Thread: A father's Love and Rage

Originally Posted by Bruno

It makes perfect sense to do this, in the case of KM. KM was designed to be learned by all Israelis, not just the soldiers. I was told that one of the goals was that ordinary desk jockeys and clerks would learn enough useful skills in a short amount of time to survive the most common scenarios.

One of the big issues was that normal people are not inclined to use extreme violence, and will hesitate or freeze. This has historically always been true for drafted militia men. After WW1, analysis showed that only 18% of the soldiers shot their guns at the other side. Even at point blank range, many people didn't shoot. The reason is that killing is messy business and normal human beings don't have it in their nature. Many rank and file soldiers then were just workers who were given a gun.

Since then, training has gradually changed to include as many realistic exercises as possible. With WW2, the percentage had risen to 40ish. With vietnam it was over 80%. (I have no sources at hand so I could be off on the exact percentages)

Many people would not be able to stab another human being if they suddenly found themselves there without preparation. When adrenalin takes over, you lose virtually all thought processes and you fall back on muscle memory, habits and reflexes. By 'stabbing' a person at the beginning of each and every training session, you make it an automatic action. If you ever find yourself high on adrenalin with a knife in your hands, you will fall back to the things that will come automatically (stabbing) instead of freezing in an extreme scenario that is unfamiliar and unnatural.

That is very true and it's how Police are trained these days. Doing the same routine over and over again so in a critical situation when your brain shuts down it's the training that you automatically fall back to.

Years ago the California Highway Patrol saw a couple of their guys in a shootout with a bad guy. Both officers were killed and they found that both guys had spent shell casings in their hands and no one could figure out why in the middle of a gunfight these guys were handicapping themselves like this. The answer was, during firearms training they had to police the brass at the end which they didn't like doing so as the training progressed (in the days of revolvers) these guys emptied the brass in their hands and eventually into their pockets and when these guys were in a fight for their lives that is exactly what they did.

From Fox News:

Texas father who beat a man to death for trying to molest his 4-year-old daughter will not be charged, authorities say.

Thats a good thing