A year ago this week, I published an editorial in the Philadelphia Inquirer that explored how who I am can contribute to my vulnerability to violence and unpleasantness. It’s disturbing to realize that bad things can happen to people who are like us in some way, to us, but it’s even more disturbing when we
Self-defense skills can be challenging to learn. They can be emotionally complex to process and physically difficult to master. We’ve talked here before about ensuring that the people you’re surrounding yourself with in training will help your efforts, and making the effort to use equipment that you don’t have to struggle against. There’s another piece
The news cycle moves fast, but one of the big ones this week was the mass shooting in the NYC subway system a few days ago. It was a worst-case scenario in many ways: a busy commute time, a crowded subway car en route between stations, smoke bombs affecting visibility, and a gunman spraying bullets
You’ve all seen at least one person who dismisses criticism of a technique or a piece of equipment because “it works for me.” Some of you, even me, have been that person. In an age when lived experience is an important part of truth, it’s not surprising to run into the position that the individual
Today, I’m going to revisit (with some light edits) a topic that I talked about on Blasting Beauty many years ago because, as it turns out in conversation with Healthy Buffalo and others, it’s still something that comes up in our training today. It’s an anxiety that many of us have when it comes to
On a fairly regular basis, I am asked by various folks for recommendations on what gun to buy for their partner or adult child to use for concealed carry or home defense. Sometimes, it’s because the recipient isn’t terribly interested but the giver wants to get them a gun anyway. Other times, it’s because the
Learning self-defense skills is important. If you’re here, you probably already know that self-defense isn’t all about mindset and that it requires actually knowing how to do certain things. They may be “hard” skills like hands-on fighting, delivering pepper spray into the eyes of a bad guy, or shooting a gun. They may be “soft”
One of the really neat things about walking around Tac-Con this year was seeing the increase in diversity. It’s not that I’ve ever felt unwelcome in that crowd; quite the contrary, really. Showing up, participating, and trying were all that were required to be included – enthusiastically and with genuine camaraderie, even brotherhood and sisterhood.
Tomorrow, I leave for the Rangemaster Tactical Conference, also known as Tac-Con. It’s an annual event with a huge variety of classes all related to personal safety and self-defense. For many of us, it’s an opportunity to get a taste of what’s being offered by a number of top instructors in the field, as well
Personal alarms are perennially popular and have been making a comeback as a personal safety device. The idea is that by using a device to make very loud noises, the attacker will be scared off. Perhaps they will want to get away from the disorienting and painful sounds, or they will want to avoid the
