Here is a piece from Mark Hatmaker’s excellent book No Second Chance: A Reality-Based Guide to Self-Defense. Mark puts out some great information, and he’s a really nice guy. Sharing this with you here as he makes a great point.
I’ve got some bad new for us – we’ll never be ready. The predators of the world always have the upper hand. They get to choose the when, where, how and why. None of the victims recounted in the Predator Profiles (sections of the book) woke up the morning of their horrific destiny and knew what was in store for them. If they did, I’m certain they would have done everything in their power to alter what was foreseen.
Just as they never knew, we will never know if or when we have similar experiences in store for us. The predators of the world, on the other hand, always know. They always have the advantage. They have a plan. They know when they get up in the morning what they have in store for whatever innocents they have targeted. There may be unexpected developments in the course of executing that plan, but these are only minor course corrections in their overall scheme.
With that bit of cheery information, you might be asking yourself what’s the point of this book (or this website) if we will never be prepared? Let’s liken preparation for surviving criminal assault to “preparing” for a car accident. Statistically speaking, chance are you have been involved in a car accident at some point in your driving life (hopefully a minor one). When you awoke that morning you had no idea it was going to occur. You didn’t get into the car taking special pains with your seatbelt. You didn’t make sure your driver’s license, vehicle registration and auto insurance information were handy. You didn’t reread your original driver’s education manual (if you ever did) reviewing accident avoidance protocols. No, you were merely going about your business and the accident happened – catching you by surprise.
Assuming you kept your head and had some foresight, your seatbelt provided you with some protection, you had your information readily available and you knew what to do when the collision occurred. This preventive foresight still does not stop you from being surprised, injured or even quell the adrenaline dump that such occasions elicit. Like they say, shit happens, and that day shit just happened. We know that all drivers are unprepared for an accident in the foreknowledge sense, but let’s compare drivers who exercise preventive maintenance with those who do not.
Chances are if you were obeying traffic laws, keeping your speed in control and paying attention to the environment, you might have been able to recognize that the accident was going to occur before it did. Often it is this split second of danger recognition that allows you to brake, decrease speed or veer to a less damaging collision vector. If you utilized your safety belt, you mitigated your injuries. If you are organizationally squared away, your information is easily accessible and are able to give 911 a quick call. A little bit of preparedness and obeisance to some simple habits make this sort of behavior likely.
On the other hand, if you are a driver who ignores what others have proposed as good sense and follow too closely, drive too fast or pay less than optimum attention to the environment (texting, shall we say?), then you have already increased your chances for losing your split second window of collision avoidance. If you have foregone your safety belt for comfort’s sake, you have dramatically increased your chances for injury. If you have decided to keep your information in two or more locations or have no idea if you even have such information, you have increased your own stress level by stacking unneeded confusion on top of an already taxed nervous system.
Neither the prepared nor the unprepared driver knows if or when an accident will occur, but the odds easily favor the prepared driver. That’s what we are striving for with this book. (And this website!) We will never know if or when we may be confronted by criminal violence, but by being a prepared driver we greatly increase our chances of surviving the collision.
Thanks to Mark Hatmaker for explaining why we need to be prepared so well!