{"id":550,"date":"2018-01-29T01:45:16","date_gmt":"2018-01-29T01:45:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/goldenphipress.com\/WayOfTheConcealedCarrier\/?p=550"},"modified":"2018-02-24T23:10:06","modified_gmt":"2018-02-24T23:10:06","slug":"78-smartphones-78-potential-victims","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/goldenphipress.com\/WayOfTheConcealedCarrier\/78-smartphones-78-potential-victims\/","title":{"rendered":"78 SmartPhones, 78 Potential Victims"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/h5>\n
Since there was a page limit to keep the price low on the book (“Way of the Concealed Carrier<\/a>“), several stories did not get published.\u00a0 \u00a0This is one of them.<\/em><\/strong><\/h5>\n

—————————————————————————————————————————<\/p>\n

Living in the Midwest can be brutal sometimes in the winter.\u00a0 And getting some exercise may be a challenge depending where you live.\u00a0 I for one, during the winters, visit my nearest mall and join those other mall walkers.\u00a0 It’s good to get out, check out some sales, and walk several miles.\u00a0 And it costs nothing to walk around the mall (unless you decide to buy something).<\/p>\n

A group of us went to the mall on a semi-busy Saturday.\u00a0 Of course my situational awareness was at its peak watching everyone.\u00a0 I noticed people who had their heads buried in their smartphones.\u00a0 They were oblivious of their surroundings.\u00a0 Several accidentally walked in our path without noticing us.\u00a0 I decided to count the number of people who were on their cell phones.\u00a0 It wasn’t anything very scientific.\u00a0 I just set up the rule of just picking the ones that were staring at their screens and not making phone calls.\u00a0 So their faces were were pretty much buried in their screens.\u00a0 See how scientific this experiment was?<\/p>\n

After walking around the mall, I counted 78 people.\u00a0 Mostly kids (about 60%), and the rest were adults.\u00a0 Now if I was a predator and wanted to target any of these 78 people, they would have been very easy pickings.\u00a0 When I walked around a second time, I noticed the same people (about 15 of them) that did not move from their spot and they were still buried in their screens.\u00a0 One walk around the mall is about 15-20 minutes.<\/p>\n

I have no idea how many people were on the same mall level that I was on, but I would guess around 150 people or more that were walking around outside the stores.\u00a0 In this experiment, I am not including those inside stores since I could not see them, but I hope you get the picture here.\u00a0 This same mall last month was robbed by two kids that were over 6 foot 4.\u00a0 They were in a clothing store, they ran out and went right past us, with security chasing them.\u00a0 I had no idea if they were armed, but for one, I am not going to get involved.\u00a0 Mall security was there and they were not a threat to us or those around us.\u00a0 We would end up being good witnesses anyways since they were running out of the store in front of us, but that’s about it.<\/p>\n

But my situational awareness was on, I spotted them as soon as the ruckus started and we got out of their way as they ran towards us.\u00a0 If it turned into a lethal force situation, I knew where the exits were along with where cover and concealment was.\u00a0 Luckily it was just a pair of thieves with no interest in harming anyone.\u00a0 They were hoofing it pretty fast for the exits and not pushing anyone down.\u00a0 They just darted between people.\u00a0 What if this pair decided to go after people whose eyeballs were glued to their phone screens?\u00a0 There were many to choose from.<\/p>\n

So if you have children, teach them not to be distracted by their phones.\u00a0 They should build that habit of situational awareness (SA).\u00a0 Have them look up frequently to re-examine their surroundings.\u00a0 It could save their lives or prevent harm from happening to them.\u00a0 Teach your children SA (Situational Awareness) and this will be with them through their adult lives.\u00a0 Practice this constantly while you’re with them.\u00a0 Teach them when they hear the words “SA”, they should pop their heads up and do a scan of the area.\u00a0 So the next time you’re family are out and you as a parent notice that your child is deeply focused on that screen, just say “SA” to them.\u00a0 Do this constantly, but not to a point of annoying them.\u00a0 Give them several minutes while they are glued to their screens to see if they disconnect and look around.\u00a0 Help them build that SA habit.\u00a0 So when they’re on their own, they will frequently lift their heads and scan their environment.<\/p>\n

For the adults, you need to practice this also.\u00a0 You’re just as bad as the kids.\u00a0 If you do need to use your phone, seek a safe location, find a wall, prop up against it, stay alert and keep your awareness on.<\/p>\n

During the summer, I noticed the same thing.\u00a0 About 90% of people had their faces buried into their phones at the park.\u00a0 People were fishing and they were surfing on their phones.\u00a0 They were boating, walking, sitting on the park bench, even the parents were not paying attention to their little ones on the swing set.\u00a0 So what’s the point of even visiting a park if all you’re going to do is bury yourself in another world and be disconnected from the one you’re in?\u00a0 Go get a park app or something.\u00a0 No wonder there are so many stories of people being robbed, they’re not paying attention.<\/p>\n

Don’t quote me on this, but I remember an article over a decade ago that talked about people watching TV.\u00a0 I think that by the age of 40 or 50, Americans had spent 10 years of their lives in front of a TV.\u00a0 Do you know how much could have been accomplished in our lives if we weren’t so fixated on our television sets.\u00a0 I feel robbed.\u00a0 But it makes me wonder how many years that people are glued to their smartphones, computers and tablets by the time they reach their 40’s or 50’s.\u00a0 Just imagine all those people born into a world where they grew up using smartphones.\u00a0 I remember the days of not having a television and we just had radio.\u00a0 We did not have cell phones, home computers or tablets.\u00a0 Then that wonderful day came when we got our first black and white television set.\u00a0 The good old days…<\/p>\n

Situational awareness my friend.\u00a0 Keep it on when you’re out and about.\u00a0 Put the cell phone down and enjoy life.\u00a0 Don’t be a target.<\/p>\n


\nBe safe out there, be the responsible firearm owner and always follow the \u201cConcealed Carry Creed<\/span>\u201d!!!<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Since there was a page limit to keep the price low on the book (“Way of the Concealed Carrier“), several stories did not get published.\u00a0 \u00a0This is one of them. ————————————————————————————————————————— Living in the Midwest can be brutal sometimes in the winter.\u00a0 And getting some exercise may be a challenge depending where you live.\u00a0 I…
Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-550","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bonus-topics","category-general"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/goldenphipress.com\/WayOfTheConcealedCarrier\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/goldenphipress.com\/WayOfTheConcealedCarrier\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/goldenphipress.com\/WayOfTheConcealedCarrier\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/goldenphipress.com\/WayOfTheConcealedCarrier\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/goldenphipress.com\/WayOfTheConcealedCarrier\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=550"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"http:\/\/goldenphipress.com\/WayOfTheConcealedCarrier\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":636,"href":"http:\/\/goldenphipress.com\/WayOfTheConcealedCarrier\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550\/revisions\/636"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/goldenphipress.com\/WayOfTheConcealedCarrier\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/goldenphipress.com\/WayOfTheConcealedCarrier\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/goldenphipress.com\/WayOfTheConcealedCarrier\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}