• Home
  • Articles
    • Firearm Rights
    • Practical Advice
    • Real-World Scenarios
    • General Discussion
    • Comic Relief
    • Reviews
    • Archive
  • Business Directory
  • Shop
    • View All Products
    • Basket
    • My account
    • Terms and Conditions
    • Privacy Policy
  • What is Paratus?

Social Media

Latest Posts

View

Disarming Victims Won’t Fix our Violent Crime Crisis

February 22, 2023

View

Gun Owners Are Not to Blame for Mass Shootings

February 8, 2023

View

Are Old Handgun Combatives Instructors Still Relevant?

January 13, 2023

View

Reliability, Ergonomics & Lumens – Choosing your EDC Torch

September 23, 2022

 
0
Paratus
The Truth is our Weapon
  • Home
  • Articles
    • Firearm Rights
    • Practical Advice
    • Real-World Scenarios
    • General Discussion
    • Comic Relief
    • Reviews
    • Archive
  • Business Directory
  • Shop
    • View All Products
    • Basket
    • My account
    • Terms and Conditions
    • Privacy Policy
  • What is Paratus?
Paratus
  • Home
  • Articles
    • Firearm Rights
    • Practical Advice
    • Real-World Scenarios
    • General Discussion
    • Comic Relief
    • Reviews
    • Archive
  • Business Directory
  • Shop
    • View All Products
    • Basket
    • My account
    • Terms and Conditions
    • Privacy Policy
  • What is Paratus?
0

In Practical Advice

Irrational reactions to violence: your mindset can save you

December 13, 2017 3 Comments

Irrational reactions to violence: your mindset can save you

People make highly irrational decisions all the time. We decide first, and then attempt to rationalise our irrational choices with cherry-picked data. At least that is how Scott Adams sees us, and I agree with him. We are now fully in the run-up to Christmas, and Silly Season is heating up as it does every year. You have probably noticed the significant increase of armed robberies, burglaries and hijackings reported in the media. This is not particularly surprising, since we live in the 8th most homicidal nation on Earth. Violence and crime have sadly become an inseparable part of our national identity.

Despite our national crime situation, some South Africans react to becoming victims of violence in astonishing ways. A friend sent me the post below for comment. I have redacted the original poster’s name and certain other identifying details. Except for those changes, I provide it here sic erat scriptum. My intention is not to ridicule, embarrass, or lambast this person. Instead, I seek only to highlight certain inconsistencies of thought, which we can hopefully learn from.

Considering that this was a very traumatic event, I will cut the victim a fair amount of slack. Firstly, practicing constant vigilance is good advice. It is not possible for you to spend your entire life in a state of high alert, but you can attain that happy medium of relaxed observance. Also, I concur with their assessment that the “climate out there is hectic right now”. It is Silly Season after all. However, I take exception to certain things they say.

Irrational approaches to crime and violence

My problem is where they implore us not to “be a hero”, and to “do what you’re told and walk away from it all afterwards in one piece”. This is rubbish. There is no guarantee that by complying with criminals’ demands you will survive the experience. We wrongfully believe that if we simply do as we’re told, we will drastically improve our chances of survival. Sure, sometimes victims get lucky and they escape the encounter relatively unscathed.

Many times they do not.

Such as this teacher who was shot and killed in her driveway during a hijacking. Or this man who was murdered in front of his family. Or this man who was also murdered in front of his wife and children. I can find more sickening examples of cold blooded murder with a quick Google search, but I think you get the point.

Why do we believe that criminals, who break the law for a living, will be merciful and conscientious when they have us at gunpoint? We balk at the thought of entrusting our lives to highly qualified surgeons. But we accept what violent criminals choose to do to us. Do you not find it a little irrational that when we are in a terrible situation, one where violent men with guns may kill us at any moment, we choose to trust them not to do so? Even if they have just grievously assaulted us? Of course we wouldn’t want to do anything that would aggravate the situation.

Right?

Exploring alternatives

The good news is that you do not have to be a defenceless victim. I have written extensively before about ordinary people triumphing against overwhelming odds. The bad news is that it requires a fair amount of effort and dedication to properly equip yourself. A gun makes a huge difference in equalising the playing field between you and your assailants. But there is an infinitely more important element you need to understand: your mindset.

Yes, your physical fitness is important. As is being proficient with an array of defensive tools and carrying them on your person. Additionally, it also helps if you know a martial art of some kind. However, without the right mindset none of these things will be of use to you. You must be mentally prepared to use whatever methods at your disposal to fend off a violent attack. There is a fair amount of literature out there regarding this topic, but I will start you off with this one from the Personal Defense Network.

The point is that you can turn yourself into a hard target: you don’t have to be a victim.

A different scenario

The people who suffered this attack were lucky. I guess. They got beaten up, held at gunpoint, and robbed. They suffered incredible emotional and physical trauma at the hands of violent criminal scumbags. The scars of that night will stay with them a long while still.

The reason they entrusted their lives to violent criminals is because they didn’t really have a choice.

They had a couple of drinks and their situational awareness was nonexistent. Apart from the alcohol in their bloodstream, it was early in the morning: it was dark and they suffered impaired visibility. And they probably experienced fatigue as well. Then six armed robbers caught them completely off-guard, and you know the rest. Considering the state they were in, I doubt they were capable of anything resembling competent resistance.

Criminals aren’t stupid after all: they pick their victims and location so that their risk exposure is minimal.

But what if the victims were all trained, armed, in an elevated state of situational awareness, and equipped with the appropriate mindset? Yes, the criminals still outnumbered them six-to-four, but those aren’t particularly bad odds. I will wager that the outcome would have been vastly different.

I suppose fighting back doesn’t sound so irrational now, does it?

Yes, there are no guarantees in life. Especially so in violent encounters with dangerous criminals. At the end of the day the responsibility (and accountability) of every decision you make is yours, and yours alone. I am not here to judge your decisions and lambaste you. To the contrary, I merely want to present a different perspective. Perhaps you agree with me, perhaps you do not.

The choice is yours.


Start here

If I somehow convinced you to begin your journey from conditioned victimhood to becoming a hard target, congratulations! There is a wealth of information on this website to get you started, and I will post suitable links below.

  • How do I licence a firearm?
  • Choosing a defensive handgun
  • Selecting the right defensive instructor for you

I hope you find them helpful.


Written by Gideon Joubert

Gideon is owner and editor of Paratus.

crimeempowermentself defenceviolence
Share

3

You may also like

View Post

It’s not a gun problem. It’s a people problem: how we raise our kids

View Post

Farm Attacks: You Are The Solution

View Post

When Your Defensive Ammo Fails

View Post

Malls, Mayhem and Moronic Machinations

View Post

No price for being wrong – Firearms Control Act amendments

View Post

Pixie Dust Policies versus South African Realities

View Post

Navigating the Mall Crowd – EDC and Situational Awareness

View Post

Why gun policy matters – even to those who don’t approve of guns

  1. Ludwig Churr
    •
    5 years ago

    Good sage advice. Seems like we now will have to forgo that drink or two with mates as well. Sad that we have to live in a state of perpetual awareness. But these are the choices we face.

    Stay sober and alive or risk dying.

  2. Peter Moss
    •
    5 years ago

    Possibly I think to much of the future and reality to worry more about the present. I always wondered why firearm owners look down on others and call them sheep for not embracing firearm ownership when they themselves do exactly the same.

    They behave exactly like sheep accepting oppression, accepting bad laws, accepting many many citizens have been disarmed knowing they are next. How many times have I heard the bleat of these sheep; nothing we can do, you cannot fight government, be reasonable……

    I am reasonable, totally and utterly, the problem lies with those who simply give up or refuse to see that others have challenged government and won. It is not impossible and one most certainly can fight government. That is the point of a democracy unless one is a really foolish and trusts government more than criminals.

    Governments record 262 Million dead in the last century. Criminals not even close. Government are the biggest criminal organisations on this earth because they control the sheep.

  3. Nic
    •
    5 years ago

    As if to confirm the sentiments of this article… The victim was shot, even after he complied with every request:
    https://maroelamedia.co.za/nuus/sa-nuus/vanaand-skiet-ons-jou-dood/

Previous Post

Situational Awareness is your…

In Practical Advice

Situational Awareness is your best survival tool - learn to use it

View Post

Next Post

Comfortable guns don't matter: buy…

In Practical Advice

Comfortable guns don't matter: buy reliability first

View Post

About Paratus

Paratus

Paratus is a platform where you can read about the latest developments at the sharp-edge of the South African gun ownership debate.

Boeretroos Koffie

Social Media

Subscribe

Enter your email address to subscribe and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Popular Posts

View

Gun Owners Are Not to Blame for Mass Shootings

February 8, 2023

View

Disarming Victims Won’t Fix our Violent Crime Crisis

February 22, 2023

View

Are Old Handgun Combatives Instructors Still Relevant?

January 13, 2023

Paratus

© 2023 Paratus - All Rights Reserved.