{"id":5524,"date":"2016-12-05T13:39:19","date_gmt":"2016-12-05T18:39:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.luckygunner.com\/lounge\/?p=5524"},"modified":"2021-08-03T11:26:50","modified_gmt":"2021-08-03T15:26:50","slug":"beyond-awareness-recognizing-threat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.luckygunner.com\/lounge\/beyond-awareness-recognizing-threat\/","title":{"rendered":"Beyond Awareness: Recognizing the Threat"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today we’re continuing our series on how the lawfully armed citizen can be more mentally prepared to survive violent encounters by understanding\u00a0the OODA Loop. In the first installment<\/a>, I discussed the basics of how the OODA Loop\u00a0could be applied to\u00a0the decision-making processes that occur in a hypothetical self-defense situation. Last week, I went into depth about the concept of situational awareness<\/a>, which could also be understood as “Observe” — the first “O” in the OODA Loop. Observing one’s environment and looking for things that seem out of place is a good first step, but it’s only helpful if we have some idea of what to do with that information. That brings us to the second “O” in the OODA Loop — “Orient.”<\/p>

The Orient step can be broken down into two main components. In this context, the first component is understanding\u00a0the implication of relevant information that was gathered\u00a0during\u00a0the Observe step (e.g., the person who entered the convenience store is wearing a ski mask, and it\u2019s July, making him more likely a robber). The second component is updating our current view of reality to incorporate that information (e.g., I am in a store that is likely about to be robbed). While this may sound like the simplest of the steps, there are hidden pitfalls as well as internal biases that work against us if we are not aware of them and take steps to counteract them.<\/span><\/p>

Pre-Attack\u00a0Indicators<\/strong><\/h2>

The first component is addressed in real time. Recognizing something as relevant requires some level of expertise and ability to listen to our survival instincts, which hopefully you\u2019ve honed after practicing your Observation skills. You are aware of what is normal and can ignore the normal activities around you. You can now focus your observation on abnormal activities. Learning pre-attack indicators is a good way to speed up your Orientation. If you Observe one or more pre-attack indicators you can Orient your perspective\u00a0to the person displaying them as a likely threat. While a comprehensive list is beyond the scope of this article, common pre-attack indicators could be:<\/span><\/p>