Texas laws on guns have recently changed. In the past, in order to carry a gun, you were required to take a course in order to receive a permit. No permit meant you could not carry a gun with you. Now, however , that requirement has been abolished. So it’s perfectly legal for anyone to have a gun on them. No training, no safety rules to learn, just a background check- and not a lot of hurdles to clear there either. We are officially an open carry state.

So anyone over 18 can buy a gun and walk around almost anywhere not knowing a thing about how when where or why to use a gun. Feeling a bit vulnerable yet? That’s one very big reason we teach de-escalation techniques in every self defense class we do. Having the ability to prevent someone from becoming out of control is an important self defense skill- especially in light of this recent turn of events.

But if you are a responsible gun owner who has a permit and has trained in its use, you can be surprised by an assailant either taking it away, or worse pulling out their own gun on you. Then what you will have is a good old fashioned wild West shootout.

Yikes!

I have seen statistics that prove the smarter someone is the more they will hesitate to use a gun to injure or kill another human being. I would hope that most good guys are smarter than the bad guys, so that doesn’t bode particularly well for us. And although we don’t teach gun defense in our basic self defense classes, it’s just not a great idea to be walking around with a firearm unless you really really know what you are doing and are willing to do it. It can so very easily be taken away from you, or worse give someone an excuse to use theirs on you.

No one can take away your weapons if they are hands feet fingers elbows, etc. And as long as you are not making threatening statements or gestures, nobody will even know you know how to use them. And that’s the way you want it.