Manchester Bombing - Teach your children

Not wanting to seem like we are capitalizing on incidents, this post is being written purposely later then others which have been posted here after an event has taken place. Of course other incidents have taken place since this one..... I do not think we will be delaying posting in the future. I really did not want to seem like the posts were taking advantage of situations.............

Completely trying to stay out of the politics........... Children, unarmed children, who pose no threat to you, are not legitimate targets no matter your cause....... Period, end of discussion.

Given the current attacks we need to cover something which came up while reading reports about the attack. Children did not know what to do. They had no idea what to do when things went south. Granted children should not have a complete skill set for dealing with bad days. They are children and should not have to deal with this S*&^, but they do have to deal with it. Even if dealing with it is just hearing about it on the internet or listening to adults talk. They have to process the information and deal with it using the tools they have been given. As adults we should be trying to prepare our children by giving them tools they can use when, god forbid, they have to deal with a situation.

WHY? 

Because they might not always run into someone willing to help them as this lady did for a group of kids.

http://news.grejeen.com/uk/2017/05/23/manchester-attack-angel-of-manchester-praised-for-leading-children-to-safety-following-bombing/

Wanna bet your kids safety on some complete stranger coming to their aid? Because.....

"People are 'good' and would not leave children to fend for themselves." 

REALLY? How many other adults left children not of their own to fend for themselves in the middle of this situation......

First, have a talk with your kids. Let them know if they are ever lost, not sure where to go or do not know where you went, to find a police officer and ask them for help. This is not just for a terrorist attack. This covers normal days at the mall or a trip to the beach.

(just seen this skill in action today at a fair. little girl was separated from her family, asked for help when she realized she was alone. she was brought on stage, an announcement was made and her father was found less than 100 yards away)

Even if they are older kids, teenagers, have a talk with them and put these idea in their heads. Under stress they will remember what you told them. Even if your "terrible teen" doesn't remember odds are someone in the group will remember this.

This would be another tactic to teach your kids. Do not tell them it is a survival tactic, do not freak them out, but encourage kids to travel in groups to events like this, walking home, leaving the mall or any other time they are out. Of course if the crowd they are hanging out with is less then........ well..... if they are dirtbags, do not encourage them to hang out with that crowd. That is a discussion for another time. For this, encourage kids to move in groups.

Teach your kids to act when something bad happens. Acting being the opposite of just standing there frozen. Teach them what stops fragments and bullets, yes you can just have a discussion with them about what will and won't stop fragments and bullets! Because if things keep escalating one explosion will be followed by another! Just look to what happens in Israel, Syria and other places where bombings take place. These incidents will escalate to where the bombers set off secondary devices to catch first responders and others trying to help.

Next, teach your children first aid. As with everything we talk about here we try to cover as many situations as we can. First aid is a skill not just used if your child is caught in a terrorist act. They can use this ability when they get a paper cut or skin their knee.

Think about it for a moment, what if your child is caught in an event? What if they have enough training to seek help, find a safe position and administer first aid to themselves or others? This saying has proven true more times than I can remember; you only rise to the lowest level of your training during a bad day.

Just think how much better the situation is going to be for them!

Think about your child being able to fend for themselves during those moments of chaos. Think of the advantage you have given your child by having a few conversations and providing basic skills to them............

We can not always be there for our children. At some point we have to let them live their lives. As a parent of grown children I completely understand this, do not like it, but it is something we all have to go through as parents.

Actions taken in the first few moments and minutes after an event can make all the difference in who lives and who dies. This is especially true for medical issues. There is a "Golden Hour" talked about in medical training. If you have access to advanced medical care the first hour is vital. What your child does for themselves or others can make all the difference. Putting direct pressure on a wound, wrapping the victim or themselves in something to fight back shock and keeping a positive mental attitude sounds like nothing yet could be the deciding factor in an emergency.

Of course there is only so much we can expect children to do. We all know kids who are act like they are not listening when you are talking. They will resist any training or conversation which make them uncomfortable. As a parent still have the conversations, still have them take training or teach them ourself. We can not expect children to take charge of a scene or acting as medics. All we can hope for is to give our children tools, training, principles and ideas they can pull from is they ever need to.

Take the time to teach the children.............

As Always,

Stay Safe!

Planning #7.2 Gun Knowledge

Down, down, down the rabbit hole we go....................

How much time do we spend in here? As much time as it takes. How much time is that? Until we are done........................

In the first installment concerning guns we talked a little bit about why you need to take firearms into account when planning. Second installment we talked about firearms being another tool you need to become familiar with. 

Hopefully by now people who might not want to discuss firearms have realized these posts are not about which gun is the 'bestest'. But let us cover that question for a moment......... 

Which firearm is best to own? 

What do you need it for?

To protect my family!

The tool in your hand at that moment is the 'bestest'.

 BUT only if you know how to use the tool.

Firearms are just an improved method for throwing rocks at someone. You have to learn to throw a rock before you can hit anything.

Than someone made a more complicated way to throw things at someone else. At the end of the day this is still just a rock thrower...... See the rock at the end of the spear? 

These are just more complicated ways to throw rocks. 

All rocks come in different sizes, bullets or rounds are no different. All the complicated sounds which come out of a gun nut's mouth come down to two things. How big is the rock and how fast is the rock going? 

Bigger the rock and the faster you throw the harder it is to control where the rock goes. A .38 caliber pistol is easier to control than a .45. A .45 round has move power behind it than a .38 round. Theoretically you should be able to stop a threat sooner with a .45 than a .38 based just on the physics. 

Unless of course you are one of these guys....... Or maybe you were taught by one of these guys? Because these guys have proven even if everyone had ray guns but no training the tool is wasted. 

What is the difference between a pistol, rifle and shotgun? Size of the rock and how far you can throw it. The barrel of the tool decides how far you can accurately throw the round. The "thrower" has to be the proper type to throw the proper rock. If you want to throw a little .22 caliber size rock you need a barrel which the rock fits in. 

If you take the same .22 caliber bullet and put it in a .22 caliber pistol you can not throw the rock as far.

Why? The length of a barrel determines how far you can throw the rock. The barrel is the part sticking out the bullet passes through. Longer barrel = throw farther. Yes there is a more complicated answer but let's stick with this one. 

Shotguns are diffrent because they do not fire just one rock, they throw several rocks at one time. Yet the same basic idea works, the longer the barrel the further you can accurately throw the rocks. 

As in the above photo shotguns throw a bunch of rocks. You can buy different numbers of rocks to throw with the lowest numbers being in the '00' range. 

See how the number of rocks has been decreased? 

If you aim at the center of the target odds are the rocks will come out and make a pattern similar to this one, shotguns are not precision tools. The further away the target the greater the spread of the pattern. 

Alright one last bit of foundational knowledge..... nomenclature. All firearms have the same basic parts. Some might add or take away parts but all of them have to have these basic parts. 

Barrel, every firearm has one! It is where the rocks come out of and is the dangerous end of the tool.

Doesn't matter if the firearm is a pistol, double barrel shotgun or a cannon they all have a barrel and the open end where the rocks come out is the place you do not want to be at. Trigger is the next thing they all have in common

Be it a modern pistol or rifle

Or maybe an antique pistol

Knowing these two parts of any firearm is really important. Because if we know these two parts of the gun we can follow the next and most important part about understanding firearms. SAFETY!!! 

If you remember nothing else remember these four things when dealing with firearms. Because if you do not you can look like these guys................

But you might as well be this guy....................

Remember treat every firearm as if it is loaded

DO YOU KNOW IF THEIR GUNS ARE LOADED? NEVER ASSUME!

Never point a firearm at anything or anyone you are not willing to destroy

NOTICE PISTOL AIMED AT OTHER GUYS UPPER CHEST AND HEAD?

REALLY? JUST &^%$%^& REALLY?

Keep your finger of the trigger and out of the trigger guard until ready to fire.

Know your target and what is behind it.

Following these rules are the most important thing you can learn about firearms! Yes these rules are more important than anything else you can learn!!! You might be able to reach out a thousand yards and hit a target........... but if you forget to clear the weapon, assume it is unloaded and put a round through the wall when you are cleaning your rifle......... a round which goes through the wall and hits the neighbor's kid........ you hopefully get the point. Alright this is getting long so let's cut it here for now.

As Always,

Stay Safe!  

Planning #7.1 - Guns con't. this might take a few posts

Here we go again...... Going back into the rabbit hole......... Yes this subject can go very deep and will take more than one or two posts to cover..........

I might say some things here which you do not want to hear..... If your mind is closed to the idea of firearms you might want to skip this one.

If you keep reading you are agreeing to come down the hole with an open mind!!!!!!

An axe is a tool you can use to cut trees down. You can turn the axe over and use the axe as an improvised hammer if need be.

If you want to use an axe to fell trees you will want to know a thing or two about using the tool properly. The axe can be dangerous if you do not use the tool properly. Heck, the tree can hurt you if you do not stand where the tree is going to fall.

Some of us know how to use these tools. Some of us, including me, need to learn how to use these! Some of us can think of three things off the top of our heads which can go wrong with these if we do not use them properly!

Some of us know how to use these tools. Some of us can think of things which can go wrong with these if we do not use them properly!

Some of us know how to use these tools. Some of us, including me, are learning how to use these tools. If we do not know how to use these tools properly we will be disappointed with the results.

How do we learn to use these tools? We read up on it, surf the net and ask people who have the knowledge already. Take a class and eventually get some experience with how to use the tools. No different than the new set of tools we need to be able to use. If we do not learn how to use these tools properly we can hurt ourselves, others and fail at what it is we are trying to do.

Firearms, guns, rifles, pistols, assault weapons, black scary guns, high powered rifles or a horse by any other name is just a tool! Get over it! They are just tools and if you think otherwise you are ill informed. I know that might hurt someone's feelings but this is the part I warned you about........

Assault weapon and high powered rifle or other such words are used to scare you. Why? Because people have agendas personal or public and we will leave it at that.

This is an axe...................................

This is a fully automatic axe with high capacity, multiple cut, long distance, motor driven, fossil fuel burning, greenhouse gas contributing, butcher of trees and was designed for no other reason than to KILL TREES!!!!

This is a chainsaw.............. I guess it is how you see it?????
 

Anyone remember these cases? You know people being arrested for selling or trading raw milk? What's wrong with raw milk? It can make you sick and kill kids!! Do you know how the milk makes people sick? Do you know the types of milk? Do you know the laws concerning milk? How many cows does it take to make a gallon of milk? What time is the best for milking cows? How many types of cows are there?

Don't know? Me neither, until I asked my favorite Hippie. (side note: he better be reading this!)

If you do not know how to do this and do not know how to do this....................

Then there are two new subjects for you to master!!! Shouldn't life be about learning new things??? The more you know about something the less intimidating or scary the thing is. Learning more things increases your abilities and during an emergency your abilities might be all you have to count on.

Knowledge is the key to things, right? Let's start putting some knowledge out there and start to round out people's knowledge base. "WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY THAT?" someone asks defensively. Here is what I mean......

You and the children are at the park and there is a GUN lying on the ground. What do you do? Do you leave it there? What if there are a lot of kids and you are not in charge of all of them? Every park full of kids has those two or three kids whose parents are not watching and they run out of control. What if they pick up the gun you do not know how to handle? Are you willing to just leave the gun there and hope nothing happens? Do you know how to handle the gun so you do not hurt anyone on accident? No, let's learn a few rules to follow.

These are the foundational rules everyone should know. You can never go wrong if you follow these four rules. Yes there are variations depending on who you ask but they all should cover the same concept. If the person you are talking to does not cover these concepts stop listening to them!!!!!

Here is what you sit down and tell your kids ASAP!!! Do not make them afraid of the tools! Just explain to them what to do if they see one. The same as you would do if you were telling them what to do if they see a kitchen knife on the ground, stray dog or anything else they might hurt themselves with.

I just like this picture! But you can see the basics of safe weapons handling are covered here. If you do not break these rules you will not hurt someone by accident.

 Another use for these rules....... I see a lot of self defense training being offered and some of them will cover firearms. Most of them do not address these rules and treat the firearm as a simple thing to use.

Do you know how to milk a cow, do you know how to clear a 'stovepipe' stoppage on that pistol? No? Than you need to follow the four rules! Keep control of the tool and leave the area. Pointing the tool at the bad guy is just a bad idea if you do not know how to use the tool.

As with other subjects we have covered this subject has more uses than just barricading ourselves in the closest big box store and holding off the hordes of the undead. Understanding the basics of firearms and understanding these rules can help you deal with situations you might come across. Everything from a child finding a gun, hunting trips with the buddies, to you disarming an attacker and suddenly you have a firearm you know nothing about.

Is she doing it right????????????

Before you plant a garden, can your harvest or treat a wound you had to gather some knowledge to do it correctly. Firearms are no different. Seek out the knowledge and beat back the ignorance which so many people put out there. Do not allow your family or yourself to become victims if a bad day comes simply because it is the 'trendy' thing to do. When you do buy a firearm the trek does not stop there. Training, training, training, you do not become a proficient fisherman by buying a rod and reel which just sits in the garage. Same with firearms, the day you need one is not the day to figure out how to use one.    

As Always,

Stay Safe