Surviving The Non-Permissive Environment
With the new administration, those in government who believe that we, the general public, do not have the right to defend ourselves are seeing another opportunity to limit or eliminate our ability to do so. The call for a renewal of the so called Assault Weapons Ban of the Clinton era is just one such example. That, along with the areas one cannot legally carry a weapon such as airports and many work places puts us in a dilemma. After all, criminals and terrorists do not, by definition, obey those or other laws. We're faced with choices. Ignore the laws and run the risk of arrest and jail should you be caught or have to protect you or your loved ones against a criminal attack. Now there's a dilemna that could make you second guess and freeze up at the moment of truth. Your other option would be to listen to some who would tell you to just rely on your empty hand skills to carry you through. I will be the first to tell you that empty hand skills are important, however, going empty handed against a weapon is, to use a technical term, stupid. With these thoughts in mind, I am going to present to you a few ideas to stay safe when forced to be in an area where you are forced to be disarmed.
The first thing is to have a viable set of counter weapon skills. The idea here is not to encourage you to go hands on against a weapon bearing attacker, but having a viable set of skills will buy you time to escape, acquire your own weapon or use an improvised one.
Second, learn to use a knife. Wait a minute, I hear you say, how does this help me if I’m in an area that doesn’t allow weapons? First, many of the areas where weapons are prohibited still allow knives, they are tools, remember? Second, the skills you develop from bladework transfer to other objects. My recommendation is to get the DrawPoint series by James Keating. The material is designed around small blades and is the slickest reactive system I know of. The material also transfers well to other objects such as ball point pens, markers such as the Sharpie or the Cold Steel version, screwdrivers, bottles, rolled magazines, you get the idea. An excellent alternative is Mr. Keating’s Bowie series. If you work, or are regularly in, an area where there are tools around such as long shanked screwdrivers the snap cuts that are the bread and butter of that method work very well for convincing people to leave you alone. The third reason for learning to use a knife is that it helps you develop those viable counter weapon skills I talked about earlier faster and better than any other training I know of. Knife work also tends to develop the deceptiveness that is essential to making things work in combat in general and the NPE in particular.
With that in mind, the third thing is to learn to use firearms. This should be part of your counter weapon/disarm training anyway. It does you no good to be able to strip a pistol out of someone's hand if you then shoot yourself or a loved one because you did not have the skill set to allow you to handle the thing safely. Another point to consider is weapons of opportunity. If you would have the misfortune to be present at an incident and can't escape or seek cover (your first and best option), you may be able to acquire a weapon you can use to protect yourself and stop the incident, I'll leave the hows and whys up to you. Just remember that law enforcment will likely be showing up. They won't know who is who. Be prepared to either drop whatever it is you acquired or become a dead hero.
Fourth, learn to use flexible weapons. I know there are a lot of folks that believe flexible weapons like the bandanna (panu) are nonsense. I’m here to tell you that, employed properly, flexible weapons not only work but work amazingly well. Two of the better resources for this are, again, Mr. Keating’s Fighting Bandanna series and Richard Fike’s Tactical Rope Fighting program using 550 (parachute) cord. Both methods are quick to learn and retain. Check them out and decide which one is best for you and the environment you live in.
Finally, take the knowledge that you have acquired and learn to improvise weapons out of everyday objects. The ability to identify weapons of opportunity will serve not only as a way to counter attack but also as an early warning system against what may be coming your way.
