The Prepared Vehicle – Safety

Most of my readers are probably aware that we lived in Ferguson, Missouri at the time of the riots.   It was a tough time for our city, but it was a tough time for our family.  We have (and still then had) five children.   In 2014, their ages were 3-12.  My husband worked thirty minutes away from our home, and I wasn’t going to be holed up in our home 24×7 or even just when my husband was available.  That meant leaving my home and I needed to make sure I was protected when I was out and about.

Back in our first article on vehicle preparedness, I talked about preparedness systems.  Today, our preparedness system for our vehicle is Safety.

There are two main ways to discuss safety when it relates to being in your vehicle: situational awareness and personal (and family) safety.

Situational Awareness

When we were living through the Ferguson Riots, Twitter and I were best buds.  Anytime that I had to leave the house, I would get onto Twitter and check out where the protests were going on.  This was very helpful, but since I wasn’t checking Twitter while I was driving, I still had to watch out for everything going on around me.  Why?  It certainly wasn’t because I wanted to spot a new car or I was on the lookout for a friend.  I needed to keep an eye out for movement of groups of people that could potentially threaten my family’s safety.  This is a very basic definition of Situational Awareness.

According to M.R. Endsley in Toward a Theory of Situation Awareness in Dynamic Systems, there are three levels of situational awareness.

(1) The first level of Situational Awareness is “perception of elements in the current situation.”

This is simply learning to observe what’s around you.  Take a trip to a new park and sit down.  Take some time to really observe your surroundings and click some pictures using your phone.  Then stop looking around, put down your phone and write down what you saw in the greatest detail that you can remember.  Then 24 hours later, sit down and do the exact same thing while you’re sitting at home or someplace other than the park.  Use the greatest detail that you can.  Then take a look at the pictures that you took.  What did you miss?  Think you got it all?  Ask someone else to look at your pictures and tell you what they see.  Did they notice something that you didn’t?

(2) The second level of Situational Awareness is the “Comprehension of the current situation.”

This is HUGE.  What inferences can you make from your situation?  Going back to the park analogy.  Do you see a mom wiping the sweat off her forehead?  Or did you see a kid picking himself up off the ground?  There are millions more scenarios like this that should show you what’s going on.  Did the kid who is picking himself up off the ground fall?  Did someone push him?  Or was it a little kid throwing a fit (maybe over having to leave) who finally got a hold of himself?  Start learning not just to observe your situation, but to also read the situation.  What just happened to cause what you’re seeing now?

(3) The third and last level of Situational Awareness is “Projection of future status.”

So this takes things a step in the opposite direction.  Instead of saying, “How did we get to where we are now?”  You need to ask, “What’s going to happen next based upon what I’m seeing?”  It’s like playing chess.  You make moves to your pieces, not only based upon your objective but also based upon what you believe your opponent is going to do next.

These things take time, but this is something that you can do while you’re out with your kids.  You can watch your kids and practice situational awareness at the same time.  Why not take some time and go sit out in your front yard and practice situational awareness out there?  Pick different times of the day to do this and see what different kinds of things that you can observe.

Personal Safety

Besides using situational awareness, we can also be able to physically protect ourselves and our family.  Before I get on to things that we can use to protect ourselves (and by extension our families), you need to know that just because I mention that the items listed are different ways that you can keep your family safe, doesn’t mean they are legal in YOUR location.  For example, if I say that having your concealed carry permit and carrying a concealed handgun is one way to protect yourself, it doesn’t mean that it’s legal where you live.  I can say that there are currently no US cities where is it illegal to own a firearm (though this was not always the case).  Make sure you check the regulations in your own municipality to determine what is and what is not legal.

Pepper spray

About a year after we first moved to central Illinois, we decided to go ahead and put our kids into a local homeschool chess club.  It was our second week at the club, and my kids were enjoying it.  While my four older kids were playing chess and my youngest child was playing with some games beside me, a young man ran into our room screaming and brandishing two knives.  Our chess coach was a hero and truly saved us all from demise.  I won’t go into the whole story in this article.  If you want to, you can read more about it here.

After I had time to process the whole situation, I started thinking about what I could have done differently.  We met at a public library, and it does say on the front door that no firearms are permitted in the building.  It didn’t take me long to come to the opinion that I was never going to go out without pepper spray again.

I’m not going to get into the debates as to whether or not we should be allowed to concealed carry everywhere or whether or not we should break the law to keep our families safe.  I think that in this case pepper spray would have worked just as well as a handgun.  And since handguns weren’t permitted – it is the best legal option in my state.  Some states put restrictions on pepper spray.  Make sure you look your state and municipality up to see if there are any restrictions and what they are in your area.

Striking tool

This really won’t do you much good in a situation where someone is holding a knife or a gun on you, but if they are unarmed or you can catch them unaware, this could be an effective way to protect yourself if you and your family are out and about.

There are three types of striking tools that I am aware of.

Self Defense Keychain – I used to carry a hard plastic resin one of these that looked even more like a cat.  It was great, because it looked like I was just a woman who loved cats, but when I put my fingers into the “cat’s” eyeholes, I could pack one whopping world of hurt on someone.

Self Defense Tool – This one reminds me of icicles that I used to see hanging off our gutters in wintertime when I live in Pennsylvania.  This can also breaks a car’s window if you need to get into or out of your car in a hurry.

Tactical Pen – I’ve carried two different ones of these with me.  I loved my tac pen.  This one has a more nifty features than the last one that I purchased did.  This has a flashlight, DNA catcher, glass breaking or stabbing end of the pen and still can be used for writing.  This is probably the least obtrusive option of the three listed.

Keys – If you can tell that someone is following you, and you don’t have one of the above items with you, take your keys, put one key between second through fifth fingers, and make a fist.  These will do damage if someone is attacking you.

Personal alarm

For someone who can’t, shouldn’t, or won’t carry a more potent form of protection (like a child or an elderly person) this is a great form of keeping them safe.  These alarms will scream at 140 DB.  If someone would try to attack anyone carrying this, they can activate it and it will make so much noise that everyone will come running to see what the sound is.

Knife

Ask my kids.  I have a knife attached at my hip practically 24/7.  I’ve never needed to use it for self-defense, but I use it all the time.  Having it on my person and being comfortable using it in every day situations helps.  I hope that I never need to use it to defend my family.  I have it if I ever need it though.  Again with knives, make sure that you are complying with the laws of your local municipality.

Taser

For people who may have a problem with carrying an actual handgun, a taser may be an option that they feel more comfortable with.  A taser is still dangerous and in many places it’s illegal so make sure you check the laws where you live.

Handgun

We own a handgun, and we know how to use it to keep our family safe.  That being said, if you are going to own a gun, make sure that you know how to handle it safely and that you keep it locked up and out of children’s reach.  If you want to carry a gun with you on your person, most states require you to go through a concealed carry class.  Make sure that you’ve take the class and again, check the laws in your jurisdiction.  In Illinois, before we could purchase a gun, we had to get something known as a FOID (Firearms Owner ID) card.

Make sure you also check the laws on how you are allowed to use and transport your fire arm.  Some states (like Illinois) put restrictions even on how you can legally transport guns.

What About You?

How do you go about keeping your family safe when you are out and about?  I’d love to hear about it!  Leave me a comment or click respond to this if you’re getting it as an e-mail.

Remember, knowledge isn’t knowing something, it’s living it!

There are links in this post.  Some of the links may be affiliate links.  Some of the links may not be.  My promise to you is that I will only recommend the most economical version of the best quality of items to serve you. These are the items that I have bought for my own family.  You can feel free to use my affiliate links, of which I will get a small amount in compensation, or you can choose to search out your products on your own.