You are here: Home / Archives for response

0272 – Threat Responses

February 15, 2012 by Leave a Comment

I really enjoy teaching. One of the courses I enjoy teaching the most is my Introduction to Fighting Handgun Fundamentals and Ohio CCW course. There are a couple of reasons why. First, many of the students who are taking a course at this level are fairly clean slates. From a teaching standpoint, it is much easier to get the point across that I want to get across when I don’t have to work to dispel years of misinformation, bad habits, and misconceptions. Second, those that do have a firearms background and an open mind give me an opportunity to help them understand the difference between shooting and fighting. Finally, in my CCW course, more than any other there seems to be a density of people who have a desperate need for the information because of their life circumstances. Truly rewarding to work with all of my students, but the ones that need the information now have a special place in my courses. Today we are going to take a look at one of the questions students ask more often than anything else and some ideas we need to consider before we can answer the question.

0272 - Threat Responses [ 27:50 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (637)

Admin:

[Read more...]

Filed Under: CCW, Podcast, SDFAQ, Training, Tweet Tagged With: , , , , ,

0244 – Last Minute Christmas Shopping Cart Tactics

December 22, 2011 by 1 Comment

There I was. Standing in the unmentionables section taking care of some last minute Christmas shopping. Just like any normal guy, as I stood there browsing, I got a little excited. You see, my mind wandered to the same place it does every four minutes or so all day long. What if? What if I was standing here and somebody was trying to hurt me? How would I handle it? What if there were two of them? What if I had my kids with me? What if, what if, what if…?

0244 - Last Minute Christmas Shopping Cart Tactics [ 15:41 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (382)

Admin:

[Read more...]

Filed Under: CCW, Every Day Carry, Firearms Training, General Safety, Podcast, Training, Unarmed Combat Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

0240 – Proper Maintenance of Life Saving Tools

December 12, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Last week I did a bunch of teaching. Nothing unusual. I did have a great bunch of students in my IFHF-OHCCW which is a bit different than usual. Don’t get me wrong, most of the folks I come across are excellent people, but this group had a synergy that isn’t found very often in a class of people who don’t know each other before they show up. When You get a group of people that are learning well together and having a good time, things work more smoothly, everything makes more sense, the students learn more and the instructor learns more too. I have to say that was my favorite part of the class. You see, most folks who take a CCW course are either pretty inexperienced with guns and self-defense, or have a good bit of experience and are just showing up to check a box. People that are there to simply meet a requirement set by the state aren’t terribly invested in the class to provide quality feedback, and those that are inexperienced don’t necessarily have the background to know the quality of instruction they are receiving, good or bad. This makes it difficult for them to comment effectively. This group was a good cross section of folks. From never shot a gun before to very experienced. This group of people had some good feedback. One of the best comments I received on the class was in an email I received after the course. The basic point of the email was that as an instructor it was conflicting to say that reliability is paramount in a self-defense handgun on one hand and then on the other to offhandedly comment that I can’t remember the last time I cleaned my Glock. What an excellent point. Today we are going to talk about keeping our life saving tools properly maintained.

0240 - Proper Maintenance of Life Saving Tools [ 28:00 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (527)

Admin:

[Read more...]

Filed Under: CCW, Every Day Carry, Firearms Training, General Safety, Podcast, Training Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

0222 – Using 911 Efficiently

October 26, 2011 by 2 Comments

Whatever the situation is, when you dial 911 stress is likely to be high.  Whatever is happening is probably high stakes and it certainly isn’t a good time to have to deal with logistical challenges.  We know that response time cannot be instant no matter how much we want it to be and what we want to make sure is that we don’t delay help any more than its delayed already.  Yet that might be exactly what we may be heading into when we dial 911.  In the US our emergency response system is efficient and effective, but that efficiency and effectiveness can be compromised when we fail to do our part.  Today we will talk about some simple things you need to do to make sure 911 works for you!

0222 - Using 911 Efficiently [ 18:50 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (368)

0222 – Using 911 Efficiently

Admin:

Sponsor of the day:

Dale Fricke Holsters

Reliable 911

When we think about emergencies one of the first concepts that jumps into our heads might be 911.  If we are ever involved in any kind of a serious situation it is likely that at some point emergency responders may also be involved.  The most common way for them to get involved is by someone dialing 911.

We have talked about the concept before, but it bears mentioning that 911 is not a magic pill for all of our problems.  The system is advanced, wonderful, and I’m glad that we have it, but it has some inherent issues that we must understand.

Response Time

We must understand that 911 Is a reactive service.  Police officers, fire fighters and paramedics would love to be in the right place at the right time to prevent something bad from happening or be able to instantly respond when something does happen.  That just isn’t possible based on several issues:

  1. 911 isn’t omniscient
  2. Emergency resources are limited
  3. Emergency services aren’t every where
  4. Emergency response depends on communication from you

Communication with 911

Today we aren’t going to talk about how to speak with the emergency services dispatcher.  Although that is an important topic we are going to move farther upstream and talk about how to get them on the line in the first place.  Seems like an easy enough task.  Pick up the phone and dial 911 right?  Hopefully that is the case, but sometimes it doesn’t go so smoothly.  Lets talk about how we can make the connection.

Know how to connect with 911

Seems silly.  It’s only 3 numbers, but every year there are situations where people are unable to successfully dial 911.  Lets look at some of the reasons:

  • Know the number

Seems kinda silly but you need to know what to dial to get 911.  I was recently working on a school campus where it was required to dial 9-8-911 to access emergency services.
I’ve been on a college campus where the emergency number was 123.
I feel pretty strongly that you should be able to pick up any phone in any location and press three numbers and have an emergency services dispatcher on the other end of the line.  We are moving in that direction, but we aren’t there yet.  It is our responsibility to know how to connect.  If you don’t know, ask.

  • Verify

    Every emergency cervices district is responsible for making sure that a certain percentage of phone numbers in the area are properly connected to the 911 system.  This means a percentage of land line phones must be able to dial 911 and reach the proper emergency services call center.  If you are smart you will make sure that 100% of land lines that you spend time around are verified.  It is your skin after all.  A quick search on the internet brought up several ways in which counties across the U.S. verify 911 service.  In my county I simply fill out a form and drop it at the county Sheriff to verify the information.  Here is how it is done in Sussex County, Schenectady County and Franklin County.  The process is different if you have a VOIP system like OOMA or MagicJack.

    A Word from MagicJack

    911 Emergency Services are for United States and Canadian addresses ONLY.

    Canadian addresses require Canadian numbers

    US addresses require US numbers

    NOTE: 911 Emergency Services will NOT work with magicJack APP

    1. Register your current U.S. address during the registration process.

    2. Make sure that your address information is always complete, up-to-date and accurate. (If you travel, you must update your 911 service address.)

    3. Wait for a confirmation email from magicJack that your 911 service address is registered.

    NOTE:

    • Our 911 Emergency Service is different than 911 service offered on traditional phone lines.
    • magicJack may not work during a power or internet outage.
    • Only use 911 in case of an actual emergency.

    Dialing 9-1-1:

    1. REQUIRES prior activation on your part. You must register your current service address and update your registered address if you use your magicJack from another location.

    2. WILL NOT function during a broadband or power disruption/outage.

    3. WILL NOT function if the magicJack is damaged or disabled.

    4. IS subject to the limitations of the 911 emergency response system where your registered address is located.

    You should maintain an alternate means of dialing 911 and make sure other users of your magicJack know this.


  • Practice
We are ultimately responsible for making sure that our call gets to the right place.  If we take the time to find out how to dial 911, verify that our phone system will work as advertised  all that is left is actually dialing the number.  Easier said than done.  There aren’t a whole lot of people out there that dial 911 on a regular basis let alone while they are under stress.  If you think about it we are much more likely to dial other -11 numbers than 911.  411 for information, 611 for customer service, 811 is the new national call before you dig hotline.  We can be thankful that these are more likely to be used, but at the same time, that can be a problem for us when we actually need to dial 911.
At home and work unplug the phone form the wall, check for a dial tone, and then practice.  Just the dialing at first, then write a script and practice it too.
On your cell, take out the battery and press 911 send.   Mechanics and the script.
A little practice could make a big difference in helping you call 911 instead of information.
The steps are pretty easy:
  1. Get the number
  2. Verify
  3. Practice
Taking the time to go through the three steps will help to reduce the response time which is already going to be too long!

 

 

Filed Under: General Safety, Podcast Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , ,

0205 – FF Flipped The Switch

July 4, 2011 by Leave a Comment
0205 - FF Flipped The Switch [ 10:06 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (284)

When we take a look at our FF I often try to single out a specific issue to deal with.  Today’s FF is no different.  I want to thank Bryan for sending it in.  I hope things are going well at OSU, and I look forward to more good videos Bryan!

Admin:

Sponsor of the Day: CJSK

He Flipped a Switch

[youtube uIkhQyuCD3U]

The video gets off to a bit of a slow start, but at about :50 seconds in, we see what it is that we need to see.  Domination.  It was one of the comments on Youtube that really caught my attention and described what it is that we need to take from the video.

“The guy flipped a switch!”

Yup, that is what we are looking for.   An immediate transition from guy walking down the street to dirt-bag’s biggest fear in the blink of an eye.

You see it is a natural instinct to posture.

  • Survival of the species
  • Lack of experience in violence

We don’t have time to goof around because of the nature of violence

  • chaotic
  • myriad of outcomes that aren’t so good
  • tendency to escalate quickly

When it is appropriate legally, morally and tactically we must attack:

  • instant
  • decisive
  • continue until we win, or stop breathing permanently

Filed Under: General Safety, Podcast, Unarmed Combat Tagged With: , , , , , ,
«Older Posts
 Name: Email: We respect your email privacyPowered by AWeber Autoresponder 
 Name: Email: We respect your email privacyPowered by AWeber Autoresponder 
Close
loading...