Are You A Lion Or Lamb?

I warn you, this post is controversial, intense and written with a bit of humor.  If you don’t have a sense of humor..don’t read it.  Actually, better yet, grow a sense of humor and read it anyway!  I wrote it in hopes a few lambs might stumble upon it and wake up, or that a lion might share it with their favorite lamb.

Are you a lion or a lamb? What’s the difference?  Seems pretty damn simple, lions do the eating, lambs get eaten.  I recently sat at dinner with my girl in a trendy place in the Tulsa area and looked around.  I scanned each person I saw for clothing that might hide a gun.  I wondered how many other people in the entire place were armed.  My guess?  Not a single one.  I saw plenty of well-dressed types wearing clothing that indicated they were professionals of some sort having an after-dinner drink.  The dating types on the male side wore “skinny” jeans and nice shirts, often the types that are left untucked but are form-fitting as is the style these days and can not hide a gun.  Oh, yea…don’t even ask what I think of the skinny jean outfitted male by the way (sorry if you wear them, but seriously, punch yourself…twice).  What is up with the stylish, well dressed, successful yuppy crowd that seems to keep them oblivious to the possibility they might face violence?  By the way, if you happen to be that one in a million that is a real lion (armed, well-trained, badass) that can pull the skinny jean thing off, you have my humble respect.

I wondered why as I sat in the middle of a conservative, gun-loving state that issued carry permits left and right, why no one (that I could spot) exercised that right to self-protection.  Lambs!   I have traveled extensively throughout the U.S. and have observed the same trend in states that make it much more difficult to carry a handgun (like California and Mass) but in Oklahoma??   You wanna know what really pisses me off?  It’s the fact that half of these skinny-jeaned lambs have probably been to the Oklahoma carry course.  Some of them probably actually went through the process of getting their permit.

Years ago I ran a firearm training academy (the U.S. Shooting Academy) and our most popular class was the Oklahoma concealed carry course.  The class maxed out at 24 and we always filled it several times per month.   The student groups in this class were always somewhat different from those I saw in the other more intensive two-day classes.  It seemed that the yuppie crowd appeared out of nowhere to take the carry course, maybe because it was hip or cool.   Our goal at the time was to get the graduates of the concealed carry course to take a follow on class that actually taught them more of what they needed to know in order to defend themselves.   Take a guess at how many of the hundreds of concealed carry graduates we had in follow on courses.  Less than 10%!   Truthfully, I think getting the carry permit was simply the “cool” thing to do.  I often saw couple attend together, husband and wife or boyfriend and girlfriend.   I am guessing that neither one of most of those couples actually decided to follow through and carry a firearm.   Isn’t that crazy?!   Now we have thousands of lambs walking around with concealed carry permits!   And here is kicker….a bunch of them probably own a handgun that would serve as a great defensive tool, but it is tucked neatly away at home (or worse yet, locked in their glovebox and completely unavailable).   They figure that they will bring it along the day they decided to drive through the bad part of town…..you know, “just in case.”

Women, let me ask you this.  Have you made the choice to protect yourself?  Or do you rely on your mate to do so?  If you rely on your mate to do so…welcome to lambhood!   If you are one of the ones I noticed at the restaurant the other day, I hope your skinny-jeaned man makes a good bullet stop if someone walks in shooting.   That is pretty much all you have when things go south.   My recommendation is you take action to protect yourself and your man.  Better yet, find a man who can help protect you.  Just remember, the best lion will not be with you 24 hrs a day, so prepare yourself and sharpen those claws.  Guess who does most of the hunting and killing in a lion pride?  Groups of adult females!   Come on girls, get your lioness on and prepare to protect yourself.    There are many options for you to “go armed” other than carrying a gun full-time by the way, like the C2 Taser and quality pepper spray.  I get that some of you that read this will not choose to carry a gun.   Don’t sell yourself short however, you can increase your odds significantly by arming yourself with an alternative and working hard on your awareness and avoidance skills.

Now, the lions reading this are probably getting a pretty good chuckle.   You certainly don’t fit the description I have written about.  You probably carry and train and drag your knuckles a bit just like me.   But how many lambs do you know that might benefit from a wake-up call.    Men take certain things personally.   Ask the lamb nearest to you if they love their family.   I’d guess they would say yes.  Then ask them this: “if someone kicked your door in at 1 am, planning to rob, rape, and kill you and your family, what would you do?”   or “What is your plan if you and the family are at Applebees tonight and the wolf walks through the door and starts shooting?”  They won’t have an answer.   But they can if we help them find it!  If you regard yourself as a lion, that’s a great thing, but what have you done to influence the unprepared around you?  I bet you have a friend, neighbor, or family member that would greatly benefit from a wake-up call right?   What is stopping you?   Trust me, I get it.  Your responsibilities are met if you have your immediate family protected and prepared right?  I have myself ignored those around me that choose the blind road, but not any longer.  I started promoting my force multiplier challenge months ago and will continue to influence people as much as I can.  I challenge you to do the same.   Get with it lions, influence those around you.   Help make them safer.

Let me speak to you lambs that actually read this.  You might think that I don’t like you.  You’re wrong.   I care very much for you actually.  I want to turn you into lions.

I get angrier than I can describe when I think about those that sat in the movie theater in on July 20, 2012, in Aurora Colorado during a midnight screening of the film The Dark Knight Rises.  As you know, a psychopathic gunman, dressed in tactical clothing, set off tear gas grenades and shot into the audience with multiple firearms, killing 12 people and injuring 70 others.  No one shot back!

Or how about when on the morning of 7 January 2015, at about 11:30 local time, two Islamist terrorists armed with assault rifles and other weapons forced their way into the offices of the satirical weekly newspaper Charlie Hebdo in Paris and fired up to 50 shots, initially killing 11 people and injuring 11 others, and shouted: “Allahu Akbar” (Arabic for “God is [the] greatest”). A French National Police officer was the last to die after he encountered the gunmen outside, shortly after the initial shooting.  Several other “unarmed” police were powerless to make a difference.  Unarmed police officers!?!

Or even closer to home for me, when on Sept 25 Colleen Hufford, a 54-year-old grandmother, and worker at Vaughan Foods in Moore, Okla., was standing in the doorway of the front office in the food processing facility’s main building when Alton Nolen, a co-worker who had just been suspended over an argument with another colleague, violently grabbed her from behind.  As horrified employees watched, Nolen, a 30-year-old production line worker with a criminal history, savagely sawed at Hufford’s throat with a large kitchen knife he had gone home to retrieve, severing her head.” (news.yahoo.com) Thank god for the true hero in the story, the lion that was armed and shot the attacker.

History shows us that violence is among us.  Our question must not be “why,”  but instead  “how.”  How do I protect myself, my family, my friends, etc?   It’s a waste of time trying to

figure out why someone you’ve never met would take your life at the snap of a finger, instead figure out how you are going to respond if it happens.

Become the lion.

Until Then – Train Hard!

Mike S.