You decide to sit in a crowded restaurant with your back against the wall. What if this is not the best idea? What are your priorities regarding defending a restricted area and using your environment for self-defense in the face of a physical threat?
It is better for a soldier to work in a garden, than to be a soldier in a war.
Mental discipline and a commitment to improving one’s skills are key ingredients in a trained warrior’s mind. Gun owners who are responsible must be trained to handle safety, maintenance, and defensive marksmanship at a functional level. A gun owner who lacks this proficiency is ineffective and could be held responsible for any shooting situation.
The ability to manage your immediate environment is as important as skill at arms. The following information is for shooters who are interested in learning how to control their environment in order to win in violent physical altercations.
Visual Control
Either your environment controls you, or you control it. It takes a trained mindset and a willingness to change your environment into a weapon, or a target. If you can shift your perspective, especially in a tactical setting, you can change the reality. You can take control of your surroundings by changing the way you view them.
Henry David Thoreau, a 19th-century author, has a more accurate quote about visual control. It is not what you look at but what you see.
This is a good example: Have you ever tried to read the time on your watch but failed to see it? It was as though you had placed your eyes on the watch’s face, and nothing registered in your mind. This is the difference between looking (glancing at a subject with your eyes) or seeing (engaging in conversation with the subject(s) so that it registers mentally).
Either you are ready to engage in active threats or not. The ability to see is a valuable tool that you can have in your arsenal for visualizing your immediate surroundings and formulating a plan of attack in case of an altercation.
If there is an emergency evacuation, it is possible for obvious exits such as the front door to become blocked. This happens because almost everyone rushes to them. It is a good idea knowing where secondary and even tertiary escape routes are located.
Environmental Mapping
To create an environmental map, simply run two separate scans. This will give you layers of information to help you solve your tactical problem. The first scan is a cursory or initial scan. The second is a more detailed scan.
The cursory scan is a quick assessment of your immediate environment. It takes less than a second to assess the area and determine your field-of-view.
Active threats: Use your eyes like a flashlight to see from near to far. Ask yourself the question, “Is there anything or someone that could pose a clear and immediate danger to me and/or my family?”
Field of vision: Get to know your environment by establishing your field-of-view in all directions. What architectural considerations are you focusing on (open space, confined area) What are your farthest-most left-most margins of what can and cannot be seen? What’s above you? What is below you?
Next, you will need to do a detailed scan. This may take around a minute. This is used to locate reflective surfaces, identify fire fields, and determine chokepoints.
Chokepoints are any area that could be used as an exit point, such as doorways (aka fatal funnels), narrow hallways, T intersections, narrow hallways, and stairwells. Primary chokepoints are the main entrances and exits to commercial or residential architecture.
All doors and windows can be considered exits. Where do you think people will run in panic situations? While it is important to know where your exits are and how to get them, it is also important to understand that chokepoints can be dangerous.
If faced with a threat, most people will seek the nearest exit. This is typically the front door. However, if a large number of people attempt to escape from the same chokepoint, and you are not among them, it will negatively impact your exit. If you were aware of a secondary exit (most people haven’t mapped it before), you might be able to make your escape with fewer bodies, if any, in the funnel.
You don’t want your mobility to be impeded by any physical altercation. You can identify potential chokepoints by running a secondary visual assessment (detailed scanner) and determine your best exit options.
Fields of fire: If you have to use guns, what and where can you find your backstops? What is the exterior wall, interior wall, or door? What are your round-penetration considerations What are the fixed groups of people you have? Predetermined fire fields reduce the time it takes to assess the environment in an emergency situation that requires a shooting solution.
A detailed scan may also include the detection of reflective surfaces, such as windows, walls and hanging pictures. These surfaces can expand your field of vision, and in some cases give you visual access to areas beyond what is within your immediate reach.
Experts in professional protection strongly recommend environmental mapping as a proactive measure. It allows you visual control over your immediate environment, to develop a plan for action or movement, and all of this while sipping your coffee.
Either you can control your environment or your environment will control. You need a trained mindset to transform anything in your immediate environment into a weapon or target. If you are looking for an exit route, make sure to mark exit signs on public buildings.
Action Planning
To determine a viable plan of action, or movement, it is possible to read your environment. In order to create a working plan, it is important to understand the need.
A safe area is the first step in any action plan or movement plan. It could be your car, another building or an outside wall. It is important to identify the safest route, concealment, and cover options along that route. This will help you and anyone else you are taking to that area.
Anything that can stop a bullet is called cover. This includes a reinforced exterior wall or solid-steel door, an engine block, and so on. While concealment won’t stop an incoming bullet but can temporarily hide you, it can be useful in preventing an assailant from seeing you. You might find cover under a table, in your closet, behind curtains, and so forth. An obstruction is anything you can put between yourself and your assailant (s), should they be following you. Take the parking lot as an example. You can run between cars and behind trash cans, making them an obstruction.
Take a detailed scan of your field of vision and look around at potential exits. Then, imagine what you would do if you had to quickly move to one. What kind of cover could you move to stop a rifle shot? If you don’t have any cover, or it is not possible to find it, what can you use for temporary cover on your way to good cover? Where are your readymade obstacles? What obstacles can you put between yourself and your attacker(s) to make them react to you and give you more time to reach your safe zone?
Consider this example: You enter a restaurant front door, walk all the way to the nearest perimeter wall, and decide OK, I’m going to place my back against the farthest wall so I can.
You can see the front door, but you should have a wider field.
After a cursory scan, it becomes apparent that there are two other exits closer to you. The distance from your position to your front door is also the longest. The front door is still the most efficient exit, even though it is the longest of the three and most likely a chokepoint. You may be able to modify your physical position or devise an alternative exit strategy by running your detailed scan.
An example of a breakdown of environmental mapping and actions-planning considerations might look something like this:
Cursory scanIs there a threat that is within arms reach? On the other side? The back of the building? You can see the entire environment from far away. Okay, there are no immediate threats. Now, adjust your field of vision. What is the distance you can see in all directions?
Detail scan:You can then do a cursory scan of your immediate environment. Are you in an open or confined space? What is your predetermined safe place if it happens now? Is it in your car? Another room? Another building? Do you have any other people with you? How would you get there? What would be the nearest exit and what would be your route to get there? Is it a possible chokepoint? Is there any reflective surfaces within your field of vision? If so, what can you see with them? How many other escape routes would you have if you had to run for it? Which is the closest? Which is the most tactically advantageous of all the escape routes? Are there any other chokepoints? Are there other routes that can be taken to avoid them? These questions will help you to think about and create a plan of action.
Action planIf necessary, is this a tactical or shooting solution?
If you can’t run, where would you go to fight if you had? What would be the best place to put yourself if you were forced to use guns as a backstop? If you can’t go to guns, then where are the best places in your immediate surroundings that you can grab for an improvised weapon? Which position offers you the best cover? Which position would you choose if it turned into a nonballistic (hand to hand) confrontation? What about any obstacles? What if you can find a way to put some distance between you and the threat(s), so they slow down and you have more time to figure out a solution?
Even though environmental mapping and a well-planned plan of action can provide tactical advantages, especially under duress it is important to remain aware of the situation. You can see, smell, or hear it coming, which will put you ahead of the action-reaction curve.
By using environmental mapping to visually and mentally engage your immediate surroundings, you can create a plan for action that will solve the problem.