Dear Laissez Faire Letter Reader,
A record was set this past Black Friday.
And no, it has nothing to do with the number of iPhones or 55-inch televisions that were sold…
According to FBI data released this week, more Americans had their backgrounds checked purchasing guns than on any day on record.
185,345 requests, to be precise.
Curiously, the previous three Black Fridays all appear in the FBI’s top 10 list of highest background check days.
Who knew Black Friday was such a popular day to buy a firearm?
If you look at the FBI data, though, another pattern emerges.
“Previous spikes for background checks,” notes USA Today, “occurred after prominent mass shootings, like in December 2012 in the wake of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.”
No doubt the recent terrorist attack in Paris contributed to people’s decision to buy a firearm this past Friday.
But peace of mind doesn’t automatically come included with your handgun.
It takes more than that.
In today’s email alert, former CIA officer Jason Hanson gives you the principles you need to implement if you’re to survive a confrontation with a gun-toting maniac.
Though having a firearm on you would be ideal, as Jason shows you, these principles apply even if you don’t own a gun.
Sincerely,
Doug Hill
Director, Laissez Faire Club
How to Survive (and Stop) a Terrorist
by Jason Hanson
I was blessed to have some very good training while with the CIA, including terrorist response training.
This training involved scenarios, role players, a red man suit (a sturdy safety suit used in defense training), and “simmunitions” (similar to airsoft), to name a few things.
Today, I am going to share with you some of the principles I learned for you to use in your day-to-day life.
A typical scenario would be in a mock town and the instructor would come up to you and say something along the lines of “You and your wife are taking a Sunday stroll through your neighborhood and there’s a good chance something is going to go wrong.”
You begin walking through the town with your “wife” (who’s a role player) and suddenly a man runs from the back of one of the houses with a rifle shooting the streets up and you have to try to neutralize the threat.
Another scenario might be where you’re walking through an office building and you turn the corner and a “terrorist” is holding someone hostage.
The terrorist has a suicide vest on, and if you come any closer, he’s going to detonate it. You have to decide what to do and when to take the head shot to kill the terrorist.
As I mentioned, it was great training, and this is the exact training I do today with corporate security when companies hire me.
And this is the training that I believe every American now needs. In fact, a version of it should be implemented in colleges and universities so that we can get people trained from a younger age.
Today, I’ll share with you important concepts you can implement in the event you’re ever faced with just such a deadly situation.
Fight Aggression With Aggression
The fact is when it comes to properly responding to an incident involving some gun-wielding criminal — terrorist or otherwise — you need to be aggressive and go after the attackers.
For instance, in the recent Paris attacks, it has been reported that some of the attackers told people to lie on the ground and that these people obeyed and were eventually shot.
In the Oregon college shooting a few months back, the killer lined the students up and asked them their religion and then shot certain people.
You cannot give some maniac enough time to line you up, have you lie on the floor, or ask you your religion.
When you see someone burst into a movie theater or a restaurant with a gun, within seconds, you need to rush them and ruthlessly attack them.
But here’s the thing: This is not a natural human response.
When a crazed person with an AK-47 walks into building, most people’s natural response is to run away or freeze and then do whatever the person with the gun tells them to do in the hopes that they won’t get hurt.
But you and I know that when you obey this kind of individual and just sit there with the gun pointed at you, you’ll likely end up dead.
Changing Your Instincts
The only way to change your natural response is to condition yourself through training.
In other words, you can get a group of friends together, buy some airsoft gear, and set up mock scenarios in the woods, a soccer field, or anyplace else you can train.
Run the same scenarios I describe above and create many more of your own based on recent events.
When training, it’s important to remember that not every scenario should be a “shoot” scenario.
When I do this training, we have situations where some guy may walk into a building with a gun on his hip or a rifle slung over his shoulder, and he might be an average citizen who’s just carrying a gun.
Where I live in the small town of Cedar City, Utah, it’s not uncommon to be walking in the grocery store and see someone with a pistol on their hip, since open carry is legal in Utah.
My point is you need to have all types of mock scenarios. You don’t want to train only for a “shoot” situation, because that’s not the way life works, and since you and I are the good guys, we are responsible for the actions we take.
Importance of Visualization
In addition to live training, it’s very important to visualize what you would do in a situation involving a gun-wielding individual bent on taking lives.
It may sound corny, but you need to picture yourself in the local Wal-Mart and imagine some guy walking in with an AK-47 and you reacting properly, drawing your gun (or knife or other weapon), and rushing him to stop the threat.
This is the only way to stop these bad guys, because the way that 99% of people react gets them and others killed. Because when some guy walks into a building with an AK-47, as I said earlier, most people will freeze or run away.
Either of these reactions is good for the criminal or terrorist, because it means nobody is confronting them and they have plenty of time to shoot and reload.
In fact, the worst thing people can do is to run away, because as they fan out, they give the attacker plenty of time to shoot people in the back. And people are getting further away from him, meaning there’s nobody close by to stop him and he can continue his rampage.
I know it’s not an easy solution and is probably not one that most people want to hear.
But it has to be done.
You and I and other Americans who value our safety need to change our mindsets and condition ourselves to go after the attacker and stop them instead of running away or obeying their commands.
And the only way to do this is through training and repetition.
Next Steps
In your local area, you might be able to find a company that provides force-on-force training.
At the very least, make sure that you have a self-defense weapon on you at all times.
I realize not everyone wishes to carry a knife or a gun, but at a minimum, you should have some sort of self-defense tool. My favorite is a Tactical Pen. [Director’s note: Stay tuned, I’ll have a special link for you in the coming week. Watch your email.]
The Tactical Pen is a (deadly) discreet weapon that I’ve flown all over the world with and taken into courthouses and other government buildings. It can easily stop an attacker who’s looking to take your life or someone else’s.
What it all boils down to is this: After the Paris attacks, the director of the CIA, John Brennan, said that this is not a one-time event and that more attacks are likely to come, which is stating the obvious.
So in the future, if you’re at the football game or the mall or a restaurant when a terrorist attack occurs, please ensure you won’t go down as an easy victim and that you’ll react quickly and ruthlessly against these evil people.
Regards,
Jason Hanson
Jason Hanson is a former CIA officer and security specialist and the author of Spy Secrets That Can Save Your Life. He’s appeared on numerous television shows, including ABC’s Shark Tank and NBC’s Today show.
Cover photo by arindambanerjee / Shutterstock.com
