
Mental Preparedness and Self-Defense
Jim Grover
Personal Security, Column
Guns & Ammo February 1993


     This month I received several tragic newspaper accounts of victimization
from readers on the East Coast.  I cannot remember, in recent months (or even
years), more terrible events.
     One occurred in Maryland.  A 34-year old working wife and mother left
her Washington, D.C., suburban home at 6 a.m.  She tucked her 22-month-old
daughter into a car seat in the back seat of her BMW.  It was the child's
first day at preschool.  The woman climbed into her car.  As she pulled away
she may or may not have noticed two males (one 1 6, one 29) loitering in the
townhouse parking lot.
 One of the murderers stepped out in front of the vehicle.  The woman slowed
and stopped.  We will never know what she was thinking.  The second,
approaching from the side, ripped open the driver's door and pulled the woman
out, her arm tangled in the seat belt.  He got into the car.  The second male
got into the passenger seat.
     They pulled away, dragging the woman alongside while she tried to regain
control, fearing the worst for her child While dragging the woman, the
bandits threw the child out of the car at high speed. The woman was dragged
to death; her child survived.  Both criminals were caught.  
     Another report was from Boston.  Three young boys from a local high
school were playing a game called "knockout." The game is played by finding
a victim, then knocking him out with one punch.  Failing to do this results
in the attacker's friends pummelling him, punishing him for not being able
to knock out the victim.
     One evening, these little cretins happened on a Massachusetts Institute
of Technology student walking down a thoroughfare.  He may or may not have
noticed the young men who were about
to take his life.  The attacker did not knock the student out.  Only this
night, the rules changed.  One of the other boys stabbed the student to death
.
     If you don't feel the absolute outrage and anger I do reading this, you
can't be rational.  The other day, I attended a
meeting.  During a break, this intellectual, pompous, know-it-all type said
to me, "You know, I've just become desensitized by all of it [crime]." What
an asinine statement to make! I have never known one "desensitized" victim
of any crime, whether it was rape, robbery, assault, theft or any personal
confrontation with criminals.
     Most official "fixes" are little more than bandages, enough to appease
public outcry until the next horrible incident overwhelms the last.  Face it,
the police can't do it alone.  Most cities have police departments so over
worked and understaffed they only fill the role of report takers after an
incident occurs.  Here in California, Los Angeles was recently called
"ungovernable" by some city officials and the media.  We must personally take
responsibility for our own safety.
     Treat the illness, not the symptoms.  The creeps in the first story
hopped a fence at a highway rest area to gain access to the victim 's
neighborhood.  The community immediately identified the fence as a weakness
and claimed if the fence were higher the incident would have been prevented.
     Figuratively, how high do we build our fences, you and 1? Fences can
always be breached, physical barriers penetrated.  Awareness, on the other
hand, cannot be defeated.  Start acting on information you receive from your
observations.  
     Look at this model.  I developed it some seven years ago and have used
it successfully to train students involved in activities in hostile areas. 
It is designed specifically to show why people do not take action when
threatened.  It will prevent inactivity once the student learns and
understands the model.  The following is from "The Engagement Cycle and he
Effect of Imminent Danger," chapter three of my upcoming book, Shooting to
Live Revised...Living in the 90's and Beyond.  It will be published within
months of this article reaching the newsstands.  
     Everything we do in life is based on a simple yet unavoidable cycle.
      Whether it's buying a car, selecting what courses to take in
school...whatever.  We assess available information, make a decision based
on the information, then take some kind of action or inaction based on our
decision.
      Although we perform this cycle over and over each day, we don't do it
well.  Many variables interrupt this cycle, life threatening stress being the
most devastating.  The first damaging variable is "startle."
     The animal startle response is 100 percent predictable in all animals. 
A loud, sharp noise behind you when you don't expect it (say, a gunshot)
would cause all the readers to exhibit the exact same initial reaction:
shoulders hunch, head moves forward, neck cranes forward, hands come up
around the chest, muscles tighten (shoulders and stomach most notably), eyes
squint, heart rate increases dramatically,  pulse quickens, epinephrine is
released into he bloodstream.
     This "startle reflex" is unavoidable.  You are incapable of immediate
response when startled.  There are no training methods that neqate startle
effects; there is no organic substance that increases your resistance to it. 
Only by recognizing an attack can we avoid (not negate) startle.  We do this
by maintaining the proper mind-set.  Jeff Cooper of the American Pistol
Institute in Arizona developed and articulated the mind-set succinctly:
     Condition White: This is the mind-set most people exist in,
unfortunately.  Largely unaware of any personal threat, they are both
physically and mentally unprepared to deal with any violent, life threatening
encounter.
     Condition Yellow: This is the mind-set you should maintain whenever you
are outside a "safe zone." It is being aware of general threats, i.e., that's
a bad part of town." It requires you to be physically proficient in the use
of your weapon and your hands and mentally prepared to conduct physical
violence.
     Note: It is the ability to rapidly transition from Yellow to Orange to
Red that is most important in this model.
     Condition Orange: This is the mindset you attain when you notice a
specific threat.
     Condition Red: This is the last mindset in the escalation.  This is when
you "fight to stop a fight" as Mr.  Cooper says.  It is the last glimpse of
offensive action you expect to endanger you that drives you to Condition Red.
     If we avoid startle by using the proper mental condition, we may perform
an adequate assessment and increase survivability by hampering anyone's
ability to startle and use the element of surprise against you.
 What happens if we correctly assess the situation as a violent
confrontation? At the point we realize we are under a dangerous or lethal
threat we absorb the "chemical cocktail."
     Since the chemical epinephrine exists in our system, the effects are
instantaneous and overwhelming.  There are some advantages to having this
chemical released into our system in high concentration, but far more
disadvantages.  The advantages are additional strength and increased pain
threshold.
     The disadvantages are:
     General muscle tightening: It is the almost immediate mixing of
epinephrine and sodium in muscle groups that causes muscle tightening. 
Potassium is the only chemical found in the body that can alleviate the
effects.  There is no mechanism in the body for the rapid release of
potassium into the system, however.
     Tunnel vision: The threatened individual will lose part or most of his
peripheral vision.  Many times criminals use visual diversion to focus the
victim's attention to the front, then attack from the sides.  Head sweeping
becomes terribly important to pick up additional threats.
     Visual Slowdown: The distortion of time-spatial relationships.  An
example of this is the near car accident.  You enter an intersection lawfully
and notice a car running the intersection from your left.  Although the
driver is approaching at 50 mph and you are travelling at 35 mph, it seems
like slow motion, wherein you are helpless to move your car faster and the
car bearing down on you is moving much slower than 50 mph.  Although the near
miss may be over in 6/10 of a second, it feels like it took almost a minute
as you lingered in the middle of the intersection.
     Auditory exclusion: Auditory exclusion can be described as a high-pitch
ringing in your ears at a moment of crisis.  Other sounds, the sounds of
gunfire, tire screeching and people screaming, seem to recede into background
noise and only the high-pitch ring or tone seems in the forefront of sound. 
This is partially due to the epinephrine in your system dilating the blood
vessels in and around the ears, making it physically more difficult to hear. 
Another reason for the hearing loss is mental.  Cognitive dissonance prevents
the mind from prioritizing sounds.
     What do you suppose all these side effects and the "startle reflex" do
to a victim or untrained individual? What do you suppose he might look like
at the moment the "chemical cocktail" hits? That's right, he freezes, moved
to inactivity by sensory overload.  He is living on the shock line at that
precise moment.  This is the perfect victim, immobilized.  The old adage "the
whole is greater than the sum of the parts" is directly applicable.
     If we effectively deal with the sudden effects of the chemical cocktail,
the next thing we are confronted with is denial.  We will always deny a life-
threatening incident.  We have to train ourselves to move out of this denial
as quickly as possible so we may effectively deal with the situation.  Make
a decision you must take responsibility.  You may be wrong.  You might even
piss someone off.  Decisions are not readily made most of the time.
     We've all seen this in bureaucracies, A manager waits for data to make
a decision.  The deadline for the decision draws nearer and subordinates push
for a determination.  The manager states he needs more data (even if there
is none).  Soon the deadline passes, no decision was made and the issue
becomes obsolete.  It is a subconscious technique of avoidance.
     Unfortunately, with the effects of the chemical cocktail, decision-
making ability deteriorates even further.  Additionally, a loss in judgmental
abilities will occur as well.
     Our model becomes even further complicated.
     The last breakdown in the cycle usually occurs from lack of commitment. 
Most people, when they try to rapidly assess a violent confrontation, deal
with the chemical cocktail and overcome denial, aren't even through the
engagement cycle before violence is offered to them.  As a result, their
commitment to ending the situation, which may require the use of lethal
force, is half-hearted, taking time to build-up time to confirm it is indeed
a violent confrontation, which allows the assailant time to continue his
attack.  However, there may not be anytime.
     The ramifications of being incorrect weigh heavily in everybody's mind. 
"What if I'm wrong?" "What trouble will I get in?" "What if...?"
     All of this adds up to a simple equation: Action you take to avoid or
stop a violent confrontation may be one of the most important decisions
you'll make in your lifetime.  It may cause you to carry emotional baggage
the rest of your life.  The decision must be made in the shortest amount of
time under the worst circumstances.  In short, it is a rotten deal.

     Your goal is to make your "engagement cycle" look like this:
     ASSESS-DECIDE-ENGAGE-ASSESS-DECIDE-ENGAGE-ASSESS-DECIDE-ENGAGE

     Uninterrupted, concurrent, consistent and constant.  Realize each time
you take another step you have completed one cycle.  Each time you turn a
corner, move your head, and see more people you complete the cycle again-
until it is automatic and subconscious.  This is Mental Condition Yellow and
demonstrates excellent transition abilities to quickly escalate to Orange and
Red if necessary.
     The responsibility for our personal security rests squarely on our own
shoulders.  We can't expect an entity or anyone to do it for us.  Train
yourself to become acutely aware of what is going on around you.  Then act
on your assessment.  If someone invades your personal space, does something
out of synch, acts suspicious or gives you any reason to question his intent,
do something.  Just don't become another sensational news story.
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