Violence of Mind – A Book Review

I recently read Violence of Mind by Varg Freeborn. Anyone who chooses to take responsibility for their own safety and for that of their family has an obligation to educate himself or herself. Violence of Mind offers insight into how violent predators work. That insight can be helpful to anyone interested in avoiding an encounter with such people.

Freeborn has a perspective that is unique due to his life experience. He grew up in a very violent environment that culminated in a self-defense incident that went terribly wrong. That incident resulted in Freeborn spending five years in prison as a young man.

Freeborn describes his history in detail in the book so I won’t go into it here. What is impressive is that he turned that experience into a motivating force to correct his life. Through legal challenges he was able to have his rights fully restored. In addition he has worked to become a top expert in violence education and lethal force training. Through his company, One Life Defense LLC, he trains civilians, law enforcement, and military personnel.

I highly recommend the book for CCW permit holders and anyone interested in actively taking responsibility for their own safety. Freeborn addresses many interesting subjects in the book but he has two ideas that I’d like to share here.

Concealment

Freeborn uses the term concealment in a much broader sense than many of us. When he uses the term he’s not only talking about concealing a weapon or staying out of sight of an assailant. Concealment in the broader sense involves concealing your capabilities from a potential predator.

According to Freeborn, violent predators prefer predictability. They would much rather choose a victim with behavior that seems predictable rather than one that seems unpredictable. Dressing in a way that doesn’t telegraph capabilities, skills, or specific knowledge makes you less predictable, and can help you avoid selection. Behaving and moving with concealment in mind is to your advantage.

Wearing tactical clothing, gun company hats or shirts can sometimes get you selected. Real violent predators are experienced and know the difference between someone dressing the part and someone with real capabilities.

There is a difference between eye contact indicating awareness and a stare indicating a challenge. Know the difference, predators do.

Mission

Your mission as a responsibly armed civilian should be to make it home safely to your family so that you can spend many years together enjoying life. Every decision you make throughout your day should be in support of your mission. You need to keep your mission in mind, always.

We’ve all read Internet commandos writing about “running towards the gunfire” and other macho nonsense. Unless you’re some flavor of law enforcement or deployed military the last thing you want to be doing is running towards the gunfire.

Freeborn believes everything you do should be in support of your mission. Do you take the shortcut or walk the long way? Do you respond to some obnoxious jerk or avoid contact? Do you intervene in a developing incident between two strangers? Do you intervene in an armed robbery or an assault? Do you risk everything you have or ever will have including your freedom and possibly your life? Does your decision support your mission?

These are things all of us should seriously consider long before we find ourselves in a situation where we need to make the decision. Take a look at Violence of Mind. Along with being an entertaining read, it might provide information that will help you make the right decision during a critical incident should that day ever come.

The right to self-protection is a natural right of all people and not something granted by government. The use of firearms in self-protection is a natural extension of that right. There are unfortunately, people working very hard to deprive you of that natural right.

If you want to keep your rights defend them by joining San Diego County Gun Owners (SDCGO), the California Rifle and Pistol Association (CRPA), and the National Rifle Association (NRA). Join the fight and help us restore and preserve our second amendment rights. Together we will win.

 

©2019 Joseph T Drammissi

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