Category: Protecting Yourself and Others

Security Doesn’t Have to Cost Liberty

In memory of 9/11 Bruce Schneier reposted a previous post of his. In it he explains that so called security measures that came at the cost of individual liberty not only miss the point but also are unneeded. Things like the PATROIT Act and warrantless wiretapping won’t actually help prevent the next attack, instead they take away civil liberty and gain us nothing. Furthermore there are ways to implement security without taking civil liberty:

It’s easy to refute the notion that all security comes at the expense of liberty. Arming pilots, reinforcing cockpit doors, and teaching flight attendants karate are all examples of security measures that have no effect on individual privacy or liberties. So are better authentication of airport maintenance workers, or dead-man switches that force planes to automatically land at the closest airport, or armed air marshals traveling on flights.

Liberty-depriving security measures are most often found when system designers failed to take security into account from the beginning. They’re Band-aids, and evidence of bad security planning. When security is designed into a system, it can work without forcing people to give up their freedoms.

Likewise cries for more surveillance also miss the point. Have more data doesn’t always mean you have more usable information, in fact quite the opposite is true. If you gather too much data you’ll have to sift through tons of garbage to find a few good items:

Demands for even more surveillance miss the point. The problem is not obtaining data, it’s deciding which data is worth analyzing and then interpreting it. Everyone already leaves a wide audit trail as we go through life, and law enforcement can already access those records with search warrants. The FBI quickly pieced together the terrorists’ identities and the last few months of their lives, once they knew where to look. If they had thrown up their hands and said that they couldn’t figure out who did it or how, they might have a case for needing more surveillance data. But they didn’t, and they don’t.

More data can even be counterproductive. The NSA and the CIA have been criticized for relying too much on signals intelligence, and not enough on human intelligence. The East German police collected data on four million East Germans, roughly a quarter of their population. Yet they did not foresee the peaceful overthrow of the Communist government because they invested heavily in data collection instead of data interpretation. We need more intelligence agents squatting on the ground in the Middle East arguing the Koran, not sitting in Washington arguing about wiretapping laws.

And this my friends is the difference between the government’s so called security experts and somebody who intimately understands security. Just having more data isn’t a good thing, it’s a liability. Likewise adding bandages to previously exploited security flaws doesn’t accomplish anything either. Security is only effective if it’s placed in the design from the start.

I wish our law makers would realize these things instead of using their “we must do SOMETHING” mentality that we’ve conditioned them to do.

Just Owning a Gun Isn’t Enough

A great article found via Says Uncle reminds us that just owning a firearm isn’t enough in a self defense situation.

The article covers a few things. For instance the important question is asked, if you locked your gun up will you be able to get to his when you need it most? But most importantly are you prepared to use it. In a self defense situation your adrenaline will skyrocket and your fine motor skills will plummet. Things that are simple is a calm situation will become exceedingly difficult in a stress situation. For instance something as simple as reloading your pistol may become next to impossible when your under stress, and I’m not even going to mention the massive drop in your accuracy.

The only way to overcome these things is making the operating of your self defense weapon a reflex. The only way to make an activity a reflex is to practice, practice, and practice some more. Further you should practice under stress conditions if at all possible. This can be accomplished by practicing under something like a shot time to time yourself on drills such as failure and reloading drills. The idea would be to perform a failure drill or reload the gun than shoot at the target while timing yourself.

Another thing I like to point out is knowing your self defense weapon in and out. There are two types of people when it comes to gun owners, those who own many and those who own few. The ones who own few generally know those weapons very well and those who own many usually known each weapon in a general sense. The trick is to known at least one or two weapons very well. If you’re like me and own multiple firearms designate one or two as self defense guns and practice those every time you head to the range. For instance every time I go to the range I practice with my carry guns (My primary is a Springfield XD in .45 auto and my backup is a Ruger LCP). When at home my defense weapon of choice is a Remington 870 Marine Magnum shotgun. Finally my go gun so to speak is my M-14 SOCOM 16. Yes that’s more than two but I always put my focus on my carry guns since those are what I’ll most likely be using and they work for home defense situations as well. Knowing your defense guns is critical, knowing your other guns is just nice.

Another rule I like to practice is to keep things simple. My carry guns are bare minimum. They have no additional attachments that need to be operated. I simply pull them and shoot them. If your defense gun has things you need to do before shooting practice that. For instance I sometimes carry my 1911 which has an external safety. Although I always keep the gun cocked and locked in my holster I never engage the safety. Yet when I practice drawing it I always move the thumb to disengage the safety. If it’s already disengaged nothing happens but if it become engaged somehow I will instinctively disengage it under stress. You need to make every action needed to bring the gun into firing order pure reflex so keeping things simple is the best bet. Another thing to keep in mine is laser sights. They are great on self defense guns because they allow you to make quickly acquire the target and shoot. The downside is they use batteries. So if you have a laser equipped gun practice using it without the laser so you can operate the firearm should the battery die in the laser sight. Always know how to operate your weapon in it’s absolute bare bones setup.

But most importantly you must be willing to use your firearm should you need it. Many people have the mindset that they could never harm another human being. This is really a load of crap because most people have a self preservation desire that can override their moral standings. In other words you will harm or even kill somebody to protect yourself or those you love. The thing is you need to realize this because if you don’t you may hesitate at the time self defense is needed most. Even a second thinking you don’t want to harm that person can cost you your life so get over that mindset immediately. I’m not advocating saying you will wantonly kill anybody for anything, just engrain the idea that you will harm of even kill somebody if they posed a threat to your life or the lives of your loved ones.

Simply owning the gun isn’t enough you need the practice and mindset to use it. Always keep that in mind, it may save your life someday.

Why Would You Need a Gun

Well if you’re living in Alaska the answer may be huge fucking bears. Via The Firearm Blog I found a good article from Alaska. Greg Bush took his dog for a walk one day. That day a bear whom appeared to be starving to death charged Mr. Bush and his dog. Well Mr. Bush had his Ruger Redhawk in .454 Casull and put the poor beast out of it’s misery and saving his dog and his own life.

Be it two legged predators or four legged you never know when you’ll be attacked. This is why I’m a proponent of always carrying a gun with you. Must like wearing a seat belt you don’t carry a gun only when you expect to have trouble you carry it so if there should be trouble you’ll have a fighting chance to walk away with your life.

It also shows you should bring the right tool for the job. Although here in Minnesota my .45 ACP is enough for almost any threat it’s not going to stop a brown bear unless I’m lucky. If you live in an area, like Alaska, with very large bears you want to bring something with a ton of power like a .454 Casull. You must know your threat before you can effectively defend against it.

The Badge Doesn’t Give +1 to Accuracy

People who are against citizens carrying firearms always like to point that the police will protect us. They said only law enforcement should have guns because they are the only ones trained properly. Well thanks to Says Uncle I can point at another story where the police don’t seem to be very good shots.

Police in London shot at a robbery suspect 19 times without hitting him even once. That’s a lot of rounds flying around. In fact that’s very irresponsible in my opinion. Each one of those bullets could have hit an innocent bystander which the police are supposed to be trained not to do (that’s what the anti-gunners say). And how far away was he? Well:

O’Connell estimated he was less than 10 metres and possibly as few as six metres away when the officer opened fire.

That’s somewhere between roughly 20 and 33 feet. If you can’t hit a man at that range you probably shouldn’t be carrying a gun on your person. Just remember police officers aren’t better shots than other civilians, that badge does not give +1 to accuracy.

You Can’t Rely on Police Protection

You simply can’t rely on the police for you personal protection as this article via Says Uncle shows. Two police officers in San Pablo stood by and watched as a gun name on a bridge killed two people. They made no effort to stop the gun name, apprehend him, or even get the license plate number of the criminal’s vehicle. They did radio for backup and block traffic from entering the bridge though, I guess that earns them a point out of 100 possible points.

Another thing to note is the amount of time it took to kill the two men:

The attack lasted less than half a minute.

So even if the police will protect you if they aren’t within 30 seconds travel distance you can be totally boned.

Remember people you are responsible for your own personal protection. Nobody is going to do it for you.

Anybody Could be a Threat

Many people get in the habit of assuming anybody who comes to their home in a uniform is supposed to be there. Aubrey Isakson is not one of those suckers. When Robert Benjamin, a Verizon technician, said he needed access to Mr. Isakson’s apartment, Mr. Isakson did the smart thing and demanded to see the technician’s ID first. Smart move, everybody should verify the identify of anybody whom they do not know that asks to enter their apartment. Well Mr. Benjamin responded by pounding the shit out of Mr. Isakson. From the story:

“You want to know my name? Here’s my name,” Benjamin snarled, slapping his ID card into Isakson’s face, according to Isakson’s account of the December 2008 confrontation.

“The guy essentially snapped. He cold-cocked me, hit me two or three solid shots to the head while my hands were down,” said Isakson, a limo driver.

He said the pounding bloodied his face and broke his glasses.

But things got uglier, Isakson said, when Benjamin squeezed him around the neck and pressed him up against the wall.

“He’s prepared to kill me,” Isakson said. “That’s all I could think of.”

Anytime there is a potential threat you need to be alert. I’ll be honest I carry all the time, even when at home. I do this because it’s safer for me and it’s honestly quite comfortable since I have a good holster. If I were in a similar situation I believe my Ruger LCP would have been out of the pocket and in the technicians gut. Of course bullets would only be needed had he continues but most people get the message when a gun is presented.

The lesson here is also be at least in condition yellow when presented with an unknown person at your household.

Fighting Piracy One Machete at a Time

You know that problem with piracy in Somalia the media no longer reports on? Well it’s still a problem, they just aren’t reporting it. In fact those zany pirates are still hijacking ships, and world leaders are still saying we can’t arm the crews of these ships. Well that didn’t stop 40 Egyptian fishermen from arming themselves and fucking some pirates up.

Although guns are always preferable they aren’t the only weapons that can be used as the story states:

A wounded pirate, found on a beach with machete wounds, said the crew attacked him and his colleagues with tools and then seized their weapons.

Machete wounds, ouch. Those Egyptians must have been hard core to be carrying machetes on board, good on them. But see how armed resistance works? You beat up or kill the people meaning to bring harm to you (If an armed force is invading your home, or in this case ship, you can safely assume they mean to do you harm) then you take their weapons if they are better then what you have. I love this part:

He said that at least two pirates died before the crew sailed towards waters patrolled by international navies.

That’s two pirates that won’t be harming anybody else in the future. If all the ships going into that area were armed properly I think we’d see a huge decline in piracy in the region. The pirates currently understand that most of the ships are unarmed and hence hijacking them is fairly low risk and easy. Since there is such a chance to make major money for little risk they keep pirating. Increase the risk and it doesn’t seem as profitable.

Multi-Layer Security

Bruce Schneier has an excellent essay posted on his blog. It deals with a security mechanism we are all familiar with, physical locks. It’s no secret physical locks can be bypassed via lock picks, bump keys, and random everyday objects. Few people realize though how insecure the lock on their front door is. On top of that most physical locks require a key, which many people find inconvenient.

Lock companies have been trying to solve both of these problems through more secure locking mechanisms and keyless entry methods. Of course as with any security related items these new methods are introducing new ways of exploiting physical locks. I don’t think there will ever be a secure lock, there will always be methods of bypass. But locks are important because they add another layer of security.

Having one layer of security is never a good idea since an exploit in that layer will leave everything behind it vulnerable. Case in point if somebody picks your lock they are through the front door. If you have no other security layer everything in your home is fair game. Now let’s add a large guard dog to the mix. Once the criminal bypasses the lock they will have to deal with the dog. This can be accomplished by simply killing the thing but if you are in the house and you hear the dog bark that gives you a few seconds to prepare. That would imply a third layer, you. Hopefully that third layer has a gun to add another layer between you and the criminal.

Security can only be properly done in layers, and each layer should complement another. No layer should be exploitable via another layer. In other words using our example bypassing the front door lock won’t affect the dog. Bypassing the dog won’t affect you and your gun. Meanwhile as mentioned in the link Schlage are introducing Internet enabled locks. This ties your physical security to the security of your computer. Should somebody exploit your security layers on your computer they also exploit one layer of your physical security. This should never be the case.

When planning a home defense strategy make sure you have multiple layers. Even seemingly unimportant things will require time on the criminal’s behalf. The more time the criminal wastes the more time you have to properly respond and prepare. Sure having two locks on your font door (always ensure one is a good dead bolt) may seem like a meaningless idea since it only prolongs the criminal’s entry it does prolong it. Those few additional seconds could buy you enough time to round your family up in a secure room with only one entrance that can be covered with a shotgun.