Training or Techniques for protecting Family/Friends

[Hootiewho]

We train for one on one engagements, but how often do we take into account having a spouse, child, or friend with us at the time of use of deadly force? Say a cop out on the town with his girl and he runs into two dirtbags he put away, and they cause him trouble. What is the best course of action. Is there any information/techniques for dealing with one or multiple bad guys and having to cover a loved one? Are there any techniques that we could prep our loved ones on, such as run laterially for cover, call for help. Anyone have any ideas as far as literature to read on this subject or classes that may not be so heavy into V.I.P. protection from a group, but more along the lines of protection of a V.I.P. by an individual. Do any of you incorporate this into your training, and what do you do?

[they]

Your woman should be putting down intersecting fields of fire.

[John_Wayne777]

Say a cop out on the town with his girl and he runs into two dirtbags he put away, and they cause him trouble. What is the best course of action.

The best course of action is that if he sees two people he knows have it out for him, to un-a$$ the area post haste. That's where that whole "situational awareness" thing comes in. You can often spot trouble before it manifests as trouble and avoid it altogether if you know what you are doing.

Is there any information/techniques for dealing with one or multiple bad guys and having to cover a loved one?

The basic choices are to leave them to whatever fate has in store for them, or to put yourself between them and the threat. If you're whipping out a handgun to deal with two ruffians who are intent on hurting your chick, their attention is going to shift pretty rapidly to the guy shooting at them.

Are there any techniques that we could prep our loved ones on, such as run laterially for cover, call for help.

Plenty...but that's not the question.

The real question is whether or not your loved ones will pay any attention to code-words or have the proper mindset necessary to understand exactly what is at stake and to act in their own interest.

If your loved ones do, goodie-goodie! You are way ahead of the game. Develop code words that signal:

1. Possible threat, gather up and watch me
2. Threat confirmed, get the hell out of dodge

You won't need a level three code word because typically the gunshots will be sufficient indication that the manure has hit the fan.

Now if your loved ones are like mine, they are grass eaters and there's not a f**king thing you can do to make them anything else, no matter how hard you try. Thus should I find myself in a nasty situation I am on my own, and my only real option is to put myself between the threat and my loved ones because they'll be too busy going "what?" when the actual threat is developing to take proper action.

Do any of you incorporate this into your training, and what do you do?

The most important thing you can do is learn to develop a highly tuned situational awareness at all times, in all places. That is realistically the most effective defensive weapon you can possibly possess. If you can see trouble coming, even just a second or two before it gets to the point where it is deadly, you have a lot more options.

Developing your situational awareness and the SA of your loved ones, as well as the proper mindset about personal security is the hard part. (Which is REMARKABLY similar to EP when you have a principal that hires security and proceeds to ignore every single thing the security pros tell them to do...)

[MaceWindu]

Family Protection Fundamentals

LMS Defense

The majority of defensive training revolves around the assumption that the individual is alone or in a team of similarly trained individuals. Most of the time, the average person does not operate like this; instead spending most of their time with their family. If presented with a threat, the individual’s primary concern must be the protection of their family. The LMS Defense Family Protection Fundamentals course will teach the individual, couple or family how to implement an aggressive security posture that is both nonintrusive to the family and transparent to the general public; while remaining potently effective against organized attacks and crimes of opportunity. This course will teach you how to organize into a ‘family protection unit’, with each member having a specific role in the security plan; family unit movement; situational awareness; recognizing potential threats; how to identify avenues of approach and danger areas; exit strategies; conflict resolution and threat mitigation techniques; precision firearms use and post-fight plans.

http://www.lmsdefense.com/lms/home/course/19

Mace

[Jay Cunningham]

Now if your loved ones are like mine, they are grass eaters and there's not a f**king thing you can do to make them anything else, no matter how hard you try. Thus should I find myself in a nasty situation I am on my own, and my only real option is to put myself between the threat and my loved ones because they'll be too busy going "what?" when the actual threat is developing to take proper action.

I remember that story you told one time... wasn't it a gas station? I can sympathize - I can easily see my wife arguing with me even if her life was in imminent danger because I dared try "tell her what to do"... I just don't have a strong enough "pimp hand"...

[John_Wayne777]

I can easily see my wife arguing with me even if her life was in imminent danger because I dared try "tell her what to do"... I just don't have a strong enough "pimp hand"...

People in general just have no clue what on earth is going on around them. Even many of the folks I know who carry guns walk around essentially asleep on a daily basis. When I am hanging out with them I routinely pick up on stuff they are absolutely oblivious to.

For instance:

I'm dropping off a night deposit for my church. I'm in the car with another member of the finance committee. I pull up to the bank and he starts to open the door, but I haven't stopped yet. He's looking at me like I'm nuts because I circle the premises of the bank looking in all the spots trouble can try to hide in.

"What are you doing?"

"Making sure the area is clear before we leave the safety of the vehicle."

"Well we have guns, man...."

"Yes, and if somebody hops out of the bushes with a gun of their own I guaran-damn-tee you that you'd suddenly be wishing we had checked the place out more thoroughly before stopping."

"I never thought of it that way."

"You'd better start. That gun on your hip is a defensive tool, not a magic talisman that wards off evil or magically gets you out of trouble. Deliberate, thoughtful action often keeps you from having to try and use a handgun to save your life. The world has enough suck in it without aimlessly wandering into big piles of it by not thinking things through."

...and all this happened AFTER that very bank location had seen MULTIPLE armed robberies by somebody hopping out of the bushes while somebody made a night deposit. There was no excuse for not being aware of the potential dangers and taking at least some action to deal with them.

I've never found a way to, as Ken Hackathorn put it, "turn a grass-eater into a meat-eater."

The reality of dealing with a dangerous situation with your loved ones present is that they will likely be victims of sheeple inertia. If you see a bad situation developing and recognize it for what it is, it's unlikely you'll be able to effectively communicate the gravity of the situation to the herbivores in your party before the badness starts.

"We have to leave right now."

"What? Why? I haven't paid for this yet."

"DROP IT. We have to leave ***this instant***."

"WHY? What are you so worked up about?"

Etc. People in general don't know how to listen when something bad is happening.

Another good example. I'm at the local university in class. The fire alarm sounds and a police officer shows up at the door telling everybody to get the hell out.

The professor: "What's going on? Is something wrong?"

Officer: "Ma'am, I don't have time. You need to evacuate the building right now."

Now while the rest of the class is sitting there looking at each other and the professor is playing annoy the hell out of the cop, JW777's brain has instantly leaped to the conclusion that there's likely a bomb threat. He's grabbing his stuff and heading out the door.

The poor police are doing their best to try and clear the building...but nobody is taking them seriously. When the f**king police show up at the door and breathlessly tell you to leave RIGHT NOW, you OBEY THE ORDER. They ain't giving it because they are bored. When you see the cops trying desperately to form a perimeter, you don't loiter in the area. When guys from the SWAT team start showing up and throwing on their ninja gear and chambering rounds in their MP5 you don't stick around to see what it's all about.

You would THINK these things would be signs that even the most retarded person on earth could interpret as bad news, but a building full of PHD's and other "educated" individuals couldn't seem to figure out that they needed to find somewhere else to be. Had the threat been real, there would have been people killed/injured because they were too stupid to heed the warning. There would have also been first responders killed/wounded because they were trying to get the sheeple to move away from danger.

I've come to call this "sheeple inertia", a state most people live in where they are unaware of any danger whatsoever until the bullets start flying and/or stuff starts blowing up. Unfortunately if your loved ones don't develop the proper mindset they will be dead weight or even obstacles should stuff go sideways. Just be prepared to deal with it.

[RD62]

Damn brother!

Can I get an AMEN? Preach on it!

Good stuff! I like your mind set.

-RD62

P.S. Don't dumb people like that piss you off? They sure aggravate the crap out of me.

[markm]

Take John Wayne777's post a step further and take it to he World Trade Center collapse.

A great many people in sheeple intertia were killed when the structures fell. (Of course I realize that some rescuers were heading into the building too)

[CarlosDJackal]

...A great many people in sheeple intertia were killed when the structures fell. (Of course I realize that some rescuers were heading into the building too)

Which actually proves his point as well.

"Sheeple Inertia" - do you mind if I use that term?

This phenomenon is the same reason a lot of traffic jams and "follow-on accidents" occur on our roads. This is why we have so many rubberneckers out there. Instead of accepting what they see (ie: some guy changing a flat tire on the side of the Interstate), they have to linger to see if there more to it than meets the eye. And it has nothing to do with wanting to help, either.

[Ben Lenett]

I had that situation reference running into people I have arrested, and then having an issue as a result. It was quite unpleasent for all involved wnd most especially my wife.

My wife and I have a "word" that we use. If she hears that "word", she knows to shut up, walk away from me immediately towards a populated public area, and to call 911 with a description of who I am/what I look like/and what happened. She may not know what is happening, but she will at least be able to get the general point across to the dispatcher in question.