situational awareness – Page 12

Video: How to Manage a Stranger’s Approach and Maintain Self-Defense

You’re walking from your car in a parking lot or standing on a downtown sidewalk and you observe a stranger coming your way who appears determined to talk with you. Not knowing if his intentions are malicious or innocent, what should you do to protect yourself as he closes distance with you? Is he preparing to spring an attack on you? Does he have an accomplice coming up behind you?

[ Read the SemperVerus article, Why 21 Feet Is Not a ‘Safe’ Distance ]

In the TriggerTimeTV.com video below, self-defense trainer Craig Douglas of Shivworks offers a combination of three techniques to always use to properly and safely “manage unknown contacts” who encroach into your personal space when in public.

[ Read the SemperVerus article, A Simple Chart for Situational Awareness ]

The three skills encompass what, how, and where:

Components of a Strong Mindset for the Legally Armed Citizen

The website ConcealedCarry.com is a rich resource of information that helps guide legally armed people in the responsible practice of carrying concealed a defensive firearm.

One example is the article, Developing and Understanding A Strong Defensive Mindset, by Jacob Paulsen, president of ConcealedCarry.com, and its accompanying “mindset” chart.

[ Read the SemperVerus article, How Does Your Character Measure Up? ]

Mindset is defined as the established set of attitudes each of us hold; the general frame of reference through which we observe life, interpret it, and make trivial and serious decisions in response to what we encounter every day.

Click the chart to enlarge it, scan the key points of it below, read the entire article at ConcealedCarry.com, and be sure to read the SemperVerus articles below.

Lessons in Situational Awareness from Columbo

Columbo was an American crime drama television series starring Peter Falk as Lieutenant Columbo, a homicide detective with the Los Angeles Police Department. The show aired on NBC from 1971 to 1978 and on ABC from 1989 to 2003.

[ Read SemperVerus articles on the subject of Situational Awareness ]

In the series, Columbo is a seemingly every-day homicide detective who wears a rumpled beige raincoat and projects a casual, polite, warm, charming, respectful, humble, deferential, patient, soft-spoken, and unassuming demeanor, all of which are a disguise for extremely shrewd and intelligent situational awareness. He often leaves a room only to return with the catchphrase, “Just one more thing” to ask a critical question.

[ Read the SemperVerus article, Gentle Response De-Escalation Training for Church Security Teams ]

Along with another keenly observant detective—Sherlock Holmes—Columbo embodies an innate, probing, and continuous curiosity about his surroundings. He is an excellent model for us to emulate in how to be unceasingly alert when we are in public.

Why 21 Feet Is Not a ‘Safe’ Distance

An article published on Police1.com reports research that confirms 21 feet is not necessarily the magic distance to successfully ward off every deadly threat and that more distance could be more apparently required. While this article contains useful information, it unfortunately includes mischaracterizations that need clarification.

First, it erroneously begins: The 21-foot rule has been a topic of conversation in law enforcement since the 1980s when Salt Lake City Police Department Lieutenant Dennis Tueller developed a training drill for his fellow officers. But it is NOT a “rule” and should never be considered a “rule.” It is a training drill intended to be used as a general standard in practice to hone defensive skills.

Second, it states: In this drill, an officer played the role of a suspect with an edged weapon who would charge another officer who was standing about 21 feet away with a holstered weapon. Properly understood, The Tueller Drill does NOT restrict the threat to only an edged weapon.

Appearing in the March 1983 issue of SWAT magazine, How Close Is Too Close? by Dennis Tueller is the original article credited with first establishing the importance of maintaining a “reactionary gap” in defensive force incidents. It begins with the very clear threat scenario description: The “good guy” with the gun against the “bad guy” with the knife (or machete, axe, club, tire-iron, etc.). You’ll notice police trainer Lt. Tueller did NOT limit the threat to only knives or other edged weapons; he included ANY striking weapon (“club, tire-iron, etc.”) used in a person’s hand that is capable of causing death or great bodily harm. The original article illustration itself shows the threat using a club, not a knife.

By semperverus
Posted on 04/15/202305/27/2025
2 Comments on Why 21 Feet Is Not a ‘Safe’ Distance