Including ...Avoiding Attacks While Driving • President’s Message • Attorney Question • Book Review • Editor's Notebook • About this Journal
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Avoiding Attacks While Driving
An Interview with Marcus Wynne
Interview by Gila Hayes
Defunding police and refusal to prosecute has removed impediments to crimes like carjacking. A common concern expressed by members is what to do if targeted for crime when driving to work, to medical appointments or the grocery store. That’s why I recently read and reread a blog post showing an extraordinary video of a South African armed guard in an armored vehicle defending against mobile attackers with decisiveness, aggression and driving skill. The blog, which I read regularly, is written by neuroscience and training researcher Marcus Wynne, who several months earlier also caught my attention with a great post about key skills he had distilled into hands-on training for an associate’s wife and daughter living in a large city where carjacking has become common.
Both posts provided a valuable distillation of real defensive driving skills for dangerous environments, so I gathered up my courage and asked Wynne if he would talk with us about detecting threats while driving, learning high threat driving skills (this part of our discussion may surprise you), and honing alertness to recognize danger far enough ahead to avoid it. His résumé is extensive and readers can check it out at https://marcuswynne.com/consultant/ . I started my chat with Wynne by asking about experience that prepared him to deter threats while in a vehicle.
Wynne: My experience relevant to a discussion of protection driving starts with military service in South Korea. I’d been levied from the 82nd Airborne and was invited to volunteer for a unit that provided close protection for diplomats and general officers in the Korean Demilitarized Zone. I protected field grade officers and diplomats from the multi-national United Nations Command, Military Armistice Commission from a variety of threats which included assassination, bombings and kidnapping.
President’s Message
Making the Decision to Fund Defense of an Act of Self Defense
by Marty Hayes, J.D.
Occasionally we receive a question from a member or prospective member regarding what parameters we use to provide funds for legal representation after an act of self defense. Typically, we have answered the question directly, but I figured it was time to make a separate feature article about the issue, so we can simply send people the link and they can read and understand why we require information establishing your use of force was a legitimate act of self defense.
The question often comes up when prospective members are comparing our assistance to others in the industry. I think one reason we receive these questions is that we have always, up-front explained this part of our membership agreement to our prospective members, while other companies do not.
Attorney Question of the Month
After reading our May interview with Attorney Jim Fleming, members have been asking questions about stand your ground and duty to retreat laws in their own states. As a result, we reached out to our affiliated attorneys seeking their thoughts on their state’s stand your ground or duty to retreat statutes and case law. We asked--
Do your state’s laws give immunity from prosecution and/or lawsuit if one’s actions are found to have been reasonable and necessary by reason of self defense? What is the court process to access those protections?
If your state does not have a stand your ground law, what can the citizen who uses force in self defense do to avoid prosecution, or avoid conviction, or a lawsuit seeking damages?
Book Review
Concepts of Nonlethal Force
Understanding Force from Shouting to Shooting
By Charles “Sid” Heal
Lantern Publishing & Media
https://lanternpm.org/shop/concepts-of-nonlethal-force-understanding-force-from-shouting-to-shooting-by-charles-sid-heal/
October 2020, Kindle Edition
Reviewed by Gila Hayes
Early last month, a Portland, OR man was hospitalized after an Antifa mob beat him severely. I was disturbed when a news report noted that he got out of his vehicle and threatened the armed mob with a pepper ball device, despite legally having two firearms in his vehicle. The guns were subsequently stolen by the mob. The report brought home to me how many force options are available.
Editor's Notebook
Summer of Hate
by Gila Hayes
The riots are only going to become more sizable and frequent as weather warms. Greg Ellifritz at Active Response Training gives frank words of advice and wisdom in his article at https://activeresponsetraining.net/a-car-gun-for-riot-defense . He notes, “I think our problem as a species is that our monkey minds tell us to ‘do something’ in the face of a perceived future threat. Until we ‘do something’ we have mental unease. The ‘doing’ we actually need involves staying away from riots and protests. It involves quiet discussions with folks in and outside your social circle who want to make the world a better place. The answer isn’t showing up at the protest with a pistol-gripped shotgun,” he writes. As you prepare for the increased violence this summer, please read Greg’s experience-informed advice. In addition to Michael Bane’s explanation of the current situation at https://www.michaelbane.tv/the-very-real-danger-of-politically-sanctioned-violence/49985/ I think that, while you may not like their conclusions, their summations will inform your decision-making this summer, and very possibly keep you alive.
About this Journal
The eJournal of the Armed Citizens’ Legal Defense Network, Inc. is published monthly on the Network’s website at http://armedcitizensnetwork.org/our-journal. Content is copyrighted by the Armed Citizens’ Legal Defense Network, Inc.
Do not mistake information presented in this online publication for legal advice; it is not. The Network strives to assure that information published in this journal is both accurate and useful. Reader, it is your responsibility to consult your own attorney to receive professional assurance that this information and your interpretation or understanding of it is accurate, complete and appropriate with respect to your particular situation.
In addition, material presented in our opinion columns is entirely the opinion of the bylined author, and is intended to provoke thought and discussion among readers.