Tactical Mindset when you're a kid?

[SatanzBountyHunter]

I have a question for y'all: When did you first start developing a 'tactical/survival mindset' and do you remember what triggered it?

I think some survival instincts come naturally for many, while others never seem to develop them at all. Was their an influence in your life when you were younger that seemed to turn on your caution radar?

The earliest I can remember paying attention to this was while reading Louis L'Amour westerns as a young kid. He always seemed to articulate the habits of good gunfighters in his novels. After that, I always had my 10/22 somewhere close and always looked out at the barn, shop or down the road before I went outside in the mornings to see if anything was unusual. I think I was about 10.

What did it for y'all? witness a crime? zombie movies (those always seem popular here), Miami Vice? Father an LEO? Just part of growing up witha gun?

[AK103K]

We were sort of born into it. My dad was professional military, as were all my "uncles". Same for most of my friends growing up. Lots of informal teaching, plenty of interesting reading as we got older, and plenty of "cool training aides".

[MosinM38]

Well... I am 16 and I am...."self-paranoid" (??) I carry a .357 mag almost everywhere I go (Where legal).

When you read the paper and in your small rural town and you read of 2 drug dealers being arrested and XXX amount of drugs impounded it makes you think.... Then you hear about innocent by-standers in other parts of the US being shot at..... How much longer before it happens here?

I live 15 miles from town so it is better... But hey. I can't prove it but I think someone took a pot-shot at me from across the river.... What are the odds of 4 bullets landing within 3 feet of me..... Over 3 minutes and 2 differant spots.

P.S. Oh I am not preparing for Zombies... Its the Killer clowns...You know..... The ones the voices are telling you about........

[Dwight55]

One morning in the early spring of '66, I woke up in my bunk in the squad bay of the Capital BEQ in Cholon, a suburb of Saigon, South VietNam.

The Victoria BOQ (about a half mile up the street) had the face of it blown off by a pair of suicide bombers in a VW truck loaded with plastique. Instead of a VietNamese maid killed and a butter bar LT banged up, . . . they could have come into our place and got hundreds if not thousands.

Up until then, . . . I didn't do a lot of "looking" or "watching", . . . but I started real quick and haven't quit yet.

May God bless,
Dwight

[Rob Pincus]

Pretty damn young, I'm sure.
I had my first semi-auto pistol at 10, but had been shooting my dad's AMT 380 and S&W model 19 long before that... both from holsters.. the AMT is a very shabby pocket deal that was little more than two slabs of leather stitched together.....

The first piece of tactically minded writing I have is from a 7th grade paper.

When I moved some stuff around a few years ago, I found a copy of SWAT mag from when I was about 10 years old.

My dad was a cop and I can remember discussing a shooting incident that he had been involved in, and seeing hte pictures of the officer who was killed during it when I was 8 or 9.

My daughter shot her first Defensive Pistol Match at 10 and she's been through some self defense training that stressed awareness and mindset.

[teriyakisaki]

i was probably 10-12 years old. i started getting really into the military and the like. after reading books, watching tv shows and all that good stuff. i started thinking about "if i was driving down this road, where would an ambush come from? where would i put my guys if i was going to setup an ambush?" i also began noticing that i would look for places to find cover in the event of SHTF like some lunatic comes in with a gun. what would be the best way to clear the room (from whati know). etc.

[mountainclmbr]

for me it was in 7th grade. We had lived in normal small Florida towns before my father got transferred to a town that was probably 40% white and 60% minority. I was in a 7th grade middle school that was entirely in minority territory due to PC. My bus was one of the last for the day. One day I went to the bathroom and, as I was leaving, a minority person that was about 18 years old entered and pulled a knife on me while stating he would kill me if I did not give him all of my money. I told him I did not have any money (true) and he ran. I carried a really sharp knife every day after that, probably starting my CCW habit. I carried a knife every day from earlly 7th grade to graduation day in 12th grade. No one heard of mass murder in schools back then (around 1971).

[wuluf]

and everyone i know from my old neigborhood always watches what's goin' on..all the time!

[newerguy]

10 year olds keeping a load rifle around for self defense? 16 year olds carrying a revolver for self defense? Not even getting into the city/rural differences, I have to say that those practices, even if in a high crime urban area, are more than a little unusual. Maybe a 10 year old's just playing old west gun fighter, but this is a little disturbing.

[MosinM38]

Yeah.. a little... Another reason is because I know of 2 people who's lives have probably been saved by carrying a gun.... hearing about that first-hand and knowing what would happen to someone you know if they hadn't had a gun. Makes you think about stuff a lot harder.

[The Tourist]

Funny you should mention this, I thought about this myself over the last few days.

I just happened to catch the 1962 movie, "How The West Was Won." It's odd how your perception changes over time. (The same thing happened to me over the decades in judging Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader.)

When my Dad first took me to see the film in 1962, I identified with the George Peppard character. The villian of the piece was Richard Midmark, who sacrificed the rights of Indians to build a railroad.

I am now older than both of those acters when they made the movie. I see the changes in my country, but I also see why the expansion and settling of my country was ensured by firearms.

As a boy of 12, I just assumed that 'the wild west' needed guns, and somehow that idea had diminished as the world grew. The problem is the world never ran out of people like 'Charlie Gant,' and that tragic fact was all too clear.

It was during this period that my view of the world shifted from the joy of "toy guns" to how the world worked, and the people who populated it.

[threegun]

Newerguy, My 8 and 11 year olds have their own guns. They feel obligated to help mom and dad should something bad happen. You may find it disturbing however I don't. What I find disturbing are children who could care less about themselves or their families. My boys are well trained and safer than most adults. Some day they might have the opportunity to access them at will. It won't be disturbing rather deserving.

[MosinM38]

It is my beliefe that kids who have grown up around guns are LESS likely (But still could as much as any other nutcase) to commit a gun-crime. I think it is the kids who grow up not knowing about a gun other than the ones they use in a video game to kill a half dozen cops.

I am NOT saying teh vid games are bad (Aint my place to say)... it is just a lot of the kids who do crime with guns...that is the only place they ever learned about them.

Like me... I had a .22 at age 10 (Marlin Bolt action)...> I was always VERY careful with it... if I wasn't I knew dad would take it away and beat my @$s.

I guess it all depends on how-when-and where you were raised.

[Ian2005]

I think was when I was new to driving in the 80's and I learned of "car jacking", and to watch for vehichles that could be following you.

[threegun]

What started my tactical mindset???????

I have always been a prepare for the worst hope for the best kind of guy. What pushed me over the edge was the Tampa, Fl. riots of 1987. The idea of police not willing to move in and stop the lawlessness or help the innocent did it for me. My choice to become self sufficient and self defense minded has been reinforced many many times since. The L.A. Riots, Katrina aftermath, along with our St Pete riot and literally dozens of shooting incidents like Luby's in Texas or the VA Tech shooting are lessons that the wise men should heed.

[tlm225]

I guess I was always aware since my dad was a very self reliant person who had taken care of himself all of his life. My epiphany came one evening when I was 17. Two friends and I were chased by a car load of local punks with a shotgun. It ended witha car crash in my driveway and me beating feet to the house for a gun.
Never again will others have the ability to do harm to me or my loved ones without risk to themselves.

[sw_florida]

I have been 'aware of potential threats' for as long as I can remember. When I was five a bunch of us kids, when outside the village one day, set fire to dry grass. I wasn't the one who set it afire, an older kid did. The fire spread and I think I was the only one who realized that this was nothing kids could stop, myself included. While the other kids stood and stared at the fire I ran back home and yelled that grass was burning. Adults came and put the spreading fire out. As an adult I don't like situations that can potentially go wrong. I don't like drunk people or shady-looking people. I don't go to sport bars. I don't interact much with people because in my mind most people are stupid and not worth socializing with anyway. I know I'm not totally correct about that, but that's just who I am. When I go to parks I tend to be on my own, but I don't mind that. If you can't enjoy your own company then you can't enjoy anything anyway. What I'm looking for in strangers are their mental aura. Obsessed or narrow minded people, who can't seem to shake ideas such as 'Let's beat him' shine a long way. I stay away from those. I let them get worked up about others, who eventually become their victims. I carry two handguns concealed.

[MyXD40]

I was backed into a corner at middle school 1998, didn't get beat up, but I was scared pretty bad. That point on I was nearly always by myself, one maybe two friends. Didn't really talk to anyone. Always looking out. Started watching movies that had stuff to do with hitmen, or spies. Stuff like that took intrest in me. And I was fairly young..to this day I'm always looking out, take notice if anyone is following me, always checking out everyone, everywhere I go for anyone who looks suspect.

oh yeah I 11 years old when it all started

[kgpcr]

I dont have a tactical mind set. i am not paranoid enough to want one either. i just play heads up and dont worry about bad guys and scary monsters behind every tree.

[DougO83]

Why do people see a 'tactical mindset' as paranoia? Just because I sit with my back away from restaurant entrances and watch people who enter doesnt make me paranoid. Packing at least my gun and knife when I am out and about does not make me paranoid. Hell, I live in Austin, TX and probably shouldn't have to ponder exit strategy, etc. Doesn't mean I'm going to stop. In the world we live in, you know..the one traveling quickly downhill.., I am surely going to carry a weapon with me everywhere I can. As for when this started, probably 8-ish I guess. Always carried a knife then and made sure it was razor-sharp. Parents were worried about a rash of kidnapping in the area.

[threegun]

Why do people see a 'tactical mindset' as paranoia?

Ignorance?

I don't fear anyone. I don't worry about goblins behind trees. I do have a high level of awareness and am prepared for most situations. Hardly paranoid.

[DougO83]

Ignorance?

I don't fear anyone. I don't worry about goblins behind trees. I do have a high level of awareness and am prepared for most situations. Hardly paranoid.

+a whole lot on that one, Threegun. I fear NO ONE. I am aware of everyone. Besides, call it paranoia, paranoia won't get ya killed nearly as quickly as situational blindness...

[kgpcr]

I will go to a sports bar. I like people and dont feel i need to be alone to be safe. I like to go out to eat and will sit in front of a window. I dont go in the ugly parts of town to eat, a little common sense. I am not the least bit afraid to go for a walk. i carry but not all the time. i dont see scary monsters out there behind every tree. people who dont look like me dont bother me, again common sense. some guys smell of trouble! i am here to enjoy like not going through it paranoid and not sitting down to eat unless i can watch the door. I dont carry in church because i dont need to. this past year millions and millions of people went to church and did not get shot. Yes a few did but the chances are so slim i dont need to worry about it. Yes it can happen but i can get hit by an asteroid as well. I spent my time in the Marines in the gulf in 91 and spent my time there being on full alert. I dont need to be here. to prove my point how many of you have had to shoot some one in a non leo setting? case proved!

[TWB]

About 7 y/o, being a minority in a racially charged town. When I moved away, as an adult, my new friends thought I was nuts when I could tell them the general appearance of everyone sitting behind me in restaurants, and my attempts to keep my back to the wall when I could. They were mostly right...the place *was* a lot safer. Add on another 30 years, and I was amazed that people were teaching the "paranoid" attitude I'd had for years. My wife still doesn't understand it.

twb

[Trip20]

Growing up in and around Baltimore, you're forced to be strategic when it comes to looking out for your own rear end. It begins sometime in elementary school.

Recess can be like 'the yard' in a prison.