Guns Can Fail. Then What Do You Do?

As a business owner or professional, one of the 1st pieces of advice you're bound to get from friends, family, and anyone else, if you start to fear for your safety because of the work you do, is to go and get a gun.

Sure, that sounds reasonable, and, you know, there were times that I looked at getting a gun myself, but in the end, I didn't do it because I had a child at home, and while I trusted my child, I didn't trust that his friends wouldn't try to get access to the gun, even if it was securely stored.

But there's more problems with that.

And in this video, I'm going to go ahead and go through some of the issues about carrying a weapon, and that actually doesn't just apply to a gun, although this will primarily be about that.

But what also other things that you can do?

Hey, I'm Mike Corwin, and I help business owners and professionals to implement a personal safety program for themselves and to be able to do that in just one day.

If you'd like to learn more about that.

I've got a great workshop coming up on personal safety for business owners and professionals.

And if you go to my website, www.mikecorwin.com, you'll find out some more information about the upcoming workshop.

Any weapon can be taken from you and used against you.

Okay, so, with a gun, the 1st thing to understand is that any weapon that you carry can actually be taken from you and used against you.

Now, again, that applies to any weapon whatsoever.

But if you think about it, a gun, if someone takes that gun from you, and it's a lot easier than you might think.

Of all the weapons to take from someone, the hardest one is actually a knife.

To disarm a gun from someone is much, much easier.

And if you think about that, that's because you are only in danger of being shot by a gun when the barrel is pointed at you.

If you can steer the barrel away from yourself, it makes it easier to go ahead and then take that weapon.

So you have to be considerate of that.

Weapons can Jam

The next thing to be considerate about a firearm, and this is more for a semi-automatic than it is for, let's say, a revolver, but any weapon can jam.

And if your weapon jams, then what do you do?

Do you have time to clear the weapon of the jam and still defend yourself or still protect yourself?

Or are you then stuck?

Look, a firearm is a mechanical device, and any mechanical device can fail.

Oftentimes when we hear about, let's say, active shooter situations, the active shooter's weapon jams.

Now, that is much more likely to happen with a semi automatic or an automatic weapon than it is with a revolver.

But if you go and you get a gun and you rely upon that for your safety, what do you do if the weapon jams?

You may learn how to clear that jam?

But if you're under stress of an attack and you try to do so, it may not work out that well for you.

So what are your other options?

Or, What if you have no other options?

What does that mean for your safety?

If you are attacked and your firearm jams?

You can miss your target

The 3rd thing to be aware of is that you can miss with a firearm.

And if you miss with the firearm, the results can be catastrophic, and it can be something that you have to live with for the rest of your life.

Yes, you may be prepared emotionally to shoot someone who wants to harm you.

But if what if you shoot someone who's innocent?

A bystander, a family member, an employee.

Are you prepared to live with that?

It's something you really have to explore if you decide to carry a weapon, a firearm, And finally, the other thing to consider and look, this is something that you have to do with a firearm.

You've got to fire immediately without hesitation

If you are under threat with a firearm, you have to be able to pull that firearm and go ahead and squeeze the trigger right away.

It's not like the law enforcement training where they go through an empty building and they have to decide whether this is friend or foe.

This is somebody who's going to attack you.

And emotionally, you have to be prepared to pull that trigger right away.

Why is that?

Because if you brandish and point a fire arm at someone, they can take that from you.

So you can't pause and hesitate.

So emotionally, you have to be prepared to pull that trigger as soon as you take the gun out.

What you can do to keep yourself safe Instead?

Okay, so with that discussed, understand that there are other options for you to be able to protect yourself, when you are attacked by someone.

There are 2 things that I teach, that you can learn enough in just one day, followed by a little bit of practice on what to do if you're attacked.

Changing the dynamics of an attack

The 1st is what I call changing the dynamics of an attack.

What that means is taking away the attacker's initial advantage.

That might be being able to relocate or reposition yourself so that when the attack happens, you are at a safer distance.

It might also be creating an obstacle for the attacker to get closer to, or to be able to harm you with whatever method of attack the attacker has.

The other thing is to basically stop that initial attack so that you then have a chance to actually defend yourself.

Self-defense

And that leads to the 2nd component, which is self-defense.

And as I've previously mentioned, you can learn how to disarm an attacker, and it doesn't matter if it's a firearm, whether it's a pistol or a long gun, or a knife, you can learn how to disarm the attack. Can even do that with an impact weapon.

If somebody comes at you with a tire, iron, or a hammer, or a chair leg.

Those are impact weapons.

And yes, you can learn to disarm those.

Think about what happens to an attacker when an attacker goes and attacks, and you stop the attack, and then you go on the offense.

That's gonna cause the attacker to have to completely reframe the attack.

And you know what?

By the time the attacker does that.

You've created the opportunity to either take that weapon from the attacker, and if necessary, use it against him or to basically be able to get out of there safely without physical harm.

So in the end, next time someone says to you, well, why don't you just go ahead and get a gun, think about what that means for your safety, and if you have other options for that safety.

If you're prepared mentally and emotionally, to handle those 4 different scenarios, then go for it, you know, a gun is a self-defense weapon.

But if you're not prepared emotionally, but you do want to stay safe, realize that you have other options.

If you want to learn more about those other options, visit my website www.mikecorwin.com.