule for approved leftist positions (textbook case: Columbia University's anti-Minuteman Project protesters).
Instead of teaching students to defend their beliefs, American educators shield them from vigorous intellectual debate. Instead of encouraging autonomy, our higher institutions of learning stoke passivity and conflict-avoidance.
And as the erosion of intellectual self-defense goes, so goes the erosion of physical self-defense.

Get the whole article here.

Eyewitness Accounts at Virginia Tech

2007-04-19T13:18:00.000-07:00

Check out these eyewitness accounts:

"I saw bullets hit people's bodies. There was blood everywhere. People in the class were passed out, I don't know whether from shock or pain. But I was one of only four that made it out of that classroom. The rest were dead or injured." [The shooter looked like]"just a normal looking kid, Asian, but he had on a Boy Scout type outfit. He wore a tan button up vest, and this black vest, maybe it was for ammo or something."

"[I was listening to my iPod when I heard] a big bang. I recognized the sound of gunfire but was mostly confused .... I looked around at the other students on the drillfield, most of them confused like myself....it clicked in everyone's head immediately the sound we heard was a gun shot and everyone started running. I went back to the dorm, locked the door, and turned on the news."

"[We were walking to class when] we heard a couple gunshots and we started running. Everyone was sprinting away. There were literally, like, 300, 400 students just running away from the site. They just told us all to get going, and we started running."

"He (Cho, the murderer)looked, I guess you could say, serious. He didn't look frightened at all, he didn't look angry. Just a straight face. He didn't say a single word the whole time. He didn't say get down, he didn't say anything. He just came in and started shooting."

"I was in class when we heard loud bangs coming from the hallway. The girl sitting by the door peeked out and saw the shooter, so she immediately closed the door. Three other students moved a table and barricaded the door. A few seconds later, the shooter tried to open the door, but my classmates kept it well shut. The shooter shot the door twice, one of which hit the podium in the front of the classroom and the other continued out the window. At this point he reloaded, shot the door again - this shot did not penetrate - and moved on to the other classrooms. Thankfully, nobody in our room was hurt. The shooting continued for several minutes, until the police arrived, and the shooter must have shot at least 80-100 rounds. As we heard the police arrive outside the building, the shooting continued, and the officers eventually came through the building. Even though it seemed to take quite a long time, the timer on my phone seemed to indicate that the whole sequence of events was over in only 25 minutes."

"I was working in my office and then I heard three "bang bang bang" sounds and I looked outside and I saw a bunch of police officers, guns drawn, hiding behind trees."

"We [saw armed police officers running by and we] were like, 'What's going on?' Because this definitely is a quaint town where stuff doesn't really happen. It's pretty boring here."

"[We initially thought the gunshots were construction noise until we heard screaming and police officers with bulletproof vests and machine guns entered our classroom]. "They were telling us to put our hands above our head and if we didn't cooperate and put our hands above our heads they would shoot. I guess they were afraid, like us, like the shooter was going to be among one of us."

"...she was in class and they heard a banging, her teacher opened the door to find out what was going on, and after not seeing anything, closed the door. Not more than two seconds later, a gunman entered her room, to which the class responded by getting underneath the desks and basicly hiding as well as possible from this guy. He then shot at the class somewhere between 8 to 12 times and then left. She said that the gunman, who looked Asian, left and She and another classmate barricaded the door while others attended to the wounded and injured. The gunman came back and tried to get in, but because of the barricade couldn't and proceeded to shoot at the door at hip level, while kate was and the other classmates were at ground level."

Source: Various published accounts

You have to save yourself

2007-04-17T15:52:00.000-07:00

According to the Secret Service, most mass shootings -- when not ended by the criminal's suicide -- were ended by citizens intervening. This means the minority of situations were resolved by the police.

You cannot count on the campus cops to help you. Or the city/county/state SWAT team to help you. Even if they can find where the shooter is on a sprawling campus, they won't be able to make it in time.

You have to have the will and the skill to save yourself when no one else can save you.

The heroic actions of the passengers on Flight 93 on 9-11-01 changed our way of thinking about resisting against skyjackers/terrorists.

I contend that the horrific murders at Virginia Tech on 4-16-07 will change the way we think about resisting active shooters at schools.

World's Greatest Shooter: Competition Good Test of Ability

2007-04-16T22:23:00.000-07:00

"I recently ran a class of military shooters and among other things, ran them through the IDPA classifier, participated in a local steel match and shot the Arizona State IDPA Championships!

Let me share with you some interesting observations. They get more wound up and nervous in a match than they do in combat! Why? Because they have time to think about it and get tense! I respect these guys opinion more than ANY so-called tactician out there who is sure he knows the tricks to surviving an armed confrontation. These guys have been doing that a bunch lately, and think IDPA and IPSC shooting both offer much to the testing phase of ones' ability.

On the other hand, they--to a man--do not agree with the philosophies that either is inherently more practical. All the little things like which way do you turn or where you do the load is all something that we can discuss all day on the range, but on the battlefield, men do things that may not be considered practical or tactical and live because they did it fast, accurately and decisively. On the other hand, there are those who did it "right" by some folks judgment and still lost. We all have our ideas of how it should be done, and the rules of the existing games are just that, someone's ideas.

To say going to any kind of shooting event will teach you technique that will get you killed is idiotic and irresponsible. Guys, it is cool to have your own plan but do not try to pass it off as gospel to the rest of us. A discussion of technique and philosophy seldom ends with agreement, but that does not make the other guy wrong or stupid. These are just games designed to test your abilities in a very controlled and pre-planned arena. Who wins [these games] is your best shot, not your most likely survivor [of a real gunfight]. That cannot be tested under the clock. However, those that master executing under the timer are probably more likely to do well in a pressure situation than someone who chokes, misses or gets procedural penalties. This is a point the boys all agree on, thus they train hard and test themselves in the arena of competition to see what they know and whether they can do it."

Rob Leatham

Deadliest School Shootings

2007-04-16T13:52:00.000-07:00

April, 16, 2007, an unknown criminal kills at least 31 college students at Virginia Tech.

In 1966, Charles Joseph Whitman, a 25-year-old ex-Marine, killed 13 people on the University of Texas campus. He was killed by police.

In 1999, 17-year-old Dylan Klebold and 18-year-old Eric Harris -- armed with guns and pipe bombs -- killed 12 students and a teacher before killing themselves at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado.

Virginia Tech Shooting Update

2007-04-16T13:34:00.000-07:00

The death toll is up to at least 31 people who were killed today (Mon. 4-16-07) in a shooting rampage at Virginia Tech -- making it the deadliest school shooting incident in U.S. history.

The coverage all morning has been hectic and there is little good information on the event. Here's what we know so far:

The apparent sociopathic killer is dead, it's not known whether police killed him or if he killed himself. (My guess is going to be that he killed himself).

Some victims were trapped and shot in a classroom.

Spokespersons for hospitals in Roanoke, Christiansburg, Blacksburg and Salem told CNN they were treating 29 people from the shootings.

One person was killed and others were wounded at multiple locations inside a dormitory about 7:15 a.m.
Two hours later (my emphasis added), another shooting at the engineering science and mechanics building resulted in multiple casualties.

Per procedure, police were challenging students, ordering them to put their hands up with the threat of being shot in case the shooter was trying to hide among them.

Many students were "locked down" inside class rooms during the incident.

Three days ago, on Friday, a bomb threat forced the cancellation of classes in three buildings. Also, the 100,000-square-foot Torgersen Hall was evacuated April 2 after police received a written bomb threat. It's unknown at this time if the incidents are related. (It wouldn't be a bad guess to surmise that these incidents were related and the criminal will ultimately be found to be an anti-social, disgruntled student).

Iraq Deputy Prime Minister Attack "Inside Job"

2007-03-26T10:20:00.000-07:00

The initial suspicions seem to be correct. The suicide attack against Iraq's Sunni deputy prime minister is now seen as an inside job.

Get this. It appears to have been carried out by a member of Deputy Prime Minister Salam al-Zubaie's own security detail who was a distant relative who had been arrested as an insurgent, freed at the official's request, then hired as a bodyguard. Did you get that? Arrested as an insurgent and then hired as a bodyguard! There are reports that the attacker had recently been removed from the bodyguard detail, but remained on the payroll and was, therefore permitted to enter the officials home during a private prayer service.

The assassination attempt is at least the third major security breach involving a top politician in four months which has prompted Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to order government-wide security changes which includes plans to hire a foreign company to guard the Green Zone building where parliament meets.

Zubaie was seriously hurt and nine people were killed.

A cook for Zubaie who has since disappeared is also under suspicion.

The deadly serious nature of close protection demands that security details be handled professionally, by professionals.

Border Crimes in Texas Down by 60%

2007-03-09T17:55:00.000-08:00

A crack down on illegal border crossings has produced a stunning reduction in crime for 27 Texas counties which border Mexico. The crime reduction is a result of increased enforcement because the border counties were being overrun by criminals and the federal authorities ignored local pleas for help. Officials say the border communities are far safer as a result.

Life Expectancy After Prison is Short

2007-03-09T17:50:00.000-08:00

The New England Journal of Medicine reports that former inmates die at a rate 13 times that of the general population within the first 2 weeks after release from prison. The leading cause of death among former inmates is - by a large margin - drug overdose. And the most common deadly drug is cocaine.

Sword fight ensues after S.C. break-in

2007-03-02T15:35:00.000-08:00

Fri Mar 2, 12:22 PM ET

A man toting a 3-foot sword apparently met his match when he broke into his ex-girlfriend's apartment: The woman's roommate grabbed a sword of his own and sliced the intruder, police said.
The roommate, a sword collector, fended off the ex-boyfriend, who was cut on the arm, police said.
Elvis Javier Polanco, 18, was treated at a hospital and charged with burglary and aggravated assault, Beaufort County sheriff's Capt. Toby McSwain said. He said Polanco broke a window and climbed on his friend's shoulders to get into the apartment.
The roommate, Louis Delgado Hernandez, disarmed the intruder while the woman called police, McSwain said.

Hey, use the self-defense tool which you have & train to be proficient in it's use. As Ben Franklin said, "The used key is always bright."

Kidnapping for ransom hitting average Americans

2007-02-26T08:23:00.000-08:00

When you work protection internationally, you are constantly aware of the threat of kidnapping for ransom.

Now it seems there are more and more examples of that same threat coming to American shores -- and affecting average Americans.

The latest is the case of 13-year-old Clay Moore. Last Friday morning, about a dozen children at a school bus stop southeast of St. Petersburg, Florida, were horrified to watch a man force Moore into a red pickup truck at gunpoint.

A suspect believed to be Vicente Ignacio Beltran Moreno, 22, drove Moore to a wooded area about 20 miles away and bound him to a tree. It's believed Moreno planned to keep Moore tied to the tree until a ransom was paid.

Happily, Moore managed to free himself and contact a farm worker with a cell phone. Police are searching for Moreno still.

To many immigrants and foreign criminals, the average American is "rich". And, since kidnapping works well in these criminals' home country, the thought pattern appears to involve grabbing an easy target and negotiate a handsome pay day. We've seen other kidnapping schemes involving average people -- like a housewife in Seattle out walking her dog -- here in the states.

Not that this information should cause you to change your self-defense mindset -- you are already prepared for bad guys out there. Right?

70-year-old uses choke to kill robber

2007-02-23T11:10:00.000-08:00

Details are sketchy at this point, but it appears that a 70-year-old ex-Marine was a main force in foiling a robbery of American tourists in Costa Rica Feb. 21 by killing one of the robbers. And it appears he did it with some sort of choke hold.

According to the Associated Press, three men in Limon, Costa Rica, attempted to rob a bus containing 12 elderly American tourists. The three bandits were armed with at least one handgun and at least one knife.

Another source says the robbers boarded the bus full of senior citizens on an outing from a Carnival Cruise line ship. When one of the robbers put a handgun to the driver's head, the former Marine took action.

The AP said, "Police in Limon say he put a 20-year-old in a head lock and broke his clavicle..."

His action apparently galvanized the other senior citizens to fight back, disarming and injuring the other two robbers.

The AP said, "Afterward, the tourists drove the suspect to the Red Cross, where he was declared dead, apparently of asphyxiation. "

Main lessons coming out of this successful story of self-defense:

Fight deadly force with deadly force. They've got a gun and a knife -- they are prepared to use deadly force against you. This is not a fight. This is combat. You must use deadly force to prevail.
Have courage! This is a 70-year-old vs. a 20-year-old. You are never too old, too weak, too scared, too out-of-shape, too young, etc. to be able to defend yourself. Strengthen your will to survive and prevail against all adversaries.
Learn the fundamental techniques well. I doubt if this guy has practiced any of his hand-to-hand techniques since Eisenhower was president, but the basic, fundamental rear naked choke (I'm assuming here) is something that works and is simple enough to retain for long periods of time.
Be committed. Once you make the decision to counterattack, be decisive, swift and violent in your actions.
Rest easy that you did the right thing by defending yourself and made the world safer for those who follow you.

Video from Salt Lake Mall Shooting

2007-02-15T12:55:00.000-08:00

Pretty dramatic video from inside the Trolley Square Mall during the shooting rampage:

http://kutv.com/

Look under the story "Heroic Police Officers to be Honored Friday".

The video footage itself does not offer that much to SEE, but it is very interesting to HEAR the the tempo and the amount of shooting during the encounter. Check out the verbal communication between the officers as they move up to confront the psycho with the shotgun.

Mall Shooting in Utah Reinforces Lessons

2007-02-13T10:18:00.001-08:00

Witnesses say the 18-year-old man in the Salt Lake City mall shootings calmly shot five people dead and wounded four more before being killed himself in a shootout with responding police.

Wearing a trench coat and carrying a shotgun and a handgun, he killed two 28-year-old women, a 52-year-old man, a 24-year-old man and a 15-year-old girl. Four people were hospitalized — a man and a woman in critical condition and two men in serious condition.

No word yet on how long the situation lasted, but it was resolved when four police officers — one an off-duty officer from Ogden and three Salt Lake City officers — were involved in the shootout with the gunman.

The lessons?

Remember that an active shooter scenario typically lasts between 4 and 17 minutes -- a long time to have someone walking around cranking off shots.
You'll be almost completely on your own for that time.
Citizens who are legally and morally able to carry concealed firearms are almost always in the best position to stop a shooting rampage.
You should know what to do when you hear gunfire.

Take Charge of Your Education

2007-02-09T07:35:00.000-08:00

"All men who have turned out worth anything have had the chief hand in their own education."

Sir Walter Scott

Woman Reports Rape, Jailed for Old Warrant

2007-02-01T09:43:00.000-08:00

Imagine that you’ve endured the dangerous and devastating effects of being raped. You go to the police. During the investigation of the crime that was committed against you, the police turn around and slap the cuffs on you. You spend the next two days in jail on a old warrant accusing you of failing to pay restitution for a 2003 juvenile theft arrest.

The Associated Press is reporting that a 21-year-old Tampa college student has undergone that very scenario. Oh, and just to add some more salt to her wounds, while in jail, the victim was denied a second dose of the morning-after contraceptive pill because of the jail worker's religious convictions.

The unidentified woman was in Tampa for an annual pirate-themed parade that draws thousands of people. She said she was walking alone to her car when a man pulled her behind a building and raped her.

Remember one of our most important Rape Escape principles: Stay with people, go to people. Do not let yourself be taken to a more private spot (like behind a building). You can expect that you will always be threatened. He will likely threaten you with something along the lines of, “Don’t make a sound and you won’t get hurt” or “Do what I say or I’ll kill you”. Don’t believe him. Stay where there are people or where someone can see and hear you.

For more women’s self-defense information, go to www.rapeescape.com.

Footwork

2007-01-23T21:19:00.000-08:00

"In my strategy the footwork does not change. I always walk as I usually do in the street."

Miyamoto Musashi

It's amazing how many courses I've taken where the first thing that is taught is footwork. Surprisingly, whatever method of footwork is being taught turns out to be overly complicated and unnatural. The dead giveaway is the confused look on the students' faces and the time allotted to this unnecessary area.

Stop worrying about your footwork and whether your feet should be pointed 30 degrees or 45 degrees. Your body already knows how to move and your feet will naturally follow in the direction in which you want to travel...

In my real fights I've never given any thought to my footwork, nor have I ever yelled a "kiai". Spend more time training your attributes and practicing your skills than worrying about eight different ways to move your feet.

You Are an Amateur Compared to Your Attacker

2007-01-18T21:41:00.000-08:00

Some interesting "rules" attributed to Walt Rauch:

1. All predators are always killers. When they attack, your options for self-defense are very limited.

2. The predator is smarter than you. Act and react accordingly.

3. Predators will use all the force necessary (and then some) to achieve their goals, without regard to consequences.

4. Predators evaluate their targets before attacking. If you are attacked, the predator has determined he will succeed without a heavy cost to himself.

5. If you are about to become a victim, you have already made serious mistakes.

6. Believe what you see; don't go into denial. Your attacker won't.

7. In a lethal confrontation, you will only have time to choose one course of action – and your life depends on making the right choice.

8. Predators rarely act alone, although the ones that do are the most dangerous. (If there's one, look for two; if there are two, look for three, etc.)

9. Fear is the predator’s friend and your enemy.

10. Talk and negotiation rarely work.

11. Predators do not have a conscience. Don't waste time and effort appealing to any sense of mercy or kindness.

12. Some people cannot be frightened or intimidated. Displaying a weapon may well not solve and, in some cases, may exacerbate the problem. Be prepared for this.

13. "Bullets don't work." Gene Zink, Former H&K Law Enforcement Trainer. No hand-held firearm fires a guaranteed "one-shot-stop" round. Anticipate needing follow-up shots.

14. Firearms don't work all the time and may well not work when you need them most.

15. Carry only the biggest-caliber gun you can control.

16. Don't be overly concerned about caliber. No one wants to "leak" or have holes put in him.

17. Carry a reload

18. Carry a second gun.

19. Be able to get to both handguns with either hand

20. Don't assume you can prevail in the conflict due to your superior tactics and training. The predator only has to be lucky once. Avoiding him is still the best defense.

21. The honest citizen pitted against a predator is an unequal contest. The predator is a professional. Most honest citizens are amateurs.

22. No competition or training, no matter how well learned or practiced, can equal hands-on experience.

23. Predators constantly validate their training with hands-on experience.

24. Getting hands-on experience can be fatal, but survivors learn their lessons well!

Here's Why You Need a Holster

2007-01-17T09:43:00.000-08:00

Robber Dies After Accidentally Shooting Himself

(AP) OAKLAND, Calif. A suspected robber died after accidentally shooting himself in the leg while he and another man held up a Pinole liquor store. Police found the body of Sharffe Williams on a West Oakland street a few minutes after the holdup Saturday morning. Security cameras recorded footage of Williams shooting himself at the liquor store counter while returning a gun to his waistband. Officers found a trail of blood and recovered a handgun dropped at the scene.

# # # #

If you've visited Defend University for a while, you know that I contend that only the bad guys carry handguns without holsters (with one exception of a gun I took off a criminal).

The above article is a graphic example. Additionally, meetings I've had with emergency room physicians validate this as well. I've been told that it's not uncommon for the docs to treat self-inflicted gunshot wounds to the groin in gangsters who have shot themselves while pushing a handgun into their waistbands.

If you are going to responsibly carry a handgun, carry it in a holster or some other type of carrier that is designed specifically for your handgun. First and foremost, the holster keeps the handgun secure and safe. Modern holsters cover the trigger guard for safety and the newer Kydex ones are now very inexpensive and maintenance free as compared to quality leather holsters. Secondly, your holster or carrier keeps your handgun in the same place everytime to facilitate a quick and consistent draw.

I know some people (and certain gun writers) advocate carrying a handgun in a pocket. Some women I know carry theirs in a purse. Be smart -- put those handguns in a holster or scabbard.

Jetliner protected against missiles

2007-01-17T08:55:00.000-08:00

Associated Press
Jan. 17, 2007 12:00 AM

LOS ANGELES - An MD-10 cargo jet equipped with an anti-missile system designed to eventually protect passenger aircraft from a terrorist attack took off Tuesday from Los Angeles International Airport on a commercial flight.

The system's designer, Northrop Grumman Corp., said the FedEx flight marked the start of operational testing and evaluation of the laser system designed to defend against shoulder-fired, anti-aircraft missiles during takeoffs and landings.

Adapted from military technology, Guardian is designed to detect a missile launch and then direct a laser to the seeker system on the head of the missile and disrupt its guidance signals. The laser is not visible and is eye-safe, the company said.

"For the first time, we will be able to collect valuable logistics data while operating Guardian on aircraft in routine commercial service," said Robert DelBoca, vice president and general manager of Northrop Grumman's Defensive Systems Division.

During the current test phase, which concludes in March 2008, nine MD-10s equipped with the Guardian system will be in commercial service. Katie Lamb-Heinz of Northrop Grumman Electronic Systems said all those aircraft will be freighters. The ultimate goal is to defend passenger airliners.

The testing is part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Counter-Man Portable Air Defense Systems program. BAE Systems has also been working for the government on a similar airliner defense system and has successfully tested it.

The first commercial flight with the Guardian system followed 16 months of tests on an MD-11, an MD-10 and a Boeing 747 using simulated launches of shoulder-fired missiles.

Obstacle for Female Shooters

2006-12-26T22:02:00.000-08:00

"The biggest obstacle for ladies is bad advice from husbands or boyfriends."

Jerry Miculek

Shotgun for Urban Environment

2006-12-26T21:46:00.000-08:00

"What made the shotgun the best weapon for bringing down large flocks of birds is the exact quality that makes it great in an urban environment. It will never be a general purpose weapon, but the shotgun will have a place in the arsenal of any unit that finds itself in close quarter engagements. "

Adam Geibel

Shotgun Best Short Range Weapon

2006-12-26T20:12:00.000-08:00

"The multiple projectile ability of a shotgun greatly increases the probability of a hit on an assailant, and the multiple projectiles increase the likelihood of a disabling hit. A typical police load would be a 12-gauge 2 3/4-inch (70 mm) 00 ("double-aught") buckshot shell consists of 9 .33 caliber (8.5 mm) round balls, each of which is similar in size and velocity to a lightweight handgun bullet. This shot spreads out to a greater or lesser degree depending on the barrel choke, and can be effective at ranges as far as 75 yards (70 m). The delivery of the large number of projectiles simultaneously makes the shotgun the most effective short range weapon commonly used, with a hit probability 45% greater than a submachine gun, and twice as great as an assault rifle."

Wikipedia entry under "Riot Shotguns"

Violent crimes increased in 1st half of '06

2006-12-19T09:22:00.000-08:00

Richard B. Schmitt
Los Angeles TimesDec. 19, 2006 12:00 AM

WASHINGTON - The number of murders and robberies in the U.S. continued to grow during the first half of 2006, fresh evidence that violent crime is on the upswing after more than a decade of decline, the FBI said Monday.

From January to June 2006, violent crime increased 3.7 percent compared with the first six months of 2005, the bureau reported.The number of robberies increased 9.7 percent, while murders rose 1.4 percent. Aggravated assaults increased 1.2 percent; forcible rape offenses declined less than 0.1 percent.

The increases, which were felt in regions across the country, follow an overall jump of 2.3 percent for violent offenses in all of 2005 and portend another year of rising violent crime, experts said. In 2005, violent crime posted its largest overall increase since 1991.A number of different explanations have been offered for the increase, including cutbacks in federal funding to state and local law-enforcement agencies, which has led to fewer police on the street in large cities, and demographic factors, including an increase in the number of males between the ages of 14 and 24.

The trend also has kindled a debate over whether the country is spending enough for crime fighting and prevention at a time when growing numbers of federal dollars are being targeted toward terrorism and homeland security.

"Violent street crime did not go away on September 11," said Jim Pasco, executive director of the Fraternal Order of Police, the nation's largest police union. In many cases less money is being spent, he said.

The West had the largest increase in violent crime: 4.7 percent.The FBI said the number of reported robberies was up in cities of all sizes. The largest increase, 12.8 percent, occurred in cities with populations of 10,000 to 24,999. But robberies also increased in metropolitan counties, up 8.4 percent.Cities of populations of 500,000 to 999,999 reported the sharpest increase in murders, up 8.4 percent. In metropolitan counties, murders were up 3.1 percent.The data are based on reports of more than 11,000 state and local law-enforcement agencies.

Experts said the crime upsurge reflected an increase in gang violence, particularly in midsized cities, and a growth in gun crimes, including robberies and homicides.

James Alan Fox, a criminal justice professor at Northeastern University in Boston, said the problem has been compounded by the number of police on the street in large cities dropping almost 10 percent since 2001. The crime problem, he said, "is not going down unless we make some major changes in what we are doing."Federal aid to state and local police has declined to about $890 million in 2006 from $2.5 billion in 2001.

Technique Worth Half the Fight

2006-12-16T15:00:00.000-08:00

"Some people are born tough; they are fast, strong or have a good heart for fighting. These qualities alone represent 50% of a win in any street fight. But in adverse conditions, it is just not enough.”

Rickson Gracie

Mental and Physical Practice Defeat Fear

2006-12-15T17:00:00.000-08:00

“The anticipation of fear can sometimes be far worse than the actual meeting. Through mental practice, the anticipation can be defeated. Mental practice may also see us through a lethal confrontation. Physical practice will aid in such a situation…Both types of practice are importation to each of us. It is the combination of the two that is most important, however. The combination creates a definite edge in your favor should a worst-case scenario develop around you. The combination allows your brain to stay in a cognitive thought mode during fight or flight.”

Randy Hamrick

Training to Use the Adrenaline Dump

2006-12-15T16:58:00.000-08:00

You’re faced with a dangerous threat from the bad guy in front of you.

Your fight or flight instinct kicks in and your body begins a process that you are entirely powerless to resist:

1. You turn to face the threat squarely;
2. Both eyes focus on the threat, sometimes literally creating “tunnel vision”;
3. You experience “auditory exclusion” where your hearing diminishes;
4. You begin to crouch to make yourself a smaller target;
5. You start to back up to create distance;
6. Blood flows away from your extremities to your core organs and large muscle groups;
7. Chemical changes in your blood prepare it to coagulate more readily;
8. Your heartbeat increases dramatically;
9. Your fine motor skills diminish causing you to fumble with the simplest of tasks like putting your keys in a lock.

You cannot stop this process. To react properly, you need to train enough and practice enough that your skills do not drop off as quickly as someone who is untrained.

It is also helpful to make sure that you do not misinterpret this type of “adrenaline dump” as “fear”. Yes, your brain is telling you that you are “scared” and it is beginning to prepare you for combat with some of the most powerful natural chemicals available to the body. Your arms will feel like wood. Your stomach will be fluttering. Your legs may be trembling. Your mouth will be dry.

With training, this isn’t a signal to dread – it’s a signal to treasure.

But to get there, your training needs to be as realistic as possible. It should prepare you so that you “are not surprised when you are surprised”. You should practice “what to do when you don’t know what to do”.

Victims often report that they were stunned to realize that they had no idea what to do next.

Remember the Crime Triangle: Criminal + Victim + Opportunity = Crime.

You are not a victim. You are a hunter and this attacker is now triggering your rehearsed and trained responses. The late Col. Jeff Cooper said you were well-prepared when the attacker was in more danger when attacking you than you were of being attacked.

Train hard, train smart.