New Years Plans For Defense

I hope that all of you had a good Christmas and a fun New Year. With the new year comes looking back but more importantly, looking forward. Most people start the new year off with trying to set goals and resolutions to become better in the upcoming year. I have done this and have hope for a chance to change and to improve. May I suggest goals for your preparation and defense? One of the goals I have is to improve my skills in the area of preparation. I come from a generation where using a tourniquet during a medical emergency was a “last resort.” We have been at war for 20 years now and we’ve learned some medical realities. One is that a tourniquet can save lives. So one of the skills I want to learn this quarter is how to effectively use a tourniquet. My goals are in a few areas. Spiritual, emotional/mental, Physical, preparedness/defense, and matrimonial. If you think that is too much pick the two or three most important of these and work on them. In the area of preparation I would suggest maybe taking inventory of your food/water, medical, and other preparation supplies. Write it down and put it in your computer. If you can assess where you are in your program, you can see where you would like to improve. If you have done very little, try to prioritize what you think is the most important. I would suggest working on water first. With water all you need to do is figure out where to store it, in what containers, and how to treat it. Water is pretty plentiful in this country and there are many ways to store it. It’s pretty easy. Next I would work on food storage. Then I would concentrate on medical. All of these have skills attached. In defense you might assess your home security. You may want to work on individual security in the form of self-defense. I have obviously chosen guns as personal and home protection. I don’t put all my eggs in one basket. I have trained and acquired equipment in other forms of defense and weapons. I think for the purpose of this article I will focus on defense. But I feel a well rounded preparation plan should be in place. Security and defense go hand in hand. Doing a security assessment on your home and property is a great idea to start off or to improve your plans. The same goes for defense. If you have small children talking about “stranger danger” or how to call for help if needed may need to be taught or reviewed. We have an “important phone numbers” that were near our phones when we had hard lines in our home. We still have those numbers posted in the same place as we always have so that everyone will know where it is. With cell phones, no one knows phone numbers anymore. I’ve also made small lists of these numbers to carry in my wallet if I ever need it. Without my phone I’m lost so I need a few back ups. I try to not rely on technology so much but it’s hard when it does so much. Evacuation (bug out) plans are a good idea too. Where will you meet if you have to leave and you’re not all together? Short term, where will you meet in case of fire? Do you have a place to go? Defensively, do you have any idea of the training you would like for you and your family this year? Taking a shooting course or martial arts, or even a class on how to use pepper spray would be good to plan for during the coming year. Reviewing what you have in place is always good at least once a year. Re-evaluating your ammo storage and plans you have for practice through-out the year would be good. Looking at your defensive skills and thinking about how you would like to improve or other things you’d like to learn is also benefit. One of the problems with preparing for defense is that we are taught our entire lives that we should not defend ourselves. When I played basketball as a youth I was taught to not retaliate if someone throws an elbow. If you do, you are usually the one called for a foul. As children we’re taught if we fight back we’ll both be expelled. Even the government teaches “Run, Hide, Fight” when it comes to an active shooter. Fight being the last resort. You Mother probably even taught you, “Violence never solved anything!” These are all true things but under the right conditions, defend yourself. I’m not saying fight instead of giving up your wallet, but sometimes more than the wallet is demanded. I subscribe to General Mattis’s saying “Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everyone you meet.” When you get people to understand that there is such a thing as prosocial violence, that it is perfectly OK and they have a right to do it, then violence becomes a useful tool. Having a defensive mindset is most of the way to defense. Plan this year to learn what a defensive mindset is and how to develop one. Prepare for your own defense and make plans to improve and progress. Semper Paratus Check 6 Burn