I recently returned from the NRA Annual Meetings, and it was an excellent show as usual.  As has been noted, the trend in gear seems to be towards tactical/concealed carry markets, which is a great thing in my opinion.  However, I did want to talk about a particular marketing technique that is concerning because it creates a mindset that could put your life in jeopardy at a critical moment.

The marketing technique that I’m talking about goes like this: “Buy Item X and you’ll be prepared for any tactical/self-defense situation EVER!!!!”  The problem is that whenever you see something like this, it’s a marketer trying to get you to believe that there is a hardware solution for a software problem, and that is not the case.

I’ll use the Taurus Judge as an example, because it’s just so obvious.  The way the Judge is marketed, you’d think that it’s the perfect gun for everything, forever – there are videos of it blowing up watermelons all over the internet, and it has a cult following that travels from forum to forum singing its praises.  You even hear this same mentality from otherwise well meaning gun owners that suggest that “just having a gun” is enough to ward off most violent crimes, so why worry about practice and training?  The problem with that line of reasoning if that if you accept that you could be in the statistically tiny minority of people that ever need a gun to defend themselves, why you would assume that you wouldn’t be in the even smaller minority of people that have to actually shoot their gun.

Personal safety is not a hardware issue.  No amount of guns, pepper spray, knives, or other weapons will make you safe.  Your personal safety is a software issue first and foremost, and buying the latest “self-defense” gear and gadgetry is not a proper substitute for training, mindset, and preparation.

That leads me to the second issue, that of the “self-taught” self-defense person.  There is a saying that “you can’t know what you don’t know”, which while fairly tautological is also true in the sense that it’s impossible to identify gaps in our own knowledge.  It’s called the Dunning-Kruger Effect, and it can be described as such:

The more skilled you are, the more practice you’ve put in, the more experience you have, the better you can compare yourself to others. As you strive to improve, you begin to better understand where you need work. You start to see the complexity and nuance; you discover masters of your craft and compare yourself to them and see where you are lacking.

On the other hand, the less skilled you are, the less practice you’ve put in and the fewer experiences you have, the worse you are at comparing yourself to others on certain tasks. Your peers don’t call you out because they know as much as you do, or they don’t want to hurt your feelings.

You can’t teach yourself what you don’t know, and if you don’t seek out instruction and training, you’re very likely to think that you do in fact know “everything” you need to know.  That kind of thinking is embarrassing when you’re talking about playing sports of even competitive shooting, but it’s downright dangerous if that’s your self-defense mindset.  Get some training.  Take a class.  Don’t buy into marketing about “the best gun/gear” that will make you ready.