This is a discussion on How do we know we won't freeze up? within the Concealed Carry Issues & Discussions forums, part of the Defensive Carry Discussions category; I don't think we could know.... without being in the situation. Being able to react is a very important thing. The whole notion of muscle ...
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I don't think we could know.... without being in the situation.
Being able to react is a very important thing. The whole notion of muscle memory is true. When it is all on the line and your thinking of a billion things at the same time it could be the uncontentious reaction to a situation that saves your life. Of course...luck will play a big part too.
There is something about firing 4,200 thirty millimeter rounds/min that makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.
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Same true for me. I once found myself within 1/2 a heartbeat from firing... That's the day I knew I could do what needed to be done. Practice at the range and throw in some mental training.Originally Posted by ErnieNWillis
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When you convince yourself that bad things can't happen, yet they do, it tends to throw you for a mental loop. That is why running through mental scenarios, practicing being alert and aware, and deciding what you will do ahead of time is so valuable.
Look at the stories of people who have been in these situations; in many cases, they don't even remember drawing, the gun just appeared in their hand. That is practice and what it does for you.
An enemy of liberty is no friend of mine. I do not owe respect to anyone who would enslave me by government force, nor is it wise for such a person to expect it. -- Isaiah Amberay
You don't really know, that's the thing. You can prepare as much as possible, train realistically, etc. but you won't really know until it happens. Even if you've been through it before, you still don't really know how you'll react this time. You're not the same person you were when it happened the last time, and you won't be the same person the next time.
All you can do is train, train, train, and mentally prepare as best you can.
Hint: Good martial arts training encompasses this type of mindset all the time, and is good training for "not freezing up" whether you have a weapon or not...you are the weapon. Also, it's just plain practical to not be focused or fixated on having a weapon to deal with a situation. If you have it, fine, if you don't have it, fine also, you still must deal with it.
"Be justified. Blood may be easily wiped from the sword.
It cannot, however, be put back from where it came." --Quicksabre
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Yep...this is why I thank my parents for putting me in martial arts at a young age (8) and following through with it until I moved out (19).
Still practice a kata or two now and then help keep a bit fexible and the movements fresh hopefully won't pull/tear somthing if I have to use that stuff again for real. Wife thinks it's funny when I do a kata.
Can still kick above my head...though the power I used to have is lacking.
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You don't....but mindset has a lot to do with it...
Magazine <> clip - know the difference
martyr is a fancy name for crappy fighter
You have never lived until you have almost died. For those that have fought for it, life has a special flavor the protected will never know
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I would imagine many, if not all of us that carry a firearm ask that question at least once. I know I have several times and still I don't for sure know the answer. I guess I won't unless the situation presents itself. I do believe the proper mindset would help me do the right thing to protect myself so that is what I try to maintain.
DEMOCRACY IS TWO WOLVES AND A LAMB VOTING ON WHAT TO HAVE FOR LUNCH. LIBERTY IS A WELL ARMED LAMB CONTESTING THE VOTE.
Certified Instructor for Minnesota Carry Permit
NRA Pistol and Personal Protection Insrtuctor
Utah Permit Certified Instructor
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Martial Arts training it the only way I know that you can test if you are going to freeze up. Get yourself or kids into a class.
Soon or later you will have to spar with someone much better than you. After you've been knocked around or thrown down multiply times then you start to freeze up and panic a little. You have to push through, take it, try and get you brain going again to look for a better offense. It will end some time.
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This is kinda what I was figuring believe it or not I know people who carry a gun,and yet they don't seem to grasp the concept that they may one day need that gun to save their own life.
Its almost as if they believe that bad stuff happens just not to them. In my mind the world is a messed up place and there are evil people out there that can and have done some terrible things to people. Now me,I'm the exact opposite I know what's out there and go out every not looking for trouble but at the time I'm ready if lord forbid it finds me.
I'm not a negative person I'm just a realist and I know it can and does happen anytime anywhere. I resigned myself to the fact a long time ago never to be helpless victim. I went through a brief time recently where I thought I'd be better off with out a gun,but boy was I wrong and ever since getting my carry permit reinstated I carry every day everywhere its legal.
Snub nose revolvers,the original concealed carry guns.
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I have seen a few threads where you mentioned an incident that happened to you. Did you publish the event? Just curious as to what happened.
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I have a question. Aside from the people that are committed to a life of pacifism, why would a person be unable to respond to a threat to their lives? I believe it would be a more neural response than others, apparently. There's really nothing to think about.
2nd Amendment: because personal violence never makes an appointment.
Evil resides in the heart of the individual, not in inanimate objects.
Proud Member of GeorgiaCarry.Org
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One of the best indicators of future performance is past performance. We can somewhat know from our past experience with other high-stress situations. Maybe no life or death situations, but ones that were random, high-stress, emergency situations.
Fight or flight? Calm, cool, and collected, able to immediately adapt, improvise, and overcome; or collapsing mentally, emotionally, spiritually, physically?
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It's the "human" thing that kicks in. We have an automatic, adverse reaction to the possibility of taking another human beings life. Many cases of victims found dead with guns in their hands, because they couldn't "follow through".
In reality, once you have shot at someone enough times, it gets easier. Sounds insane, but it's true.
Also in this line of thought:
"There is a substantial body of evidence demonstrating humans' seemingly natural aversion to killing. Much of the research in this area has been conducted by the military; analysts have found that soldiers tend to intentionally fire over the enemy's head, or not to fire at all.
Studies of combat activity during the Napoleonic and Civil Wars revealed stirking statistics. Given the ability of the men, their proximity to the enemy, and the capacity of their weapons, the number of enemy soldiers hit should have been well over 50 percent, resulting in a killing rate of hundreds per minute. Instead, however, the hit rate was only one o two per minute. And a similar phenomenon occured during World War I: according to british Lieutenant George Roupell, the only way he could get his men to stop firing into the air was by drawing his sword, walking down the trench, "beating [them] on the backside and ... telling them to fire low".1 World War II fire rates were also remarkably low: historian and US Army Brigadier General S.L.A. Marshall rerported that, during battle, the firing rate was a mere 15 to 20 percent; in other words, out of every hundred men engaged in a firefight, only fifteen to twenty actually used their weapons. And in Vietnam, for every enemy soldiers killed, more than fifty thousand bullets were fired.2
What these studies have taught the miltiary is that in order to get soldiers to shoot to kill, to actively participate in violence, the soldiers must be sufficiencly desensitized to the act of killing. In other words, they have to learn not to feel -- and not to feel responsible -- for their actions. They must be taught to override their own conscience. yet these studies also demonstrate that even in the face of immediate danger, in situations of extreme violence, most people are averse to killing. In other words, as Marshall concludes, "the vast majority of combatants throughout history, at the moment of truth when they could and should kill the enemy, have found themselves to be 'conscientious objectors'".3
If I have to engage my weapon, as I and others here have, it's not going to be pretty. Self defense isn't supposed to be pretty! It's loud, it's ugly, it's messy, it's scary, it's bloody, and it's 10 times worse than anything one would see in a movie theatre.
On a side note, a"few" here on this forum chime in everytime someone mentions this game of KILLING . Tough ****...
If we're going to carry a weapon that will kill another human being, it's best we train mentally, physically, and emotionally for it....NOW. Those same "few" may call that "hero/Rambo thinking", but in reality it's preparation to DO what MUST be done. Period.
Training and the mindset that it really IS "you or them" will overcome much of the fear associated with pulling your weapon to end the threat. Or taking SOME kind of ACTION.
On another side note, this was interesting...Hmmmm
https://notes.utk.edu/Bio/greenberg....1?OpenDocument
Last edited by TheoryRealm; April 9th, 2010 at 04:06 PM.
Stop acting like we're fightin' for "freedom". We are ALREADY....free.
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Yes, I've heard those rationalizations before, and I suspected that those that espouse this belief base their belief system on observations of war.
Putting that aside, I'm talking about your life or the life of your kid, wife, sister, etc. directly threatened by a scum bag. If you've ever been assaulted, robbed, or threatened, you may know the mindset that I'm talking about. It develops afterward, as a result. Fear doesn't come into play until after its all done. In the critical moment, you just do what you need to do. That may be running, holding your ground, or getting dirty. A gun isn't even a necessary component of the mindset I'm trying to describe.
2nd Amendment: because personal violence never makes an appointment.
Evil resides in the heart of the individual, not in inanimate objects.
Proud Member of GeorgiaCarry.Org
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I understand. I think that the terms preparation, training, mindset, and practice all apply here as well. It doesn't have to be "war" or of a "military" mindset to directly deal with fear and a threat or of possible outcomes of our actions.
People are going to have to "deal" with it after the fact for sure, and the only real way to "deal" with it then, is to begin "dealing" with it now, as best you can. Lot's of variables involved for sure, but I suppose my point is that dealing with it in war, or dealing with said scumbag, we need to start with the realization that it could be there, beforehand...
Stop acting like we're fightin' for "freedom". We are ALREADY....free.
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