October 25, 2025 • 43 mins
Crowded parking lots, long drives, and packed restaurants can turn small lapses into big problems. We break down a calm, practical approach to holiday safety that starts with the law, carries through your errands, and ends with a smart return home. No fearmongering—just clear steps that help you spot risk early, make better choices, and stay in control.
We begin by making sense of reciprocity and constitutional carry so you know where your permit is valid, what restrictions exist, and how to avoid accidental crimes across state lines. With a reliable app, you can check permit recognition, magazine limits, and open carry rules in seconds. From there we get hands-on: fuel, fluids, tires, and a basic first aid kit that covers real-world scrapes without overcomplication. For gun owners, we explain how to secure a firearm in a vehicle, why trigger coverage matters, and how clothing prevents exposure that could be charged as brandishing.
Situational awareness ties it all together. Using Jeff Cooper’s color codes, we show how to live in relaxed alertness without losing the joy of the season. You’ll learn the small habits that pay off in parking lots—picking well-lit spots, avoiding blind corners, scanning before you unlock—and the in-store tactics that keep you moving: recognize choke points, track exits, and keep kids in sight. We clarify the difference between cover and concealment, then map a family plan with a simple action word, defined roles, and a rally point if you get separated. At restaurants, choose seating that preserves options and sight lines. When you arrive home, use your garage as a barrier, keep entry lighting and alarms working for you, and lean on doorbell cameras, peepholes, and delay tactics to control the doorway.
The throughline is simple: lawful carry, thoughtful prep, and awareness that scales to the moment. Subscribe for more practical training conversations, share this with someone traveling for the holidays, and leave a review with your top safety tip so we can feature it next time.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:07):
Hi, welcome to the Armed Guardian Podcast, season
one, episode seven.
Today, David and I will betalking about situational
awareness and travel safety forthe holidays.
So sit back and enjoy today'sepisode.
Uh, it's gonna be a littlelight, quick episode for us, and
um, we hope that remember acouple things while you're out
(00:28):
with your family or traveling orshopping, and just keep aware of
your your situational uhawareness and we'll dive on into
the content.
Hey, how are you doing today,David?
SPEAKER_02 (00:40):
Doing pretty good, Mr.
Braun.
How are you doing?
SPEAKER_00 (00:42):
Doing good.
Uh, you ready for the turkeynext week?
I am good, I am, and thedressing and all the else that
comes along with it, and the 15pounds we're gonna add on over
this next couple of months withuh Thanksgiving and Christmas
with all the food and stuff.
So, yeah, I'm I'm all ready forit.
Yep, and the Christmas candy andcider and and all that stuff
(01:05):
that's gonna linger around for alittle bit after the holidays
because now you got to get ridof it after you cooked it all or
purchased it, purchased it all.
SPEAKER_01 (01:12):
So yes, or the decorations, but I think my
favorite Christmas thing isprobably the music.
SPEAKER_00 (01:18):
Yeah, uh I enjoy the music.
Music's my uh go-to, so uh Ireally enjoy listening to the
music.
And you only get it about amonth out of the year.
I sometimes I'll stretch that,but uh thankful for YouTube
whenever I feel the ear urge tolisten to something.
Uh my favorite Christmas isMannheim's team.
(01:38):
So uh if I ever feel the urge towant to listen to something like
that, great for uh YouTube.
SPEAKER_01 (01:44):
Oh yeah, yeah.
I love the Mannheim theme.
SPEAKER_00 (01:48):
Great, great Christmas.
Yeah.
Uh okay.
Well, today we want to talkabout travel safety.
We've got a few topics here thatuh we're gonna branch out on,
and uh, like I said, this isgonna be a light, quick episode,
but uh we just uh wanted tohighlight some of the things for
people to be aware of.
Um, so what we got up first,David?
SPEAKER_01 (02:08):
All right, so first we've got the reciprocity, um,
which is basically differentstates honor other states.
Um for instance, we live inGeorgia, Georgia honors
Florida's uh permit, and Floridahonors Georgia's.
Um, same with the other statesthat surround us.
And there's there's other statesthat do that as well.
And then so a lot of states theyhave reciprocity with with
(02:31):
several states around.
Um so when we're talking aboutreciprocity, basically it's the
states agreeing to honor eachother's permits, right?
Um so we need to make sure thatwe have that our permits are
honored by the state if we'retraveling and going to a state,
or and we also need to be up todate on that state's laws as
well.
And even if we're going to alocal area, even the local area
(02:54):
is law.
And Mr.
Brian has a good resource herethat he'd like to tell y'all
about when it comes to checkingreciprocity.
SPEAKER_00 (03:02):
Yeah, uh, one of the you know, of course, we're USCCA
uh instructors, but they've gota great app uh in both the
iTunes and Android app store,but uh it's USCCA reciprocity,
and I'll try to put the link inthe show notes for for that.
But um it's a great little appyou can put in your home permit,
(03:22):
and then it will um allow it'llshow you where other states have
uh recognized your your permitfrom Georgia, uh for in our
situation or wherever you'refrom, and then it'll also
actually give you the breakdownof law summaries or even some
details on different uh laws forthat particular state.
(03:45):
Just knowing also that somestates that do have reciprocity,
there are some that have limitedreciprocity, where uh you know
you may can only carry a10-round magazine instead of uh
whatever magazine you want tocarry.
Uh, some states have ammorestrictions, just knowing, like
with us with Georgia andFlorida.
(04:07):
Georgia, we can open carry.
Florida, you cannot open carry,even with a permit.
Uh, so just knowing those lawsand how they will apply to you,
uh, and being a well responsiblyarmed uh citizen whenever you're
traveling, it'll just stand outand give the gun community, uh
(04:28):
the people around us that hey,we know what we're doing and uh
we're trying, we're abiding bythe laws and we're doing
everything safely.
So that's pretty much on thereciprocity.
Just uh there's a couple otherapps out there, but uh USCCA's
uh stays pretty on top ofkeeping theirs updated with the
law.
(04:48):
Constitutional carry is alsosomething you'll want to
consider.
Um, you may be in a state thathas constitutional carry, and
you go to another state thatmaybe doesn't have
constitutional carry yet.
There's currently 27 states thathave some sort of constitutional
permittless carry.
Uh the others uh you have tohave a permit to carry.
(05:10):
So just knowing what you can andcan't do uh will keep you and
your family safe, money in yourpocket, and you with your family
instead of spending the coupleof days or spending time in a
local county facility.
Uh when we're traveling, David,um what are some things we need
(05:31):
to be aware of or or think aboutuh with our vehicle as far as
traveling?
SPEAKER_01 (05:37):
Oh yes.
Um a lot of this is just simplestuff like make sure gas is in
your tank, check your gas gate,you know, make sure you got to
get enough gas to get whereyou're going.
Um you know, maybe plan yourroute so you know where your gas
stations are, restaurants,stops, anything like that.
SPEAKER_03 (05:52):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (05:53):
Checking your engine oil, uh, make sure your car's
got water in it for any freezein the winter time.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (05:59):
Um you've got a backup for small leaks or
something where you can replacethat.
You know, if you pour the oil inthe vehicle, a gallon of uh
pre-mixed tooling or even justwater for your emergency
situation.
SPEAKER_01 (06:12):
Absolutely.
And water's really great becausenot only can it help you if you
put it in your car, but if youhave a jug of water, you can
even drink.
I mean, you know, consideringit's drinking water, you can
even drink it.
So that's a good thing to have.
Also, checking your tirepressure, make sure your tire
treads right, make sure yourspare tires aired up, you know.
SPEAKER_02 (06:30):
Um, people don't think about that.
Yeah, exactly.
SPEAKER_01 (06:32):
Make sure you got a spare tire in there, make sure
that you know the jacks, all thethings you need to advance your
tires there.
But yeah, it it's real bad whenyou pull out your spare tire and
it's flat.
SPEAKER_02 (06:42):
Yeah, real bad feeling.
SPEAKER_00 (06:44):
Or are you know you've got a spare in there, but
you go looking for your jack andit's not there, missing, or or
broken, and uh that's not thetime you want to realize that I
should have checked this out alittle bit before we left or
something.
SPEAKER_01 (06:59):
So, Mr.
Brian, what do you think aboutfirst aid kids?
Is that something that you wouldwant to carry as you're
traveling?
SPEAKER_00 (07:04):
Yeah, because you know, you even know, not
necessarily necessarily for uhpulling up on a major accident
or anything.
How many times have you been ata park uh or at the store and
you've gotten maybe a kid felldown, scraped their knee, you've
gotten a tent uh you know, in adoor jam or something, uh, just
(07:27):
some small cut or something.
Uh little small first aid kit uhwould be do a wonder, you know,
give you the keep things cleanto keep it covered, and using
the supplies in there, theantibiotic cream to help fight
infection and things like that.
Uh, you don't have to have a uha major large uh recon kit to
(07:52):
have a first aid kit, but no,just something in a small
shoebox size case or something.
They they buy you know they havegeneric ones at Walmart, uh
Costco, Sands, and stuff likethat.
So it's uh something justsomething small for the everyday
nicks and scratches.
Uh if you want to amp up andhave things for tourniquet and
(08:14):
stuff, which I would recommend,but it's not necessary.
But just uh having the basics tocover the everyday nicks and
cuts and scrapes that we tend tocome across uh while you're
traveling and stuff.
What about guns, David?
How how should we cons uhconsider our our gun safety
(08:35):
while we're traveling?
SPEAKER_01 (08:37):
Um yes.
Uh I would say a few things.
Make sure your gun's secure inyour in your vehicle while
you're traveling, um, whether itbe you know, glove box, however
you secure your firearm, uh makesure it's secure.
Also make sure we're, you know,as we're holiday shopping or
moving from place to place, youknow, we're getting out going in
(08:59):
gas stations, restaurants, eatwhatever.
We're we have that firearmsecured in such a way that it's
concealed if it's left in ourvehicle um so nobody breaks into
in our vehicle to steal it.
Right.
But it should be secure anyways,make sure it's locked up so so
kids or or somebody that doesn'tneed it um can get to it.
SPEAKER_00 (09:50):
Yeah.
Uh one one thing talking aboutthe guns in the vehicle.
Uh I get for just uh travelingwhere you're going somewhere, uh
get out of the vehicle andyou're taking your gun with you,
these little magnetic uhsecurement devices.
Um uh vote for something likethat I would I'm fine.
(10:11):
Uh I would really prefersomebody to have any anytime you
have a holster or a storage fora gun to have uh whatever it's
got to cover the trigger guard.
So there's no chance of anynegligent discharge or anything
like that.
But yeah, you wouldn't want toleave your uh concealed carry
(10:32):
pistol on that magnetic uhholder in the against the
console while you run into thegas station or into the
restaurant or something, becausethen that's going to open up.
Somebody walks by and arethey're intently looking and
find something.
Uh you know, cover it up, youknow, use a towel or a sheet or
uh something to cover it up ifyou need to leave something in
(10:55):
the a holster in your vehiclewhere you can't take it in.
SPEAKER_01 (10:59):
Um anything else on the I think that's that's it on
the firearms as far as from atraveling standpoint.
Um looking at another thing, youknow, wearing appropriate
clothing, both for area and youknow, we're talking about
traveling with the gun or with aweapon inside your vehicle, but
also um if you get out of yourvehicle and your weapon is on
(11:22):
you, wear the appropriateclothing.
Um you know, if if you're whereyou need to, you know, just wear
the appropriate clothing, Iguess, to to conceal your
firearm or to be able to accessit if you need to.
And also, you know, you may betraveling a long way, and I know
down south here it's relativelywarm out right now, but if
(11:43):
you're traveling up north, umit's getting it's probably gonna
get considerably colder.
Right.
So make sure you have theappropriate clothing for
traveling across those longdistances where the weather may
fluctuate pretty drastically.
Yeah, yeah, I think so.
SPEAKER_00 (11:58):
Um just uh because you also gotta watch out too
with uh locations as you'retraveling that uh some states,
if you expose that weapon, evenif it's concealed, it's a it's
called brandishing in somestates where it can be um a
chargeable offense if uh yourweapon's displayed and they have
(12:20):
a strict concealed carry uh lawin their state.
So just again follow going backto knowing the laws of where
you're gonna be traveling, whereyou may be getting out of.
Just uh you know, true purposeof concealed carry is being
concealed, being that gray manwhere you're you're armed,
(12:41):
you're ready to act if needed,but nobody else knows what
you're you're doing.
So okay.
Anything else on the travelingsafety, David, that you can
think of?
Not that I can think of.
SPEAKER_01 (12:52):
I think that covers most of you know the travel
safety.
I'm sure there's probably otherthings we could talk about, but
I think that's that's a goodportion of it.
Um, let's talk about situationalawareness now.
Okay, Mr.
Brian.
How about uh parking lot safety?
A lot of people are goingholiday shopping um Black Friday
and after you know, gettingtheir Christmas gifts and yeah,
whatever.
SPEAKER_02 (13:12):
Um how do we need to look at that when we're pulling
into parking lots?
SPEAKER_00 (13:16):
Well, uh, before we jump right into that, I think
you know we we talk in ourclasses, and there's a universal
uh color code for yoursituational awareness that uh
Colonel Jeff Cooper came upwith, and maybe we should review
this here real quick.
But uh, you know, as we arearmed citizens, we should always
(13:37):
remain in what they callcondition yellow, uh, just
because we're armed and we'recarrying a firearm.
But uh there's four different uhcolor codes.
Some there has I've heard of onethat's uh has a fifth, but uh
that's one that I don't I don'tuse all that much.
It's a pretty serious uh uhcolor code.
(13:59):
If if you're in that color code,you're you're against everything
at that moment.
But um condition white, uhthat's where you're uh unaware,
uh, and that's perfect thingthat we're trying to bring
awareness to in this uh holidaytravel uh episode that we're
doing.
We don't want to be in conditionwhite because that means that
(14:20):
we're not paying attention toour surroundings.
We may be caught up in gettingthe kids out of the vehicle, uh
putting things in the car orgetting them from the car,
taking them to the house.
Uh it's just no, not beingaware, not paying attention to
our surroundings.
Um conditioned yellow is nowhere we're aware of our
(14:42):
surroundings.
We're not we're we're diligent,but we're not hyper diligent.
Uh, we're not paranoid.
It's just no, we're we'relooking around, we're seeing
things, we're noticing things,but uh we're able to still
continue on, even you know, ifyou're in a group of people,
you're able to be in conditionyellow looking around, but still
carry on conversations with yourfriends, family that you may be
(15:07):
with.
Uh so that's conditioned yellow.
You got conditioned orange,which is something's alerted
you, you're a heightened uhawareness of uh alertness, and
you know, you've seen somethingthat doesn't look right, but
it's not something that you needto act on, maybe just yet.
So you're at this point, you'relooking at um what are my
(15:28):
options to escape what I saw?
Do I need to retreat?
Do I need to go a different way?
And then we've got condition redwhere you're acting, you know,
you've walked into something orwalked up onto something, and
your only response is to defendyourself.
You can't run, you can'tnecessarily hide, possibly, and
you're having to draw yourweapon, verbal commands, pepper
(15:51):
spray or or whatever is requiredto get out of that uh that
threat that you're in.
So just remembering those uhfour color codes we talk about,
we just want to stay incondition yellow.
But going back to our firsttopic, the parking lot safety,
as you're pulling into a parkinglot, shopping center, gas
(16:14):
station, even your own driveway,uh well, being aware of your
surroundings, what's going onaround you?
Uh, is there anybody standing ina not normal place?
Uh, is there somebody lookingdistraught?
Uh you know, things like that.
(16:34):
Uh, we want to be aware of that.
And if we see something,especially at a shopping center,
you know, go to another entranceor you know, go to another spot
in the uh parking lot.
Uh, sometimes we get ourvehicles, we get pretty um uh
pretty cautious over ourvehicles.
We don't like parking next toother vehicles because we don't
(16:55):
want ours to get dinged andstuff, but you don't want to put
yourself out in the furthestpart of the parking lot just
because you don't want yourvehicle to get uh hit, dinged,
or anything like that, becausethen you know you've got that
distance to travel that you'reopening yourself up for a
potential attack, as well as ifyou're pulling into a parking
(17:18):
lot and a parking space beforeyou unlock your car, uh you're
looking around, and then as youget out of your vehicle, you're
looking into the vehicle next toyou just to see if anybody's in
it, uh, or you know, someone maybe laying down in the backseat
or something looking for anattack, uh, with just some
things to not be paranoid about,but just uh little indicators to
(17:43):
watch for, uh, things to lookfor to keep yourself and your
safety up.
You got anything else on parkinglot safety?
SPEAKER_01 (17:52):
Uh yeah, um, if you're a few things.
Um at night, if you're goingshopping at night, parking in
well-lit areas um where the lotsare pretty well.
Um, make sure you have aflashlight with you.
Uh also, um, the other thing isavoid parking lots that have
don't have a way out there thatmay have little choke points
(18:14):
through them um when you go intointo an area where it's locked
in.
Now, sometimes yeah, parkinggarages would be a good example
of that, absolutely.
Um, and you may not be able toavoid those.
Um, or you may they may come upon you before you even realize
it.
But if you can, I would be verycareful avoiding blind spots or
choke points where you can't getout.
(18:36):
Um and if you do have to have togo in a place like that where
it's not easy to get out, youneed to be thinking about
alternate means to to um getaway from a threat.
Um, so that's that's the basicthing with parking lot safety.
Also, you know, even talkingabout parking around people, you
know, I think that's a goodthing, parking around other
(18:56):
cars, but also with parkingaround other cars, um, or you
know, where the majority ofpeople are parking, also comes
to creating blind spots likethat.
So as you're walking through aparking lot, making sure you
know you're keeping an eye out,maybe keeping a distance from
any blind spots you can see.
So that way if somethinghappens, um, you have some
(19:17):
reactionary time to do what youneed to do to flee or um
whatever you may need to do.
SPEAKER_00 (19:25):
Yeah, and that's feeding off of that.
Uh, you know, we don't want towalk in the middle of the alleys
uh as we walk down the parkinglot, but we don't want to walk
right up next to another vehicleuh for several reasons.
One for the blind spots.
Uh again, no, this is a holiday,busy holiday season.
A lot of people are outshopping, uh getting ready for
(19:47):
family, getting ready to go onvacation or on a trip.
And their minds can beelsewhere.
If you're walking right up nextto the vehicles in a parking lot
and someone throws it in reverseor you know, pulls through a
parking spot, they may not beaware.
So it's just that visual asyou're walking up behind
(20:07):
somebody looking into thevehicle, uh, making uh kind of
reading what they're doing fromtheir body language.
And then also, you don't want tobe right up against it because
you don't want to clear thecorner of a vehicle and somebody
be squatting down and wait, uhlooking for somebody coming by.
So just some uh good uh tips forparking lot safety.
(20:29):
Um, what about store safety,David?
Uh we know we we're we're in theparking lot, we've gotten out of
our vehicle, uh, or we're comingout of the store uh on our
transition from the parking lotto the store and from the store
back to the parking lot.
Uh what's some things that weshould should do uh and even
inside the store?
What are what are someguidelines that we should abide
(20:52):
by?
SPEAKER_01 (20:53):
And really, you know, when it comes to this, a
lot of these things kind ofpiggyback off each other.
The same safety situationalawareness we use for traveling,
we're gonna use in the parkinglot, and then as we move into
the store, um you know, we'restill trying to avoid blind
spots, you know.
Um knowing that keeping an eye,you know, you're gonna have
(21:14):
people around you, you can'tavoid that, especially in the
holiday season in the in astore.
They're gonna be close by.
That's just part of goingshopping.
If that's an issue, you mightwant to uh online shop.
But as you're as you're movingaround, just knowing the people
that are around you, you know,um keeping an idea of where
they're at, you know, whatthey're doing, um you know
(21:37):
identifying any any threats orsafety issues, also knowing
you're knowing um of course youknow the way in, but are there
other ways in?
Are there ways out?
Where are the emergency exits?
Yeah um you know, where arethose located?
The aisles, you know, how youknow what kind of a lot of
holiday shopping.
I know there's a lot of stuff inthe aisles, they've got a lot of
(21:57):
like the little island, right?
Um got merchandise and stufflike that.
So so making sure once againyou're not moving into a choke
point area or or something likethat to where you can't get out
or you can't um yeah, a bigthing, no, just uh aware being
aware, you know, looking around,looking for those uh places of
(22:21):
what happens if uh come into uhuh you're in a shopping mall and
you go in uh to X store XYZ.
SPEAKER_00 (22:32):
There's that one main entrance out of the main
part of the mall.
Uh you go in there, you shoppingaround.
Somebody comes in with theintent to do something badly.
What are your options?
Where's your hiding points forcover concealment?
And where should you uh againlook for the exit points, uh
(22:54):
looking for places to to go toand to escape that situation.
Um, also with the store safety,uh while a lot of times you know
parents will take theirchildren, sometimes their infant
children with them.
Uh they'll have them in thebuggy.
Don't be so don't get so caughtup in the shopping that you're
(23:18):
not paying attention to of yourlittle one or the toddlers uh
you know that are aren't ablearen't in the buggy, but you
know, are old enough to walkbeside it or something.
Just paying attention to themand the surroundings around them
because in the past few years,uh more so in the holidays, I've
(23:39):
heard stories and read storieswhere children have been
attempted to be abducted becausethe parents are busy shopping,
picking something up, or tryingto get help for an item.
So just just be aware of of thatwith your your kids with uh
anything else on store safety.
SPEAKER_01 (24:00):
Uh yeah, just one thing I wanted to touch on.
You mentioned cover andconsumment, just to clarify what
we mean by cover and consumment.
I think this is uh good thingfor most people to know.
Um most people do know thisactually, but but there are
people that don't, and this isjust to clarify what we mean by
cover and consumment.
Cover is anything that will stopa bullet.
(24:22):
Um an engine block, uh old oaktree that's like eighty six foot
wide.
Yeah.
Um block wall that's filled withconcrete.
Uh those would be ideas ofcover.
Right.
Um, you know, some of those mayor may not work in different
(24:42):
situations, depending.
But as a general rule, thatwould be covered.
Silmet would be like um uhsheetrock walls, mattress,
mattress.
SPEAKER_00 (24:52):
Uh it's something that just hides you.
It's not uh that's the onlyprotection that uh concealment
is doing is it's hiding yourimage from the view of somebody
else, basically.
SPEAKER_01 (25:07):
But as a general rule, bullets can still
penetrate concealment.
Yeah.
So just wanted to clear that upalso, and when this kind of goes
with our next topic, we'll we'regonna talk about restaurant
safety, but I think this oneactually kind of covers a little
bit of all of the above, andthat's um having a safety plan
in place if you have a spouse,if you have uh uh children or or
(25:29):
maybe family members that thatare with you, um, maybe that you
care for or whatever the thecase may be.
Right, have a plan and let themknow.
Um, you know, if you say getdown, they know to get down or
to move, you know.
That way when you say something,they know that they're looking
for danger around them andthey're trying to get out, get
to an exit, um whatever, youknow.
SPEAKER_00 (25:52):
A duress or action word.
Uh you know, once that word isput out, they're they're alert,
they're uh put into thatcondition yellow or orange, uh,
but then they also uh are awareof what's going on, that you're
not trying to push somebody andand they don't know what's going
on because you didn't have acode word or duress word or
(26:14):
something.
So just having that uh duress oraction word that uh should be
once that's spoken, that oh boy,something's about to happen, we
need to act.
Uh we have our plan if this wordis spoken, what we're going to
do, what each person'sresponsibility is, and go from
(26:34):
there.
SPEAKER_01 (26:35):
And I would say, even going back to your other
thing, you know, we're movingfrom condition yellow at the
point we hear that word or getdown or whatever, we should
immediately elevate conditionyellow to condition orange or
condition red, depending on thesituation.
Um, so you know, having that inplace to where the people around
you, family, whatever it may be,they know that what to do and
(26:59):
how to respond right when whensomething like that happens.
SPEAKER_00 (27:02):
Yeah.
And and if you're out shopping,uh both parking lot and store,
be have a have somebody watchingnote.
Uh, say you have a teenage childor your your spouse, uh, you're
looking at something kids,something for the kids, and or
you've got your eye onsomething, having the other
(27:24):
partner or friend that you maybe with looking around at the
surroundings while you're soinvolved in that object or
getting help for that uh to youknow, get help to see something
in the shelf or something, justuh play off of each other if you
have multiple people.
And I would recommend, ifpossible, having a buddy or
going with somebody um to kindof be as your your six person
(27:49):
watching your six.
SPEAKER_01 (27:50):
So absolutely.
I think uh I mean, you know, notto bring back our our old
military days, but I mean, youknow, when you were in the army
or military, you had a battlebuddy, yeah.
Um, and that was important,yeah.
And you know, you had a lifelongrelationship with that person,
or or at least while you werein, you know, probably.
(28:11):
I mean, you didn't go anywherewithout him or without them.
So, you know, that that wasimportant.
So I think the same thing here,you know, right.
SPEAKER_00 (28:20):
Yeah, so um moving on from the store safety.
Uh we've gone shopping, uh, gotinto the parking lot, got back
to their vehicle.
Uh hey, we're hungry.
Let's let's go grab a bite, eat.
We we've been shopping all daylong.
I don't want to cook.
We go to a restaurant.
What are some things, David,that uh make uh restaurants or
(28:41):
while eating out uh uh aware?
SPEAKER_01 (28:46):
So um well, and I think you know, restaurant a lot
of this is similar as we as wemove from from thing to thing.
So a lot of the things you'regonna carry over into that.
I would say, you know, somethings that would be important
would be to you know picking apicking a good place to sit.
Um sitting somewhere where ummaybe you're you're kind of out
(29:06):
of the way, maybe close to anexit.
Um, where you can get out fairlyquick, you know.
If you're sitting in a booth andyou got a bunch of people and
everybody's got to jump outaround the booth, that might not
be a good idea.
SPEAKER_00 (29:19):
Right.
You're you're kind of in thatdeath tunnel, as we call it, or
I've called it, uh, you know,where you're you're basically
stuck, um, you're at a dead end.
Where if you're sitting at astandard table at a restaurant,
um if something happens, you areat least able to flip over the
table to give you some sort ofconcealment to come up with a
(29:45):
plan while things are going downto get out.
And again, you know, you want tobe close to an exit, uh always
be aware of your exit points.
Um and just review an exitstrategy, always always have a
plan for after an incident, uh,both home or out in the public.
(30:05):
Um if if things go bad, ouraction or duress words put out,
we escape.
If we're all if we're not alltogether, we have to go
different ways.
Where is our rally point?
What do we do?
Do we text, uh, call?
What what what's our uh exitstrategy, and what do we do
(30:26):
after we digress from that umSituation.
SPEAKER_01 (30:31):
So and the and another thing I like to add to
this is these are not justissues for self-defense, but
just you know, what if there wasa fire?
Yeah.
What if there was uh any anyother kind of natural disaster
or um yeah, go ahead.
SPEAKER_00 (30:47):
I was gonna say uh just take advantage of
everything.
No, it's not necessarily justhere in the holiday.
These tips are uh goodyear-round.
It's just we we get so caught upin everything that uh we don't
we we tend to lose sight of uhsome of our safety.
We unintentionally drop, relaxour safety uh because we're
(31:10):
staying so active, trying to geteverything uh done quickly,
going shopping, getting what weneed, and get back home or to
the car or to their family, thatwe sometimes will just let
things um fall and uh we'llwe'll drop our guard, so to
speak.
So just uh you know, these theseare all things that you can use
(31:31):
year-round, but uh just we wantto bring uh to highlight with um
the holiday season coming up.
Uh see anything else on thesituational awareness outside
the home that we haven'tdiscussed, or you want to I
think that pretty muchconcludes.
(31:53):
All right.
Uh last topic uh on the safety.
Uh you've gotten out to uh goshopping, you've ate, now you're
coming home.
Um, some things you want to do.
No, of course, parking lotsafety, like we discussed, you
do the same thing in yourdriveway as you're pulling up to
your house, looking for anyunusual cars that aren't normal,
(32:16):
people hanging out in an areathat you don't know or is not
normal for your area for yourresidence uh neighborhood.
Um, so whenever you pull intoyour driveway, if you have a
garage, one thing that a lot ofpeople you know, we pull into
the garage and we want to jumpout of our car quick while the
(32:39):
uh garage door is closing.
Let that garage door close oropen uh its full cycle.
If you're going to the car, getin your car, then open up the
garage door and back out.
And if you're coming in, pullinto the garage, close the door,
and then unlock and get out ofyour vehicle.
That's just giving you thatextra barrier in case somebody
(33:02):
was to try to breach that garagedoor while it's opening or
closing to conduct an attack, auh robbery or something like
that.
SPEAKER_01 (33:11):
So um and then, yeah, I mean, and then a few
other things to me would be youknow, most of the time these are
things that most people I thinkprobably would hopefully do as a
general rule.
But as we move into the holidayseason, you know, we've got
friends over, family over, um,people in and out of our homes.
Maybe we're at somebody else'shome.
Uh, you know, we're relaxed,we're it's easy to let our guard
(33:35):
down, you know, but just simplethings like making sure we're
locking our doors, locking ourwindows, right?
Um, you know, our house is lit,uh, which with Christmas season
coming up, that shouldn't be aproblem because I know a lot of
people, including myself, likelike to use um a lot of lights,
and that's a good thing.
That's a good thing.
Um, and then you know, uh Iwould say those are probably the
(33:57):
most important things.
Mr.
Brian, would you like to addanything?
SPEAKER_00 (33:59):
Yeah, um, no, if we if you have the availability, um
you know, keep your up close toyour house uh general
appearance, uh kind of neat andorderly.
You know, you don't want to haveyour shrubs overgrown where
something someone could hideback in behind them waiting, but
(34:19):
uh you know, they may you maynot be able to see behind them,
but you could you they'retrimmed up and neat to where it
makes it easier to noticesomething maybe lying in wait.
If you have a security system,set it uh regularly.
Whenever you go to open up yourdoor, if you've got a remote,
(34:40):
don't disarm it right away.
Uh wait until you unlock yourdoor and you're going into your
house.
Most alarm come alarms have adelay.
You know, it'll open up thedoor, it breaks that contact,
the alarm will go into its delaycycle.
Uh, if you disarm your alarm andthen you go in to open up the
door and everything to go in,somebody comes in and bum rushes
(35:05):
you inside the house, you'vealready got your alarm
deactivated.
Uh, if you would have kept itarmed while you're going in, if
you don't uh you've got that 30second or however long that um
delay is before the alarmsounds.
Once that alarm sounds, one theuh audible alarm is gonna go,
(35:26):
and then that's also going to goto your local uh alarm center to
get dispatched uh theappropriate law enforcement
because they've got an activealarm where you know that just
is just an extra securitythought.
Um, and I know some places, somealarms they may have them set
(35:46):
where once you immediately openup the door, the alarm goes off.
But uh if you've got a delay,use that delay to your
advantage.
Um, and then having that familyplan, like we talked about.
You know, what's gonna happen?
We do we do fire uh fire escape,fire alarm plans.
What happens if we have a uhfire at the house?
Where are we gonna meet andeverything?
(36:07):
Have the same thing for youryour home, for your home
defense.
Um just have you know your saferooms, uh where your home
defense firearms are gonna be uhplaced at.
Um you want to talk a little bitabout the home defense uh things
that we might want to considerwith our uh the home defense
(36:27):
checklist?
SPEAKER_01 (36:29):
Um I think we pretty much covered a a pretty good bit
of all of the the above.
Um uh I'm trying to let me thinkover a minute.
Is there anything else?
I would say one other thing isyou know, a lot of people like
the uh motion.
Um I have some at my house thatare activated by motion, you
know.
I mean that's not just a holidaything, but a year-round thing.
(36:53):
Right.
Those are good because uh notonly does it startle somebody
that maybe coming, you know, toeither you know that doesn't
need to be at your home, butalso it's a good warning system
to use as you can see the light.
SPEAKER_00 (37:06):
Yeah, and something you know we talked uh briefly
about a home alarm, but a lot ofpeople are getting these
doorbell cameras um or outdoorsecurity cameras.
Before you open up a door,somebody knocks at your door,
you don't just open up the door,hopefully.
Um, you look through thepeephole, your window, or
(37:26):
something, look to see what'sout there.
Um are you expecting a package?
Uh, somebody comes in, I got apackage or I got a pizza for
so-and-so.
Did somebody order it?
Did are you expecting a package?
If not, don't open that door.
Um, before you go out just on adaily routine, don't just
blindly go out your exit door,go to your car to go to work or
(37:50):
to church or wherever.
Look uh look outside beforeopening up the door.
When you open up the door, haveyour foot behind the door where
it's cracked open for just alittle bit where you've got a
little bit of resistance wheresomebody does try to rush in,
you've got some sort ofresistance where hopefully
(38:10):
you're able to get to yourconcealed firearm or whatever
your home defense method is uhto protect yourself.
But that's just something thatuh no little tip there as far as
using your foot.
Uh you know, you're not going tostop them from coming in, but
you're you're gonna give them alittle bit of resistance where
you're you give yourself acouple seconds to react.
SPEAKER_01 (38:32):
Absolutely.
And then another thing is even,you know, I think keeping uh,
you know, a lot of people havean exterior have a the screen
door or glass door and then theactu the actual wood door, you
know, maybe keeping that doorlocked.
Yeah, so that way you can openup, you can see who's there, and
it's not gonna, you know, ifit's glass or screen or
whatever, it's not gonna stopsomebody that really wants to
(38:55):
get in there, but it will giveyou time to react to shut the
wood door and get safety call911, whatever you may need to
do.
So so you know that that wouldbe a good thing to have.
Yeah, if you don't already haveone.
SPEAKER_00 (39:08):
I know a lot of houses yeah, a lot a lot of a
lot do, you know, you may havesome uh like an apartment
complex.
Most apartment complexes don'thave screen doors or security
doors.
So having that extra that peephole or you know using that foot
to kind of be a door stop uh fora moment, uh just some tips
(39:28):
there for you guys to stay safe.
SPEAKER_01 (39:30):
Um or even the old chain lock where you can open
the door, you know, say three orfour inches to where you can see
what's on the other side.
That might be it.
SPEAKER_00 (39:39):
That or you know, that would even help with the
and the lockable storm or screendoor.
Uh, you'll be able to, ifsomebody's trying to open up
that screen door or breaches thethe door jam and opens up the
your main door and that catchesby that security chain, that
gives you that time to like wewe've told you, you know, react.
(40:00):
Uh get to your safe room, toyour uh home defense weapon, you
know, have your plan in in placeuh to where you're able to react
to take care of your yourselfand your family.
So on that note, uh we hope thateverybody you know takes to
heart some of these tips.
(40:20):
Um and no, like I said, thesearen't just necessarily for the
holiday, but no, they're they'refor year-round.
Uh so just take care of y'allselves.
Um we'll have one more episodebefore the thing uh before
Christmas, but uh this is uhtake care of your Thanksgiving
and Christmas travel needs.
(40:40):
So uh you have anything beforewe close, David?
SPEAKER_02 (40:44):
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.
Yeah, happy y'all have have agreat holiday season.
SPEAKER_00 (40:49):
Yeah, have a happy Thanksgiving.
Uh we wish you the best.
And uh don't forget, um, if youneed any uh uh tips or anything,
check out our uh main company'suh website uh or see us for
training, Blueberry Tactical uhand LL training LLC.
We um we offer these homedefense classes, we offer some
(41:12):
seminars that are freeperiodically.
So uh take advantage.
Uh we'll be doing a few Zoomclasses too.
So that'd be a good way if youdon't want to leave your house
to um take a class or learn someinformation, just to do it
online.
So everybody be safe.
Happy holidays, Merry Christmas,happy Thanksgiving, and uh we'll
(41:35):
see you again soon.
The views and opinions expressedin this podcast are those of the
host and the guest, and do notnecessarily reflect the views
and opinions of the podcastpublisher, its affiliates, or
any other entity.
The information contained inthis podcast is for example
purposes only and do not beincluded as medical, legal, or
financial advice.
(41:57):
Affiliate, liability, five, openfive, full, five, five, and then
(42:20):
you're gonna be able
Hi, welcome to the Armed Guardian Podcast, season
one, episode seven.
Today, David and I will betalking about situational
awareness and travel safety forthe holidays.
So sit back and enjoy today'sepisode.
Uh, it's gonna be a littlelight, quick episode for us, and
um, we hope that remember acouple things while you're out
(00:28):
with your family or traveling orshopping, and just keep aware of
your your situational uhawareness and we'll dive on into
the content.
Hey, how are you doing today,David?
SPEAKER_02 (00:40):
Doing pretty good, Mr.
Braun.
How are you doing?
SPEAKER_00 (00:42):
Doing good.
Uh, you ready for the turkeynext week?
I am good, I am, and thedressing and all the else that
comes along with it, and the 15pounds we're gonna add on over
this next couple of months withuh Thanksgiving and Christmas
with all the food and stuff.
So, yeah, I'm I'm all ready forit.
Yep, and the Christmas candy andcider and and all that stuff
(01:05):
that's gonna linger around for alittle bit after the holidays
because now you got to get ridof it after you cooked it all or
purchased it, purchased it all.
SPEAKER_01 (01:12):
So yes, or the decorations, but I think my
favorite Christmas thing isprobably the music.
SPEAKER_00 (01:18):
Yeah, uh I enjoy the music.
Music's my uh go-to, so uh Ireally enjoy listening to the
music.
And you only get it about amonth out of the year.
I sometimes I'll stretch that,but uh thankful for YouTube
whenever I feel the ear urge tolisten to something.
Uh my favorite Christmas isMannheim's team.
(01:38):
So uh if I ever feel the urge towant to listen to something like
that, great for uh YouTube.
SPEAKER_01 (01:44):
Oh yeah, yeah.
I love the Mannheim theme.
SPEAKER_00 (01:48):
Great, great Christmas.
Yeah.
Uh okay.
Well, today we want to talkabout travel safety.
We've got a few topics here thatuh we're gonna branch out on,
and uh, like I said, this isgonna be a light, quick episode,
but uh we just uh wanted tohighlight some of the things for
people to be aware of.
Um, so what we got up first,David?
SPEAKER_01 (02:08):
All right, so first we've got the reciprocity, um,
which is basically differentstates honor other states.
Um for instance, we live inGeorgia, Georgia honors
Florida's uh permit, and Floridahonors Georgia's.
Um, same with the other statesthat surround us.
And there's there's other statesthat do that as well.
And then so a lot of states theyhave reciprocity with with
(02:31):
several states around.
Um so when we're talking aboutreciprocity, basically it's the
states agreeing to honor eachother's permits, right?
Um so we need to make sure thatwe have that our permits are
honored by the state if we'retraveling and going to a state,
or and we also need to be up todate on that state's laws as
well.
And even if we're going to alocal area, even the local area
(02:54):
is law.
And Mr.
Brian has a good resource herethat he'd like to tell y'all
about when it comes to checkingreciprocity.
SPEAKER_00 (03:02):
Yeah, uh, one of the you know, of course, we're USCCA
uh instructors, but they've gota great app uh in both the
iTunes and Android app store,but uh it's USCCA reciprocity,
and I'll try to put the link inthe show notes for for that.
But um it's a great little appyou can put in your home permit,
(03:22):
and then it will um allow it'llshow you where other states have
uh recognized your your permitfrom Georgia, uh for in our
situation or wherever you'refrom, and then it'll also
actually give you the breakdownof law summaries or even some
details on different uh laws forthat particular state.
(03:45):
Just knowing also that somestates that do have reciprocity,
there are some that have limitedreciprocity, where uh you know
you may can only carry a10-round magazine instead of uh
whatever magazine you want tocarry.
Uh, some states have ammorestrictions, just knowing, like
with us with Georgia andFlorida.
(04:07):
Georgia, we can open carry.
Florida, you cannot open carry,even with a permit.
Uh, so just knowing those lawsand how they will apply to you,
uh, and being a well responsiblyarmed uh citizen whenever you're
traveling, it'll just stand outand give the gun community, uh
(04:28):
the people around us that hey,we know what we're doing and uh
we're trying, we're abiding bythe laws and we're doing
everything safely.
So that's pretty much on thereciprocity.
Just uh there's a couple otherapps out there, but uh USCCA's
uh stays pretty on top ofkeeping theirs updated with the
law.
(04:48):
Constitutional carry is alsosomething you'll want to
consider.
Um, you may be in a state thathas constitutional carry, and
you go to another state thatmaybe doesn't have
constitutional carry yet.
There's currently 27 states thathave some sort of constitutional
permittless carry.
Uh the others uh you have tohave a permit to carry.
(05:10):
So just knowing what you can andcan't do uh will keep you and
your family safe, money in yourpocket, and you with your family
instead of spending the coupleof days or spending time in a
local county facility.
Uh when we're traveling, David,um what are some things we need
(05:31):
to be aware of or or think aboutuh with our vehicle as far as
traveling?
SPEAKER_01 (05:37):
Oh yes.
Um a lot of this is just simplestuff like make sure gas is in
your tank, check your gas gate,you know, make sure you got to
get enough gas to get whereyou're going.
Um you know, maybe plan yourroute so you know where your gas
stations are, restaurants,stops, anything like that.
SPEAKER_03 (05:52):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (05:53):
Checking your engine oil, uh, make sure your car's
got water in it for any freezein the winter time.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (05:59):
Um you've got a backup for small leaks or
something where you can replacethat.
You know, if you pour the oil inthe vehicle, a gallon of uh
pre-mixed tooling or even justwater for your emergency
situation.
SPEAKER_01 (06:12):
Absolutely.
And water's really great becausenot only can it help you if you
put it in your car, but if youhave a jug of water, you can
even drink.
I mean, you know, consideringit's drinking water, you can
even drink it.
So that's a good thing to have.
Also, checking your tirepressure, make sure your tire
treads right, make sure yourspare tires aired up, you know.
SPEAKER_02 (06:30):
Um, people don't think about that.
Yeah, exactly.
SPEAKER_01 (06:32):
Make sure you got a spare tire in there, make sure
that you know the jacks, all thethings you need to advance your
tires there.
But yeah, it it's real bad whenyou pull out your spare tire and
it's flat.
SPEAKER_02 (06:42):
Yeah, real bad feeling.
SPEAKER_00 (06:44):
Or are you know you've got a spare in there, but
you go looking for your jack andit's not there, missing, or or
broken, and uh that's not thetime you want to realize that I
should have checked this out alittle bit before we left or
something.
SPEAKER_01 (06:59):
So, Mr.
Brian, what do you think aboutfirst aid kids?
Is that something that you wouldwant to carry as you're
traveling?
SPEAKER_00 (07:04):
Yeah, because you know, you even know, not
necessarily necessarily for uhpulling up on a major accident
or anything.
How many times have you been ata park uh or at the store and
you've gotten maybe a kid felldown, scraped their knee, you've
gotten a tent uh you know, in adoor jam or something, uh, just
(07:27):
some small cut or something.
Uh little small first aid kit uhwould be do a wonder, you know,
give you the keep things cleanto keep it covered, and using
the supplies in there, theantibiotic cream to help fight
infection and things like that.
Uh, you don't have to have a uha major large uh recon kit to
(07:52):
have a first aid kit, but no,just something in a small
shoebox size case or something.
They they buy you know they havegeneric ones at Walmart, uh
Costco, Sands, and stuff likethat.
So it's uh something justsomething small for the everyday
nicks and scratches.
Uh if you want to amp up andhave things for tourniquet and
(08:14):
stuff, which I would recommend,but it's not necessary.
But just uh having the basics tocover the everyday nicks and
cuts and scrapes that we tend tocome across uh while you're
traveling and stuff.
What about guns, David?
How how should we cons uhconsider our our gun safety
(08:35):
while we're traveling?
SPEAKER_01 (08:37):
Um yes.
Uh I would say a few things.
Make sure your gun's secure inyour in your vehicle while
you're traveling, um, whether itbe you know, glove box, however
you secure your firearm, uh makesure it's secure.
Also make sure we're, you know,as we're holiday shopping or
moving from place to place, youknow, we're getting out going in
(08:59):
gas stations, restaurants, eatwhatever.
We're we have that firearmsecured in such a way that it's
concealed if it's left in ourvehicle um so nobody breaks into
in our vehicle to steal it.
Right.
But it should be secure anyways,make sure it's locked up so so
kids or or somebody that doesn'tneed it um can get to it.
SPEAKER_00 (09:50):
Yeah.
Uh one one thing talking aboutthe guns in the vehicle.
Uh I get for just uh travelingwhere you're going somewhere, uh
get out of the vehicle andyou're taking your gun with you,
these little magnetic uhsecurement devices.
Um uh vote for something likethat I would I'm fine.
(10:11):
Uh I would really prefersomebody to have any anytime you
have a holster or a storage fora gun to have uh whatever it's
got to cover the trigger guard.
So there's no chance of anynegligent discharge or anything
like that.
But yeah, you wouldn't want toleave your uh concealed carry
(10:32):
pistol on that magnetic uhholder in the against the
console while you run into thegas station or into the
restaurant or something, becausethen that's going to open up.
Somebody walks by and arethey're intently looking and
find something.
Uh you know, cover it up, youknow, use a towel or a sheet or
uh something to cover it up ifyou need to leave something in
(10:55):
the a holster in your vehiclewhere you can't take it in.
SPEAKER_01 (10:59):
Um anything else on the I think that's that's it on
the firearms as far as from atraveling standpoint.
Um looking at another thing, youknow, wearing appropriate
clothing, both for area and youknow, we're talking about
traveling with the gun or with aweapon inside your vehicle, but
also um if you get out of yourvehicle and your weapon is on
(11:22):
you, wear the appropriateclothing.
Um you know, if if you're whereyou need to, you know, just wear
the appropriate clothing, Iguess, to to conceal your
firearm or to be able to accessit if you need to.
And also, you know, you may betraveling a long way, and I know
down south here it's relativelywarm out right now, but if
(11:43):
you're traveling up north, umit's getting it's probably gonna
get considerably colder.
Right.
So make sure you have theappropriate clothing for
traveling across those longdistances where the weather may
fluctuate pretty drastically.
Yeah, yeah, I think so.
SPEAKER_00 (11:58):
Um just uh because you also gotta watch out too
with uh locations as you'retraveling that uh some states,
if you expose that weapon, evenif it's concealed, it's a it's
called brandishing in somestates where it can be um a
chargeable offense if uh yourweapon's displayed and they have
(12:20):
a strict concealed carry uh lawin their state.
So just again follow going backto knowing the laws of where
you're gonna be traveling, whereyou may be getting out of.
Just uh you know, true purposeof concealed carry is being
concealed, being that gray manwhere you're you're armed,
(12:41):
you're ready to act if needed,but nobody else knows what
you're you're doing.
So okay.
Anything else on the travelingsafety, David, that you can
think of?
Not that I can think of.
SPEAKER_01 (12:52):
I think that covers most of you know the travel
safety.
I'm sure there's probably otherthings we could talk about, but
I think that's that's a goodportion of it.
Um, let's talk about situationalawareness now.
Okay, Mr.
Brian.
How about uh parking lot safety?
A lot of people are goingholiday shopping um Black Friday
and after you know, gettingtheir Christmas gifts and yeah,
whatever.
SPEAKER_02 (13:12):
Um how do we need to look at that when we're pulling
into parking lots?
SPEAKER_00 (13:16):
Well, uh, before we jump right into that, I think
you know we we talk in ourclasses, and there's a universal
uh color code for yoursituational awareness that uh
Colonel Jeff Cooper came upwith, and maybe we should review
this here real quick.
But uh, you know, as we arearmed citizens, we should always
(13:37):
remain in what they callcondition yellow, uh, just
because we're armed and we'recarrying a firearm.
But uh there's four different uhcolor codes.
Some there has I've heard of onethat's uh has a fifth, but uh
that's one that I don't I don'tuse all that much.
It's a pretty serious uh uhcolor code.
(13:59):
If if you're in that color code,you're you're against everything
at that moment.
But um condition white, uhthat's where you're uh unaware,
uh, and that's perfect thingthat we're trying to bring
awareness to in this uh holidaytravel uh episode that we're
doing.
We don't want to be in conditionwhite because that means that
(14:20):
we're not paying attention toour surroundings.
We may be caught up in gettingthe kids out of the vehicle, uh
putting things in the car orgetting them from the car,
taking them to the house.
Uh it's just no, not beingaware, not paying attention to
our surroundings.
Um conditioned yellow is nowhere we're aware of our
(14:42):
surroundings.
We're not we're we're diligent,but we're not hyper diligent.
Uh, we're not paranoid.
It's just no, we're we'relooking around, we're seeing
things, we're noticing things,but uh we're able to still
continue on, even you know, ifyou're in a group of people,
you're able to be in conditionyellow looking around, but still
carry on conversations with yourfriends, family that you may be
(15:07):
with.
Uh so that's conditioned yellow.
You got conditioned orange,which is something's alerted
you, you're a heightened uhawareness of uh alertness, and
you know, you've seen somethingthat doesn't look right, but
it's not something that you needto act on, maybe just yet.
So you're at this point, you'relooking at um what are my
(15:28):
options to escape what I saw?
Do I need to retreat?
Do I need to go a different way?
And then we've got condition redwhere you're acting, you know,
you've walked into something orwalked up onto something, and
your only response is to defendyourself.
You can't run, you can'tnecessarily hide, possibly, and
you're having to draw yourweapon, verbal commands, pepper
(15:51):
spray or or whatever is requiredto get out of that uh that
threat that you're in.
So just remembering those uhfour color codes we talk about,
we just want to stay incondition yellow.
But going back to our firsttopic, the parking lot safety,
as you're pulling into a parkinglot, shopping center, gas
(16:14):
station, even your own driveway,uh well, being aware of your
surroundings, what's going onaround you?
Uh, is there anybody standing ina not normal place?
Uh, is there somebody lookingdistraught?
Uh you know, things like that.
(16:34):
Uh, we want to be aware of that.
And if we see something,especially at a shopping center,
you know, go to another entranceor you know, go to another spot
in the uh parking lot.
Uh, sometimes we get ourvehicles, we get pretty um uh
pretty cautious over ourvehicles.
We don't like parking next toother vehicles because we don't
(16:55):
want ours to get dinged andstuff, but you don't want to put
yourself out in the furthestpart of the parking lot just
because you don't want yourvehicle to get uh hit, dinged,
or anything like that, becausethen you know you've got that
distance to travel that you'reopening yourself up for a
potential attack, as well as ifyou're pulling into a parking
(17:18):
lot and a parking space beforeyou unlock your car, uh you're
looking around, and then as youget out of your vehicle, you're
looking into the vehicle next toyou just to see if anybody's in
it, uh, or you know, someone maybe laying down in the backseat
or something looking for anattack, uh, with just some
things to not be paranoid about,but just uh little indicators to
(17:43):
watch for, uh, things to lookfor to keep yourself and your
safety up.
You got anything else on parkinglot safety?
SPEAKER_01 (17:52):
Uh yeah, um, if you're a few things.
Um at night, if you're goingshopping at night, parking in
well-lit areas um where the lotsare pretty well.
Um, make sure you have aflashlight with you.
Uh also, um, the other thing isavoid parking lots that have
don't have a way out there thatmay have little choke points
(18:14):
through them um when you go intointo an area where it's locked
in.
Now, sometimes yeah, parkinggarages would be a good example
of that, absolutely.
Um, and you may not be able toavoid those.
Um, or you may they may come upon you before you even realize
it.
But if you can, I would be verycareful avoiding blind spots or
choke points where you can't getout.
(18:36):
Um and if you do have to have togo in a place like that where
it's not easy to get out, youneed to be thinking about
alternate means to to um getaway from a threat.
Um, so that's that's the basicthing with parking lot safety.
Also, you know, even talkingabout parking around people, you
know, I think that's a goodthing, parking around other
(18:56):
cars, but also with parkingaround other cars, um, or you
know, where the majority ofpeople are parking, also comes
to creating blind spots likethat.
So as you're walking through aparking lot, making sure you
know you're keeping an eye out,maybe keeping a distance from
any blind spots you can see.
So that way if somethinghappens, um, you have some
(19:17):
reactionary time to do what youneed to do to flee or um
whatever you may need to do.
SPEAKER_00 (19:25):
Yeah, and that's feeding off of that.
Uh, you know, we don't want towalk in the middle of the alleys
uh as we walk down the parkinglot, but we don't want to walk
right up next to another vehicleuh for several reasons.
One for the blind spots.
Uh again, no, this is a holiday,busy holiday season.
A lot of people are outshopping, uh getting ready for
(19:47):
family, getting ready to go onvacation or on a trip.
And their minds can beelsewhere.
If you're walking right up nextto the vehicles in a parking lot
and someone throws it in reverseor you know, pulls through a
parking spot, they may not beaware.
So it's just that visual asyou're walking up behind
(20:07):
somebody looking into thevehicle, uh, making uh kind of
reading what they're doing fromtheir body language.
And then also, you don't want tobe right up against it because
you don't want to clear thecorner of a vehicle and somebody
be squatting down and wait, uhlooking for somebody coming by.
So just some uh good uh tips forparking lot safety.
(20:29):
Um, what about store safety,David?
Uh we know we we're we're in theparking lot, we've gotten out of
our vehicle, uh, or we're comingout of the store uh on our
transition from the parking lotto the store and from the store
back to the parking lot.
Uh what's some things that weshould should do uh and even
inside the store?
What are what are someguidelines that we should abide
(20:52):
by?
SPEAKER_01 (20:53):
And really, you know, when it comes to this, a
lot of these things kind ofpiggyback off each other.
The same safety situationalawareness we use for traveling,
we're gonna use in the parkinglot, and then as we move into
the store, um you know, we'restill trying to avoid blind
spots, you know.
Um knowing that keeping an eye,you know, you're gonna have
(21:14):
people around you, you can'tavoid that, especially in the
holiday season in the in astore.
They're gonna be close by.
That's just part of goingshopping.
If that's an issue, you mightwant to uh online shop.
But as you're as you're movingaround, just knowing the people
that are around you, you know,um keeping an idea of where
they're at, you know, whatthey're doing, um you know
(21:37):
identifying any any threats orsafety issues, also knowing
you're knowing um of course youknow the way in, but are there
other ways in?
Are there ways out?
Where are the emergency exits?
Yeah um you know, where arethose located?
The aisles, you know, how youknow what kind of a lot of
holiday shopping.
I know there's a lot of stuff inthe aisles, they've got a lot of
(21:57):
like the little island, right?
Um got merchandise and stufflike that.
So so making sure once againyou're not moving into a choke
point area or or something likethat to where you can't get out
or you can't um yeah, a bigthing, no, just uh aware being
aware, you know, looking around,looking for those uh places of
(22:21):
what happens if uh come into uhuh you're in a shopping mall and
you go in uh to X store XYZ.
SPEAKER_00 (22:32):
There's that one main entrance out of the main
part of the mall.
Uh you go in there, you shoppingaround.
Somebody comes in with theintent to do something badly.
What are your options?
Where's your hiding points forcover concealment?
And where should you uh againlook for the exit points, uh
(22:54):
looking for places to to go toand to escape that situation.
Um, also with the store safety,uh while a lot of times you know
parents will take theirchildren, sometimes their infant
children with them.
Uh they'll have them in thebuggy.
Don't be so don't get so caughtup in the shopping that you're
(23:18):
not paying attention to of yourlittle one or the toddlers uh
you know that are aren't ablearen't in the buggy, but you
know, are old enough to walkbeside it or something.
Just paying attention to themand the surroundings around them
because in the past few years,uh more so in the holidays, I've
(23:39):
heard stories and read storieswhere children have been
attempted to be abducted becausethe parents are busy shopping,
picking something up, or tryingto get help for an item.
So just just be aware of of thatwith your your kids with uh
anything else on store safety.
SPEAKER_01 (24:00):
Uh yeah, just one thing I wanted to touch on.
You mentioned cover andconsumment, just to clarify what
we mean by cover and consumment.
I think this is uh good thingfor most people to know.
Um most people do know thisactually, but but there are
people that don't, and this isjust to clarify what we mean by
cover and consumment.
Cover is anything that will stopa bullet.
(24:22):
Um an engine block, uh old oaktree that's like eighty six foot
wide.
Yeah.
Um block wall that's filled withconcrete.
Uh those would be ideas ofcover.
Right.
Um, you know, some of those mayor may not work in different
(24:42):
situations, depending.
But as a general rule, thatwould be covered.
Silmet would be like um uhsheetrock walls, mattress,
mattress.
SPEAKER_00 (24:52):
Uh it's something that just hides you.
It's not uh that's the onlyprotection that uh concealment
is doing is it's hiding yourimage from the view of somebody
else, basically.
SPEAKER_01 (25:07):
But as a general rule, bullets can still
penetrate concealment.
Yeah.
So just wanted to clear that upalso, and when this kind of goes
with our next topic, we'll we'regonna talk about restaurant
safety, but I think this oneactually kind of covers a little
bit of all of the above, andthat's um having a safety plan
in place if you have a spouse,if you have uh uh children or or
(25:29):
maybe family members that thatare with you, um, maybe that you
care for or whatever the thecase may be.
Right, have a plan and let themknow.
Um, you know, if you say getdown, they know to get down or
to move, you know.
That way when you say something,they know that they're looking
for danger around them andthey're trying to get out, get
to an exit, um whatever, youknow.
SPEAKER_00 (25:52):
A duress or action word.
Uh you know, once that word isput out, they're they're alert,
they're uh put into thatcondition yellow or orange, uh,
but then they also uh are awareof what's going on, that you're
not trying to push somebody andand they don't know what's going
on because you didn't have acode word or duress word or
(26:14):
something.
So just having that uh duress oraction word that uh should be
once that's spoken, that oh boy,something's about to happen, we
need to act.
Uh we have our plan if this wordis spoken, what we're going to
do, what each person'sresponsibility is, and go from
(26:34):
there.
SPEAKER_01 (26:35):
And I would say, even going back to your other
thing, you know, we're movingfrom condition yellow at the
point we hear that word or getdown or whatever, we should
immediately elevate conditionyellow to condition orange or
condition red, depending on thesituation.
Um, so you know, having that inplace to where the people around
you, family, whatever it may be,they know that what to do and
(26:59):
how to respond right when whensomething like that happens.
SPEAKER_00 (27:02):
Yeah.
And and if you're out shopping,uh both parking lot and store,
be have a have somebody watchingnote.
Uh, say you have a teenage childor your your spouse, uh, you're
looking at something kids,something for the kids, and or
you've got your eye onsomething, having the other
(27:24):
partner or friend that you maybe with looking around at the
surroundings while you're soinvolved in that object or
getting help for that uh to youknow, get help to see something
in the shelf or something, justuh play off of each other if you
have multiple people.
And I would recommend, ifpossible, having a buddy or
going with somebody um to kindof be as your your six person
(27:49):
watching your six.
SPEAKER_01 (27:50):
So absolutely.
I think uh I mean, you know, notto bring back our our old
military days, but I mean, youknow, when you were in the army
or military, you had a battlebuddy, yeah.
Um, and that was important,yeah.
And you know, you had a lifelongrelationship with that person,
or or at least while you werein, you know, probably.
(28:11):
I mean, you didn't go anywherewithout him or without them.
So, you know, that that wasimportant.
So I think the same thing here,you know, right.
SPEAKER_00 (28:20):
Yeah, so um moving on from the store safety.
Uh we've gone shopping, uh, gotinto the parking lot, got back
to their vehicle.
Uh hey, we're hungry.
Let's let's go grab a bite, eat.
We we've been shopping all daylong.
I don't want to cook.
We go to a restaurant.
What are some things, David,that uh make uh restaurants or
(28:41):
while eating out uh uh aware?
SPEAKER_01 (28:46):
So um well, and I think you know, restaurant a lot
of this is similar as we as wemove from from thing to thing.
So a lot of the things you'regonna carry over into that.
I would say, you know, somethings that would be important
would be to you know picking apicking a good place to sit.
Um sitting somewhere where ummaybe you're you're kind of out
(29:06):
of the way, maybe close to anexit.
Um, where you can get out fairlyquick, you know.
If you're sitting in a booth andyou got a bunch of people and
everybody's got to jump outaround the booth, that might not
be a good idea.
SPEAKER_00 (29:19):
Right.
You're you're kind of in thatdeath tunnel, as we call it, or
I've called it, uh, you know,where you're you're basically
stuck, um, you're at a dead end.
Where if you're sitting at astandard table at a restaurant,
um if something happens, you areat least able to flip over the
table to give you some sort ofconcealment to come up with a
(29:45):
plan while things are going downto get out.
And again, you know, you want tobe close to an exit, uh always
be aware of your exit points.
Um and just review an exitstrategy, always always have a
plan for after an incident, uh,both home or out in the public.
(30:05):
Um if if things go bad, ouraction or duress words put out,
we escape.
If we're all if we're not alltogether, we have to go
different ways.
Where is our rally point?
What do we do?
Do we text, uh, call?
What what what's our uh exitstrategy, and what do we do
(30:26):
after we digress from that umSituation.
SPEAKER_01 (30:31):
So and the and another thing I like to add to
this is these are not justissues for self-defense, but
just you know, what if there wasa fire?
Yeah.
What if there was uh any anyother kind of natural disaster
or um yeah, go ahead.
SPEAKER_00 (30:47):
I was gonna say uh just take advantage of
everything.
No, it's not necessarily justhere in the holiday.
These tips are uh goodyear-round.
It's just we we get so caught upin everything that uh we don't
we we tend to lose sight of uhsome of our safety.
We unintentionally drop, relaxour safety uh because we're
(31:10):
staying so active, trying to geteverything uh done quickly,
going shopping, getting what weneed, and get back home or to
the car or to their family, thatwe sometimes will just let
things um fall and uh we'llwe'll drop our guard, so to
speak.
So just uh you know, these theseare all things that you can use
(31:31):
year-round, but uh just we wantto bring uh to highlight with um
the holiday season coming up.
Uh see anything else on thesituational awareness outside
the home that we haven'tdiscussed, or you want to I
think that pretty muchconcludes.
(31:53):
All right.
Uh last topic uh on the safety.
Uh you've gotten out to uh goshopping, you've ate, now you're
coming home.
Um, some things you want to do.
No, of course, parking lotsafety, like we discussed, you
do the same thing in yourdriveway as you're pulling up to
your house, looking for anyunusual cars that aren't normal,
(32:16):
people hanging out in an areathat you don't know or is not
normal for your area for yourresidence uh neighborhood.
Um, so whenever you pull intoyour driveway, if you have a
garage, one thing that a lot ofpeople you know, we pull into
the garage and we want to jumpout of our car quick while the
(32:39):
uh garage door is closing.
Let that garage door close oropen uh its full cycle.
If you're going to the car, getin your car, then open up the
garage door and back out.
And if you're coming in, pullinto the garage, close the door,
and then unlock and get out ofyour vehicle.
That's just giving you thatextra barrier in case somebody
(33:02):
was to try to breach that garagedoor while it's opening or
closing to conduct an attack, auh robbery or something like
that.
SPEAKER_01 (33:11):
So um and then, yeah, I mean, and then a few
other things to me would be youknow, most of the time these are
things that most people I thinkprobably would hopefully do as a
general rule.
But as we move into the holidayseason, you know, we've got
friends over, family over, um,people in and out of our homes.
Maybe we're at somebody else'shome.
Uh, you know, we're relaxed,we're it's easy to let our guard
(33:35):
down, you know, but just simplethings like making sure we're
locking our doors, locking ourwindows, right?
Um, you know, our house is lit,uh, which with Christmas season
coming up, that shouldn't be aproblem because I know a lot of
people, including myself, likelike to use um a lot of lights,
and that's a good thing.
That's a good thing.
Um, and then you know, uh Iwould say those are probably the
(33:57):
most important things.
Mr.
Brian, would you like to addanything?
SPEAKER_00 (33:59):
Yeah, um, no, if we if you have the availability, um
you know, keep your up close toyour house uh general
appearance, uh kind of neat andorderly.
You know, you don't want to haveyour shrubs overgrown where
something someone could hideback in behind them waiting, but
(34:19):
uh you know, they may you maynot be able to see behind them,
but you could you they'retrimmed up and neat to where it
makes it easier to noticesomething maybe lying in wait.
If you have a security system,set it uh regularly.
Whenever you go to open up yourdoor, if you've got a remote,
(34:40):
don't disarm it right away.
Uh wait until you unlock yourdoor and you're going into your
house.
Most alarm come alarms have adelay.
You know, it'll open up thedoor, it breaks that contact,
the alarm will go into its delaycycle.
Uh, if you disarm your alarm andthen you go in to open up the
door and everything to go in,somebody comes in and bum rushes
(35:05):
you inside the house, you'vealready got your alarm
deactivated.
Uh, if you would have kept itarmed while you're going in, if
you don't uh you've got that 30second or however long that um
delay is before the alarmsounds.
Once that alarm sounds, one theuh audible alarm is gonna go,
(35:26):
and then that's also going to goto your local uh alarm center to
get dispatched uh theappropriate law enforcement
because they've got an activealarm where you know that just
is just an extra securitythought.
Um, and I know some places, somealarms they may have them set
(35:46):
where once you immediately openup the door, the alarm goes off.
But uh if you've got a delay,use that delay to your
advantage.
Um, and then having that familyplan, like we talked about.
You know, what's gonna happen?
We do we do fire uh fire escape,fire alarm plans.
What happens if we have a uhfire at the house?
Where are we gonna meet andeverything?
(36:07):
Have the same thing for youryour home, for your home
defense.
Um just have you know your saferooms, uh where your home
defense firearms are gonna be uhplaced at.
Um you want to talk a little bitabout the home defense uh things
that we might want to considerwith our uh the home defense
(36:27):
checklist?
SPEAKER_01 (36:29):
Um I think we pretty much covered a a pretty good bit
of all of the the above.
Um uh I'm trying to let me thinkover a minute.
Is there anything else?
I would say one other thing isyou know, a lot of people like
the uh motion.
Um I have some at my house thatare activated by motion, you
know.
I mean that's not just a holidaything, but a year-round thing.
(36:53):
Right.
Those are good because uh notonly does it startle somebody
that maybe coming, you know, toeither you know that doesn't
need to be at your home, butalso it's a good warning system
to use as you can see the light.
SPEAKER_00 (37:06):
Yeah, and something you know we talked uh briefly
about a home alarm, but a lot ofpeople are getting these
doorbell cameras um or outdoorsecurity cameras.
Before you open up a door,somebody knocks at your door,
you don't just open up the door,hopefully.
Um, you look through thepeephole, your window, or
(37:26):
something, look to see what'sout there.
Um are you expecting a package?
Uh, somebody comes in, I got apackage or I got a pizza for
so-and-so.
Did somebody order it?
Did are you expecting a package?
If not, don't open that door.
Um, before you go out just on adaily routine, don't just
blindly go out your exit door,go to your car to go to work or
(37:50):
to church or wherever.
Look uh look outside beforeopening up the door.
When you open up the door, haveyour foot behind the door where
it's cracked open for just alittle bit where you've got a
little bit of resistance wheresomebody does try to rush in,
you've got some sort ofresistance where hopefully
(38:10):
you're able to get to yourconcealed firearm or whatever
your home defense method is uhto protect yourself.
But that's just something thatuh no little tip there as far as
using your foot.
Uh you know, you're not going tostop them from coming in, but
you're you're gonna give them alittle bit of resistance where
you're you give yourself acouple seconds to react.
SPEAKER_01 (38:32):
Absolutely.
And then another thing is even,you know, I think keeping uh,
you know, a lot of people havean exterior have a the screen
door or glass door and then theactu the actual wood door, you
know, maybe keeping that doorlocked.
Yeah, so that way you can openup, you can see who's there, and
it's not gonna, you know, ifit's glass or screen or
whatever, it's not gonna stopsomebody that really wants to
(38:55):
get in there, but it will giveyou time to react to shut the
wood door and get safety call911, whatever you may need to
do.
So so you know that that wouldbe a good thing to have.
Yeah, if you don't already haveone.
SPEAKER_00 (39:08):
I know a lot of houses yeah, a lot a lot of a
lot do, you know, you may havesome uh like an apartment
complex.
Most apartment complexes don'thave screen doors or security
doors.
So having that extra that peephole or you know using that foot
to kind of be a door stop uh fora moment, uh just some tips
(39:28):
there for you guys to stay safe.
SPEAKER_01 (39:30):
Um or even the old chain lock where you can open
the door, you know, say three orfour inches to where you can see
what's on the other side.
That might be it.
SPEAKER_00 (39:39):
That or you know, that would even help with the
and the lockable storm or screendoor.
Uh, you'll be able to, ifsomebody's trying to open up
that screen door or breaches thethe door jam and opens up the
your main door and that catchesby that security chain, that
gives you that time to like wewe've told you, you know, react.
(40:00):
Uh get to your safe room, toyour uh home defense weapon, you
know, have your plan in in placeuh to where you're able to react
to take care of your yourselfand your family.
So on that note, uh we hope thateverybody you know takes to
heart some of these tips.
(40:20):
Um and no, like I said, thesearen't just necessarily for the
holiday, but no, they're they'refor year-round.
Uh so just take care of y'allselves.
Um we'll have one more episodebefore the thing uh before
Christmas, but uh this is uhtake care of your Thanksgiving
and Christmas travel needs.
(40:40):
So uh you have anything beforewe close, David?
SPEAKER_02 (40:44):
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.
Yeah, happy y'all have have agreat holiday season.
SPEAKER_00 (40:49):
Yeah, have a happy Thanksgiving.
Uh we wish you the best.
And uh don't forget, um, if youneed any uh uh tips or anything,
check out our uh main company'suh website uh or see us for
training, Blueberry Tactical uhand LL training LLC.
We um we offer these homedefense classes, we offer some
(41:12):
seminars that are freeperiodically.
So uh take advantage.
Uh we'll be doing a few Zoomclasses too.
So that'd be a good way if youdon't want to leave your house
to um take a class or learn someinformation, just to do it
online.
So everybody be safe.
Happy holidays, Merry Christmas,happy Thanksgiving, and uh we'll
(41:35):
see you again soon.
The views and opinions expressedin this podcast are those of the
host and the guest, and do notnecessarily reflect the views
and opinions of the podcastpublisher, its affiliates, or
any other entity.
The information contained inthis podcast is for example
purposes only and do not beincluded as medical, legal, or
financial advice.
(41:57):
Affiliate, liability, five, openfive, full, five, five, and then
(42:20):
you're gonna be able
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Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.