Better safe than sorry

Is this your worst nightmare? If so, you better be prepared.

I was asleep and then suddenly… awake. My brain was foggy and the clock read 2:14am. There it is again – the sound of broken glass! Grabbing my pistol from the nightstand it dawned on me that I had neglected to set the alarm. My wife was sleeping soundly and I made my way to the bedroom door and stepped out into the hallway at the top of the stairs.

No one is supposed to be in my house but my wife and I and there at the bottom of the stairway is a man. His hand flashes and I fire and fire again and watch as he falls backwards. The sound is tremendous in the quiet house and I realize I just shot a home intruder.

This is one of the scenarios of the simulator training I underwent at the College of the Mainland last week. The instructor is Baytownian Daniel Blackford. He teaches deadly force training to a wide range of students and law-officers in a modern facility at the college. His expertise and credentials are as long as my arm and I have jokingly told him more than once, that if I win a large lottery, he will be my bodyguard for life.

I spent two hours with him in a one-on-one training session where we exchanged ideas about the difference in my way of handling bad guys when it is only one and they are not armed and the police way of doing the same thing. They differed considerably. On the scenarios where I was a policeman, I responded sluggishly; often hesitating or totally confused on how to handle anything from a domestic dispute to a suicide bridge jumper.

When the bad guy showed he possessed a weapon, I pretty much got the draw on him and shot him first. The simulator shows bullet placement and believe it or not, blood. It is very accurate. Another time I approached the back door of a warehouse and a man armed with an AK-47 stepped out and I fired 7 rounds, hitting his body armor a couple of times and missing him with the rest. I would have lost that confrontation and I could have sworn I was aiming true.

As a law officer, I arrived at a motel to answer a domestic dispute and could hear yelling coming from the second floor. A woman stepped out screaming and I drew my firearm. As a side note, Daniel told me sometimes police academy students have to practice drawing their firearm for 45 minutes before he is satisfied, but I think I passed that one quickly. At one time years ago, I worked a fast draw rig to the point that I wore out the six-shooter and it had to be repaired.

The woman lunged out of the open door with a knife stuck in her chest! Immediately a very angry man came out holding a swaddled baby! I’ll be honest, he kept screaming at me to shut-up and possibly tossing or hurtling the baby to the ground. It confused me. The woman was most likely bleeding out and screaming and I did the only thing I knew to do and that was holster the firearm. This continued for at least 2 minutes before the man laid the baby down and was distraught and surrendered. I felt overwhelmed.

Daniel Blackford is qualified

Daniel told me this was a no win situation, but all too common and it didn’t take me long to realize being a cop is putting yourself in danger and under a microscope for everyone to second guess your actions. He told me I did the right thing.

A couple more scenarios came up that after I reacted and yes, shot more bad people before they got me, we would discuss the situation. Being a martial artist and trained in self-awareness, I would point out that I wouldn’t allow myself to be put in the situation depicted. He understood this, being a man who can handle himself. My bride is always telling me I think too much, but it has kept me out of harms way more than a few times.

I’ve touched on the psychology of defending yourself in the past and if you remember, I stressed that no matter how much training you receive, the innate nature to stand and resist cannot really be taught. You either have it, or don’t and when that time comes, only the situation will determine your response. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t train, it means just the opposite and the simulation exposure offered at the college puts you in a real life situational environment.

Friendly professional training

I am a firm believer in going through life never having to point and shoot my firearm at anyone. I don’t sit around and imagine what it would be like either. I can pretty much tell you it would be a nightmare and something I do not want to relive countless times as I wonder if I made the right decision. On the other hand, I don’t want to be a victim, so I will continue to be vigilant when out and about and take precautions as needed.

If you are licensed to carry, I strongly suggest you take a course such as this, whether in Texas City or somewhere else.

For more information on this realistic training call 409-933-8485 and ask for Daniel Blackford.

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Texas Floods, an oxymoron?

Most people envision Texas looking like Monument Valley, Utah – that is unless they watch the news.  They think all Texans pull on a pair of gaudy cowboy boots and great big cactus plants stretched out as far as the eye can see.  The truth is many of us have never seen the high desert or own a pair of cowboy boots.  The closest most Baytownians have come to a rattlesnake has been to a visit at the Eddie V. Gray Wetlands Center.

Most non-Texans are almost arrogantly ignorant about us and wish to blissfully remain so.  Some see the whole state as an aberration which produced two Bush presidents and a whole State full of obnoxious residents who brag on how big everything is in Texas. 

Most don’t realize that if you flipped the state horizontally (either way) you would dip El Paso in the Atlantic Ocean and Beaumont in the Pacific.  Most don’t realize that the Gulf Coast is wet year round and alligators are far more common that cowboy boots.

Recently they’ve watched the weather reports and believe all of us are drowning in our homes and to those who have suffered this fate; I don’t mean to sound flippant.  The truth is hardly any of us are at risk here in Baytown anyway if we simply stay inside.  It’s those folks who simply must get to work that are at highest risk of a water or traffic related accident.

If they knew they were heading out the door to sink their new car in 6 feet of water and nearly drown in the process, they would stay home.  Ah, but those of us who are committed to our jobs go anyway.  People in Dayton make that hazardous drive down SH-146 all the way to Texas City and on the way pass hometown folks heading north to the Chevron Plant in Mont Belvieu.

And to those poor souls who have to head west on I-10 into the Houston metropolis, all I can say is “May God be with you.”  It is bad enough when the sky is clear, but if we are having a deluge, it is ten times more hazardous.

Driving is the most dangerous thing most of us do every day.  Add in the pouring rain, standing water, and distracted drivers and our soldiers in the military are safer than we are.  Bump it up with a boiling cup of coffee,  kolaches, and the Smartphone making its peculiar identification ring (should I answer this one or wait?) and you have just blasted this commute up into an all out attack on our senses.

Many Texans don’t realize that here on the Gulf Coast we have a micro-environment different than the rest of the state and our weather can be one of severe extremes.  When we get a Harris County weather report, it most likely covers Conroe to Victoria and over to Katy and back to Baytown making it wrong the majority of the time for all of us.

For some time, my bride and I have planned to zipline west of Austin and it just so happened that this past Wednesday was the day.  We kicked it back and forth and talked to those folks out there and decided to reschedule.  A no-brainer you offer?  Yup.  I didn’t think putting entertainment ahead of the very real possibility that we could suffer something negative was a particularly good notion. 

But let’s say for the sake of argument that we would have gone and something tragic would have happened.  It would be the same outcome as going to work in a deluge.  It has been an observation of mine for many years that the main reason people have accidents in the rain is they are going too fast.  Remember when cars used to wreck on our side of the Fred Hartman Bridge due to hydroplaning?  It would be easy to blame the standing water, but the reality is cars would not slow down in the rain.

I drove that stretch of road every day and knew I needed to take that section at about 50 mph when it rained, yet people would fly past me at 70.  On two occasions I witnessed cars lose control.  One went sideways down the freeway and came to a stop.  The other clipped the barrels and went down the exit.  They eventually fixed this low spot so now people can play with their life again.

Slow down in the rain folks, or if it is bad, think twice about getting out in it.  No one wants to die to get to work now do they?