In the world of law, there are essentially two types of crimes:  mala en se (Latin for evil in itself) crimes and mala prohibita (Latin for evil prohibited) crimes. The distinction is important, and most Americans don’t understand these concepts.

Image via Wikipedia

Mala en se crimes are obvious infringements upon the rights of others. This would include things like robbery, rape, or murder. I say that these crimes are obvious, because every organized society has laws against these crimes, and the harm they inflict is obvious and immediate.

These acts contain the element of mens rea (a guilty mind). Anybody of normal state of mind knows that they are violating these laws and thus understand they have committed a “wrong”.

Contrast that idea with mala prohibita crimes – acts that are crimes because somebody said so. These are laws like prostitution, drug use, etc.

You can argue the ills of these acts, but in themselves they do not infringe on anybody else’s rights. Mala prohibita laws are not universal in US states, across the globe, or historically. Why? Because mostly they enforce whoever is in power’s moral system. They try to replace self-regulation with government regulation of consensual activity.

The US constitution was originally drafted and has been amended to bind the federal government from creating and enforcing mala prohibita laws. The bill of rights is a stunning document outlining the types of things the government cannot infringe upon – freedom of speech, religion, freedom from self-incriminatiom, freedom from illegal detainment, search and seizure, the right to own and bear arms.

Mala prohibita laws are tricky because you can violate them with no mens rea. You can be in violation of mala prohibita laws without even knowing it quite easily. Think about the tens of thousands of pages of tax code.

You may have heard that ignorance of the law is no defense. That saying comes from 18th century British Law scholar Blackstone  who wrote:

“Ignorantia juris quod quisque tenetur scire, neminem excusat.” (ignorance of the law, which everyone is bound to know, excuses no man)

Most people have never heard the “which everyone is bound to know” part. What he’s talking about here is Natural Law. The idea of Natural Law is that you have certain rights by virtue of being born human – whether you think they are endowed by God, or simply extend from your status as a person. Everyone in society is bound to know that violating your personal or property rights is wrong. On the other hand, I may not know that whistling on Sunday is banned in certain towns, and I might get pardoned for whistling if I’m from out of town.

Why is understanding this important for self defense in Maine?

First, you should understand that your right to defend your person and your property from harm is a natural right. It extends from the very fact that you are human. All states have guidelines on what citizens may do to defend themselves. I’ll let the legal scholars argue about them. But you should read and understand what they are – and good luck.

Second, I think some of our mala prohibita crimes with regard to self defense are ridiculous. For example, if your kid has a slingshot in his backpack – technically he is committing a Class D crime in Maine and can be imprisoned for 364 days. A woman who has a concealed carry weapons permit allowing her to have a gun concealed on her person, she still could be arrested for having a stun gun in her purse.

I raise this because my students frequently ask about which self-defense weapons are legal to carry in Maine. I am not a lawyer and cannot give legal advice, but as I read the law it basically states that no item used for self defense can be carried concealed on or about your person except for a firearm by someone who has a permit or defensive sprays like pepper spray.

This is a bad law for numerous reasons, not the least of which is that there probably are many thousands of people inadvertently breaking this law every single day.

The real problem with outlawing objects is that it disarms the law abiding citizens, and creates a class of criminals who have never violated a law except for owning the object – and may not ever know they have broken the law. In general, laws restricting people’s ability to defend themselves from violence increase violent crime.

I have written to my state senator and state representative recently in hopes of opening a dialog to discuss Maine Statute Title 25 252. Section 2001A. “Threatening display of or carrying concealed weapon”. I will keep you informed, but I hope you go read and understand the laws of the state regarding self defense.

Yesterday marked the third conversation I have had with a Maine resident who told me that they didn’t lock their doors because, “locks only keep out the honest people.” Honestly, I’m flummoxed  by the total lack of logic here, since honest people have never tried to break into my house. This is one of those folksy statements that sounds like it might be true, but is actually really dangerous to put any stock into.

Here’s the deal: Somebody who has dedicated themselves to breaking into your house will get in – no doubt. It’s only a matter of time no matter what precautions you take. However, why are you going to make it easier for them? Making it harder for them to get in can potentially save your life.

Break-in Image via Wikipedia

The fallout of a break-in can be severe. If you’re not home the loss can be financial, damage to your home, and your sense of security. A friend on Facebook just posted that his 5 year old daughter is having nightmares from an earlier break-in. I can remember the sense of violation and fear that my wife and I went through in Boston when a downstairs neighbor was burglarized.

Even worse is the potential outcome if somebody is home when a break-in occurs. Your chances of being assaulted if you are home during a break-in are 60%. The vast majority of rapes and sexual assaults happen in the home. Being in your home with you, provides an invader with privacy from the outside world.

You need to make break-ins reasonably harder.

Solid perimeter security (door and window protection and alarms) provide a number of safety advantages:

1. Delay – the longer it takes an intruder to break into your house the longer you’ll have to react to a break-in. If it’s hard enough – an amateur looking for a simple property crime might move on. Delaying an intruder gives you critical seconds to react where you might grab a weapon, escape, trip an alarm, or grab a phone and pray that the police come.

2. Detect – somebody simply turning a doorknob and walking in might not be noticed until it’s too late. Forcing a door or breaking a window makes noise. If you’re in the house you might be awakened by the noise if sleeping. If an intruder makes enough noise he might alert neighbors. You can’t defend against an attack you don’t know is coming.

If you are not home when an intruder enters, having a broken window or a kicked-in door when you return might alert you to the fact that a criminal is lying in wait inside your house. At that point you retreat to a safe location and call the police to clear the property. If your doors aren’t locked you may walk into a burglary in process completely unknowing.

3. Deter – Again, a determined intruder will get past any defense, but it will take time. Most criminals do not want to get hurt, caught, or identified. It’s simple economics, the greater the risk to an intruder, the less likely they will choose your house.

Recently someone tried to break into our house, but was scared away by our alarm. They opened a side-door that had been accidentally left unlocked. Good thing we had the alarm. It seems like the potential burglar walked around the house trying the doors until he found one unlocked.

The other argument I get against locking doors goes something like: I have lived here for 11 years and have never had a problem, or, I live out here in the country. In Maine, home invasion is on the increase particularly in rural areas where prescription and synthetic drug abuse is growing rampant. I live in one of the safest towns in the country. The issue is, you just never know.

In Boston, back in 2001, there was a serial rapist attacking women at random in the North End. The North End is a close-knit Italian community with almost zero crime.

Security is always a trade. You have to give something to get a bit of security. Sometimes it’s time , or money. Locking your doors takes around a single second each time. It really seems like a very minor trade for something that may very well save your life.

The reality is that people feel uncomfortable accepting the fact that they might become the victim of violence. The person I was talking to yesterday told me, “I don’t want to worry about those things.” Let me make this clear: preparing and making your family safer does not mean you live your life in perpetual worry.

After all, I have working smoke detectors in my house, but I don’t go to bed shivering in fear that my house might burn down. My doors are dead-bolted and the alarm is on when I go to sleep, and I sleep well. If something happens, I have at least thought about it, and have some preparation. I feel better knowing that, in the unlikely event of an emergency, my preparation means my family is more likely to fare better.

I cannot imagine that sticking your head in the sand and pretending that nothing bad could ever happen to you actually builds a worry-free lifestyle.

Here’s a video covering a story where an 11 year-o successfully fends off a kidnapper who was trying to drive off with his 9 year-old sister. Jonah Yano credited years of training in jujutsu (or Jui Jitsu) with helping in his defense of his sister.

Here’s  important takeaways I want you to understand:

Image by rinpoche via Flickr

1. You do not have to be Bruce Lee to defend yourself: A little bit of skill goes a long way.
2. You do not have to be bigger or faster than your opponent: simply putting up resistance makes an attacker’s job very difficult. Most attackers rely on compliance.
3. Self defense doesn’t mean beating up or defeating an attacker necessarily: Self defense is about creating opportunity for escape.
4. When you surprise an attacker by attacking them back they will be at a disadvantage.
5. Get training for yourself and your kids.

From time to time I have people ask me about weapons for home defense. Below are some guidelines for selection, storage, or use.

My one overarching piece of advice for any weapon system or self-defense tool is to get trained, and get trained well. This goes for any person in your family who may access a weapon. This goes for everything from guns, to knives, to pepper-spray. Seek out training, get trained, practice, get more training, practice … repeat as forever.

Always, always, always, without exception, learn and follow your local and state laws.

Selecting Home Defense Weapons

I know a bit about firearms, and quite a bit more about knives. I am not going to tell you make an model of weapons I think are superior for home defense. There are plenty of sites out there for people to argue those merits. Instead I want to give you guidelines for selection so that you can make your own informed decisions.

• First consider what you are legally allowed to own. Yes, we’d all love a rocket launcher for home defense, but let’s be realistic. Are you legally allowed in your location to own a knife, gun, pepper spray, taser etc? If so, are there permit qualifications?
• What is your home environment like? Do you have children? Small hallways? Most modern firearms, particularly rifles will go straight through walls in your house. You don’t want to accidentally shoot a loved one. Machetes are great, but might be difficult to wield on that narrow staircase.  Pepper spray in an enclosed space is going to affect every person in the house – including you. Shotgun shot and safety slugs in handguns are supposed to reduce wall penetration – do you really want to risk your kids lives on “supposed to”? Consider the environment.
• Consider capacity. Under stress conditions, most people miss most shots with a handgun – even well-trained police officers. If you are going the route of a handgun or carbine, consider magazine capacity. I know a lot of people love revolvers for a lot of reasons (including the fact they seldom jam), but I would rather have 10-16 chances than 6. Police and civilian tasers are normally a one-shot and you’re done deal. I am not a big fan for civilian use. Handheld weapons, knives and baseball bats and such, never run out of bullets, but are only good close up.
• Consider effect. A lot of articles in gun magazines refer to “stopping power” of handguns. They are all full of crap. A few years back I sat in on a lecture given by an FBI consultant who had completed a study on firearms. The FBI’s firearms experts concluded that no handgun in the world with the power to be reliably lethal or knock down an opponent in one shot. Yes, it does happen sometimes. Many people are shot multiple times and survive. Even when a shot destroyed the heart, an opponent still had a number of seconds to press an attack. Knives are nice, but very seldom instantly lethal. If you carry a knife you should know how to use it to stop an attacker. Impact weapons like bats and sticks can be used to great effect but require a lot of room to wield.

Take each of these things into effect when choosing a weapons system. Realistically you should wind up with multiple choices for maximum flexibility.

Storage of Home Defense Weapons

Storage is a very important consideration for any weapon. On one hand, and weapon you own must be kept out of the wrong hands. Your local laws may dictate trigger locks or other safety mechanisms. You don’t want children, a home-invander, or drunk uncle Bob getting their hand on something that could hurt someone.

On the other hand, for a weapon to be effective, you need to have access to it when you need it.

Ideally, you would have access to your personal defense tools throughout your home. This might be too expensive or impractical. If permitted legally, and it’s practical – you might consider carrying your weapons on your person while at home and awake.

You should have a designated safe room in your home which, at least has a locked door and access to a phone. This is a good place to store a firearm in a safe and place other survival tools.

Learn how to use improvised weapons too, so that anything in your hands can be a tool for survival. We teach improvised weapons as do some other schools. Also learn empty hand defense, so it can be a bridge to get you to your weapons system.

Use of Home Defense Weapons

Specific uses are going to depend on the weapon, but here are some basic guidelines:

• Again learn and follow all applicable laws. The laws on self defense in the home can be a little difficult to understand. Consult a lawyer or take a self defense law class (offered sometimes by NRA instructors who are lawyers or police officers).
• Have a plan for your family and practice it. In a home invasion scenario – getting at least one person out of the house to get help is the best idea. Barring that plan to retreat to your safe room. Have code words practiced, yelling “Escape” means everybody leaves through the nearest exit and meets at a safe place. Yelling “safe room” means everybody runs for the safe room. You may decide ahead of time that in a home invasion, one adult who has training might act to block and attack the invaders – delaying them so others might get help. As a parent, it’s a sacrifice I would make. The point is to plan and practice.
• Seek the best cover possible. Put anything you can between you and an attacker. Hard objects are best, but barring that – knock over furniture in his path or throw things. You’re simply trying to delay and distract. If you plan on owning a firearm – learn how to shoot from all different positions in front of and behind cover. If you have a edged or impact weapon think of it as a shield. Make your attacker come through the weapon to get to you.
• As soon as possible, somebody needs to call 911. If  a household member is armed, inform the dispatcher that the homeowner is armed, with what and, if possible, where. Stay on the line.

May you never have to use this knowledge. I would rather you have it and not need it, than need it and not have it.

Early Saturday morning I left home with my family. About 8-9 minutes later someone unknown to us tried to gain entry to our house. He or she opened a door we almost never use and was apparently frightened away by our alarm system responding.

Some minutes later the police responded and secured our home. Nothing was taken or was out of place. When I returned home, I went through every room, closet, and garage to make sure.

Here’s the thing: I live in one of the absolutely safest areas in the country. My town has a nearly non-existent violent crime rate, and a very low property crime rate. But this can happen anywhere.

While somewhat disturbing, our secondary line of defense (the alarm system), worked exactly as it should. We’re now reviewing our home security to further prevent and incidents like these. What should you do to better prepare yourself and your home from unauthorized entry?

First, become aware of the reality of burglary and home invasion. Like self-defense, most people get their ideas about burglary and home invasion from TV.

How and When do Burglaries Most Happen

Unlike on TV, most burglars don’t wear a ski mask, strike in the dead of night while you are home. Criminals who are after your property do not want to get caught, hurt, or identified.

Statistics show that most burglaries happen during the daytime and most entries are made through a door (second place is a window). An interview with a professional burglar said he preferred the back door because the police always came through the front and it would be easier to escape.

Home Invasion Statistics

Home invasion is when a break-in happens when a home is occupied. Here are department of justice statistics about home invasion:

• 38 percent of assaults and 60 percent of rapes occur during home invasions
• One in five homes undergoes a home invasion or break-in
• There are more than 8,000 home invasions every day in North America
• 50 percent of home invasions involve the use of a weapon; the most common weapons used are knives or other cutting instruments
• In 48 percent of home invasions, victims sustain physical injuries
• Victims age 60 or older make up 17 percent of home invasion victims
• In 68 percent of home invasions, victims and the accused are strangers; in 11 percent of these cases, victims and the accused are friends, business associates, or family

Congressman Chris Murphy (D Connecticut) is currently trying to make home invasion a federal crime – a move I welcome.

Burglary and Home Invasion Prevention

I’d like you to consider all of your personal security needs with the idea of defense in depth. This means that you have layers of security in place in case one or more layers fail.

Previously I wrote that our alarm system was a secondary layer of security – actually it might even be third.

Layer 1 – Operational Security

In this age of social media, people tend to over-share. How many people post vacation plans to Facebook, or “check in” to places when they are away. Insurance companies are now even considering looking at your social media status when doing a risk assessment before issuing a policy.

Loose lips sink ships. Simply don’t give information away that could be used against you – it’s pretty common sense.

Operational security also includes awareness. You can have a healthy level of awareness without going into paranoia. If there’s a neighborhood watch, it might be a good idea to join. Don’t let people follow you into your house – be aware of people following you.

Another layer of operational security is in flaunting wealth. It may be great to flash that $30,000 Rolex at the club, but to a drug addict looking to score – that’s going to be a tempting prize. For security purposes, it is often better to fit into your surroundings than to stand out. You must use your discretion in this regard.

Owning an nice home in an affluent neighborhood doesn’t necessarily make you safe. Burglars frequently target nicer homes because they have nicer possessions. I read an interview with a burglar who even burgled Liberace’s house.

Layer 2 – Perimeter Security

Your perimeter security is anything that keeps unwanted people out of your house. This includes doors, locks, lights,  and alarm systems.

I don’t want to get into too much technical detail with door and lock systems, but there are ways to reinforce these so that they are harder to pick, bump, drill or force. I would encourage you to do your own research here.

A good alarm system is great. Even having the sign on your lawn may deter the average criminal from trying your place. Do your own research, but an alarm company I recommend is FrontPoint Security. Their rates are extremely reasonable and the way their system works make it very hard to defeat. You can usually get a break on your homeowner’s insurance by having a monitored alarm system.

Good lighting is a deterrent and also a means of increasing awareness of potential threats at night. I mention it last simply because most burglaries happen during the day.

Layer 3 – Endpoint Security

This layer is everything you do to prepare should your first two layers of security fail. In other words – someone gets in.

Here are my top recommendations:

• Have an escape plan with your family – treat a home invader as you would a fire. Everybody gets out as fast as possible and meets up somewhere.
• If you can’t escape – have a safe room. Use a code phrase like “safe room” and, if anybody yells that, the whole family runs for that room. That room should be able to be locked from the inside and it’s a good idea to keep any weapons and a charged cell phone in that room. The first person in should dial 911. It doesn’t have to be million dollar Panic Room like in the Jodie Foster movie, but you can do some simple things to fortify it.
• Train every adult or teen in the family in armed and unarmed self-defense. Even if you don’t own a gun or plan to – get gun training (in case you ever take one away). Learn how to use a knife, stick and bare hands under pressure. You don’t have to beat up a 300 pound sociopath – you merely need to facilitate an escape.

This is just the tip of the iceberg on home security. I encourage you to learn as much as you can, and I’ll write further on this most important topic.

Given that we’re raising this question on a blog dedicated to self-defense, you can probably guess what my answer is. Yes, every person should study some form of self defense – even if you carry a gun, even if the police station is next door, even if you are as big as the Hulk.

But, the question at hand involves the police’s ability and duty to protect you from violence. Can they? Will they? Do they have to?

Can the police help you if you are being violently attacked:

The answer is yes, as long as they are standing right there when the attack happens. I don’t know about you, but I don’t travel with a police escort 24 hours a day.

There’s 911 right? Sure. And response time to 911, when it works, is measured in minutes – sometimes 15 minutes or more. Imagine someone attacking you ferociously for 15 seconds do you think you could hold that person off for 14 3/4 minutes. Sometimes you call 911 and it doesn’t work at all – happened to me. Of course calling 911 presupposes that an attacker is going to give you an opportunity to dial and then speak to the operator.

Will they?

First, let me say that I count a number of police officers from various jurisdictions among my friends. They are all, without exception dedicated professionals who would not ever fail to protect a citizen in danger if they could help it. But that’s not the issue.

Have there been cases where police refused to act or, for some reason, didn’t act to protect someone? Yes. Example: a person inside your house with a gun could hold the police off for a long time.

The police have to protect me from crime, right?

Nope.

Legally, the police are not required to protect you at all. If they fail to protect you, you can’t sue them. Here are some relevant decisions and statues:

“….nothing in the language of the Due Process Clause itself requires the State to protect the life, liberty, and property of its citizens against invasion by private actors.”–DeShaney v. Winnebago County Department of Social Services (109 S.Ct. 998, 103 L. Ed. 2d 249 (1989)

“What makes the City’s position particularly difficult to understand is that, in conformity to the dictates of the law, Linda did not carry any weapon for self-defense. Thus, by a rather bitter irony she was required to rely for protection on the City of New York which now denies all responsibility to her.” –Judge Kenneth Keating, in the sole dissenting opinion in the Linda Riss case (Riss v. City of New York, 240 N.E.2d 860 (N.Y. 1968)

“The Court, however, does not agree that defendants owed a specific legal duty to plaintiffs with respect to the allegations made in the amended complaint for the reason that the District of Columbia appears to follow the well established rule that official police personnel and the government employing them are not generally liable to victims of criminal acts for failure to provide adequate police protection……. This uniformly accepted rule rests upon the fundamental principle that a government and its agents are under no general duty to provide public services, such as police protection, to any particular individual citizen.”–Warren v. District of Columbia, 444 A.2d 1 (D.C. Ct. of Ap., 1981)

“Neither a public entity nor a public employee is liable for failure to establish a police department or otherwise to provide police protection service or, if police protection service is provided, for failure to provide sufficient police protection service.”
–California Government Code, Section 845

In California, your locality isn’t even required by law to have a police force.

Carjacking is a relatively rare occurrence in Maine. However, you can learn to be safer in your car no matter where you are. Here are the most important steps you can take:

1. Safety always begins with awareness
   Know what’s around your car at all times, even when stopped at a light. Drivers distracted by speaking on the cellphone, eating, doing their makeup have proven to be more dangerous than drunken drivers. Be aware, even when stopped.
2. Keep your doors locked
   The only time your car doors should ever be unlocked is when you are getting in or out of or unloading the car. A lot of car jacking happens at stoplights. It’s much harder to pull someone out of a car that is locked than not. Leaving your car unlocked leaves it open for anyone to climb in, an assailent, a child, a burglar – keep it locked.
3. Leave space to escape
   A rule I always follow when stopping behind another car is to leave enough room that I could pull away if I had to – even if that means driving up on the sidewalk. If someone approaches your car with a weapon, your first instinct should be to drive off fast.
4. Understand the rule about second crime scene
   As a general rule, you should never let an assailant take you to a second crime scene. They are not taking you there with good intentions and, chances are, they want to remove your options for survival. If someone does happen to get into the car with you, get out and run if you can. If you can’t it’s recommended that you force the car to crash against a stationary object – hopefully at a speed that won’t kill or injure you severely.
5. Be careful about fake police officers
   This is a nightmare situation, but some criminals equip their cars with flashing lights to pull people over. This has mostly been done to target young women driving by themselves. Occasionally one of them will even dress as a police officer. We’re taught to comply with law enforcement, and disobeying the law can bring charges. Unmarked cars are more common on the turnpike, where it’s unlikely such criminals would be active for fear of being caught. So, if you’re being pulled over in the middle of nowhere:
   • Slow down and signal your intent to stop and try to pull over in a well-lit public area (may not always be an option).
   • Look at the car, if it has blue flashers on a top-mounted light-bar it is most likely a real police officer.
   • Tell the officer you don’t feel safe and ask to be escorted to the nearest police station.
   • Can you see the license plate in the mirror and is it a government plate?
   • If you don’t feel comfortable, keep your door locked and roll your window down just a crack to hand your license and registration over.
   • If anything makes you feel wrong, tell the officer that you aren’t comfortable and you’re going to call 911.
6. Always carry a charged cell-phone
   Even if you don’t have service, like if you haven’t paid your bill, all cell phones will dial 911. If you can’t afford cell service, as least carry a charged phone for 911 calls.

Everybody needs to train in self defense and the sooner the better.

Living in a relatively low-crime area like Southern Maine, it may seem strange to recommend that every single person here get self defense training. However, it’s not really such a strange idea, and it’s an idea that may save lives.

Damian Ross of The Self Defense Company wrote, “not everybody needs martial arts, but everybody needs self defense.”

Mr. Ross draws a distinction between self defense training and martial arts training, it’s an important distinction I’ve written about before. Here’s why I agree:

1. You cannot predict if and when you might be a target of a violent crime.
   Even if you live a low-risk lifestyle in a low-risk area, you never can be sure when you’ll cross paths with a violent criminal. Home invasions happen in areas, urban, rural, rich and poor. People are mugged going to and from their cars. People  are assaulted by emotionally disturbed strangers, acquaintances, and people they work with.Just because it hasn’t happened to you doesn’t mean it won’t ever happen to you.
2. The only time self defense training does any good is before you need it.
   It’s kind of a no-brainer, but I’ve had students sign up after a violent encounter. If you asked them if they wished they got self defense training earlier they all would answer “yes”
3. Proper training helps in a violent encounter.
   I’ve written about the danger of buying too heavily into statistics, but every study I’ve seen, compared with anecdotal evidence shows that self defense training helps. In fact one study showed that women who took an anti-mugging program were less likely to even have someone attempt to mug them. I would probably attribute this to increased awareness along with confidence that comes with training.
4. Preparing for the worst is a smart thing.
   Nobody would question the intelligence of fire drill training conducted in our public schools, yet fatalities from school fires virtually never happen (unless you go back to the 1950s). Violent crime occurs every 35 seconds in the U.S. and nobody is immune. The best preparation is for people to learn to take care of themselves. We buckle our seat-belts, go to the dentist, change the batteries in the fire alarm, so why not get self defense training?
5. You are ultimately responsible for your own safety.
   If you are ever attacked by a violent criminal it will likely happen when you are alone. It most likely won’t happen within earshot of a police officer. The attacker will not wait patiently while you call 911, or while you rummage in a bag for pepper spray. Your attacker will not try to mug you from across the street giving you plenty of opportunity to run.
6. Most criminals are looking for an advantage.
   Crime works along economic rules. Criminals make risk/reward choices about victims. They want to minimize their risk of getting caught or hurt, while maximizing their reward of getting away with their goal. By training you can become “too much trouble” for many criminals. The vast majority of criminals will give up when resisted, and those that don’t you really need to worry about damaging. Violence against other criminals is prevalent because criminals won’t go to the police. Violence against women, children and elders is prevalent because they are seen as easy targets. However, everybody looks like an attractive target to somebody. Studying self defense can be a deterrent to crime, and thus proactive.

So, what’s the objection?

My opinion about the real reason more people don’t train is that it is related to an almost universal human fear. At least 85% of people will measure a phobic psycho-physiological response in the presence of interpersonal human conflict. PTSD is much higher in soldiers who experienced face to face combat than in airmen who dropped bombs in combat. We seem to have a built in mechanism to get along.

Psychologically, it’s been proposed, that when we are attacked (verbally or physically) it can symbolize another human being who doesn’t value our identity. Identity is a complex psychological construct, but we’ll just say that it’s who we think we are at the core. A threat to identity is a threat to not just our life, but who we are at the core.

I believe that a lot of people avoid training in self-defense because they are in denial and are uncomfortable accepting the fact that another human being may threaten their very being. As someone who has had his life threatened by a criminal, it is an uncomfortable thing to accept. However, moving past that and taking responsibility for your own well-being is empowering.

Countering surface objections:

Here are some of the regular things I hear from people when talking about training.

I don’t have time
This is the granddaddy of excuses and it’s BS. You can find time to train. What you’re really saying is that it isn’t a priority. How much TV do you watch in a week? How often do you go out and socialize? How much time do you spend on the computer or playing games. Can you spare an hour or two a week? Of course you can

It’s too expensive
We’re all feeling the effects of the economy these days. There is self defense training everywhere at a number of price points (including free). And, you don’t always get what you pay for – I mostly teach for free. Sometimes schools or police departments offer training at a very low price. Ask yourself this, “What if I were injured in a violent crime tomorrow, what would I have to lose then?”

I don’t have any experience
I get this all the time, and it makes me chuckle a little. Nobody had any experience before they began. The time to begin is now.

I’m out of shape
I have news for you, a violent criminal doesn’t care. You probably need training more than anybody. Real self defense training does not rely solely on athleticism. It helps, for sure, but an attacker is generally not looking for someone in the best shape to scrap with. And, self defense training will provide at least some exercise which everybody needs.

I don’t have years to train
This one is also kind of funny, I don’t have time to be good so I’ll stay lousy. The reality is that real self defense can be learned quickly, while martial arts take a lifetime to master. Our own military hand to hand combat instruction is extremely short but effective for the mission. They don’t have 30 years to prepare troops for combat.

So, wouldn’t now be a great time to begin your training?

During several of my self defense seminars I’ve had students tell me that their first planned line of defense against violent crime was to summon the police by calling 911. One woman said that she would dial 911 on her cell phone and hold her finger over the send button while walking alone at night. Another said she would call home and talk to her husband while walking to her car because she felt reassured.

Let’s be clear – calling 911 during an emergency when possible is a great idea. The quicker you can summon help the better. However, when seconds count – the police are minutes away.

I don’t have statistics on police response time to 911 calls in Maine, but average EMS response time is 6-12 minutes. This figure varies significantly depending on location. In a violent attack or home invasion, it’s unlikely that an attacker is going to give you 6 minutes. In a report commissioned by the State of Maine to analyze the 911 system, it is stated that a delay of even 30 seconds in response time is life-threatening.

I used to mistakenly think that calling 911 automatically gave the police my location and, even if I was unable to speak, help would arrive.  Enhanced 911 has made this better for calls from home phones, but cell phones are another story. Call 911 from a cell phone and it’s likely you’ll need to be transferred. I experienced the first hand in Boston when I witnessed and accident and called 911 on my cell.  The State police answered the call and didn’t even know what city I was calling from. Then they transferred me and I got a busy signal.

Two women who worked for me were in a car accident in front of a State Police bunked in Massachusetts and called 911. It took 20 minutes for a trooper to walk out of the front door and help them. Larger cities like New York have had times when response was over 45 minutes.

The truth is that calling 911 should not be your primary line of defense. It’s too unreliable – you don’t know when help is going to arrive. If your house was burning down, you wouldn’t call 911 and then sit inside and wait for the fire department (I hope). You’d get out and then call 911.

You are the first line of defense for you and your loved ones. You need to be prepared. Get yourself some training.

Last night I attended a talk on information security given by a representative of a major endpoint security company. They make antivirus software for those who aren’t fluent in geek.

The presenter made an interesting point that I think is relevant to personal security and self defense. He showed an image of a house and talked about the three necessary components to preventing loss or mitigating risks for burglaries. The first component is prevention, this includes door locks, fences, and anything designed to keep a burglar out. The next component is detection and includes things like alarms which are designed to make us aware when a breach of our preventative measures has occurred. The final component is response and includes things like alarm monitoring that calls the police and owning a gun or a dog. Response is the ability to react when a breach has occurred and has been detected.

The presenter next asked which of the three components was most important. Most of us (including me) answered that prevention was most important. In surveys this is the consensus of 95% of people asked. The reality is that, according to insurance statistics, for mitigating loss to burglary – detection and response are far more important than prevention. While having good door locks and other preventative measures is  important, once they are bypassed – without detection and response a burglar is free to steal with impunity.

How can we relate this to self defense and personal protection?

1. Prevention: This is anything you do to keep yourself from being a target of criminals. This may include avoiding dangerous situations, locking your car and house doors, not flashing valuables or cash in public – etc. The issue is, that there is no such thing as 100% fail-proof prevention. You can do everything right, and even go overboard with security precautions and still become the target of crime.
2. Detection: Detection boils down to awareness. Clearly most people will be aware of an attack after it happens, but understanding pre-violence indicators and having situational and environmental awareness are keys to surviving violence. I sometimes tell students that I cannot teach them how to defend against a sniper rifle. If the attack isn’t perceived, there will be no response.
3. Response: What do you do when you detect a threat, or when attacked? This is where tools and training come in.

The truth of the matter is that all three layers of defense are incredibly important. Insurance companies are not going to tell you to forget about door locks and just get an alarm and a gun. Many schools of self defense focus solely on response, and this is fine. However, without awareness, response will be too late and infective.