There is an author who goes by the pen name of Varg Freeborn. He wrote a book called Violence of the Mind in which he discusses this concept.
One of the concepts he wrote about was "Mission Drives The Gear Train". All that really is is Tacgeekspeak for you change what you're carrying based on what you're doing.
I'm going to be in the gym today in a marginally Non Permissive Environment wearing sweats. I'm not going to be carrying a full sized gun and a bunch of reloads. Smaller gun, ONE reload, pocket holster, light pocket knife, metal water bottle that would make a hell of a flail and phone.
There are certain other things that I do based on past experience.
A year ago I was parked in the same parking lot and some stupid woman pulled into a parking space and hit the front end of my car, according to Witnesses she hit it hard enough to move the car back.
She cracked my radiator and I ended up having to replace it. Ever since that day I make a specific point of always parking facing a curb so somebody can't do that again.
I also try to park in the emptiest part of the parking lot. Which usually means as far away from the doors as I can reasonably get.
I make it a rule that I never sit in my car. If I'm going someplace I get in the car, lock the doors immediately, put on my seat belt and move. I do the same thing when I'm pulling into a parking space in reverse. Park get out of the car, lock it and get away from it.
There are other things that I do but this post is already getting too long, so I'm only going to say one more thing and it's something I've talked about before.
I have a friend who spent 30 years working as a lawyer in the criminal justice system. Based on the cases that he's worked and the police reports that he's read, he states that if you were outside of your home after about 9 P.M. your chances of being involved in a homicide go up dramatically. That's not to say that they're really high to begin with but they're much higher if you're out after 9:00 P.M.
Based on my experience as a security guard just watching people after about 9:00 or 10:00 at night, the sewers open up and the rats crawl out.
So if I don't have a specific reason to be outside of my home after 9:00 at night I'm not.
