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Why New Laws Won’t Stop Active Shooters
A Counter-Narrative Recently, President Biden took to the podium at the White House to speak about the tragic mass shooting that occurred just days earlier in Uvalde, TX. In his speech, he described several legislative actions – “commonsense gun laws” – that he would like to see voted on in Congress to stop these shootings.…
In Defense of Gun Rights
Countering the Anti-Gun Narrative in the Wake of Uvalde, TX “But to ban guns because criminals use them is to tell the innocent and law-abiding that their rights and liberties depend not on their own conduct, but on the conduct of the guilty and the lawless, and that the law will permit them to have…
Columbine – 23 years later
I remember that dark day in 1999 when two teenagers in Littleton, CO carried out what would become the seminal event in school shooting history. I was in my fifth year of teaching middle school language arts. The Columbine shooting came on the heels of the Jonesboro, AR and Paducah, KY events, thus cementing it…
Untangling the Ahmaud Arbery Self-defense Trial
Ahmaud Arbery was a 25-year old man who was shot and killed in broad daylight allegedly by three men, Travis and Gregory McMichael and Roddie Bryan, who claimed he was responsible for burglaries that had occurred in their neighborhood. Though the shooting happened in February 2020, the men allegedly responsible for Arbery’s death were not…
Untangling Kyle Rittenhouse’s Self-Defense Claim
First things first: I’m not a lawyer. I’m a self-defense instructor. Ultimately, the decision on Rittenhouse’s case is up to the jury. They saw 100% of the evidence and testimony in this case. I write the following with the best understanding of the case I can offer in the moment. The case is going to…
Using Keys for Self-Defense
I see a lot of bad advice online regarding how to hold your keys for self-defense. The worst, of course, is to put keys between your fingers and punch your attacker with all of those points: Bad idea. Lots of pain to the defender will result. Don’t do it. Instead, give this approach a try:…
Safe Dating in the Age of Tinder
**Author’s note: the information provided below is in no way intended to victim-blame. Men need to understand boundaries, know that ‘No’ means “NO!” and recognize that they are ultimately responsible for their personal behavior towards the women in their social circles. We all bear personal responsibility for our safety, but no woman asks to be…
Beware the Bad Self-Defense Advice, Pt. 2
There has been a stream of self-defense advice circulating online for the last twenty years or so. It relates particularly to rape, claiming that the originator of the information interviewed rapists in prison and collected valid anti-rape information from them. I’ve seen the ‘tips’ in my timeline at least half a dozen times this weekend.…
Schools and School Districts – What DefCon Can Do for You
As educators, our most important responsibility is providing a safe and secure learning environment for our students. In a world that seems more and more prone to targeting innocent students in their classrooms, it is more imperative than ever that we provide the best available practices and solutions to our staffs. That’s where DefCon Security…
Active Shooter Drills
I spend a lot of time reading articles and reports relating to the topic of active shooters. Every morning, my email inbox is stacked with no fewer than 30 messages that document everything from active shooter drills and training to ongoing active shooter events. If the frequency of such stories is any indication, one of…
Unmasking Self-Defense
The internet chock full of all sorts of information that is billed as THE unequivocal method for saving yourself from people with bad intentions. Take a minute to do a search on YouTube for self-defense techniques. Watch a few of them. With a few exceptions, most of those ‘self-defense’ instructional videos would be more accurately…
National School Walkout
I sit here on the eve of yet another school walkout event to petition government leaders to do something – anything – to end the scourge of violence that seems to all-too-frequently plague our gun-wary society. The brains behind this week’s walkout is Lane Murdock, a lucid and erudite 16-year-old from Connecticut who, in her…
An Open Letter to President Trump on Why Arming Teachers is a Bad Idea
President Trump,Allow me to start by saying congratulations on your monumental win over Hillary Clinton in 2016. Your candidacy was a particularly riveting one to watch. I only wish I could have been a fly on the wall in Hillary’s green room when she learned of her resounding defeat.Now, on to more pressing matters.I have…
Violence Dynamics
I teach self protection. That term – self-protection – encompasses a broad spectrum of ideas. The initial principle of self-protection starts with keeping yourself out of situations that might ultimately lead to getting your ass handed to you on a platter. That means you pay attention to what is going on around you, you avoid…
Five Steps to Staying Safe at the New Year’s Ball Drop
It’s the end of another year, and masses of people will be gathering in large crowds all across the nation to ring in the new year.Few events match up to the thrill of the countdown, the energy of the crowd, and the expectation that accompanies ringing in a new year. The champagne toast and the…
Thoughts on Las Vegas
Unless you’ve been living in a cave over the last few days, you’ve heard about the horrific events at a concert on the Vegas Strip. In short, a lunatic with an arsenal of automatic weapons opened fire on revelers at a Jason Aldean concert. The end result (as of the time of this article) is…
Pulse Night Club – One Year Later
BackgroundIn June of 2016, a terrorist opened fire on the crowds at the Pulse Night Club in Orlando, FL. By the time his rampage came to an end, 49 people would lose their lives and another 58 suffered gunshot wounds. I watched the coverage of this event unfold on multiple media outlets. The footage was…
Educators for Gun Sense – Myth vs Reality
A new movement, called Educators for Gun Sense, has found a place in anti-firearms circles. While I embrace the message generally proposed by this organization (one of safe learning spaces free from hostile actors with guns), there are fundamental logical flaws extant in their platform. Below is the description of the intent of the movement…
Idiots Happen – A Personal Road Rage Story
I had this experience a few weeks ago on my way to work. For the record, my 15-year-old son was in the car with me. Read all the way to the bottom for the defensive lessons in this situation.I was driving down a 3-lane road which had been partially washed out in Hurricane Matthew. Construction…
Traffic Stops – An Anecdotal Lesson in Defense
Some years ago, a former middle-school classmate and I found each other on Facebook and discovered that despite being hundreds of miles from our old school, we lived just a few miles from one another in a totally different state. We connected as friends and have kept up with each other ever since.Just a couple…
Beware the Bad Self-Defense Advice
** I write the following blog with all deference to Mr. Emerson’s service to our country. As the son of a 20-year Navy veteran and the father of a United States Army Soldier, I hold nothing but the highest esteem for our serving men and women. This article is, in no way, intended to impugn…
Violence is What Happens When Self Defense Fails
One of the key issues I face in the realm of teaching self defense is the misconception that self defense equals violence. Given that we are a society that abhors violence of all stripes irrespective of its occasional necessity in our lives, recruiting students for a self-defense class becomes difficult at best and impossible at…
The Shortcomings of Run, Hide, Fight®
In light of current national (United States) and world events, particularly given my position as an instructor on a community college campus, I’ve made it a personal mission of mine to learn as much as possible about active shooter incursions. Early in my career, I was unnerved by the possibility that I could face a…
Breaking the Rules
I was having dinner with my family this past week at a local burger joint. Since we are a larger-than-average family, there are only a few tables that will accommodate our number, so we were unfortunately (from a tactical/defensive standpoint) seated in the rear of the restaurant near the restrooms and kitchen area.The public entry…
What Gets Trained Gets Done
I got into a bit of a polite discussion with a very popular tactical training group on Facebook this past weekend. I will refrain from actually mentioning the name of that group for a couple of reasons. First, the discussion ended amicably, and I have no desire to create hostilities where none currently exist. Second,…
Winning Against a Narcissist in a Street Fight
Everything I am about to write is predicated on the assumption that prior to becoming physically engaged with a threat you have attempted every manner of de-escalation and escape in order to avoid engaging in hand-to-hand self-defense. Anything short of a total commitment to avoiding violence is likely to result in unpleasant consequences, either for…
Rape Culture and Personal Protection
Apparently teaching women personal protection is perpetuating rape culture. Who knew.What we should be doing, according to rape culture activists, is teaching men not to rape. We should be making men aware that rape is bad, that no means no, and a woman who is passed out/too drunk to coherently verbalize her objections is to…
Personal Defense, Adrenaline, and You
Think about the last time you were scared – I mean REALLY scared. Think about the sequence of events that led up to your being terrified, and then think about what happened afterward.Got it? Good.In the fall of 2003, I was involved in a car accident that naturally scared the hell out of me. A…
Transitional Spaces and Self Protection
Some places are just more dangerous than others. That’s a fact of life. The good news is that most of us are smart enough to avoid places that elevate the likelihood of our asses being beaten or our stuff getting stolen.There’s an alleyway just about a block from my happy little house in modern suburbia.…
When Does Self-Defense Begin?
Let’s discuss another indomitable truth in self defense: Reaction is always slower than action.In the case of the unexpected attack, it logically assumes that the defender is going to find him/herself on the reactionary side of the equation. It is, after all, a defining feature of a surprise attack – that you never see it…
Our Top 4 Human Weapons
To keep from over-complicating the process of personal defense, it’s better to remember that less is more. Reflecting back to my post on Hick’s Law, teaching too many responses to any given situation decreases the overall response time of the defender. Thus, it becomes important to teach as few techniques as are necessary to offer…
On Being Violent in a Violent World
As far as nice, polite, functioning adults in civilized society are concerned, some of the basic tenets of a self-defense course are harder to embrace. I see this same problem play out in every self-defense class I teach: I have to urge – practically beg – people to engage in the act of defensive striking.One…
Hick’s Law and Self Protection
Not wanting to be bound by ego, I should point out that there are other opinions regarding the application of Hick’s Law. I encourage the reader to explore all sides of Hick’s Law and formulate their own opinions on the matter. I still contend that, to the absolute newb on the mat, less is more.…
An Unfortunate Truth About People and Violence
Let’s call this a tale of two truths: 1) Violence is a relatively rare event that doesn’t affect a particularly large portion of the population 2) We have a tendency to care about violence (and any effects on us) only AFTER a violent encounter has occurred. The first truth is irrefutable and statistically verifiable: any…
5 Things Your Self-Defense Class Must Include
This coming week, I have the opportunity to start a new self-defense class with our local community college. I’ve been reading books on the topic like a fiend for the last couple of months to gather as much relevant content as I can. Over the course of the 8-week program, I hope that I can…
Let’s Skip the Formalities, Shall We?
We are DefCon Security Consultants. Our mission is to provide the most comprehensive personal protection training to the public that we possibly can deliver. From this platform, we will address numerous issues that arise in the realm of personal protection, including:individual personal protectionunderstanding violencecurrent events and newsdebunking the bad information that poisons the internetother concepts…
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