More Proof That You’re On Your Own When Seconds Count

We all know in our guts that when seconds count, police are only minutes away.

But the last couple of months have shifted the burden of protection so far out of whack that it’s hard to believe.

As an example, awhile back, former Seattle Police Chief, Carmen Best told local businesses that police would no longer intervene in the event of more riots.

You’re on your own.

Across the country, we’re seeing headlines that look like they should be April Fool’s jokes…but they’re not.

Defunding of police.

You’re on your own.

Shutting down of jails.

You’re on your own.

Felony assaults up 30%, 70%, and more.

You’re on your own.

NYPD sees a 400% surge in retirement.

You’re on your own.

It reminds me of a story from a few years ago about Dallas PD being understaffed by 1,000 officers.

An officer shared one case where there was a shooting where it took over an hour from the time the call came in until an officer responded.

In another case, a robbery victim lay on the ground bleeding and it took over an hour and a half from the time the call came in until an officer responded.

Now, granted, these are 2 extreme cases and that’s why they were cited, but here’s the crazy part…

At the time, DPD’s average response time was just over 8.5 minutes, and that’s pretty darn good considering how under-staffed, over-worked, and generally hamstrung they are.

In many areas of the country, it’s 10-20 minutes. Add in a riot in a completely different part of town and that number goes up even more.

In A LOT of areas, if you hit the panic button on your home alarm system, it’ll be 20 minutes until anyone shows up. (several people have come to me after finding this out the hard way)

But, if you find yourself in a fight for your life, averages really don’t matter. The AVERAGE number of MINUTES that it takes for police to respond is meaningless when your life is on the line and SECONDS count.

A LOT of people are surprised when they go into a grappling, martial arts, MMA, or boxing gym and are told to do 30 seconds all-out on a bag…and they find themselves gassed 10 seconds in.  That’s the MAJORITY of people and, for them (us?) law enforcement needs to arrive in seconds to truly be helpful.

If someone kicks open a door or throws a potted plant through a window, you’ve only got seconds to respond.

90+% of all bedrooms are less than a 10 second walk away from every door in the house. (try it out in your own house so you know what your times are…don’t run, just walk deliberately.)

That’s faster than you can figure out what’s going on, decide that you need to call 911, call 911, get a live operator on the phone, and tell them you need help—let alone how long it takes for an officer to respond.

So, are you going to go for your gun first or call 911 first?

If you go for your gun…it better only take a couple of seconds, and you need to know that law enforcement won’t know to come until you call them.

Can you enter the combination into your safe that quickly?

Does your fingerprint reader work 100% of the time from different angles…regardless of whether your hands are warm, cold, dry, sweaty, etc.?  (hint:  no…affordable fingerprint readers aren’t that good.)

If you call 911 first, there’s a decent chance that you’ll only be armed with a phone by the time the bad guy gets to you–and that’s not good.

Either way, if something bad happens, you’re on your own.

Sometimes for minutes.

Sometimes for an hour or more.

That’s why you better be able to act as your own first responder.

And this isn’t just in Mad Max disaster situations.

Most cities operate with 1 patrol officer for every 4,000-10,000 people on duty at any given time. As a society, we have decided that this is enough and that the additional cost of more officers and a faster response time is not justified.

The net effect of this is that it shifts the responsibility of first responder from law enforcement to YOU.

People just have to accept that they’re probably going to be on their own. “Gunfights,” muggings, and a lot of other violent crimes are over in seconds.

Mass shootings are normally over in a couple of minutes.

A great and admirable response time by law enforcement is 8-10 minutes…after someone at the scene has the presence of mind to call 911 and communicate what’s going on clearly and calmly enough for the dispatcher to send appropriate help—assuming the caller doesn’t have to wait on hold for a few minutes before being able to talk with a dispatcher.

The problem is, when the “average” response time is 8 minutes, you never know whether you’ll be waiting 60 seconds or 60 minutes for help to arrive.

So, what do you do about it?

As part of this tribe, you’re already several steps ahead of the general public.

You probably own one or several guns and you have taken the next big step to actually become proficient with them.

The next step is to face the fact that self-defense shootings rarely happen the way we’re forced to train on traditional ranges…

There’s movement and !Gasp! people cross their legs and walk backwards even though it’s not necessarily safe or tactically sound unless you’ve practiced it first.

After-action reports tell us that more than half of the time, you won’t have your gun on you when you need it and you’ll have to grab it from somewhere–a dresser, a gun safe, a drawer, a closet, etc.

They also tell us that you’re probably going to have a physical struggle before you are able to get your gun into the fight.

And if you use relatively ineffective sport grappling and sport fighting techniques, you’d better be prepared to go 5 rounds with your attacker.

Think a knockout punch to the chin will save you? It might, but good luck taking care of another attacker, drawing your gun, using keys, or calling 911 with a broken hand.

The fact is, there are real-world-proven techniques that you can practice in the comfort of your own home that will get you more prepared to deal with real world violence than doing all of your training standing flat footed and punching holes in paper.

Our Fight To Your Gun training is a great example.

It will give you the tools you need to get your gun into a fight in a surprise, life and death situation using whatever you may have in your hands or just your hands.

It’s designed specifically to preserve the use of your hands…so you can take care of multiple attackers, manipulate keys, use your phone, or effectively use a gun after you strike an attacker.

You’ll learn how to take everyday objects that 99% of the population would drop in a fight and teach you how to use those very same “innocent” objects as effective defensive tools.

If you own one or more firearms and one of the reasons you own them is for self-defense, it’s critical that you have this training.

So, check it out now by going to FightToYourGun.com

Questions? Comments?  Fire away by commenting below

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