My friend Greg Ellifretz recently reminded me of this article I wrote a decade ago. I think it’s still valid.

Notice the photos. There’s no reason to be casting your eyes downward to your smartphone when you can just hold it up in front of your face and retain your scan of what’s around you while you’re reading.

20 COMMENTS

  1. This is a fantastic reminder to remain alert.

    My fiance (now my bride of +34 years) were walking between 6th Ave and 5th Ave in NYC one summer day after lunch. We knew the city well; she lived there and I was visiting weekly for business.

    The street we walked along did not have any shop fronts, it was the back loading area for the two parallel streets. This was in midtown and it was not a very dangerous area, but still NYC.

    We were walking east, on the south side of the street. I saw 3 tough guys turn onto the street from 5th ave on the north side of the street. They were about 120′ away when the leader looked at us and gave a nod to his friends. One crossed the street in front of us and started walking towards us. The other ran west down the north side of the street and I saw him cross about 75′ behind us. The leader walked diagonally across the street directly towards us. I told my fiance not to move and be ready to run into the loading dock near us and yell for help when I told her.

    I looked towards the leader, unbuttoned my suit jacket and placed my 4 fingers on my centerline, suggesting I had a gun. All I had was a folding knife.

    This surprised the tough guy and he whistled for his buddies to break off. They jogged down the street on the north side with him yelling ‘mf’er’ at us several times.

    • Been there. Done that.

      One memorable occasion always comes to mind. I was sitting in my car in the back lot of the pharmacy. I was eating a quick meal just before my 8pm shift. The neighborhood was, well, not the best. Actually, one of the worst in the state (ex: My relief one morning was 15 minutes late because she was sitting in her car watching a known drug addict and prostitute flash the morning commuters).

      Three guys round the corner of the building heading out the back of the secluded lot. They saw me, changing direction, the walked directly at me. No exit or other point of interest. Just me & my car. I maintained eye contact while I pulled a blade and made a show of trimming my fingernails. They abruptly turned back to their original path and disappeared I to the night.

  2. Mas, some people have told me that those who carry weapons for self-defense are living in a hysterical state of fear. I do so wonder about people who don’t seem to understand the differences among awareness, fear, varied experience with consequences of dangerous situations, justifiable violence, a merciful attitude, willingness to act as a sheepdog, the great value of consciously maintaining a continuous attitude of prayer and gratitude, and a few other basic things. I like the Spanish philosopher Ortega y Gasset, famous for writing “The Rebellion of the Masses.” He describes a personal nobility that is not genetically inherited, but can be achieved through striving to do our best in life, yielding a state of disinterested personal peace that is free from a contentious, jungle, dog-eat-dog mindset that is too frequently common. A nobility that is free of fearful attitudes that create their own difficulties. Ortega and Benedetto Croce are authors that to my mind have a lot in common with Lt. Col. Jeff Cooper and Clint Smith in helping us to create a safe mental space for defending ourselves and ours within Christian principles, where one is least likely to be an enemy of oneself, while being most competent to act in emergencies, so that we and a better world survive.

    • I wonder if some who are critical have fire extinguishers. According to their reasoning they then live in a constant hysterical state of fear of a fire.

    • “…those who carry weapons for self-defense are living in a hysterical state of fear.” Sounds like something the British bureaucracy would say to justify their decades old civilian disarmament laws.

  4. It is much better for your spine too when you hold the phone in front of your face. Be an exclamation point, not a question mark ⁉️

  5. I was walking alone (not a usual habit) in NYC of a late winter evening, heading north on Columbus in the west 90’s after a choir practice; pulling a large suitcase on wheels. (I shop.So sue me.) However, I was standing straight up, walking briskly, and a scrawny, hooded guy slithers up to me with two guys standing back in the shadows. He said, “Miss, Miss, can I talk to you?” I kept walking and evenly said, “You don’t want to talk to me.” “Ok, OK,Ok” he responded and crab walked back. You taught me during a LFI training to be head’s up, and strongly assertive. A matter of education and luck got me through a potentially bad scene. My only ordnance was pretending I was carrying– (a no-no in NYC.)

    • I saw a surveillance video of a guy head down in his phone walking into a bear. Fortunately, the bear was a startled as he was.

  7. Before I cancelled our subscription to the local paper I used to read the occasional letter to the editor from folks who “didn’t want to/have to live like that”. OK, that’s their choice, but they’re also unwilling to accept that attitude means paying a price for it. They’ve lived in a “nerf world”, insulated (often by ignorance) from reality so long they not only think it’s a normal situation, but that they have a right to it.

    Part of my classes is a section on how to use all the reflective surfaces modern architecture gives us to be aware of your surroundings without looking like Inspector Clouseau. I’ve had a decent amount of positive feedback.

    I’ve begun thinking that dashboard cameras might be a good thing. I’ve experienced the nose in the cell phone thing several times at crossings. It’ll never happen, but holding those idiots responsible for the results of their behavior would be a good thing.

  8. Undisputed success in the battle to maintain our constitutional freedom of expression is like Douglas MacArthur’s “the end of war.” Only the dead may have ever seen either, at least until Judgement Day. I am so grateful for this site for its place to comment.

  9. Great article, Mas. I enjoy living an awareness lifestyle. It makes life more interesting and exciting. It produces a thankful attitude when I arrive at my destination, and nothing happened. Your ideas about “smelling the roses” are excellent for getting our thoughts off of ourselves for a change.

    When walking, I consciously revolve around a full 360 degrees, once in a while, in order to check my 6 o’clock position, and scan every other position. This may make me look like I am on patrol in Viet Nam, but I don’t care. Hopefully, a predator sees that and decides I am just too aware to be an easy target.

    By being what other people call “paranoid,” if I ever get involved in an emergency, I will be more prepared to handle it. Without my training, I would panic, scream, and act like the squirrel in the road who doesn’t know which way to run.

  10. It sure was lucky this man and his wife *were* relatively awake and alert at 4:00 or 5:00 A.M. for the big pre-dawn ATF SWAT raid, complete with concussion grenades and laser red dots all over everyone (including his children, who were still in bed when the doors were breached and the flashbangs detonated).

    I just wondered if all this seems perfectly “according to Hoyle” to you?

    I would imagine a world-renowned expert like yourself is *at least* as aware of such goings-on as a layman like me. Any thoughts?

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJMCeWLYzts

      • @johnpackwood4779 (2 hours ago): “How can a warrant be sealed? Telling a homeowner the warrant is sealed is tantamount to no warrant.”

        At this point, it appears that the whole object of this exercise was to check serial numbers, all of which were kosher.

        “The ATF says it has no comment on the case. Of course it doesn’t.”

        So much for hearing “the other side of the story.” There is none.

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKXzt2jD6CI

  12. @kenyh6695 (3 hours ago): “They had better be prepared to pay for the damage to the hearing of the family!”

    @Rkbmomma (3 hours ago): “And the Long term concussion effects of the flashbangs…”

  13. @albertbarie9551 (15 hours ago (edited)): “If the feds had a legitimate reason for the raid they wouldn’t have any problem talking about it.”

    @CeltKnight (12 hours ago): “Retired LEO here – There is no way they got a warrant for Felon in Possession without showing he was, in fact, a felon.

    The fact they had a warrant means they had to have lied on the affidavit for said warrant.

    That means some agent should be looking at a charge for perjury.

    Someone calling and grumbling that he might have something illegal does not in any way constitute probable cause.

    Unless, perhaps said person made a sworn affidavit to having first-hand knowledge in which case again we should have a perjury charge on someone.

    There is NO EXCUSE for pre-dawn raids on a home with children inside.

    Time to revoke the ATF’s power and end their jack-booted thuggery.”

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