Supreme Court

Just a quick comment on the recent Supreme Court decision on the 2nd amendment.
Officially making me a nerd, I read (most of) both Justice Scalia's majority opinion and Justice Stevens dissent.
Both sides make compelling arguments, but something Justice Stevens said in just his 3rd paragraph of his dissenting opinion chilled me to the bone and makes me wonder about the thought process of those who would guide our country and by extension, our futures.
Regardless of where you might stand on guns, gun rights, crime, and punishment, just this one sentence, first referencing the 2nd amendment but then extending it to the entire Constitution of the Unite States of America, should worry you;
QUOTE: "Specifically, there is no indication that the Framers of the Amendment intended to enshrine the common-law right of self-defense in the Constitution." Justice Stevens (http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/07-290.ZD.html)

Maybe I'm crazy, but I thought "Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of happiness..." took care of the enshrining.

Carjacking/ATM robberies

I've been waiting to write on this subject until more news came around, but i haven't seen any thing further yet so lets start a conversation now. There was a string of carjackings in Denver where women were jacked then forced to drive to ATM's and withdraw money. This isn't a new crime, but it started happening, as far as I can tell, just a week after a prime time news show aired a special on a string of crimes exactly like these in Florida. The difference is that in Florida, most of the women were killed, including a woman and her 7 year old daughter, shot at point blank range in their vehicle after they already gave up the money ($500). Both mother and daughter were bound with duct tape before they were shot. A 7 year old girl. 7 years old...let that sink in.
First, I can't speak for every one and every situation, but I will say this; if you are about to be tied up or bound and moved from the point of contact, that is the time to fight back if you are going to. Once you are bound, you don't have the ability to fight back (why the hell do you think they bind you?) Once you are moved to another location, your chances of survival go down drastically. My opinion is that if you are in danger of being bound, fight for life then and there, at least you have some say in your destiny that way. By the way, it's a good idea to get some training in fighting back prior to ever having to do it for real...I'm just sayin'...the fight for your life is a bad time to begin your training.
Next, I have to say that if you think you can comply, give up the money, and you will go relatively unharmed, then by all means do so! DPD spokesman is right on one thing, no amount of money is worth loosing your life over. Then again in some cases, no amount of money will save your life either.
In Denver, it hasn't gotten to that level of threat yet. But they haven't caught anyone yet either. That gives the perps a bit of an 'invincibility' complex and it's easy to escalate the violence when you think you're too smart to get caught.
OK, so if you have to, what to do? If you know our basic gun defenses and the principles behind them, most of them still apply while in a vehicle. If the seats separate you and the gunman (font seat/back seat) then things become difficult, but in that scenario you are most likely driving and therefor not tied up. If the gunman is in front with you, our standard principles apply including putting weight on the weapon. Counter attacks will be important here, but not at the expense of taking weight off the weapon. Use the environment to help you in a disarm by slamming the gun and gunman's hands into the steering wheel, center console, dash board, anything solid. Headbutts work well here too. If your driving and your seat belt is on, be aware it will limit your movement. Crashing the car is not always a good option with the advent of passenger side airbags. Leaving the car is not an option if your child is in the back. Remember, if it's go time, it's a fight for you life, no half way. Give it everything you got, bite hard and tear, bite the face and around the eyes especially. It's time to fight dirty.

Mass stabbing in Japan

A man went on a killing spree in Japan today by stabbing at least 19 people (story HERE). The report says that the man said he was 'tired or living', yet it's reported that he dropped the knife when confronted with an officer with a gun pointed at him. This guy might have though he wanted to commit suicide and if that were true, it would have been very hard to stop him, but it's my guess that he saw a bunch of victims that weren't going to pose him much of a threat or offer much resistance. I don't want to turn this into a 'gun rights' argument, but let it suffice to say that you probably won't have a mass public group stabbing in Texas.

The man was allegedly armed with a 'survival' knife and ran around a crowded intersection stabbing people. He succeed in KILLING 7 of them. One officer engaged him with a baton, I don't yet have any more information about how that went.

Oddly enough, this very weekend in Los Angeles I was working with Darren Levine and other Krav Maga Instructors on using a baton against a knife attack and a lot of empty hand knife defenses. So, as usual, I think we should analyze some of what happened.

First of all, the attacker doesn't look like Rambo. By looking at some of the on-scene photos, it appears some were stabbed from behind, meaning they were likely running from this madman when he stabbed them. Sometimes, running is not an option. I would submit this to all of you for thought; had one of the early victims turned and hit this guy as hard as they could right on the jaw or the nose, could this outcome have been different? I say yes, very different. First of all there's crowd, or 'mob' mentality. If everyones running screaming from this guy, he MUST be the boogie man incarnate! However, if people see just ONE person turn and fight this guy, and damage him, it's far more likely other people will get involved in the struggle. He's suddenly human again, and just as nerdy as we though. I mean, who wears a beige suit with black and white Converses?

Secondly, damaging the attacker himself will change the attackers plans as he saw them. It will force him to deal with other problems and change the entire dynamic.

In the News

A young lady was killed the other day in Fort Collins. The suspect a 29 year old looser named Curl has been arrested. There is not much known about the incident yet, but the suspect was an acquaintance of the victims boyfriend. I'm sure many of you have friends or have dated someone who had a friend that you didn't like. It's OK to not like your friends friends sometimes! You may know a lot about your friend or the person your dating, but that doesn't mean that you automatically know a lot about the other people in their lives.
The victim was sexually assaulted then strangled. Her house was then set on fire apparently to try to cover up the murder. This type of situation always reminds me of some dangerous advice I once heard a so-called expert give to a group of women on TV. This guy actually said, and I'm paraphrasing because it was a while ago, "Don't attempt to fight back, it will only make your attacker angry. Your best option is to comply and then look for an escape".
Look, I think there are obviously times when complying, or pretending to, is a valuable tool in your self defense arsenal. BUT it's downright derelict to tell people to never fight back and to always comply. The data actually supports just the opposite.
We may never know exactly how this horrible crime went down, but let's look at a probable scenario; The victim was forced to the ground and the attacker sexually assaulted the victim and possibly strangled her from the same position. There are 3 basic positions to train from in this scenario, attacker in the guard, attacker kneeling to the side, and attacker straddling on top (mount). From the guard or side position, kicking violently and repeatedly is a great way to keep someone from being able to get on top of you or to be able to apply much force in a choke. However, if the choke is applied, you MUST deal with that danger first in order to get oxygen and blood to the brain. Under this kind of stress and exertion, you will go unconscious quickly so clear the airway FIRST AND QUICKLY. On Tuesday night, we worked a little bit with kicking someone out of our guard. We'll continue to work with these scenarios over the next 2 weeks.

Training Follow Up

Following up on the baseball bat murder in Loveland, in Leadership Class/Instructor Training on Friday we worked on defending several type of blunt object attacks from various angles.

We constructed a long 'hallway' our of heavy bags and worked on surprise attacks while in that confined space. If in a hallway and faced with an attacker with a bat or similar object, there is really on 2 angles that it might be deployed at. The most likely angle is the overhead swing. Likely to come in a down-and-in type angle. It's also likely to be held shorter due to the restrictive height clearance. The second angle is less dangerous but might be used in an effort to move you to a more open area to continue the attack; that is the 'thrusting' attack with the end of the bat.

In either case, side stepping is not only slow and a large movement, it may not be possible because of the restrictive environment. Both defenses require re-directing the weapon and counter attacking simultaneously (what a surprise). After that, your options are limited because of space and you will likely have to continue the fight trying to drive them back or into a wall (which will allow you to get by possibly escape if the exit was there and you've bought some time) or use the wall as a back-board for their head until they drop the bat!