Reddit reviews Facing Violence: Preparing for the Unexpected

OK, this thread is desperately in need of some facts with regard to self-defense, so let's start there.

• First off, self-defense law varies quite a bit by location. In any state, you have the right to defend yourself with violence if you can prove that you were threatened and that you had no other option (including retreat).
  
  
• In about half of US states, you can defend yourself if you're threatened in your own home, even if retreat was an option and you didn't take it. This is often referred to as a "castle law", i.e. "a man's house is his castle and he has the right to defend it."
  
  
• In a few states, including Florida, there is a "stand your ground" law that allows you to defend yourself without the obligation to retreat (if retreat is possible) even when you're not in your own home.
  
  So from that perspective it might seem that Zimmerman's claim of self-defense is legit. However, there are a few other important factors of self-defense that are relevant here.
  
  The first is the concept of proportional response. You are legally permitted to use the minimum amount of force possible to remove the threat, and nothing more. Based on what I've read of the police evidence, Zimmerman was clearly under physical assault and had been knocked over, but he wasn't seriously injured, so arguing that he had to use lethal force to subdue the threat could be a tough sell.
  
  The second is the concept of immediate threat. Generally, you are only permitted to act violently in self-defense if you can demonstrate there was a legitimate threat of immediate harm to your person. We really don't know what happened between the two men (since one of them is dead and witness testimony is notoriously unreliable), but Zimmerman's lawyers may have a tough time arguing there was an immediate threat because IF Zimmerman knowingly inserted himself into the threatening situation.
  
  It's hard to say anything for sure, however, because this case illustrates one of the main problems with "stand your ground" laws: generally speaking, there are two sides to any story but in stand your ground self-defense cases, one side is often dead, leaving us to judge the situation based only on one side of the story (biased), whatever witness testimony there might be (usually unreliable), and whatever forensic or physical evidence there is (often not enough to be sure of anything).
  
  But, to answer your actual questions:
  
  >For his self defense plea to hold up in my opinion, the most important question is then why didnt he remove himself?
  
  Because the case occurred in Florida, he was not legally obligated to remove himself. We can of course debate his moral obligations, or even whether Florida's law is a good idea in the first place, but according to the laws on the books at the time, the taking the available option to retreat was not a necessary condition for self-defense in Florida.
  
  That does not mean, however, that what Zimmerman did was self-defense. His biggest hurdle will likely be demonstrating that he couldn't have removed the threat while using a lesser amount of force.
  
  TL;DR Martial artist? Interested in self-defense? Own a firearm? Fucking read this book immediately. Seriously.

Sigh.

I've got to do it again: check out Rory Miller's book "Facing Violence:Preparing For The Unexpected", in which he talks about this very thing, among others. Seriously; he's thorough, clear, easily readable, very experienced and knowledgeable, and if you haven't read it, I suspect it will seriously alter your approach to martial arts.

Here's a few links:

http://21dragons.com/blog/2011/facing-violence-by-rory-miller

http://www.amazon.com/Facing-Violence-Unexpected-Rory-Miller/dp/1594392137

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9904173-facing-violence

Honestly, I'd love to offer some insight - but anything I'm likely to say, Miller has said already, and more effectively.

Read Facing Violence.

anonlymouse said it perfectly:
>You're asking the wrong question, you just don't understand that.

Be you martial Artist or not, the reality of self-defense is often not even close to what we imagine it to be.

Read the book. It's a must-read for anyone who is serious about self-defense.

Alternatively, you can just learn to rip peoples eyes out with your fingers. To practice: Scatter 108 pennies on the ground. Pick them up as fast as you can using your thumb, index and middle finger. Perform 2 sets of this exercise on a daily basis.

In no particular order:

The Gift of Fear

Meditations on Violence

Facing Violence

Verbal Judo

Surviving Armed Assaults

On Combat

The Little Black Book of Violence

Street E & E

I could probably come up with 10 more if I looked through my library.

Whichever system you decide on, the tactics in these books will be important. Reading them before choosing a school will help you know what to look for. Sadly, some self-defense school will teach things that are either not practical, or will have devastating legal consequences for you (like how to take a knife away from someone, then use it on them).

Probably a good read if you want to understand this stuff a little better

Plus what the other guy said too.

It's not that this question is asked a lot, it's that you literally asked the equivalent of "Teach me programming." That's a big field. No one could possibly rip off a forum post and tell you.

Here's what you should do instead. Pick up Facing Violence by Rory Miller, or any of his books, really.

Also, if you are actively looking for street fights, stop doing that.

I give my students a required reading assignment of Facing Violence by Rory Miller. It's pretty short and has pragmatic advice for any skill level in identifying, avoiding, and facing violence. It drastically changed how I approach the subject as a martial artist as well as an instructor. It has less to do with the specific art you teach and much more to do with stress testing your students to see where their glitches are (freezing, hesitating, panic weakness, being polite, etc) and drilling them consistently in quick, reaction level movements focused less on what dogma the art proscribes and more on what's physically comfortable and effective for that specific student.

Mac has a lot of good shit, but I think every young guy needs to start with Facing Violence: Preparing for the Unexpected i.e why it's not worth getting your jaw wired shut.

You might read something like Rory Miller's Meditations on Violence or Facing Violence: Preparing for the Unexpected. They cover a lot of the same material, with Meditations being more of an essay about the nature of violence and Facing Violence providing more of an organized breakdown of each phase in a potential violent conflict. He talks a lot about different types of violence, how to identify them, and the facets and ramifications of violent encounters.

I think they are excellent reads for anyone thinking about self-defense issues. Reading them could be thought-provoking and make you reconsider or more confident in your existing decision.

Usually dreams like that are about some sense of helplessness in your life. At earlier ages, they're the dreams about going to school totally naked. Or it is finals week and you have to go to a final for a course you forgot to go to all semester long. Or you get to that final and the exam is written in a language you don't understand.

When I was younger (and in high school), we lived in Ireland back when the IRA was actually doing home invasion murder/kidnapping, so this was something our family's friends actually had to plan and prepare for. Some of them worked for the British Embassy, so their homes were fortified. Each home had a bulletproof "safe room" (substantially similar to FEMA's tornado shelters except these were lockable from the inside) where the family could retreat into and lock until the police (actually the "special branch" at that time since the regular police force was not and still is not armed with firearms) could arrive. Other friends of my parents had fled Rhodesia (now called Zimbabwe) during that civil war and others fled Apartheid South Africa. Both countries had armed guerrillas and death squads, which we don't have in the US yet.

In any case, I strongly recommend reading the book The Gift of Fear (wikipedia summary). Many times your intuition (or gut feeling) is picking up signals that you are uncomfortable with. Or that you can't express verbally. And those dreams might just be warning signals that you're ignoring. Or they might just be you showing up to the final exam naked and unprepared (because you left your #2 pencil in your pants, wherever they are).

Other books that may help you to start to understand how violence my happen and what you can do to protect yourself (mostly it is never getting into such a situation, but sometime you can defuse it verbally) are Facing Violence (this book is focused on the onset of violence and dealing with the first few seconds) and Scaling Force: Dynamic Decision Making Under Threat of Violence (this book does show how voice and "presence" can prevent an ugly situation from escalating into violence). I recommend reading them before you sign up for self defense classes.

I recommend everyone read Facing Violence. It goes into the legal, physical, and psychological affects of using force (among many other things, including recognizing and avoiding those situations).

One thing he goes into is training yourself to break out of the freeze as quickly as you can. (He also goes into detail about why this is a natural, subconscious reaction and nothing to be ashamed of.)

Not a problem, research the laws in that area. I liked the idea of the firearm shaped one due to the fact that if there are multiple attackers and they are advancing and she pulls it out to neutralize one of threats the rest might just see the general shape and go into panic mode and scatter. And by the time they realize it's just a taser she would hopefully have had enough time and distance to get away.


Just remember if you're pulling out defensive weapon be ready to use it. Don't pull something out to "scare off" a threat. Otherwise there's good potential you yourself could get an assault charge against you (bullshit I know). But if you're in genuine fear for your life that's when you're justified. Any questions in regards to this and your states laws of self defense I recommend talking with your local police department. They are more than happy to inform the general public.

I also recommend this book I have been a self defense instructor for the last 4 years and it's one of required reading materials we have our student read before they can test for their next level.

http://www.amazon.com/Facing-Violence-Unexpected-Rory-Miller/dp/1594392137/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1341408013&sr=1-1&keywords=facing+violence

People, if you would just read this book you wouldn't have to fill this subreddit (weekly) with the same question and a bunch of almost-got-it answers.

Its $12. Read it and I promise you will have the answers to these questions and the mindset to prepare you for these things (as well as a new approach to training which should maximize your results).

:)

They vary greatly from country to country, and quite widely from state to state.

The usual concept in the US is the following:

"You may use the minimum level of force that you reasonably believe is necessary to safely resolve the situation."

(Stolen from Rory Miller's book Facing Violence).

Actually, I just checked amazon, and the first few pages which have a great (if very brief) introduction into this concept are available in the preview... So here you go: http://imgur.com/a/iRRIk

Seriously though, buy this book if you want to know. It's a great book.

http://www.amazon.com/Facing-Violence-Unexpected-Rory-Miller/dp/1594392137/

This is probably the best book I've read on the general subject, at least in terms of shaping my mindset:Facing Violence: Preparing for the Unexpected