situational awareness – Page 9

Don’t Be a Victim of Crime: Learn How to Refuse To Be A Victim^®

The national award-winning personal safety program, Refuse To Be A Victim^®, developed by the National Rifle Association (NRA), presents practical, easy-to-understand preventative strategies you can use to avoid situations where self-defense may be required.

Experts agree the single most important step you can take to ensure your personal safety is to make the decision to refuse to be a victim.

This 4-hour (or less) classroom instruction seminar focuses on teaching you proactive courses of action, rather than reactive. By making yourself a more difficult target to prey upon, you lessen your risk of a criminal attack. That means having a personal safety strategy in place before you need it.

Basic Principles of Crime Prevention:

Always Be Aware of Your Surroundings

Trust Your Instincts

Always Have a Personal Safety Strategy in Place

Take a Refuse To Be A Victim Seminar

[ Read the SemperVerus article, Situational Awareness: 14 Ways to Walk Like You Drive ]

Firearm training is not part of the Refuse To Be A Victim curriculum. The NRA has other courses that focus on firearm training and can be taken separately. Instruction in physical combat is also not part of the curriculum.

The seminar teaches lessons about common weaknesses that criminals may take advantage of, and presents a variety of corrective measures that are practical, inexpensive, and easy to follow.

The Refuse To Be A Victim seminar covers topics that pertain to everyone; it’s appropriate for young adults to senior citizens. The program materials also include a special module for parents, which discusses safety tips for children ages pre-school to high school.

TOPICS COVERED IN THE SEMINAR:

Interview with Keith Graves of Christian Warrior Training

If you’d like to be interviewed to share best practices of your own church security/safety team, contact SemperVerus by emailing staytrue@semperverus.com.

SemperVerus interviewed Keith Graves, founder and trainer of Christian Warrior Training, which empowers churches with the knowledge and tools they need to create a safe and secure environment for their members.

[ Read the SemperVerus article, A Prayer for Church Security Team Members ]

Why have you focused your tactical attention on providing your professional expertise for church security teams?
Churches are often seen as safe havens, but they are not immune to violence or threats. As a retired police sergeant and a believer, I’ve witnessed the rise in targeted attacks on places of worship. I focus on church security because it aligns with the biblical call to protect the flock (Acts 20:28). A well-trained security team ensures that worshippers can gather safely and focus on their relationship with Christ, knowing that someone is standing guard.

Spiritual Fitness Self-Defense: Seeing Temptation as a Threat

The 2nd element of the five SemperVerus components, and the resulting 6th element—from the sum total of the previous five elements—are AWARE and SELF-DEFENSE respectively.

Being AWARE means heightening your daily attentiveness to be alert to—and anticipate—dangerous potentialities and temptations, as well as edifying opportunities.

Practicing SELF-DEFENSE is the strategic, tactical, and intelligent ability to responsibly protect yourself from menacing spiritual and physical threats.

Notice the inclusion of the spiritual aspect that is often overlooked when considering awareness and self-defense.

[ Read the SemperVerus article, Situational Awareness: Spiritual Self-Defense ]

We must not prepare ourselves merely for physical dangers, but also for situations that endanger our moral standing and the strength of our soul; that lead us away from uprightness and down into dishonor. Those situations begin, perhaps innocently enough, with temptation.

Situational Awareness Building Exercises

Photo credit: Unsplash Whether being ready to protect yourself or your loved ones every day, or volunteering on your church security team, developing keen situational awareness should be priority #1. Think of being situationally aware not as being paranoid, but as being aware-anoid!

[ Read SemperVerus articles on the topic of SITUATIONAL AWARENESS ]

In fact, “THE Primary Factor in self-protection/self-defense is situational awareness,” says Mark Hatmaker in his article, Warrior Awareness Drills.

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

One way to sharpen your situational awareness into a consistent ironclad habit is to consciously and intentionally routinize it everywhere you go, wherever you are, all the time; turn it into a moment-by-moment personal sport.

[ Read the SemperVerus article, Live Life Left of Bang ]

Hatmaker says, “A useful practice to return awareness/alertness to the fore is to gamify your awareness, that is, to use a series of specific awareness/alertness drills on a revolving basis that allow you to keep your mind a bit above the day-to-day routine while also making a bit of a game out of what may save your life.”

[ Read the SemperVerus article, Self-Defense and Church Security: Make Scanning Your Priority ]

In his article, he offers three drills to improve your “eyesight:”