The Firing Line Forums - View Single Post - Has Situational Awareness Ever Saved You?

G1R2 · December 20, 2011, 04:26 PM

Situational awareness is simply "knowing what is going on so you can figure out what to do" (Adam, 1993). Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Situation_awareness

The purpose of this post is to share experiences on how members have avoided potentially violent confrontations with their firearm through situational awareness.

Here is one of my experiences, what is yours?

I have avoided several potentially dangerous situations in the past thirty years while living on my farm in the countryside in South America. Here is one which happened at night while walking back to my farm after buying some stuff at the local store about a mile away. I take the walk because I enjoy it. When I left the store and headed home, my red light flashed on. Why would the stranger walking in front of me, walk out of the street lights and into the darkness in the same direction I was going? The few people who lived in that direction would already be in bed. Ah, maybe he was just going to the brick factory for the night shift or he was walking to the next village four miles away – umm, not likely. As I entered the darkness, I stopped, to water the weeds, adjust my eyes, and to spot the guy ahead of me. Yup, there he was, about fifty yards ahead of me. I waited to see if he was gaining distance on me, nope, he had stopped too. OK, maybe he was just watering the weeds like I had done, I waited longer, he waited too. After about fifteen minutes of this standoff, the guy yelled some obscenities at me and moved on. The game was up, he knew that I knew his violent situation was not going to happen.

I think, if you can see it coming far enough in advance, by all means avoid it so you don’t have to use your firearm. I think having to use your firearm to kill someone in self-defense would be a very traumatic experience, first by surviving the attack and killing your perpertrator and second, surviving the legal nightmare that would soon follow. I have avoided numerous situations that I preceived as potentially dangerous, sometimes at great inconvenience to me.

It is better to be alert than going to heaven because you weren’t or going through hell because you had to survive the legal consequences.

December 20, 2011, 04:26 PM	#1
G1R2 Member Join Date: December 20, 2011 Posts: 73	Has Situational Awareness Ever Saved You? Situational awareness is simply "knowing what is going on so you can figure out what to do" (Adam, 1993). Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Situation_awareness The purpose of this post is to share experiences on how members have avoided potentially violent confrontations with their firearm through situational awareness. Here is one of my experiences, what is yours? I have avoided several potentially dangerous situations in the past thirty years while living on my farm in the countryside in South America. Here is one which happened at night while walking back to my farm after buying some stuff at the local store about a mile away. I take the walk because I enjoy it. When I left the store and headed home, my red light flashed on. Why would the stranger walking in front of me, walk out of the street lights and into the darkness in the same direction I was going? The few people who lived in that direction would already be in bed. Ah, maybe he was just going to the brick factory for the night shift or he was walking to the next village four miles away – umm, not likely. As I entered the darkness, I stopped, to water the weeds, adjust my eyes, and to spot the guy ahead of me. Yup, there he was, about fifty yards ahead of me. I waited to see if he was gaining distance on me, nope, he had stopped too. OK, maybe he was just watering the weeds like I had done, I waited longer, he waited too. After about fifteen minutes of this standoff, the guy yelled some obscenities at me and moved on. The game was up, he knew that I knew his violent situation was not going to happen. I think, if you can see it coming far enough in advance, by all means avoid it so you don’t have to use your firearm. I think having to use your firearm to kill someone in self-defense would be a very traumatic experience, first by surviving the attack and killing your perpertrator and second, surviving the legal nightmare that would soon follow. I have avoided numerous situations that I preceived as potentially dangerous, sometimes at great inconvenience to me. It is better to be alert than going to heaven because you weren’t or going through hell because you had to survive the legal consequences.