If you believe what you read in the gun magazines, and forgive the alliteration, bigger badder blasters be better.

The problem with “bigger is better” is that bigger is also harder to carry on a day-to-day basis; the harder a gun is to carry — that is to say, integrate into your lifestyle — the less likely you are to carry it once the new has worn off.

Let’s go back to the beginning of the whole CCW process…your personal threat assessment. What’s a “threat assessment?” Simple, it’s an analysis of your real risks in your day-to-day activities. Risks can be broken down two way:

• Perceived vs. actual
• Subjective vs. objective

Perceived vs. actual is obvious, but more subtle than you might initially think. Risks exists on a possibility continuum…some risks are extremely likely to happen; other risks have a diminishingly small possibility of happening. Being caught in an act of terrorism, for example, is a risk, but a very small one, a little like being struck by lightning. Being involved in, say, an act of road rage is a more likely scenario. What do you prepare for?

Subjective vs. objective is a concept from mountaineering — a subjective risk is a risk over which you have some control; an objective risk is when God points at you and says, “You’re it!” In terms of our self-defense scenarios, a typical mugging would be a subjective risk; a shooting at a mall, an objective risk.

One of the most common things I hear is, “Prepare for the absolute worst and you’ll be ready for anything.” True…but…I have a good friend who won’t travel without an FN-FAL 7.62 NATO battle rifle and 1000 rounds of ammo, and that’s not to mention the handguns. The problem is that as you ramp up your personal preparedness to perceived/objective risk — I am ready to fight my way out of a urban area under terrorists attack! — the greater the constraints on your lifestyle.

Secondly, part of the reason you add tools is fear; this can happen, so I need to be ready…

Secondly, resources — money, time, ammunition, whatever — are always limited. Somewhere along the line, you’re going to have to compromise something.

My experience has been that the greater the constraints on your lifestyle, the more likely you are to abandon all your preparedness. I’m just running to the convenience store down the street, so I really need to put on two guns, two knives, a flashlight, a cellphone, extra ammo, blah blah? Too often, the answer is, “No,” when, in fact, you’re probably most at risk at a convenience store — also known as the local Stop and Rob — late at night than virtually any other scenario!

I tend to focus the bulk of my self-defense efforts on actual/subjective risks — what things are the most likely to happen that I can have some control over?

A personal threat analysis answers that question.

Here’s how you build your own threat analysis; start out by answering the following questions in writing:

1) How much do I travel on an average weekday?
• To and from work
• After-work leisure travel
2) How and where do my usual travels take me?
• What areas do my commute take me through?
• What is the level of crime in those areas?
• What are my usual leisure time activities?
3) Does my work require me to be involved in higher risks activities?
• Carrying money
• Inspecting properties
• Investigative type work
3) What do I do on weekends?
4) Do I do any long-distance traveling/long car trips?
5) Am I involved in any extra-legal/illegal activities
• Do I use/purchase drugs, including marijuana?
• Do I drink to excess in public or private?
• Do I frequent prostitutes?
6) Do any of the leisure activities I’m involved with require me to meet strangers or take me into unknown areas?
• Computer dating/computer meetings
• Blind dates
• Clubbing/bars

You see where I’m going here. Activities that require you to visit unfamiliar areas or place you in the proximity of stranger all increase your personal risk.

The single biggest risk factors on the above list are extra-legal/illegal activities. Participation in those activities puts you directly in the path of some of the worst society has to offer, and sooner or later you’re going to sucked into something you can’t get out of. Second highest risk activity is physically meeting people you “met” on the Internet. Again, you are putting yourself in front of predators, and predators ALWAYS know prey!

So what do you do with your threat assessment?

Ideally, you use it to change your life into something you’re more comfortable with. If you’re hanging around DOWN RANGE TELEVISION puffing on a big blunt in between surfing computer dating services, maybe you should reconsider where your path is taking you. You don’t need a gun; you need a saner life.

The main purpose of the assessment, however, is to show you where your risks really are and allow you to prepare for those risks. If you have to commute to work through 8-Mile in Detroit, and you carry your company’s daily cash to the bank, that tells you mega-hardware — and the appropriate support training —†is in order. If you’re like most people, with a limited exposure to violence, you need to focus on a CCW firearm that you’re likely to carry all the time.

Don’t succumb to the “what if?” fear factor! If you read the gun magazines, you’re probably heard the currently popular phrase, “Two is one; one is none,” meaning you need to carry two of everything.

Nonsense!

If you’re clearing houses in Baghdad, you bet you need two of everything, including grenades. If you’re going to convenience store, I suspect you can make it home with one pistol!

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