Before weapon training ...

Weapon training is today popular more than ever. All kinds of fire arms courses are available all over the world starting with basic civilian training to open courses with training for special police and army forces, protection services ect. Training with cold weapons is popular as much as training with fire arms, knives, all kinds of blunt weapons, improvised weapons, different gadgets and special self defense weapons meant for concealed carrying. Philippines and Indonesian martial arts are particularly popular in cold weapons training.  

Weapon training in countries where owning and carrying weapons is permitted is necessary for safety reasons, to protect the owner at the first place from injuries and death caused by mistakes in handling, common for untrained people and of course to give a person necessary skills to use the weapon in self defense situation. Same goes for cold weapon, even more, because much higher skill level is necessary to successfully use knives and other cold weapons.

While having and using a weapon gives you much better chances for survival in a case of violent attack there are things to be considered before training even begins. Weapons involvement in violent act often leads to fatal consequences to at least one of the participants. While there are cases when lethal force is necessary beyond any doubt and there is no other option, in many cases, although justified by law, fatality could be avoided. While there will be no advices how should anyone defend his family and property because it is up to every person to make that decision by him self according to the laws of the country he is live in, one particular point will be addressed in this article.

Taking other human being’s life, even if that human being is a criminal and\or a marauder is extreme act and it can cause serious consequences even if it is completely justified by law. Killing other person make drastic changes in life of a person who committed such act. Deep psychological changes, usually in a form of trauma, will occur but no one will stay the same unless the person is complete psychopath ( 1 to 3 % of general population are psychopaths). Traumatic experience of taking someone’s life will often lead to post-traumatic stress disorders, anxiety states, panic syndromes, obsessive behavior, negative beliefs about themselves and the world, feelings of guilt and responsibility. insomnia, depression and suicide as a final consequence of some of the problems like depression or PTSD.

While people can be trained to use weapons successfully in any situation, armies and police forces are doing that for centuries it is highly unlikely that someone can be trained to stay emotionally intact and stable after committing a murder. We can see that suicide rate among US army veterans is extremely high, same situation can be found among veterans from other countries although data is not so transparent as it is in US. American soldiers are well trained, US army pays a lot of attention to quality of the training and beyond doubt, US soldiers are well prepared for all kinds of military engagement. On the other hand a lot of those soldiers who experienced live combat commit suicide after their service is finished. Sometimes years or even decades pass before these veterans finally take their own lives.

Untrained civilians are in worse situation, they don’t have training that will prepare them for the level of stress and all the problems that will come after the violence is over. People who were forced to defend them self and took someone’s life suffer from the same problems as the victims of violent crimes. Of course some people are naturally better prepared and have higher level of resilience to stress than others. On the other hand vast majority of people is not prepared and not able to handle the consequences of taking someone’s life. Most of the people have completely unrealistic view of their overall psychological and emotional abilities to handle extreme stress. Also people often avoid to think about this issue when they make a decision to own a weapon. There is also prevalent opinion that, often stated by gun owners that they will deal with a consequences after they survive the attack no matter what, which is completely right but often unrealistic.

Having a false confidence can be dangerous in one other, much more dangerous level than inability to deal with emotional problems after the altercation happened. Having a weapon but not being able to use it puts the owner in an immediate danger. When situation escalate to the point that both parties have weapons in their hands and one party not being able to use it can end in only one way. Statistics show that up to 1\3 police officers in US are killed with their own weapon. While many cases happen due to inadequate training but high percent of these murders happen due to inability of the officers to use their weapons.

It is an ultimate right of every human being to defend himself and his family by any means necessary. Unfortunately, people are much less prepared for violence and its aftermath that it is actually believed.  Before someone decides to own a weapon and engage the weapon training should be completely sure that his abilities are adequate to deal with all possible situations and outcomes. If there is any doubt, other self defense options should be considered. If person is not prepared to use a weapon there is a great possibility that person will be killed by his own weapon. If person goes through extensive training his ability to use a weapon will be on much higher level. Proper training will give a person necessary skills and reflexes to react instinctively in self defense situation, but it will not give an ability to deal with psychological issues that will certainly come as an aftermath of violence. These issues can be serious and can have negative effect on the person, his family and his immediate environment.

It is worth to remember that prevention is a best way of self defense and if person is careful enough there is a high possibility to avoid violence completely. For those who live in areas with high crime rates solution would be not only to be prepared to defend them self but also to take necessary steps to prepare them self for the consequences of their actions.