Desensitized to Danger?

In this society, there tends to be a misguided general feeling of safety, especially for those of us living in relatively peaceful suburbia.

It's imperative to always be prepared for danger. When someone opens the gate between my house and my neighbor's, I always check to see who it is. If someone is driving around looking at houses or acting suspiciously, I usually observe them.

I plan on eventually getting a guard dog and perhaps an alarm to supplement my firearms.

I do have trust issues and can be paranoid but that is a good thing (and it suits me well since I plan on becoming a LEO). Situational awareness means survival.
 
I try to use the four tier system.

Condition
White - Oblivious to what is going on around you.
Yellow - Just trying to observe your surroundings and see what is happening.
Orange - You observe something or someone that makes you suspicious and act approriately.
Red - You have detected a definite danger and take approiate action

I don't go around constantly in Condition Red or even Orange. However I try as much as possible to stay in Yellow. I know that I don't always make it. For instance when in bed asleep I am in as Condition White as you can get. And right now as I type this in my house with the doors locked and lights on in the back and front and my .38 in my pocket and a 9 mm and a .45 strategically placed around the house, I am in White. However about a half hour ago when the pizza man made his delivery, I went to yellow when I opened the door (checked through the peephole first).

And there are times when I lapse into White when I should stay in Yellow. Because we can not always be in Yellow, let alone Red or Orange.
 
Her dad was one of those guys that was not going to be surprised and often took to roaming the house with his gun ... just to protect the family mind you.

As it turned out that night, dad must have heard a noise and when he saw a shadow-figure he fired. His daughter died in his arms. When I think of this event, I always wonder what goes through his mind on her birthday.
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This has nothing to do with her father "roaming the house with his gun" and everything to do with him shooting at an unidentified target.

It's extremely important to identify a target before firing at it. It's true that those who refuse to learn this lesson are better off without a firearm, but it's backwards to imply that the problem could be solved by not immediately arming one's self in response to a potential housebreaker.

If a person is going to have firearms for self-defense he must learn to use them safely. If he can't or won't learn to use them safely then the solution isn't to access the gun more slowly, the solution is to not have firearms at all.

Your post is tantamount to recounting a situation where a child was killed as a result of a person driving 100mph on a residential street and then implying that the problem was that the person driving should have left his car at home and walked that day. The problem isn't that the person was driving at the time, it's that the person was using the car in an extremely unsafe manner.

Similarly the problem wasn't that the father in your story had a firearm on him during the incident or that he accessed it too readily, it was that he used his firearm in an extremely unsafe manner.
 
The thing I catch myself doing all too often is opening the door when the bell rings. Even for someone I know to come to the house without letting me know they are on the way is considerably rude and nobody I know personally will do it.

And yet, I still answer the door when the bell rings. Nine times out of ten, it's a kid selling candy or candles but it's thoughtless and potentially dangerous.

Some home invasions are planned just that way. You open the front door and the guy's partner breaks in the back door.

Nowadays, my wife covers the back door if I'm approaching the front door.

But all that aside, I really believe I need to just stop answering the dang door when the bell rings.

And my wife keeps harping to get a dog. All y'all nearly have me convinced.

--Wag--
 
And my wife keeps harping to get a dog. All y'all nearly have me convinced.
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Great idea.

A good guard dog can act as both an alarm and as an extra layer of protection.

Thinking about getting myself a Rottweiler once I get financially settled.
 
The thing I catch myself doing all too often is opening the door when the bell rings.
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I never just open the door when the bell rings. I have a peephole in the main door, a storm door with a deadbolt lock in it, and an outdoor light right beside the door. I keep both doors locked and the outdoor light on at night. If the bell rings I first check through the peephole. If nothing seems amiss I will put my hand in my pocket with the .38 and partially draw it. I will then open the main door but the storm door stays locked until I decide what action to take next. If it is an unexpected visitor that I don't know, they are not likely to get in.

During the day while I am at work, my wife follows a similar procedure. If the bell rings, she will check through the peephole. Unless she is satisfied with what she sees, she will not even open the main door. When she does open the main door, the storm door stays locked until she decides to let whoever is there in. Often when she does open the main door, she will just talk through the locked storm door.
 
Judging from what I have heard, read and experienced, it is possible to be desensitized to danger, though not in the sense that most people here have taken it to be. I think most of the posters here have been referring to thinking they are in little or no danger, not exactly the same as desensitized to danger.

Many people work in dangerous jobs, such as mining, in where there is a real possibility of serious injury or death. Other such jobs include logging, some kinds of factory work, and some varieties of construction work. In one sense, people in those lines of work become desensitized to the dangers around them, which is not to say they necessarily become careless or that they ignore common sense safety rules. It's only that were safety the overriding issue, they would probably choose another line of work, if it were possible. At the same time, often these people take pride in having a dangerous job. Anything else is woman's work.

In the military, a similiar thing happens. While they (soldiers) are constantly being reminded of the dangers of their current occupation, at least while they are on active service, the become ineffective if they are overly concerned about it. Under the worst conditions, it is said people become fatalistic.

Probably these things have little bearing on ordinary people living in ordinary neighborhoods, yet serious accidents happen in the home all the time. What do people do who live in really dangerous places where war or rebellion is going on? I somehow imagine that wearing a gun around the house is uncommon even in those places. Why not? Because it loses the edge. True, in places like Kenya when the MauMau "problem" was going on, people might watch television with a revolver at hand. Is there a MauMau problem where you live?

Realistically, you are going to repond to what is happening in your neck of the woods, if anything, which is another way of saying that you have your own ideas of dangers and will act in a way that suits yourself.
 
The dog barking can easily fall into the same category as the annoying car alarm that we all dismiss. As many mentioned already, dogs typically don't get up and starting barking.


Listen to your best friend... their only looking out for ya.
 
The cowboy way

It was once said that a pistol allows a cowboy to fight his way to a rifle. My german shepherd dog lets me fight my way to my pistol, which leads to my rifle.

I have never not had a dog. When he barks, I listen. He knows a lot more about what's going on outside the house than I do.
 
Downtown...

Living downtown in a "Blood" sales area where we have drug related shootings every other day or two on average has taught me to be aware....keenly aware. Chihuahua inside is a hair trigger alarm to all noise and the 145 pound Yugoslavian bloodline Rotty outside is both alarm and prevention. 6 foot fence and barbed wire top werent enough.

Inside, my wife and I are both armed and have various door guns. SKS at the front reinforced steel door. Mossberg scattergun at our bedroom door for her, and my Para LDA .45 at the bedside.

Overkill? not hardly...
and yes the dogs are more effective than the 7,000.00 alarm system even if the Rotty does alert to the occasional passing cat.
Main street is reinventing itself as investments return to the inner city... as we have done.
I love downtown for the energy and convenience.
Vigilence is the price for our safety until the neighborhood wildlife is relocated or gets killed out.
Either way...
 
Desensitization: Training Downfall or Useful Tool?

Benvolio:
Romeo, away be gone!
The citizens are up, and Tybalt slain.
Stand not amazed: the prince will doom thee death,
If thou art taken: hence, be gone, away!
...
Why dost thou stay?

He stays because he's never seen such death or used his tool to it's intended aim. Thus, he stands amazed at what he's done.
___________________________________________________________

Here we are currently regarding Desensitization and it's downfall for training; but in quite another light, I can see desensitization as being a great asset to tactical training.

In the Superbowl, if you're down 5 points and you've only got time for a Hail-Mary pass, who are you going to throw it to? Your hot-shot rookie who's already made 7 catches? Or your seasoned veteran who can outrun his double coverage? You've got to go with experience. Because you know that he's been there before with the pressure on enough to not get caught up in what's at stake, who's watching him, how many people are in the stands, or what winning the game might mean for his career. No. All your veteran is thinking about is his route, and when to turn and look for the ball. It's the same in self defense. Someone who's been a stranger to violence has a much higher likelihood of having their mind staggered by fear, options, defense laws, whether or not to draw/shoot, among the internal echo of "OHMYGODOHMYGODOHMYGOD". Conversely, someone who is desensitized to such a situation will be thinking of nothing more than what he/she's got to do, and how to get it done most efficiently.

"Blessed is he who, when faced with danger, thinks only of the front sight." ~Colonel Cooper RIP

When you are in a situation in which you've got to draw your firearm and fire (being robbed at knife/gunpoint, being randomly attacked, being assaulted, defense of another, etc...) standing amazed at either what you've done, or at the situation unfolding is something you can ill afford. I think a desensitization of situational violence/combat/weapons(friend or foe)/and training in FoF serve instead as a great aid in keeping focused and allowing you to engage your threat without distraction.

This thread bears what I call the "Cry Wolf" syndrome. If your dog's bark is your first line of defense (Alert) and he tends to bark at everything, then you're simply going to stop paying attention to his alert. Thus, when there is a real threat, you will have ignored your first defense.

Personally, as my dog barks at quite a few things, I've made it habit to go and check every time he lets loose. I'll go to him, make him sit, then step in front of him and check things out. Then I'll praise him. This happens probably 10 times a day. Honestly, I'm desensitized to it. Not to his bark, but to my reaction to it. It's habit. He goes nuts, I go check it out. And he stops. He knows his job, and he does it well. And when he sees me check something out and then go about my business, he honestly stops noticing it eventually.

I'll stop my multi-frontal rant here by just stating that I believe that Desensitization to situational violence, the tools used therein, and the physical and mental results of such violence can be and are an invaluable defense tool in one's training arsenal.

But that it simply my opinion. Anyone else?

~LT
 
If my dogs bark at night, I listen to them, they dont bark just to bark. Hunting dogs keep quite for the most part, dogs can be trained easily to not bark unless someone or something is there.

The motion sensor floods are second level, they go off something is there. Usually a deer :) but one time, dogs went off, I open deck door and shine a lite, 2 guys run off leaving me with a brand new 5 gallon gas can and some rubber hose :) I then put up the motion sensors.

Country living is keeping vigilant, thieves come out and steal the stuff we use around the place. Lawn tractors, tillers mowers etc. So we are always on our toes so to speak. Thieves will come and strip off wire for the copper. I see a city lost its Christmas tree due to this reason.

A good dog can be the best first alarm you have. I also like geese, they will go off and attack :)
 
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