The ability to defend yourself is very important. In our modern day times many people either have a false sense of security or believe that as long as they don’t go into a bad neighborhood, nothing will happen to them. Others believe that the police will protect them. This could not be further from the truth!
Living in a nice neighborhood with a security alarm will not stop all criminal. If anything having a nice house and car may invite criminal to attempt a break-in. I train at a Mixed Martial Arts School in Columbia Maryland. Two years ago the owner of the affiliation (Master Lloyd Irvin) and his family were held at gun point in his home. The criminal broke in at 4 am and surprised them. Lloyd Irvin used his martial arts training and was able to disarm one of the thugs and scare them off. Had he not been trained at gun disarming who knows what might have happened. Not that I necessarily suggest trying to disarm an attacker, but you never know what the situation will call for. Also you never know when or where something might happen. Some criminals are opportunistic and others are calculating. Some will attack in broad daylight, others at night. Some in nice public places and others will wait till you are alone to attack. I have heard many horrible stories over the years (some surprising and some not) and most were not in seedy places.
I think the biggest false sense of security comes from the police. We have all heard the slogan “protect and serve”. Who do they really protect and or serve? The fact of the matter is that police can’t be everywhere all the time (nor do we really want them to be). Chances are that if the police are there… Something already happened. The police won’t show up until after someone calls them and sometimes it takes a while. This does not even take into account that the police do not have to put themselves in harms way to save you. After the Rodney King riots in LA thousands of cases flooded the courts where people were charging that they were being attacked and that the police stood idly by watching only mere feet away. The courts basically ruled that it is neither the police officers duty nor obligation to protect you. If an officer feels that he/she could be putting him/herself in danger he/she is not obligated to assist. So if the police can’t or won’t protect you, who will?
The simply fact of the matter is that it is your responsibility to protect yourself and your family. No one can be there to protect you at all of the time, not the government, not a passerby, nor a neighbor. You even cannot always rely on another family member to be there or to be able to help you. Well I guess if you got enough money you could have a personal body guard but for the rest of us only you can protect yourself at all times.
In the previous post I talked about martial arts training and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu as a very good ways to learn to self-defense. Martial arts will build the confidence, give you the strength & conditioning and the skills to defend yourself. However there are also other ways to protect 
yourself. For one can arm yourself. It is no secret that I am a strong supporter of the second amendment but you can also arm yourself with mace, a stun gun, etc. The important thing is to be properly trained. It does you absolutely no good to have a weapon if you can’t use it. It can even be a liability if the attacker takes it from you. If you choose to arm yourself I suggest taking a course and practicing using it as much as possible. Much like martial arts, seeing the technique a couple times will not allow you to be proficient enough to use it live. If your state allows for concealed carry (which I am a strong supporter of) take a training course and practice the techniques as often as possible. You should be going to the range regularly to be proficient.
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