Personal and Family Defense Plan Part 3

This is the third in a series of Guest Posts by James Moffitt

If you are still reading this series I can only hope that I have brought you to the point where you are seriously thinking about the need to have afamily defense plan Personal and Family defense plan.  In part two of this series, I underlined the importance of recognizing that a crisis can happen to you or your family, at any given time.

I used a movie clip from the movie Under Siege Dark Territory as an example of how trained mercenaries were making a bad assumption.  They were assuming that the cook (Steven Segal) was dead and no longer a threat.  One of our readers of this series reminded me of another excellent quote from this movie.

Chance favors a prepared mind 

I would encourage you to read that statement a couple of times and really meditate on its meaning.  In the first article, I mentioned how we plan for all sorts of life long contingencies.  We make plans for the future.  We plan for financial wellbeing, our health, retirement, children’s college funds and savings.  The list goes on.  In every one of these instances, we identify a need in our life and we set goals and put plans into action so we can meet these goals.

Let’s say you want to lose 50 lbs.  At some point, you came to the realization that your clothes were not fitting correctly or maybe a health issue has cropped up that got your attention.  In your mind, you realized there is a problem and you decided to deal with it.  At that point, you took control of the problem and formulated a plan to deal with it.  You educated yourself to the best of your ability and you used what you have at your disposal to make the plan work.

By now I am hopeful that you have come to the realization that if you have not formulated a Personal and Family defense plan that you have placed yourself or your family at risk.  You are assuming nothing can ever happen and if something does happen you will not be prepared and you or your family will become a victim.

My goal is to awaken you to the fact that there are real threats to your personal safety and to that of your family.  My goal is to encourage you to consider that fact and to plan for the eventuality of it happening.  Does being prepared, mean that you will never have to worry about being threatened?  Being prepared means that if something does happen that you will be better prepared to deal with it and you have increased your ability to survive the threat.

Now that you are thinking about real threats let’s examine some of them.  Threats generally come in two categories.

Threats against people

  • Physical assault
  • Sexual assault
  • Robbery
  • Kidnapping
  • Bullying
  • Car jacking
  • Home invasion
  • Terrorist threat
  • Fraud
  • Identity theft

Threats against property

  • Fire
  • flood
  • Inclement weather
  • Home invasion
  • Vandalism
  • Burglary
  • Credit card fraud

These lists are very general in nature and their purpose is to get you to think about how you and your family, could possibly be threatened.  If you are having a hard time imagining any of these things happening, all you need to do is turn on your local news cast and the crime reports can help you fill in the blanks.

Here is another general list of crimes that I know have happened.

  • Bank robberies
  • Robberies of all types of businesses
  • Robberies of individuals in mall parking lots
  • Robberies of individuals at ATM machines
  • Robberies of delivery drivers
  • Sexual assault in parks
  • Kidnapping
  • Automobile theft
  • Domestic violence
  • Drug deals going bad and people getting shot or stabbed
  • Aggravated robberies of individuals using a deadly weapon

If you remember in my last article, I mentioned a dear friend of mine, and a question he posed to me.  He stated that his father had never owned a firearm for as long as he could remember.  He told me that he has never owned a firearm nor has he ever had the need for one.  After all this time, why would he need to purchase a firearm now?

My friend made this comment right after he found out that I had taken a state required course, that would allow me to carry a concealed weapon.  The context of our conversation related to my personal choice to carry a concealed weapon.  My answer to his question is simple.  Violent crime against property and individuals has been on the rise for decades. I chose to be mentally prepared to protect myself, and my family.  I chose to do whatever it takes so that we will not become victims.   

I remember a time when you could leave the keys to your vehicle in the ignition and not worry about someone stealing it from you.  I remember a time when you could go to bed at night and leave your doors and windows open and unlocked.  You did not have to worry about someone coming into your house and stealing from you or harming your wife or children.  Sadly enough those times are long gone.  We can no longer afford to do these things and if we do we are opening up ourselves to becoming victims to those people who would perpetrate those types of crimes.

Remember that our goal is to be safe as individuals and as families.  We want to know that in case of an emergency, where our safety is threatened, we can act in such a way as to escape the threat, or repel that threat.

In the next article I will begin to dig in to the basics of being prepared and putting together a Personal and Family defense plan.

In the comments tell us what you want to be prepared for.

 

guest poster James Moffitt

James Moffitt is employed as an I.T. Manager and lives West of the Ashley in Charleston South Carolina. He operates the Palmetto CC, blog where he provides the tools needed in order to be responsible concealed carry citizens.

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