Arizona is debuting today a law that will allow patrons to carry a gun in a bar with the caveat that they are not allowed to drink. Of course the whiners are screaming to the top of their lung about the sure mass killings that will happen because of this ‘stupid’ law.  The fact that 41 states have some sort of law allowing legally armed patrons to attend places that serve alcohol and we haven’t seen any incidents does not seem to compute with the nay-sayers. Not too long ago Tennessee approved a similar law and we haven’t heard of any mass killings. Florida allows people to carry concealed in restaurants that serve alcohol without any restriction about drinking and in all these years, no shootouts have occurred. Even so, many owners in Arizona, following the steps of other states’ bars and eateries were quick to post a No Guns Allowed signs (A.K.A. Gun Free Zone sign, A.K.A. Victim Ready Local)

The funny thing is that after the initial hysterical period after the law is enacted, Arizona Bar owners will probably follow their counterparts in the other states by removing the Gun Free Zone signs. Why? Because they realize they were uninformed about the level of responsibility with which the average concealed weapon carrier behaves and most important, they will see a lack of money in their cash registers. We Law Abiding Citizens who carry are very ornery about places that order us to disarm and become victims: we just do not patronize them.  The smart owners will keep their places open to all and some like Joe’s BBQ in Wikieup, Az will actually give customers carrying a gun a 10% discount (hat tip to Oleg Volk.) Now that is smart marketing and keeping you place of business safe from critters looking for an easy score….like a Gun Free Zone.

I just caught this interview with Gore Vidal linked out of the Drudge Report. For a man who is supposed to be a intellectual genius, he is one sour, misguided and pathetic individual.

Obama believes the Republican Party is a party when in fact it’s a mindset, like Hitler Youth, based on hatred — religious hatred, racial hatred. When you foreigners hear the word ‘conservative’ you think of kindly old men hunting foxes. They’re not, they’re fascists.”

Whoa! How such a supposedly enlightened individual spew so vile hate? For somebody who has lived so much, it amazes me how petty his soul can be. But it gets better. This is his opinion of us, the American people.

Obama would have been better off focusing on educating the American people. His problem is being over-educated. He doesn’t realise how dim-witted and ignorant his audience is.

Got it yet? We are dumb, not worthy of living and enjoying the gifts that him and his cohorts give away but that we foolishly reject. We are a dumb country because ‘America has “no intellectual class” and is “rotting away at a funereal pace. We’ll have a military dictatorship fairly soon, on the basis that nobody else can hold everything together’. ‘Now, if I remember my history correctly great countries as defined by having fantastic intellectual classes have had a big share of dictators since 1776. Germany, China, Russia, France to mention some of the great cultural centers of the world were racked by all types of dictators bringing upon this planet grief and death by the hundred of millions while the United States has never had one. The causes they supported or let grow while safely tucked away in their Ivory Towers, filled trenches with corpses, created tons of ashes out of human remains and engaged in waves of ethnic cleansing. Yet he seems to forget that for his own little bit of egotistical self indulgence. We Americans are dumb because we did not build him a pedestal and bowed to the infinite wisdom of him and his fellow intellectuals, wisdom that massacred people over and over. And thank the Lord we are dumb because us Dumb Americans had to go out there and save the rest of the world from their little intellectual experiments.  Ooops! I mentioned God, I must be full of religious hatred.

He is afraid of Obama being assassinated. Not a difficult thing for his mind to elaborate since he has this perfect mental image of us as crazy, bloodthirsty animals

Has he met Obama? “No,” he says quietly, “I’ve had my time with presidents.” Vidal raises his fingers to signify a gun and mutters: “Bang bang.” He is referring to the possibility of Obama being assassinated. “Just a mysterious lone gunman lurking in the shadows of the capital,” he says in a wry, dreamy way.

And yet, look who is holding tight so he does not lose it.

“My usual answer to ‘What am I proudest of?’ is my novels, but really I am most proud that, despite enormous temptation, I have never killed anybody and you don’t know how tempted I have been.”

You know? It is truly sad to see somebody at the end of his life having a soul so shriveled by hate. I feel pity for the poor guy. He is a truly sorrowful creature. May God give you soul some peace after you leave us Mr. Vidal… Oh darn.. I mentioned God. I must be full of religious hatred. Oh well!

You are a conceited Media Talking Head/Reporter Cum Laude. You go on TV with a false report based on fake documents in an effort to derail a presidential campaign and a President. Your “hard hitting” piece is taken apart by bloggers who show the world the amount of stupidity required to miss the documents are fakes. Even though the evidence of the provenance indicates a political operative working for the opposition, you dismiss it all and stand for your piece. The scandal after that grows so huge that the Media Outlet has to take the report back and asks you to withdraw your initial statements, you refuse and you get your ass canned for lying to the American Public and putting the Network in danger of showing them for the fools they really are. What do you do? SUE THE NETWORK.

Well, Dan Rather’s suit just got tossed out. He will actually have to go back and do voice overs for PBS documentaries about the plight of the native american homosexual transparent earthworm in Iowa.  It could not have happened to a nicer liar.

Civilian Self-Defense Code of Conduct (2).

– It is my responsibility not be controlled by extreme emotions.

In our modern world, and specially in Urban areas, we are subjected to the possibility of verbal and non-verbal aggressive communication. There is always somebody with a chip on their shoulders or just having a bad day and they take it out on the first person that crosses their path which may very well will happen to be you. Somebody thinks you are driving to slow or that you cut them off and the infamous flipping bird will shoot out of their windows or a loud “Fuck You Asshole!” will be heard from the alleged aggrieved party.  Unfortunately in our modern society, we have been conditioned that we should respond in kind or risk to be branded as weakling of some sorts.  Lt. Col. Dave Grossman in his book On Killing, tells us that in the animal Kingdom (and yes, we are part of it) there are four responses when confronted by aggression: Fight, Flight, Posture and Submit. When  “attacked” we may choose respond in kind (Fight), to take off as fast as possible (Flight), to puff up our chest and make a big show we are not being intimidated (Posture), or simply cower down and surrender (Submit).

You may have noticed that I highlighted the word choose and that is for a reason. Even though we are attached to the Animal Kingdom and those four responses are automatic in most of us, we do have the ability to control them and activate them (or not) at will.  I volunteer that 99.999999999% of the aggressive interactions we have with others in an Urban Environment are nothing more than Posturing that goes no further than some foul words and gorilla-like chest beating. The issue is that we may transform a Posture into an Attack by responding in kind and then we may be forced to use Lethal Force to control the situation. Once this happens we are in a world of trouble because our Self Defense legal position has disappeared since we also incited the confrontation. A ‘Fuck You’ or a Middle Finger do not constitute an attack in which we may reasonable fear for our lives, period. We then must learn a new set of responses to these attacks.

Your best option for personal security is a lifelong commitment to avoidance, deterrence, and de-escalation.

I have seen this little tidbit of whole truth all over the Internet attributed to many different sources so I won’t even try to find the author. But do take this words and make them your personal mantra. Avoid any situation that can lead to a Deadly Force encounter. If you have to go to the store for milk in the wee hours of the night and you find a couple of toughies that look like trouble, put your ego away and go to another place. Yes, you have a right to go to the store but why get in trouble for a quart of milk? If your bladder demand immediate relief and the closest option is a well known biker bar, choose soiled underwear and pants if no other options are possible. A bit of embarrassment and load of laundry is much cheaper and safer than explaining to a Jury why you went inside that bar when any reasonable person would not. Choose no to attend any battles and you will win them all.

Deterrence is defined by Webster as the inhibition of criminal behavior by fear especially of punishment. I would add that it is any attitude (body language), tactics or devices we can use to make a potential attacker decide we are not easy victims. Whatever we can do to show that any potential reward that can be obtained by attacking you may come with a higher than intended price to pay, will help to keep attacks to your person to a minimum.   If we are in a mall just staring at the store fronts and oblivious to our surroundings, you can bet that a bad guy will notice you and mark you as a potential target. If you are sitting in a park bench, body slouched and half asleep, you are broadcasting to God and Country your mind is in bed and you pose no threat to anybody who wants to relieve you of your belongings. Be alert and make sure you face & body shows it. Constantly scan your surroundings and walk with as if you have defined purpose even if you are just strolling. If you are being watched by somebody, watch back, scan the person and and look into his eyes (No need to engage in a staring competition) to let him know you know. Except for the insane, the very stupid or the drug-affected individual, criminals will back off if they know the element of surprise is gone.

De-escalating is just the necessary maneuvers and behaviors we can use to reduce an ongoing and possible dangerous situation without the use of Deadly Force.  If you accidentally bump into a jackass and he explodes in a verbal description that includes your Mom copulating with assorted animal farms, apologize and try to leave safely. This is where most of the Posturing stance will occur with the fraction of them that might actually turn nasty. And this is where we must make the biggest effort to control our outrage and avoid getting baited into a clash of Egos.  Do not return the Posturing with some of your own and raise your “shields” in case an attack is incoming. This kind of display quickly runs dry if there is only one person doing the screaming and grows exponentially if the other party responds and augments the attack.  I have personally found that remaining impassive but alert after I extended the apology goes a long way in defusing the other guy’s actions. The ‘Posturer’ finds me not responding to his words and actions while I am not displaying fear (even though I might be a mess inside) and his ego will be satisfied or maybe realizes that there is something else going on that he is not aware of and that might not be the best thing for him to remain in his course of action. Either way the spew of cusses will eventually die down and the situation disappears. Avoid getting yourself in trouble. Leave the Ego safely tucked at home.

In explaining what other may do, I wanted to emphasize what we should not do. We are not immune to emotions but we can control them to a point where we can use them in our benefit. The late Col. Jeff Copper in his booklet Principles of Personal Defense stated that when confronted by an aggressive response we should change our fear into indignation. Indignation is much easier to control because it requires an intellectual process, the “How Dare He?” and at that level we can tailor our response to the situation at hand. The emotions can also be controlled if we develop pre-planned responses to possible offensive scenarios. We prepare ourselves by asking “What If” and coming with multiple solutions and practicing them over and over just like we do our shooting. This is possibly the most important part of the whole issue because when confronted by an aggressive behavior, you will not have the time to sit an come up with a reasonable strategy that will get you out of trouble.

To summarize, don’t let the opponent’s emotion dictate your behavior and do not let your emotions get you in bigger trouble. Self Defense is also a thinking process but we must do the thinking way ahead of time because when the bell rings, you only have seconds to survive.

Civilian Self Defense Code of Conduct

It is my responsibility to respect Innocent Life. And the first Life to be respected is my own.

No matter how much the Old  Media portray us and how bad other people may think of us, we are no trigger happy crazies, spraying bullets at the slightest chance. If anything almost twenty years of Concealed Carry Permits have shown that Law Abiding Citizens are perhaps the most peaceful and less dangerous group of people anybody can ever meet. We respect Innocent Life for the simple reason we appreciate the toils and labors the average citizen must endure. We understand that they have dreams and aspirations, they have responsibilities of their own that they must fulfill, they have loved ones that he cares for and he is cared from.  We respect that because that is us too. We consider that life precious in the same level we consider our life precious and doing or not doing something that might put that life at risk is morally and ethically wrong.

A Rabbi I met during an NRA Instructor’s class put it very succinctly: The taking of a life in Self Defense is neither morally nor religiously wrong. It is understood and accepted by most religions. However Suicide is considered wrong, one of the foulest of sins that an individual can commit. The same applies at not doing anything to save a life. While it may be legally and morally correct to not intervene in certain occasions (level of death or grave bodily harm to oneself or an innocent life might be too much) doing nothing to defend yourself when able but not doing under the pretense of a false Moral Superiority (“I cannot just bring myself to kill anyone. That is so wrong!”) is the same as Suicide.

I suspect that a lot of those who wave this banner of alleged Moral Superiority are doing so because they are part of an unholy marriage of Cowardice & Convenience. Being prepared to defend oneself is a difficult task which will knowingly forces us to confront the ultimate societal fear of taking a life and the consequences of that might come after it. It is easier to spend your free time enjoying the fruits of your life than worrying about what it may happen if somebody wanted to take it away. It shakes the consciousness and peels away the veils that protect our false sense of security. It is more comfortable to lay the responsibility on somebody else (Police, security) that take it oneself. But at the end, it will be the individual who had the ability but chose not to exercise it the one responsible for the loss of an innocent life.

As civilians we are not offered the opportunity to belong to an established group for support and guidance. So when we take upon ourselves to be responsible for our own self-defense, we do it in solitary. We are castaways left to our own devices and with little guidance but a few lines of the law with almost no interpretation and no idea what we might face.The following is a Code of Conduct that I came up during a boring shift at work. I will never claim to be an expert and please understand so. These are just my observations from what I have experienced personally and from what others have learned. I am just going to post the list and I will expand on each one at a time in following posts.

I have chosen to be the First Responder of my Own Safety so:

– It is my responsibility to respect Innocent Life. And the first Life to be respected is my own.
– It is my responsibility not be controlled by extreme emotions.
– It is my responsibility to train & learn any techniques that will allow me a chance to survive.
– It is my responsibility to keep and hone the skills I acquired.
– It is my responsibility to keep my equipment in good condition.
– It is my responsibility to stand against those who seek to eliminate the right right to defend myself.

This is a work in progress. I am guessing I will be adding or subtracting stuff as I get better at my writing or a kind soul happens to give a hand and improve on it.

I have a feeling Capone was a much honorable adversary than ACORN.