In light of recent events, I want to talk about the recent wave of terrorism in the world today.
I have eight years of experience in uniformed security including seven years in retail security and one year in hospital security at a facility that employed 1,400+ individuals. I also have two degrees in criminal justice and a certificate in homeland security that give me a unique insight into these terror events.
I will be sharing some advice regarding how you can protect yourself from these attacks from the perspective of a security professional and someone who has studied terrorism in detail.
The recent attacks in Orlando and Istanbul demonstrate the need for us to exercise extreme vigilance and also the need to be prepared to defend ourselves at all times. After reading and analyzing the facts from the recent attacks, it is quite obvious that the attackers motivations lay with radical Islam.
From my experience in the security field, most facilities do not have the means to protect you, they alert police for that. When seconds count, police are minutes away.
Places have security to deter people from stealing and for recovering and protecting their property. They also deal with unruly people who cause disturbances.
You are responsible for your own safety. We all need to provide ourselves with the means to defend ourselves whenever we leave home from terrorist attacks and everyday threats.
The most important thing to remember is that training is 50 times more important than spending an exorbitant sum of money on firearms or other defensive means. Situational awareness is key in being able to avoid an attack altogether.
I personally own four firearms and have taken training classes that enhance my defensive capabilities with each and everyone of them.
In my experience, most security forces are poorly trained. At my hospital, we carried the Taser X2 and only trained with it once a year. Our proficiency was not good and in our 4 hour training refresher, we only fired two cartridges. This was done in a classroom environment with paper targets and was not conducted under stress.
This highlights the need for enhanced citizen training so that enough people can take action and save lives in target rich environments like hospitals and malls.
There are many facilities in this country that will sell you a firearm and not care if you are trained properly or at all. Training is far more important than the type of firearm you purchase and needs to be conducted on a regular basis to maintain proficiency.
This brings me back to the terrorist threat at hand in the world today. Most terrorists are not extremely well trained, but have conducted enough training to be proficient with the means that they will use to carry out their attack. Their attacks are often well planned out in advance, including conducting a scouting of the venue.
This highlights the need for enhanced situational awareness in your everyday routine and knowing how to get yourself out of any potential high threat situation.
If you carry a firearm, do so everywhere law allows and remember to conceal it so as to make yourself less of a target. A terrorist will immediately single you out if you are open carrying and most of the time will get the drop on you if you are not vigilant.
Remember to train hard and often and always maintain vigilance when you are outside of your home. These are high threat times and you can never know when or where the next attack will occur. I hope everyone learns from my advice today, and as always, stay safe.