Be careful everyone (Read 1891 times)

There's a shocking story here now: Denise Lee, a 21 year old wife and mother of 2... ..some guy pulled up to her house in broad daylight, dragged her out (this is in a suburban neighborhood) with the kids in their cribs. He stops at his cousin's for a shovel and a gas can. The cousin sees a girl tied up in the back seat, but doesn't call the cops for 30 minutes. While sicko procures his tools, he left his cell phone in the car. She manages to dial 911 and leaves it going while begging for her life. The end is familiar. And devastating. Seems like I hijacked the thread, but my point is, the sickos are more determined than we are prepared. I am getting pretty close to buying a gun. And, I hate guns!

A gun is worthless, unless you have been trained to use it and are fully prepared to pull the trigger.

Too true, Scout. My roommate in my early 20's was a restaurant manager, and on Friday night's he would have the cash bag taken home with him instead of leaving a couple grand in the store (which is dumb to begin with), and felt he needed a gun to protect himself. If I'm him and someone breaks down my door looking to steal some money that isn't even mine, I'm not going to put up a fight. It's just not worth it.

I have also heard of some more advanced self-defense classes that teach you how to unload a gun. Which seems like a good trick.

Tim. I can't live my life in fear - that is why I do it. If I don't go out for my run, I feel like "they" have already won.

To me this is one of the more important points of this thread. While we all need to be smart while running (and there's been quite a few excellent suggestions), if we let the fear get the best of us "they" have indeed already one. Living in an inner city neighborhood where drug deals, gang violence, and shootings are a frequent occurrence I face this choice every time I head out the door for a run. If I decide to let my fear take over then the drug dealers and gang members have already won. That being said, there are things that I don't do in my neighborhood, like running after dark, as that's just inviting trouble.

The few times I've taken a shot in the groin, I've been completely immobilized for at least 30-60 seconds.

It's fatal to assume this is automatically the case. I've sparred for literally thousands of hours, and I've both taken shots that lifted me off my feet and dished them out. Sometimes you say, Golly, I'd sure like a minute here! But sometimes you just put it away in a locked room in your head and say, This is gonna hurt later but I need to deal with this right now. Being amped up on adrenalin, speed, or PCP tends to put your pain tolerance in the stratosphere. I had to fight a 3 on 1 for my black belt test, and the very first guy kicked me in the groin. I hit him, pushed him into guy #2, took down guy #3, then hit guy #2 while he was trying to untangle himself. Once some weirdly detached part of my mind said, yeah, okay, it's over and you can hurt now, I dropped like a sack of concrete and practiced the vowel sounds. Pepper spray doesn't care, I'm tellin' ya. Even if it doesn't stop the guy it blinds him.

Good to know and good point. The few times its happened to me have been during athletic events where I had the convenience of stepping aside and taking a "few moments." I've never been in a situation where I have to "push" myself through it.

It sounds terrifically macho to sit here and write, Yeah, dood, I just put it aside and dealt with the sitch. But at the time you don't even feel it -- and then when you do, it's a crowbar to the head. Or somewhere. FWIW, it's good to know you can deal with it if you have to -- and invaluable to know that other people can, too! I think that movies and TV have perpetrated this myth that a man is automatically out of the running if you can nail him in the groin, and I think the reason they have is because of a inflated (no pun intended) sense of importance that makes the male groin Sacred Territory. But it's a harmful myth because there have to be people in defense situations who felt that their nice little groin shot was going to be a cure-all escape hatch, and not only wasn't it, it likely escalated the violence. If we're gonna talk ugly places to hit somebody, a direct shot to the patella is much more valuable if you know what you're doing. If you hit him right you break it (and it doesn't take much impact; the patella isn't supported by much). If you hit him decently and don't break it, you have the advantage of being able to run away without him being able to chase you very well. Pain tolerance is irrelevant in the face of incapacitation. It's much harder to protect kneecaps than groins, and I don't care how big & strong you are, your kneecap breaks as easily as mine. Sorry. Tae Kwon Do instructor Steve doesn't get hauled out of the closet much these days.

And get a dog. Really. If I had my choice of mugging a woman with a gun, a woman with mace, a woman with 124 years of martial arts training ... or a woman with a German Shepherd ... the one with the dog would be last on my list. No training required. But bring poop bags.

And, carry the full ones for awhile. Seriously. While living in the city, I had some arse give me, well, crap, just as I was picking up after one of my two dogs. He beat a hasty retreat after I threw the poop at him. What a maroon! I did pick it up again while hurling expletives in his general direction. I'm not sure he heard as he went away quickly. Creative ammunition people. Just stay creative. It confounds the enemy.

Given the choice of one person who clearly is aware of her surroundings, and another who is obliviously cruising along with iPod blasting, guess who will be the more likely victim?

The one who most floats his boat. You're trying to apply rational processes to irrational behavior.