{"id":3275,"date":"2016-04-08T17:14:11","date_gmt":"2016-04-08T17:14:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fightfast.com\/blog\/?p=3275"},"modified":"2021-03-31T14:14:33","modified_gmt":"2021-03-31T14:14:33","slug":"trust-your-instincts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fightfastvideos.com\/blog\/2016\/04\/08\/trust-your-instincts\/","title":{"rendered":"Trust your instincts - A True Story"},"content":{"rendered":"
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You Won't Believe This...<\/h4>\nJust heard a harrowing story from some close family members that I need to share. I've changed the names for the privacy of those involved in the incident. While enjoying a nice Easter Sunday barbecue with family, two relatives (we'll call them Joe and Sarah) proceeded to tell me about a very scary encounter they had at a local shooting range a few days back<\/strong>.\n\nThis story gave me chills<\/em> thinking about what might have happened if these two street savvy relatives hadn't been there.\n\n[dfads params='groups=292&limit=1&orderby=random']\n

A Day At The Range<\/h4>\n
\n <\/div>\nTheir trip to the range started out normal. They showed up, picked an empty lane, put up a target\u2014you know the drill. On this particular day, Sarah decided not to shoot (a life changing decision, although she didn't know it yet<\/em>). She normally enjoys shooting, but just wasn't feeling too well and was just going to stand back and watch Joe shoot.\n\nBeing the observant and alert person she is, Sarah noticed something weird about the guy two lanes over<\/strong>. First off, after they'd been there 20 minutes (this other guys was there before them), he'd only fired 2 rounds. Very strange since he was standing right up at the bench and didn't seam to be dealing with any sort of malfunction.\n\nSarah took notice of this and continued to watch Joe shoot, but her instincts told her to keep an eye on the other guy, something wasn't quite right<\/strong>.\n\nA few minutes later the guy picked his pistol up off the bench (this immediately grabbed Sarah's attention). As he held the pistol he was visibly shaking<\/strong>. Sarah thought \"Hmm... maybe he is disabled or something\". She certainly didn't want to be rude or embarrass him by asking if everything was okay, but at this point she was on edge<\/strong>. She discretely brought it up to Joe and they both went to the range master.\n\nAfter voicing their concern, the range master pointed out that he too had noticed the guy's behavior as odd<\/em>, but went on to say that \"his shots are very on target\" as if this somehow made up for all the odd behavior!!!<\/strong>\n\nShocked at this response, Joe and Sarah went back to their lane, still concerned, but wondering if they were just being paranoid. Paranoid or not, both Joe and Sarah kept a very close eye on the suspicious man 2 lanes down.<\/em>\n
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The Disturbing Behavior Worsens<\/h4>\n
\n <\/div>\nMinutes later, after having not fired a single additional round, the suspicious individual (gun in hand) turned his head around to look at Sarah.\n\nIt was the kind of look someone gives when they know they are being watched<\/em>. As his face came into full view, Sarah described him as looking right through her with cold piercing eyes<\/strong>. It gave her chills. This was too much. She could no longer explain away this guy's suspicious behavior. Way too many red flags<\/strong> at this point.\n\nAs the guy turned back around, Sarah grabbed Joe and signaled to him that they needed to talk to the staff again immediately.\n\nOnce again confronted with a reluctant and not very pro-active staff, they explained that the staff needed to intervene and talk to this man immediately<\/strong><\/em>. This time the staff could tell from their tone and sense of urgency that something was clearly going on.\n\nJoe and Sarah decided to keep a safe distance while the staff casually but cautiously approached the man and engaged him in a distracting conversation to assess any issues.\n\n[dfads params='groups=292&limit=1&orderby=random']\n

A Frightening Discovery<\/h4>\nAt this point one staff member was able to see an odd looking hand-written note<\/strong> on the shooter's bench, while another staff member was talking with the man.\n\nAfter a closer look, the note revealed a list of emergency contacts and an ominous line that changed the whole situation<\/em>. The line read, \"I've left a note at home explaining why I did this.\"<\/strong>\n\nThe range staff finally realized what Sarah and Joe had picked up on. This guy was going through a suicidal crisis and was an extreme danger to himself and everyone around him.<\/strong>\n

The Resolution<\/h4>\nJoe and Sarah were happy to say that from this point on, the staff's actions were professional. The authorities were called and the man did not put up a fight, but most importantly \u2013 the situation ended with nobody getting hurt.<\/strong>\n\nAn event that could have ended with a traumatic suicide (no doubt leaving everyone at the range and the man's family with some serious sh*t to work through), or worse, an active shooter or murder suicide, was averted by the observations and actions of two regular people<\/em>.\n\nJoe and Sarah aren't former special ops soldiers and they aren't psychologists or mental health professionals either. They are regular folks who were simply smart enough to pay attention to their surroundings and who weren't afraid to act preemptively when they noticed something suspicious.<\/strong> Sarah especially listened to her gut.\n\nShe saved that man's life and potentially the lives of several others that day all because she had the courage to listen to her gut instincts, even when it went against what others thought<\/em>.\n\nWhat I found most shocking in this encounter was the range staff's willingness to rationalize suspicious behavior (something that is all-too-common in the imagined cocoon of safety many people live in<\/em>).<\/strong>\n\nA range master's job is to keep everyone on the firing line and any others in the area safe. To see something that looks suspicious and explain it away is gross negligence<\/strong><\/em> when it's your<\/em> job to keep people safe.\n
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Trust Your Gut!<\/h4>\nGut instincts exist for a reason. Have you ever had a gut instinct about something like this and been wrong?<\/strong> I know I haven't.\n\nWhen something bad is about to happen you almost always get that uneasy feeling. There is a lot of communication that goes on between the lines<\/em> (body language, eye movements, and other non-verbal cues) that our subconscious mind is extremely good at identifying as \"DANGEROUS.\"<\/strong>\n\nIn polite society and the comfort of a relatively safe first world country (depending on where you live in the US), there is a strong tendency to explain away strange behavior<\/em>. We've been trained to suppress our instincts by rationalizing strange things we notice.<\/strong> Sometimes this is good, but often it can be really bad. For example, it's politically incorrect to cross to the other side of the street when you see a guy walking toward you who \"looks a bit off<\/em>\".\n\nBut having that uneasy feeling about an individual is almost always based on the body's intuitive ability to pick up on non-verbal communication, <\/strong>signals the worrisome individual probably doesn't even know he or she is sending. You may not even be able to describe what was worrisome. You just know that you've got an uneasy feeling.\n\n[dfads params='groups=292&limit=1&orderby=random']\n

You Aren't Always Just Being Paranoid<\/h4>\nListening to those feelings is not paranoia, it's street smarts. Ignore these feelings at your own peril.<\/strong><\/em>\n\nTalk to people who've been mugged, attacked, beaten, robbed, raped, or kidnapped and I bet 9 out of 10 (if they weren't taken completely by surprise<\/em>) had some uneasy feeling right before the SHTF. It's universal. I've certainly had that feeling before every dangerous situation I've been in.\n\nPaying attention to those primal instincts is something you can't afford to learn the hard way<\/em>. In fact, tapping into those instincts is something you should actively cultivate.\n

Final Thoughts<\/h4>\nI hope this story can be a reminder that gut instincts are there for a reason<\/strong>, and maybe someone out there reading this can avoid a dangerous situation because of it.\n\nAnd I hope it also serves as a reminder that even in places where there are designated safety personnel, you can't afford to totally let your guard down or ignore a gut feeling because \"nobody else seems worried.\" Our safety and the safety of those around us is our responsibility.<\/strong><\/em>\n\nLet me know your thoughts...\n

\n Click here for more self-defense and combat training!<\/a><\/p>\n\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You Won’t Believe This… Just heard a harrowing story from some close family members that I need to share. I’ve changed the names for the privacy of those involved in the incident. While enjoying a nice Easter Sunday barbecue with family, two relatives (we’ll call them Joe and Sarah) proceeded to tell me about a Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8382,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[39],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fightfastvideos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3275"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fightfastvideos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fightfastvideos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fightfastvideos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fightfastvideos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3275"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/fightfastvideos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3275\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12746,"href":"https:\/\/fightfastvideos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3275\/revisions\/12746"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fightfastvideos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fightfastvideos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fightfastvideos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fightfastvideos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}