Worst case scenarios

[Rich]

Last time I was involved in a shoving match was in Jr. High. No one was hurt, mostly because the girl we were trying to impress wandered off.

Now, a couple of years later at age 17, I was stood up against my HS outer wall with a knife at my throat by a trio of Warwick, Virginia's finest yoots. They got tired of telling me to go back where I came from, and walked away. Not much I could do at the time with an armfull of school books.

I'm rather proud of the fact that I learned then that I wasn't prone to panic. I neither shat my drawers nor peed my pants. I also didn't report it because I had had enough experience with adult authority figures to not trust them. I thought, at the time, that these yoots had seen the movie "Blackboard Jungle" too many times, and just wanted to intimidate me.

A year later we moved to Charleston, South Carolina, and I met a much better class of people.

Yeah, I've played woulda, coulda, shoulda, in my mind about it, but I'm no hero. So I've taken what I learned, primarily about myself, and moved on.

[Highspeed]

I'm not sure how relevant this is, but I'll pass it on.

Friend of mine, private security contractor, worked in Iraq during the early days when it was very hairy.

His rationale was that if he was going to draw his pistol ( his primary weapon was an AK ) then he'd probably already be wounded and definitely in the shit.
So he practised weak hand shooting and one handed cocking\stoppage\reload drills. Some of which were inherently unsafe and to be used only as a last resort.

[D5CAV]

I practice weak hand and weak eye, which is very hard for me. I feel like a cripple. My shooting also goes to h###.

Regarding the Salon piece, if I'm shoved, I give a blank, slightly surprised look and walk quickly away (keeping my eyes on the guy). I've had fighting training. Most of it from the military, which made a big point of making sure we unlearned the Marquis of Queensbury's rules. I've never had anyone follow-up on a shove or a verbal attack. When I travel in non-communist areas, I have the advantage of being armed and any sign of a follow-up is quickly disuaded by a casual flash of my jacket.

Unlike the clown in the Salon piece, a fight will end up with one of us dead and the other in the hospital (I will do my best to be the one in the hospital). I'm not that hung-up on not having my carry piece, either. There's plenty of ways to decisively end a fight with everyday items that will not get me harassed by the local constabulary, even in the PRK.

See "Marine Corps Rules of Gunfighting"
22. Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everyone you meet
23. Be courteous to everyone, but friendly to no-one
24. Your best option for personal security is a lifetime commitment to avoidance, deterrence and de-escalation

[Aaron]

Weak hand and weak eye shooting are two very good examples, one I bet most of us do without even thinking about. At least, I know the wifey and I do. Didn't even occur to me it fit this category. Very important though. What I'm still struggling with is trying to draw from concealment with my weak hand. My open carry holsters, even the thigh rigs, are fairly easy to draw from weak handed, but concealed holsters are still kicking my ass.

[Greg]

In keeping with the "defend yourself and not feel bad about it" theme, I offer this gem of a response from a Salon.com advice "expert" to a guy who did protect himself and felt bad about it afterwards (http://www.salon.com/mwt/col/tenn/2009/08/27/violence/)
<long quote snipped>

That was hilarious. But kind of sad, because the "expert" seems like be was abused pretty badly (including sexually) as a child. That sort of thing does bad things to your wiring, also. I'll bet the "expert" guy is into some really freaky S&M action, though he may not have consciously realized it yet.

[ZeroGravitas]

I've never had anyone follow-up on a shove or a verbal attack.

Agreed. That's how the un-ready work themselves up for the violence they are unprepared for, so walking away has always closed the situation.