Fighting for your life

The stark reality in America is that more than 5,000,000 violent crimes were committed in 2008. Ponder that number for a moment. It’s a five followed by six zeros. Think there’s little chance of you ever being a victim? Think again. The odds say you might eventually, especially if you live in a major urban area.

Developing some sort of interpersonal combat skills is critical for modern survivalists. Since the vast majority of the population is completely unprepared, just being slightly proactive can help.

It’s a cliché but it’s true – awareness is the best prevention. Lock your doors after entering or exiting the car, garage, and house. Burglars go after easy targets. Make them work for entry and, chances are, they’ll move on to easier prey. Keep a small flashlight with you, it doesn’t need to be much wider than the palm of your hand. Use it to check beneath your car or to illuminate dark corners in poorly lit parking garages. This flashlight can also temporarily blind an attacker or even be used as a mini-club to stun them.

In a confrontation, is martial arts the answer? Not necessarily. Don’t expect fair play, rules, referees, or only one opponent at a time to come after you. To protect yourself and loved ones you should be ready to gouge thumbs into eyes, break knees with a kick, stab a pen into the neck, stick a knife in a chest, run them over with a car, or bludgeon them in the head with a lamp. Hand to hand combat for preservation is not fair, so don’t play with a sense of chivalry. In major urban areas, it might take anywhere from two minutes to an hour for police to respond to a 911 call.

What are you going to do in the meantime?

We think a good answer is, “Whatever it takes to stay alive!”

The Holistic Survival Team

Flickr / Mugley