Here I am watching Active Self Protection, and ASP claims due to their lack of awareness they failed.
My thing here is, let’s say it’s one of us and we were aware. If somebody comes rushing at you, no weapon pulled or anything what would you do? Once they get close to you that’s when they pull their firearm out. Would you respond sooner? Would you of done everything they’ve done? Let’s check it out and get some feedback.
No idea what I’d do, really.
Probably immediately try to get off the X, backpedal to buy time, move sideways, but pretty sure natural reaction to someone running at me will be to move.
I do think John is right and I do think if i was the passenger side guy I wouldn’t stick my head in the car after another vehicle stopped in the middle of the road. “Awareness buys you time, time buys you options”, think how many more options there are if you can be moving behind your car as the attacker is hopping out of his.
Probably in reality I’m giving them everything that’s in my hands and hoping they turn their attention off me or just leave.
Once they have you at the gun point, drawing your gun may be counter productive. Give up valuables, do not shoot at the escaping criminals, the law wont look kindly at it.
The irony of the situation is, if these guys showed to the attackers they are alert, the attack may not have happened at all.
That is true. If you’re alert and not responding the way a criminal wants you too or expects you too, that’s when they realize the risk may not be worth the reward and this may not go the way they want it to.
There was a video I saw about five years ago of a lady at a gas station.
She noticed someone looking and walking in her direction.
Not sure how far the potential thug was but she said,
“that’s close enough!”
The guy was surprised by her reaction and walked away.
Edited after watching video
It’s failure on both guys’ part. They both glanced at the slowing car but their spidey senses didn’t pick up anything.
They were trapped by the wall and had nowhere to hide.
They were absolutely not vigilant enough and those guys seemed like professional criminals. They knew what to do to successfully rob someone and did it quickly. Only in seeing the car slow down would they have had any options🤷♀️
I don’t know what was in the bag but to me, I’d let them take it. Once they have a gun or two pointed my way at close range I think compliance is the right thing to do. Shooting at them while they drive away has a low probability of actually getting the bag back. Now had I seen them coming, like right after they got out of their car, maybe draw and acquire a target, hopeful that would deter them or at least give me a 2-3 second head start on the first shot. But that’s just me.
I have seen it when a car stops and two guys get out of the car then another guy goes to the car that the two get out of and gets in a takes off with their car!
This would be something like what could happen at a gun range! You grab your guns and ammo that are in your range bag and along comes someone and takes the bag from you!
As far as I’m concerned, if someone is speeding towards me, unarmed, I’ll step to the right and assist in that persons forward motion. Oooops, sorry!
In relation to the video, nothing you can do. We really need to understand that s#)£ happens in tenths of a second. The guy with the duffel bag should have been on alert when the car first appeared and never taken eyes off. If I’m carrying cash or fentanyl for the cartels, I’d better be alert. If there’s a fly in the wrong place I’m on alert!
Their situational awareness sucked. My head is on a swivel! But the great reminder in that video is ALWAYS keep one in the chamber! Chambering a round at that point in time is an utter failure and possible death sentence plus he looked like a bumbling amateur.
If I were the cartel boss, I would have fired him on the spot.
Or, worse.
I agree they missed their window of opportunity (Lack of situational awareness). Trying to fight the guy who has a gun on you, is a losing formula. If what they had was that valuable, then they should have been really paying attention to their surroundings.
What would I do?
At the point these two hapless guys were aware of what’s happening, simple:
Too late to do a dang thing.
I wonder why we never look at it from the threat perspective? Hey, there they are!_ pull ahead of the car to make sure we have an exit. Wait until they have the bag in their hands… Oh, these Dumb souls are not paying attention. You take guy1, and I take guy 2 Guns drawn. Let’s get the bag. Oh, snap, the dude trying to get his gun, ram him to the wall, got his arm pinned. We got the bag now, pushed them hard into the wall, and jumped in the ride. Oh, snap, they are shooting all good. We got the bag. That is what it sounded like in my head.
When preparation meets opportunity
Always be aware of your surroundings, be alert at all times no matter what you’re doing, where you’re going every day no matter day or night. Crime doesn’t sleep. In the video the thugs already approach the two inattentive individuals with guns on their hands, caught by surprise even though they saw the car but did not react to any suspicions, it’s too late to do anything. The unsuccessful attempt to disarm one of the thugs with the other thug standing behind with a gun to his side was a stupid move. Had all this gone SOUTH, and the thugs opened fire on these two individuals, they’d be Swiss Cheese laying on the pavement. Anything goes depending on how far criminals are willing to go. WE all know this.
Some observations and some just down right conjecture. They failed at situational awareness and identifying pre contact cues. They were probably a little complacent as they were armed security and the de factor local sheriff. They were probably trained in the Israeli method to carry with empty chamber, but failed to practice, with or without stress, to get the hand gun into action after initial training…and so it goes…
Well, at least the one guy was holding his handgun sideways. ugh. I was always told to never draw on a drawn, but on the other hand, don’t double handicap yourself by not having one chambered. You can’t be 100% aware at all times, and if you slip, there’s not much you can do unless an opportunity opens up. They were lucky they weren’t injured.
I check for one in the chamber every time I put Oh “S__t” to bed at night, every time he wakes up in the morning, and every time I head out with Oh “S__t” in the holster.
I always practice situational awareness at all times and my carry weapon always has one in the pipe,always have on in the chamber,but I practice religiously with laser targets and a laser snap cap and the laser sight on my weapon
The other thing that keeps ringing in my head is from the instructor of my CCP class “The One Thing You Need To Know About Concealed Carry In Utah Is, We Defend Lives Not Stuff!”. So the bag to me falls into the stuff category.
