Situational Awareness is the key to your safety

A Patriot's Opinion

By Jim Snyder

With the addition of the new open carry law, recently many more of our citizens have become interested in personal protection. Regardless of whether you already have a license to carry a firearm, are considering getting a permit, or have no interest at all in doing so, the one thing that people need to be more aware of is their surroundings. This is commonly referred to as Situational Awareness. Let’s look at some real world examples.

When you come out of a store or are coming out of the mall, do you look around you to see what is going on? Sounds pretty simple, doesn’t it? But how many of us actually do it? One of the best ways to learn more about situation awareness is by watching other people when they come out of a store or business. I ask people this question all of the time, “What is the most dangerous device you carry on you every day”? Naturally they say things like a gun, or knife, or some other type of weapon. But the answer is their cell phone. How many times have you seen someone walking out of a store or business and be totally consumed with texting a friend or relative on their phone. That’s right you see it every day, sometimes dozens of times. As a matter of fact, we have all done this more times than we care to admit. Why is this so dangerous, you ask? Because it is a distraction from our surroundings. Someone who is looking for a victim to attack or rob is looking for a person who is not paying attention. It would be so easy for someone to come right up to someone texting on their phone and knock them out and they would never know what hit them.

Another situation that is very dangerous is ladies who are walking to their vehicles digging through their purse looking for their keys, phone, or any other objects. Here again, these are situations that criminals dream of. Whenever we are doing these types of things, we momentarily have what is commonly referred to as tunnel vision. It is so easy these days to become distracted and let our guard down. I always tell folks to have their key fob in their hand when they come out of the door of a store or business. On the way across the parking lot to your vehicle, look around you and scan the area to be sure you are safe. After you get to your car, get in lock the doors and then you can play with all of the electronic devices you want.

Another place to be aware is at ATM machines, especially the ones where you walk up to the ATM to transact your business. Here again, you are concentrating on that key pad to enter your pin number and can get distracted to your surroundings. Take the time to look around to be sure there is not someone standing around watching that ATM. We have all seen the videos of people that were attacked at an ATM machine. And just like the example of the cell phone or looking for your keys these small distractions on our part are huge opportunities for bad guys to take advantage of us.

These are just a few examples of activities that we all do every day, but it shows just how vulnerable we can become when we get distracted by little, everyday activities. So, next time you are at the mall take the time to watch others and see if you can spot examples of just how easy it would be for an attacker to take advantage of us.