Eskrima Kombat

What a tragic, crazy week it’s been. As I reflect on the death toll, not to mention those who were horrifically maimed, several things come to mind.

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1)  Situational Awareness Is Key

Let us just hope that the bombs set off at the Boston Marathon are not the wave of the future. The bombings were successful because they were so unexpected. The Israeli public has a keen awareness of unattended items left by themselves, which may be bombs. We Americans may need to develop a similar sense of when something is out of place or abandoned.

The MIT policeman was killed by the two terrorists who reportedly engaged him in conversation. Suddenly one of the two drew a gun and fired multiple shots at close range. An ambush attack like this is difficult to defeat, but was his guard relaxed and his alertness not what it should have been, given the events of the previous week?

On a side note, do you have access to a weapon while seated? It’s little use to carry a gun if you can’t access it when you’re sitting down. Do you have a weapon that can be inconspicuously accessed while seated in your car?

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2)  You May Need to Get Involved

The public was needed to help identify the bombers. A man near the finish line when the bombs went off chased down and tackled someone running from the scene who looked suspicious. It turned out the suspicious man was not a terrorist involved in the bombing, but that type of action in another event could save lives. The second bomber was caught only after a woman went into her backyard and noticed blood on her boat. What if she had gone outside and been confronted by the terrorist? Which leads me to my next point….

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3)  You Can’t Rely on the Police to Save You

I’m not faulting the police, who performed well and diligently. But we see what happens when police run into trained and determined criminals, such as in the Newhall incident and the Miami FBI shootout. It appears that the second bomber may have been able to escape the shootout with the police because the cops ran out of ammunition. In one video of the shootout police can be heard shouting, “Where’s the rifle?”

In view of the two deadly terrorists hijacking cars and threatening to invade homes, ideas such as disarming civilians, taking Joe Biden’s double barrel shotgun advice, and limiting magazine capacities, seem especially foolish.