I wish I could train myself to do this.

[FireForged]

It appears that every one of you is saying that situational awareness is a bad thing

paying attention is one thing but information overload is something else. You are likely the one who appears to be up to something because ( your are). There is nothing wrong with paying attention to what is happening around you. If you want to romanticize the process to the degree that you are on some sort of recon mission at the laundry mat, you will likely never see the ripples in the water. Situational awareness is not something that you are likely to achieve by yourself in active public spaces. That said, you can certainly work in that direction by paying attention.

When you begin to look too hard, you will begin to see a badguy behind every blade of grass. Everyone is up to something, everyone is armed, everyone is out of place, everyone seems to be up to something... yadda yadda. I don't worry about who is armed and who is not. For every one person that you suspect is armed, there are probably half a dozen who were armed that you didn't suspect. The only time I would consider it an issue is when you detect an armed person where weapons are prohibited. That circumstance may be more indicative of trouble as opposed to some armed guy minding his own business at the corner store.

I think people need to chill and stop modeling their life after something from the Jason Bourne movies.

Pay attention and if you detect trouble.. leave. If something doesn't look right, .... don't go there. If I had to conduct a recon mission just to visit the corner store, .. I probably wouldn't go there.

[FITASC]

+1! to this

[MandolinMan]

FireForged Nailed it!!!!