Study Module 2 - Avoiding Criminal Attack

Avoiding Criminal Attack and Controlling a Violent Encounter

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Physiological Reactions To A Life-threatening Encounter No matter what your level of training or how capable you believe yourself to be in handling stressful situations; you will experience, to a greater or lesser degree, a number of involuntary physiological changes during a serious defensive situation. General Bodily Responses to Imminent Danger . In most cases, there will be a period of time be tween when you first perceive a threat and an attack actually occurs. This may occur, for example, when you awaken to hear an intruder breaking in downstairs. During this period you probably will experience a number of bodily responses to imminent danger. Your heart rate and respiration will increase (to provide more blood and oxygen to the muscles and brain), your pupils will dilate (to take in more light and see the threat better), and your muscles will be tighter in anticipation of sudden movement. Adrenaline Rush . One of the ways your body prepares you for flight or fight is through the release of the hormone adrenaline into your bloodstream. This powerful chemical heightens the senses and in creases strength, and can also cause trembling of the muscles. This trembling can make it more difficult to stand or sit still or, more important, to hold the firearm steady. This trembling can be mistaken for fear by both the assailant and victim. In reality, it is a physical reaction to the excess of adrenaline that has been dumped into the bloodstream in preparation for an attack. This is also what causes the uncontrol lable shaking sometimes experienced after a confrontation is over: the body is no longer utilizing all the adrenaline that was released. Note that although the heightened awareness caused by adrenaline may enable you to more readily perceive a threat, it may also predispose you to overreact to any sudden stimulus. Loss of Fine Motor Skills. Stress-regardless of its source-results in a loss of fine motor skills. This is often experienced in daily life. For example, it is much harder to unlock your front door with a key when you are rushing to get to a ringing telephone inside. In sports, too, it is common for many athletes to perform better in practice than under the stress of actual competition. During an attack, your loss of fine motor control will manifest itself in many ways. For example, you will find it more difficult to load car tridges into a pistol magazine or revolver cylinder, or to work the combination lock on a gun box or gun safe. To compensate for this loss of fine motor control, the NRA Personal Protection in the Home Course teaches gun handling skills that involve gross motor skills only. This is also why well designed defen sive handguns are simple to operate, and feature controls that are easily and naturally actuated by large muscle movements. Perceptual Changes During A Threatening Encounter Survivors of violent attacks-as well as those who have experienced certain other extremely stressful situations-commonly report that, during the attack or stressful event, their perceptions of visual and auditory stimuli, as well as the passage of time, were altered. These alterations-tunnel vision, auditory exclusion and time dilation-are involuntary, and may have evolved as a survival mechanism to better focus all of one’s senses and concentration on an immediate source of danger While these perceptual changes may have worked extremely well in enabling our ancestors to fight saber-toothed tigers, they do not always provide as much of a benefit when dealing with one or more intelligent, determined human assailants. Tunnel Vision . Under the stress of an imminent or actual attack, you will be focused almost exclusively on the perceived threat, and will be virtually oblivious to anything going on elsewhere in your visual field. This phenomenon is known as tunnel vision. Tunnel vision can be broken by developing certain training habits (such as lowering the firearm and assessing the area after firing at a target). It is important to avoid tunnel vision during a defensive shoot ing situation, because it can cause you to fail to recognize additional threats (or innocent persons) that may lurk just outside your immediate field of view.

Handgun Training Specialists