A: Practice!

They reacted immediately, they used improvised weapons, they certainly didn’t give up.

At least until the cops came.

(I’ll have to add hot curling irons to my list of improvised weapons! Ouch)

I like the last comment about how he will have to explain himself in the pokey.

Exit question. How many cool weapons of self defense can you find in a beauty salon?

Of course, the criminal doesn’t seem to be the brightest. (A common trait)

Exit question: Do you think they handled it badly?

A couple points on this story.

1. Note that the bad guys worked as a team, one to car jack and the other to drive their getaway car. This is a common technique for car jackers.

2. The lady reacted immediately, fighting back and making a lot of noise.

Exit question #1: Could she have seen this coming?

Exit question #2: What could she have done to improve her chances of survival?

A interesting AP story by Alan Scher Zagier which was on Yahoo news today.

The gist of the story is that most college students don’t take advantage of emergency text alerts available from their schools.

Check out the full story.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080228/ap_on_hi_te/cell_phone_alerts

It highlights three of the areas of concern in the self defense world.

1. Many of us keep our heads in the sand. We know bad things are happening out there in the real world, but we don’t want to think about it.

2. To quote a source in the story, Kaitlin Foley, “I found out about it a long time ago and never signed up.. I was too lazy.”

3. Young people tend to think they are immortal and invincible. They have a free or very cheap self defense tool, and they don’t take advantage of it.

The bad guys love to hear that kind of stuff.

Some schools are making it mandatory and that is good.

I’m working on a free ebook to help people be safer without martial art skills or heavy weaponry. It addresses this very problem. It should be done soon and I’ll let everyone know how to get one.

We often picture college students as young people who are always in class or at a party. The fact is they are often looking for a quiet place to be alone to study or to be with their thoughts. There are times that they won’t see the news or hear the latest buzz. An email alert would help alert everyone.

“Safety experts emphasize that text alerts should be just one part of comprehensive notification systems that can include sirens, loudspeakers, security cameras, Web site announcements and more.”

I would just add that self defense awareness, in general, should be taught and stressed more often.

Exit question. Would you sign up for email alerts if you were in college?

P.S. I don’t’ want to get into the “guns at school” debate today. Let’s just say that I think people who think “Gun Free Zones” are a good idea are well intentioned, but dumb.

I’m rebuilding this site starting today. So if you are new,you are starting out fresh and I hope you find this blog useful.

Here is a good tip passed on to me.

Car Keys With a Panic Button Car Alarm:

Put your car keys beside your bed at night. If you hear a noise outside your home or someone tries to get into your house, just press the panic button for your car.

The alarm will be go off, and the horn will continue to sound until either you turn it off or the car battery dies.

This tip came from a neighborhood watch coordinator.

Next time you come home for the night and you start to put your keys away, think of this:

It’s a security alarm system that you probably already have and requires no installation.

Test it. It will go off from most everywhere inside your house and will keep honking until your battery runs down or until you reset it with the button on the key fob chain. It works if you park in your driveway or garage. 


If your car alarm goes off when someone is trying to break in to your house, odds are the burglar or rapist won’t stick around. After a few seconds all the neighbors will be looking out their windows to see who is out there and sure enough the criminal won’t want that. And remember to carry your keys while walking to your car in a parking lot. The alarm can work the same way there. This is something that should really be shared with everyone. Maybe it could save a life or prevent a sexual assault.This would also be useful for any emergency, such as a heart attack, where you can’t reach a phone. Exit Question. Does anyone have additional tips to add? Leave a comment and share.