DRILLING FOR AN ATTEMPTED KIDNAPPING
Posted: Mon Mar 12, 2007 8:56 pm
I have noticed lately a recurring crime around the East Texas area: Attempted kidnappings or actual kidnappings of children in public places such as Wal-Mart and Hospitals. I am putting together a training primer for this very real threat to all parents of young kids. Here is what I have so far, all trainers out there with LE or Personal Protection experience, jump in with whatever you think might help...
I. I start all my training with 3 principles that are basic to self defense: Avoidance, Deterrence, De-Escalation. These 3 Principles cannot always be applied to all situations. An example is an attempted kidnapping, we cannot Avoid these types of scenarios in a broad sense, because a kidnapping can occur anywhere, anytime by a determined person. Using the events of late as an example, we see kidnappers are more brazen now, not waiting until you are alone with your child in a dark alley or parking lot, but striking in broad daylight in a public place such as Wal-Mart. We cannot practice De-Escalation as a general rule either, because if a person has intent to kidnap your child and tries to do it, there is nothing to "de-escalate"--you must use use of force, deadly if necessary to stop that person from taking your child. We can however, practice deterrence by using basic personal protection principles we should practice every day. These principles are:
1. Staying in "Condition Yellow" when we are in public, no matter how mundane the task involved. Stay aware of anything, anybody out of place around you--pay attention to your instincts on this. One of the tactics most criminals use, is the chance you will be distracted by focusing on the task at hand. NEVER GET CAUGHT IN CONTION WHITE. If you want to see somebody in Condition White, just look around most grocery stores when you go--I would say 90% of the folks I see are daydreaming and preoccupied. Criminals count on this. Jeff Cooper stated: "By learning to observe your environment, constantly evaluate it, and react appropriately to what you see, you can achieve a large degree of control over your fate."
2. Controlling your kids in public!! Keep a visual on them at all times. I would go further on this and say keep them within "grabbing distance." I know this is a big chore, for folks who have 3+ kids, this can be an olympic event. Communicate with them if they are old enough, why it is important for them to stay close and not run amok, tell them the stories about kids getting taken--fear can have a good effect on kids, when it comes to safety training. For you parents with mutiple kid-units, let the older children help with the younger ones if applicable. Once again, you can see how some parents let their kids go wild in public--running up and down the aisles, etc..
3. Have a plan if you are separated--this boils down to your family emergency planning that you should have for disasters in your home--same principle: what do we do if.... these are very important items to communicate with your kids. A general plan is "What do we do if we become seperated at the store?" Every parent can customize this answer--because all stores are different in their construction. A good rule of thumb is to locate customer service when you enter the store and have that as your "rally point"--most stores put customer service centers in the middle of the store, near the exits.
4. Training the kids for nightmare scenario: Somebody has them and is trying to take them! This is a tough one, but I have thru experience come up with 3 simple tactics that most children can understand. This is age specific, so parents will have to adapt the routines.
**MAKE NOISE..SCREAM,YELL--DRAW ATTENTION TO YOURSELF, MOST KIDNAPPERS WILL ABANDON THEIR EFFORTS WHEN MADE.
**TEACH BASIC SELF DEFENSE SUCH AS BITING, SCRATCHING, KICKING, PUNCHING ETC. TEACH THEM TO USE WHATEVER WEAPONS ARE AT HAND. I can recall an example where a little girl defeated a kidnapper from the backseat of a car, forcing him to release her by poking the mans eyes with her fingers and using a pencil to stab him.
II. We have covered some very basic deterrence and defense principles you and your kids can do. Now it comes down to what you must be prepared to do with your firearm to keep your kids safe: The primary question here is, if somebody has stolen your child, in a public place, and you are a legally armed citizen, with a clear shot--what do you do?
This is sub-situation specific--so many variables play into this--(background is a big one) My goal is to prepare you for the "worst possible scenario" & the "ideal scenario". I know alot of you are saying:"No way I am going to shoot somebody holding my kid!!" I would propose to you this: Your child statitsically stands a better chance of surviving if you do take that shot than if you don't in most cases. When I first started VIP protection, we were inundated with kidnapping data: the reason was to show us the grim facts: if we did not stop them, 88% of the time, the principal was killed. I am sad to say the data for kidnappng today is worse, and it involves almost all the time, sexual molestation and rape.
You have to drill to make yourself comfortable in making tough shots--no amount of drills, no matter how real, can compare to the stress involved in this type of scenario--but you still have to drill with putting your bullet into a tough spot, on demand. Hostage Targets and Force on Force Training are the answer--in my next segment we will discuss my courses of fire for this.
I. I start all my training with 3 principles that are basic to self defense: Avoidance, Deterrence, De-Escalation. These 3 Principles cannot always be applied to all situations. An example is an attempted kidnapping, we cannot Avoid these types of scenarios in a broad sense, because a kidnapping can occur anywhere, anytime by a determined person. Using the events of late as an example, we see kidnappers are more brazen now, not waiting until you are alone with your child in a dark alley or parking lot, but striking in broad daylight in a public place such as Wal-Mart. We cannot practice De-Escalation as a general rule either, because if a person has intent to kidnap your child and tries to do it, there is nothing to "de-escalate"--you must use use of force, deadly if necessary to stop that person from taking your child. We can however, practice deterrence by using basic personal protection principles we should practice every day. These principles are:
1. Staying in "Condition Yellow" when we are in public, no matter how mundane the task involved. Stay aware of anything, anybody out of place around you--pay attention to your instincts on this. One of the tactics most criminals use, is the chance you will be distracted by focusing on the task at hand. NEVER GET CAUGHT IN CONTION WHITE. If you want to see somebody in Condition White, just look around most grocery stores when you go--I would say 90% of the folks I see are daydreaming and preoccupied. Criminals count on this. Jeff Cooper stated: "By learning to observe your environment, constantly evaluate it, and react appropriately to what you see, you can achieve a large degree of control over your fate."
2. Controlling your kids in public!! Keep a visual on them at all times. I would go further on this and say keep them within "grabbing distance." I know this is a big chore, for folks who have 3+ kids, this can be an olympic event. Communicate with them if they are old enough, why it is important for them to stay close and not run amok, tell them the stories about kids getting taken--fear can have a good effect on kids, when it comes to safety training. For you parents with mutiple kid-units, let the older children help with the younger ones if applicable. Once again, you can see how some parents let their kids go wild in public--running up and down the aisles, etc..
3. Have a plan if you are separated--this boils down to your family emergency planning that you should have for disasters in your home--same principle: what do we do if.... these are very important items to communicate with your kids. A general plan is "What do we do if we become seperated at the store?" Every parent can customize this answer--because all stores are different in their construction. A good rule of thumb is to locate customer service when you enter the store and have that as your "rally point"--most stores put customer service centers in the middle of the store, near the exits.
4. Training the kids for nightmare scenario: Somebody has them and is trying to take them! This is a tough one, but I have thru experience come up with 3 simple tactics that most children can understand. This is age specific, so parents will have to adapt the routines.
**MAKE NOISE..SCREAM,YELL--DRAW ATTENTION TO YOURSELF, MOST KIDNAPPERS WILL ABANDON THEIR EFFORTS WHEN MADE.
**TEACH BASIC SELF DEFENSE SUCH AS BITING, SCRATCHING, KICKING, PUNCHING ETC. TEACH THEM TO USE WHATEVER WEAPONS ARE AT HAND. I can recall an example where a little girl defeated a kidnapper from the backseat of a car, forcing him to release her by poking the mans eyes with her fingers and using a pencil to stab him.
II. We have covered some very basic deterrence and defense principles you and your kids can do. Now it comes down to what you must be prepared to do with your firearm to keep your kids safe: The primary question here is, if somebody has stolen your child, in a public place, and you are a legally armed citizen, with a clear shot--what do you do?
This is sub-situation specific--so many variables play into this--(background is a big one) My goal is to prepare you for the "worst possible scenario" & the "ideal scenario". I know alot of you are saying:"No way I am going to shoot somebody holding my kid!!" I would propose to you this: Your child statitsically stands a better chance of surviving if you do take that shot than if you don't in most cases. When I first started VIP protection, we were inundated with kidnapping data: the reason was to show us the grim facts: if we did not stop them, 88% of the time, the principal was killed. I am sad to say the data for kidnappng today is worse, and it involves almost all the time, sexual molestation and rape.
You have to drill to make yourself comfortable in making tough shots--no amount of drills, no matter how real, can compare to the stress involved in this type of scenario--but you still have to drill with putting your bullet into a tough spot, on demand. Hostage Targets and Force on Force Training are the answer--in my next segment we will discuss my courses of fire for this.
The awareness net needs to range a little farther with kiddos around.
I use the term BG generically it can be; bad girl, guy, teen, skel, tweeker, homeless person etc... anyone that shows up to prey upon your family/you.
. I told her this man was abducting your son and you "caught him" in the act. She was supposed to verbalize with him as she approached until she felt like she could take a safe hostage shot. I played the role of the attacker (verbally).