The pilots should have had police batons right by their side. No pilot's cabin should allow guys to come in with small box cutters and kill the pilots. I was advocating locked cabins with heavy doors years ago.

And look at the lone nuts... the guys who are drunk, on drugs, or are mental cases. The number of these people has been growing for years, and it will continue to grow. All pilots should have weapons in the cockpit in preparation for that type of attack.

The same with Egypt Air Flight 990, where they think the co-pilot crashed the plane. The pilot came in and tried to stop him, but he didn't have anything to grab and hit the guy over the head with. A nice baseball bat would have stopped that crash.

Right. People don't prepare ahead of time. They all say, "It won't happen to me." The old man followed the instructions of the guy who held the gun, thinking that if he (the old man) was "nice", the gunman would let him go. But what the old man should have already known is that some criminals want to kill people and they want docile victims. Others are on drugs and they can't make any sensible judgment calls. People in the '50s generally didn't need plans for this time of situation, but people today need them.

I think the key era marking the change was the 1970s, especially with the Manson girls murdering so many people who never fought back. I lived in San Francisco back then. We had the Zebra killers, the Zodiac killer, the Hearst kidnapping and bank robberies and shootings, plus some leftists bombings and some other crazy-hippie type murders in Northern California, such as the "hiking trail killer" in Marin County. People should have quickly learned, especially girls, that they could no longer go hiking alone and unarmed in a place like Marin County in the '70s.

Mindset is 95% of surviving an attack.I remember seein' a video of a carjacking where the 'jacker was halfway out of the truck window,shootin' at the news copter & I thought "Why doesn't the driver just put the side of the truck into all the trees lining the road?" At the speed they were goin',the 'jacker would've been severely injured if not killed & then,no longer a threat.
People tend to forget,that when you're in a car,you have a 2-5 ton weapon...somebody in front of you with a gun? Run over the SOB.Windshields,while not armor,deflect bullets & in the case of sub-calibers (i.e. .22,.25,.32) won't even penetrate.I've seen videos of 'jackers running towards cars & the driver didn't drive off!! Even if he fires off a few rounds,the chance of gettin' hit is about .0001%,even cops who fire at moving vehicles rarely score hits.

__________________
"An armed man is a citizen
An unarmed man is a subject"

Robert A. Heinlein

Well, way late on this one.

I'd echo what Doodler said about fingernails. Keep them short enough that they won't break if they get caught in something. Used hardener to help them stay strong. You should be able to easily tear into an apple without feeling like they will break.

Feet and shins are great targets for kicks, but also for hand strikes if you happen to find yourself down there with them. Using the first set of knuckles (the ones you use to knock on a door) against the little bones on the top of the foot is nasty. It also works well against tha back of the hand.

I envision your dad as being a great visual aid for this one. A muscular person is protected by a lot of muscle. A punch to the stomach may not do much. There are places where there is no coverage by muscles though, and those places are usually pretty sensitive to short jabbing motions. One of my favorites it the top of the collar bone. Guys with huge "traps" tend to have a very pronounced void right beside the ear, and in front of the muscle. A quick poke right there hurts a lot. Other good spots include the under side of the chin, the base of the throat, and the inside of the upper arms where the brachial nerve and arteries run.

Those plastic lemons full of lemon juice can be squeezed hard enough to shoot lemon juice about 15+ feet, and with a bit of practice, can be accurate enough to hit the face. If anyone asks, it's for your diet Coke.

The red powder that is used on the strings carpenters use to mark wood for sawing is permanent. The other colors will wash away, but the red lasts for weeks. Just in case you feel the need to mix up some lemon juice mace, it's good to be able to ID the person sprayed. (Never tested it to see of the juice will break down the dye).

Learn how to hit without making a fist. Knife hand strikes and heel palm strikes are very good, because the hurt, and there is little rick of hurting yourself when you make contact. Hitting with a fist can do some serious damage to your wrist and hand if your form is even slightly off.

About groin shots. I have more experience with these than I feel I deserve, but I've learned a few things about them. I'd rather take a full on patellic uppercut than get flicked with a finger. After a hard impact, anger will keep you going for up to 45 seconds or better before the need to curl up and cry sets in. Wearing a baseball style cup only protects from horizontal force. If the force comes up from underneath, the cup will slid up to about sternum height, scraping off it contents, like mud from a boot as it does so. This is unpleasant, nearly to the point of inducing vomiting. Cups made for martial arts practice are designed differently an wrap around underneath to prevents this. Something I really wish I understood in week one.

About the idea that this guy might be wearing a cup, I think it would be unlikely. There are certain "requirements" that need to be fulfilled to commit this sort of crime and a cup would hinder that in a big way, both before and after the fact. Either way though, never assume that a groin shot of any force is going to be enough to stop the attacker like it does on the movies.

Knives as a self defense tool. The best recommendation I ever saw about this was "don't". Unless you've been trained fully on how to use one, there is a very good chance that they other person will end up with it. The second best advice I ever saw was that if a woman is going to carry a knife, it should be a fixed blade, not a folder. It should be 3 to 4 inches long and double edged. Rather than holding it like a knife fighter would, it should be held point up and slightly away with the flat of the blade facing the attacker. Only attack what comes in (the hands), and don't ever extend to strike or stab. Basically you wave the knife back forth in front of you like a metronome. There tends to be a double standard between men and women when it comes to using a knife in self defense. Given identical situations, the woman may be told she did a great job, while the man will be arrested. Smallish town, rapist on the loose, odds are good that any knife used by a woman to fend him off would be over looked completely. On the other hand, it is California...

One thing to remember about using a weapon of any kind. One you even display it, you are committed to the possibility of having to actually use it. If you change your mind, you can't just put it away or drop it and call a do over. If you pull it, you don't have to use it, but you have to be willing to use it.

If he's actually a serial, then he could be surround by blond models and not care in the least. He's not after people for how they look (exactly) he's after them based on type. It sounds like he's after Hispanic women, so anyone that does not look Hispanic will probably not even be looked at as a target. He's not necessarily more likely to go after a prettier woman. That sort of thing probably doesn't matter to him as much as how much the woman looks like the woman that made him this angry to begin with. If he's wearing the same coat, he's either really stupid and is not aware that that's a key bit of information, or he's hoping to be caught before this compulsion leads him to kill someone.

If you are interested in learning a real martial art (not tae bo) I could give you some info on some of the different forms and how they are supposed to work.

Biggest thing though is don't get into a situation where any of this other stuff needs to be done. Don't wander around in the dark alone. Look at people around you. Looking at the ground as you walk tells people that you lack confidence and marks you as as a person that will comply. Looking around, being aware, is often enough to get them to move on.

Know what places are open and busy enough that you can run to them for help. Grocery stores are a good choice of they are open. Run to the middle of the check stands and yell either "Help" or "beer run" and you should have the whole freight crew there in seconds. Know where the police stations are and how to get to them. Same for hospitals. Anywhere that will have a crowd and will be open can be shelter. When you approach the corner of a building, look at the bottom of it first, then skim up to the top. See if there are shadows, or the tip of a shoe sticking out, or breath if it's cold enough. I think I recall seeing a suggestion that you walk near walls. This is a good idea if the wall is solid. As you get to a corner, move away from the wall so that as you round the corner, the other side is revealed more slowly. In tactical shooting, this is called "slicing the pie" and reduces the chance of popping around a corner and coming face to face with a big nasty.

When possible, park uphill from where you are going. This will let you see under the car from a good distance away.

Hopefully it will all be over soon.

__________________
A Nerd can figure out how long it will take the original Enterprise traveling at warp 6.5 to travel from Regulus to Antares.
A Geek will think he can use that to pick up a girl in a bar.
A Dork knows he can't pick up the girl with it, but will hang around for hours anyway, just in case she asks.
She might. You never know.

I saw one like that. Two in fact. One in Denver, and one in Los Angeles. It wouldn't have taken much of a turn for the driver to run the shooter into some trees while he was hanging out the window. It might have killed the shooter, but that's just too bad.

THEY GOT HIM!

Announced it about 4.5 hours ago. He confessed to the store attack and now they are going to link him to the other attacks via DNA. (he denies the other attacks.)28 year old Raul Contrares is this fine piece of humanity. Cut above his eye and everything.

__________________
"The beauty of that discussion of averages is that you don't have to be an expert in Apollo or in photography in order to see where this time study "analysis" breaks down. You just have to be, well...not an idiot." -JayUtah

well people must be feeling better in that area of the city.

__________________
If it's just us, it seems like an awful waste of space.
Contact Carl Sagan

Thats great!

At least your neighborhood can sleep in peace now that they've caught the serial rapist.

Great news.

__________________
A Nerd can figure out how long it will take the original Enterprise traveling at warp 6.5 to travel from Regulus to Antares.
A Geek will think he can use that to pick up a girl in a bar.
A Dork knows he can't pick up the girl with it, but will hang around for hours anyway, just in case she asks.
She might. You never know.

Here's the link to his capture:http://cbs5.com/topstories/local_story_043211636.html

__________________
"The beauty of that discussion of averages is that you don't have to be an expert in Apollo or in photography in order to see where this time study "analysis" breaks down. You just have to be, well...not an idiot." -JayUtah

Word down at the "Barbershop" is that some folks are going to post his $175,000 bail for him...could be BS. We'll see.

__________________
"The beauty of that discussion of averages is that you don't have to be an expert in Apollo or in photography in order to see where this time study "analysis" breaks down. You just have to be, well...not an idiot." -JayUtah

I just want to warn people to check very well what is actually allowed. Overhere, it is illegal to carry even a small kids baseball bat in a car, catapults are strictly illegal weapons and a cane with any point made into them is also strictly illegal.

__________________
To the regular visitor of internet bulletin boards it is clear that it's an excellent idea your parents get to choose your real name.

Oh hey! That's great news, Don. You guys must all be relieved to no end.

__________________
[Dr. Horrible]___________________________[Penny]
Listen close to everybody's heart________And you believe there's good in everybody's heart
And hear that breaking sound_____________Keep it safe and sound
Hopes and dreams are shattering apart____With hope you can do your part
And crashing to the ground_______________To turn a life around

Please define CATAPULT as you mean it there. The only kind I know of are the large rock flinging deviced used against castles... Legal or not, they seem a bit out of place on a list of peronal defense weapons.

__________________
A Nerd can figure out how long it will take the original Enterprise traveling at warp 6.5 to travel from Regulus to Antares.
A Geek will think he can use that to pick up a girl in a bar.
A Dork knows he can't pick up the girl with it, but will hang around for hours anyway, just in case she asks.
She might. You never know.

I'm sure the siege weapon type of catapult is also strictly forbidden on the street, but I was talking about hand catapults. (Guy on the left. Guy on the right uses just hand, without catapult .) You know, Y shaped fork with a rubber strip on it or any variant on that. Also called slingshot. Not to be confused with the "towels" used to throw stones with by swinging them and letting go one of the ends.

__________________
To the regular visitor of internet bulletin boards it is clear that it's an excellent idea your parents get to choose your real name.

Slings.

__________________
[Dr. Horrible]___________________________[Penny]
Listen close to everybody's heart________And you believe there's good in everybody's heart
And hear that breaking sound_____________Keep it safe and sound
Hopes and dreams are shattering apart____With hope you can do your part
And crashing to the ground_______________To turn a life around

Ahh, thanks. I've never heard them called that before. I know them as slingshots, my dad knows them as flippers. The "towel" I've always heard called a sling. I can't hit anything with either type.

__________________
A Nerd can figure out how long it will take the original Enterprise traveling at warp 6.5 to travel from Regulus to Antares.
A Geek will think he can use that to pick up a girl in a bar.
A Dork knows he can't pick up the girl with it, but will hang around for hours anyway, just in case she asks.
She might. You never know.

Slings indeed.

I never heard "flipper" for slingshot. Nice word .

BTW the installation on aircraft carriers to shoot off the jets is also called a catapult. Catapult as a verb means to violently shoot or sling away, so it's no wonder multiple of these shooting things are called catapults. My dictionary places "catapult" as used for "slingshot" as British-English. "Flipper" has an entry as American English, informal for slingshot. So he's not fooling you .

__________________
To the regular visitor of internet bulletin boards it is clear that it's an excellent idea your parents get to choose your real name.