Is this a full-service date, Frank?

I recently came across this story ~ special thanks to one of my operators, call sign: Mad Dog ~ warning us with ominous but obvious b-b-b-bullshit that "hate groups" are growing. Ooooo. See, the data presented refers only to Washington state and fails to list even one of the Islamic ~ not "Islamist" ~ terror groups that the FBI knows are operating up there in the piney north woods, and the rest of the country as well.

Steven Emerson's map, showing really really hateful hate groups operating in the US prior to 19 Muslim assholes hijacking airplanes and driving them into buildings on a crisp September morning. Want to know what's really alarming about this map?  It doesn't even mention Minneapolis/St Paul, which has the largest group of Somali Muslims in the US and has produced many recruits for the cause.

Bounding ahead on this logic trail: here's an excerpt from a paper entitled: Sharia Adherence Mosque Survey: Correlations between Sharia Adherence and Violent Dogma in U.S. Mosques authored by Dr. Mordechai Kedar and David Yerushalmi, Esq.: A random survey of 100 representative mosques is the U.S. was conducted to measure the correlation between Sharia adherence and dogma calling for violence against non-believers. Of the 100 mosques surveyed, 51% had texts on site rated as severely advocating violence; 30% had texts rated as moderately advocating violence; and 19% had no violent texts at all. Mosques that presented as Sharia adherent were more likely to feature violence-positive texts on site than were their non-Sharia-adherent counterparts. In 84.5% of the mosques, the imam recommended studying violence-positive texts. The leadership at Sharia-adherent mosques was more likely to recommend that a worshiper study violence-positive texts than leadership at non-Sharia-adherent mosques. Fifty-eight percent of the mosques invited guest imams known to promote violent jihad. The leadership of mosques that featured violence-positive literature was more likely to invite guest imams who were known to promote violent jihad than was the leadership of mosques that did not feature violence-positive literature on mosque premises. See the entire study here. Very instructive in the text is this gem: Mosques that contained written materials in the severe category were the best attended, followed by those with only moderate-rated materials, trailed in turn by those lacking such texts. Mosques with severe materials had a mean attendance of 118 worshipers while mosques containing only moderate materials had a mean attendance of 60 worshipers; mosques that contained no violence-positive literature had a mean attendance of 15 worshipers.

Gets you all warm and fuzzy about the Muslim next door who waddles nonchalantly to the mosque juuuust down the street from you, eh?

So, with all the usual sweetness and light flowing from that delight which is Islam, looks like it's still a good idea to be wary of their taquiyya.

It used to be that strapping a rocket to your ass and going to the moon made you a hero but since Chicago Jesus tried to turn NASA into a Muslim outreach program, I guess the whole wide world's gone topsy-turvy.  So, I want to use some space here to offer some suggestions as to how to keep those newest of heroes a bit safer as they stride boldly into various venues teeming and pulsing with smug little Islamothugs and their sympathizing roilers.  Speaking against Islam is one of the noblest undertakings known to modern man.  Two of the bravest souls are Pamela Geller at AtlasShrugs and Robert Spencer at JihadWatch.  You should avail yourself of that which they know to be true lest you believe the lies that have been repeated so loud and long that they are now assumed to be true merely because of the incessant say-overness.

Alrightythen, who wants to be a bodyguard?  If that interests you, the first step is where you decide what your life is worth. You need to understand fully that you might get killed if you decide to volunteer to stand in the gap for someone such as these warriors.  After you’ve decided what you’re willing to do, how far you’re willing to go, you've got to commit to train to that level.  Understand that professional bodyguards, the Secret Service guys and Army CID Agents, don't take bullets ~ when they do take bullets ~ because of some great simpatico or love for their principle.  It's because of repetition repetition repetition.  Nothing more, nothing less.  That happens; they automatically and immediately do this.

Part of that training, maybe the most important part, is the condition of your body now ~ and what it can be whenever it is that you raise your hand, ready to be a one-time bodyguard ~ months from now?  I've struggled with this recently, to be entirely honest, and am truly blessed to have in my life now a partner who cares about me, including whether or not I'm losing my edge and can still kick any ass which presents itself before my eyes.   If you're out of shape, find out what needs to be done to get you back in shape and put together a plan to get you there.  No compromising.  There are lots of different ways to do it and you'll not respond to those methods and programs like others will.  While I was once a proponent of a kinder, gentler way of staying fit, I've come to see it differently and I'm going to recommend you take a look here at why you need to start on an upper-body strengthening regimen today if you are serious about getting in bad-ass shape both in body and attitude.  Super-sets is the path.

However that works out, the next step in your mission is to do the advance work, while you continue to get a/o stay in bad-ass shape.  Advance work can be boring and not very glorious, but it’s good, thorough advance work that makes things go smoothly. 

Advance the media: weeks before the event, you need to peruse/check out the various sources available which may show events planned as counter-demonstrations to the event you’re attending.  Look for fliers on phone and light poles and on/in shop windows or jammed under windshield wipers on cars in parking lots, especially on college campi.  Are there any threats implied or clearly stated in the flier text or subtext?  Are there any threatening words hand-scrawled on the paper?  If so, take pictures of the poster: a close-up, one standing back a bit to show what it’s attached to such as the front window of Jake's Head Shop, and one showing where Jake’s shop is in relation to the nearest two cross-streets.  In fact, take pictures of every different flyer there might be telling of any counter demonstration.  Here's a thought: if you can get one of the threatening ones off a pole or window, take it off carefully and try not to touch the paper surface with bare fingers ~ or ice-cream covered ones ~ while doing so.  Put the flier into a paper or plastic bag and preserve it as evidence for the police in case something happens to your guy.

 

In a wildly imaginary world, you'll find a penguin with a clipboard and one opposable thumb on his left hand willing to tell you exactly how many knaves and varlets have signed up for the big rally and how he's extrapolated everything out and can tell you exactly how many people will be attending the kum-baya festival and bon-fire.  Buy him a drink and the penguin might toss in for a free a SWAG as to how many of the great unwashed counter-demonstrators will be swathed in dipshit Earth First merit badges, sporting their prim kafiyehs as they trundle about shouting at the tippy-top of their acky-acky lungs and pumping their adipose little fists in the air in an effort to silence a truth they’re not brave enough to listen to, let alone believe.

But it ain't going to happen that way, is it?  You're going to have to do your homework, buster.  Check online message boards and comment sections of blogs which have a particularly icky bent against the cause for which you are taking a stand.  Use several search engines to see if you can find out if anything nefarious is being discussed a/o planned relative to your meeting.  Not everyone will be as dumb as this dope here, but you might find something worth paying attention to while perusing the dubya dubya dubya; but only if you do it on purpose.  Use key words and phrases such as; Undaunted event protest, attack, counterdemonstration against Undaunted in Portland 6/25/12.  No, I won't be in Portland on 25 June.  Figure it out.  Use your imagination and the web searches might come you up with something.  Hey, give Facebook a try.  If you do come up with something, Facebook or otherwise, you need to put the facts together in a nice, neat package so you can present it to the local law enforcement a/o security guys as soon as you get it put together.  Neatness and proper spelling counts.  Hand-carry the report to your local law enforcement agency and make a note of who you gave the report to there and when, and what they said in response.  Make three copies. Keep two for later.

If you've done your due diligence and can show the cops that with your report, you might be able to persuade them to share with you any intel they may have about the upcoming event.  Maybe.  All you're really interested in is the number and attitiude of the counter-force and if that counter-force is going to be armed ~ which goes to foreseeability ~ and if so, with what?  Guess what.  They won't tell you.  Guess what.  Ask anyway.

Okay, for the sake of moving right along, let's say you have a basic number in mind as to attending potential incarceratists ~ at least in theory ~ so, let's step away from the computer and get to work.

Advance the travel routes: you should identify and recon one main route and at least one alternate route.  You’ll have to drive a/o walk the routes several times at the same times as when you’ll be transporting your package on the big day.  Understand what I just said: if you're walking him from the curb to the conference room at 1845, you must advance that route on foot, not just look at it from the car, at 1845 at night.  While on recon, you're looking for the following:

• Shortest route to the speaking venue
• Safest route to the speaking venue
• Safe-room location
• Restroom location
• If your principle is a woman and you're not, is someone going in the can with her when she has to tinkle? Who's that gonna be?
• Shortest route back to the car from both the main entrance of the speaking venue and any emergency/side/rear entrances
• Safest route back to the car from both the main entrance of the speaking venue and any emergency/side/rear entrances

Every place and position from which a person can hide a/o attack must be identified.  Some of these locations can be locked, making them useless. Some can have security stationed in/on/around them, mitigating against ill-intentioned use.  Some you'll just have to scope out as best you can and deal with accordingly.  What does that mean?  It means if there is something you can't control such as access to/from a point you believe to be dangerous to your principle, then when you're in that area, you are the only thing between him or her and whatever deadliness may be lurking there.  You're not just a driver.  You're a target.

Okay, how does that work out?  There are only two reasons for an attack on your principle:

• To kidnap him, in which case the bad-guys will be most interested in killing you so they can snatch him.
• An assassination, in which case you will be the secondary target... all the bullets will be flying toward your guy.  Lucky you.

To make it harder for assassins or kidnappers to spot you and your party, don't be like Mr. Taylor's driver.  Nice tie.  Meeting at the airport or the hotel lobby or anywhere, don't use a sign-board of any kind to attract your principle.  Know what he or she looks like and will be wearing.  Determine where they want to be met: arrival gate, baggage claim or ground transportation.  If he can't decide where to meet you, then you tell him or her to meet you at the arrival gate end of the jet bridge as he's getting off the plane.  Don't stand around shaking hands and talking about turbulence, get moving right away to your next stop which will probably be baggage claim... unless the principle is your twin brother and is bunking with you for the duration.  Since that's probably not the case, as your guy is standing around waiting for his suitcase to appear, you need to be looking at the crowd, not helping him find his bag.  You want an autograph?  Wait till he's all ready to be tucked into bed tonight before you ask.  Ask any sooner and you reveal that it's all about you, not about protecting him. 

You need to be especially alert for suspicious a/o aggressive activity between baggage claim and curb-side transportation.  Sure, there are lots of people standing around airports who have no intention of doing a Mozambique on your principle or plunging a knife into his neck, but if somebody's going to try to take his life that person has probably figured out that there are just two places your guy must go: the airport when he arrives and leaves town, and the venue where the event is being held.  So, where would you go if you were an assassin?

Wherever you are, you need to know how to get from there to the nearest police station and hospital emergency room.

By the way, what are you driving?  We can’t get too involved at this level so let’s just assume you'll probably have just one car, and no chase car to protect the limo.  The vehicle in which you drive the principle from A to B is called the limo, whether it’s your Prius ~ and it had better not be a Prius, knuckleheads ~ or an actual limo you somehow managed to rent or borrow....

Like a plush Ford Granada, this baby not unlike the one owned and operated by my ex-brother-in-law.  The chase car is the one right behind the limo, protecting it from the rear and flanks during movement.  Only a couple things better than driving chase, believe me.  You’re going to have to drive aggressively.  I didn’t say rudely.  I said aggressively.  You can’t assume the careless driver who just cut you off and then flipped you off is merely driving HUA.  That’s probably the case but you can’t assume it.  If you do, you’ll get whacked.  Sooner or later.

I know how to do J-turns but it would take too much time to write out the how-to here. You-tube has some videos that can teach you the basics. It's up to you to actually learn and practice the move, if you choose.  Lots of fun, kids.

Advance the hotel: it starts with how to get the car up to the main door and to any alternate entry doors should the main doors not be a prudent choice.  Let me say now that I'm purposefully not putting in every detail to a successful protective mission.  Some tricks of the trade don't need to be known by bad-guys so I'm trying to keep it simple yet informative.  Anyway, that being said; whoever booked the room where your principle will RON should have him or her put in a room between the 3d and 7^th floors.  Why?  Three floors are too high to climb without a ladder and a fire-truck ladder can’t reach beyond the 7th floor, usually... unless it's some alien spaceship kinda thing that just plats there and jest off into the murky night.  Once you got your guy into his room, you may be able to ask that hotel security do a check on that room every hour or so and that the hotel CCTV cameras be focused on the outer door, with an alert security officer watching the monitor at all times.  Go ahead and ask.  It couldn't hurt.  There are many more details to keeping your guy snug and safe in his hotel and doing a quick sweep of his room, as depicted below, is the least you should do.

Basic search template for the hotel room and the speaking venue

Advance the speaking venue: first thing you have to do is hook-up with the local security guys, if the venue uses such, a/o the local police who might be on duty at the event.  Honestly, you can't trust cops a/o security to have done any checks so you’re going to have to do them yourself when you show up at the event.  Good luck.  You’re looking for IED ~ high degree of difficulty and therefore a less likely attack method ~ and concealed weapons like knives ~ low degree of difficulty to obtain, become familiar with, hide and use... most terrorist attacks are committed by thugs with edged weapons.  Remember: if it looks to you like it could be a weapon, then it’s a weapon. At least two people do the search, if possible.

Basic search template for outside the building

As far as knowing your way around the building, you have to scope out at least three exit routes from the room wherein the speech is being given.  I don't mean you stand on the stage, point at the main doors up the sloped auditorium there and, from left to right, start counting doors, "One, two, three." No, I mean three doors going out the back and side of the building.  Which way do they open?  Can they be locked from the outside?  Where do they go? Who has the key?  Can you get one?  Once you get out them, how do you get to your car? How do you get to a safe room on the property if you can't get to your car?  Know where the restrooms are located.  It would be best if you could have the use of faculty restrooms because they usually have locks on them and entry can be controlled.  Hey, remember I asked which one of you guys is going into the ladies room with your girl principle?  Figure that one out yet?  Identify at least one safe-room.  That can be the security office if they have one.  Faculty lounge or the dean's office.  I mean what could go wrong with locking yourself in there?  From every step along all of your routes to and from, in and out of the speaking venue, and from every position on the auditorium floor at which you may find yourself with the principle, you need to identify the most likely attack routes, how bad guys are going to get to your package.  Now you gotta make a plan for each of them, at least a general If this happens, I do that framework.  It doesn't have to be elaborate.  I'll cover some basics later.

So, you've done your recon of the routes, lodging and the speaking venue.  Now's the time to give the facility security a/o police the second copy of the report you created, if you did so.  You already gave them one copy, remember?  Tell on-scene scty/cops what your concerns are and politely but firmly tell them what response you’d like from them.  It would sound something like this: We’re aware that there will be several attendees tonight who will attempt to disrupt the event and perhaps attack the speaker.  We have these documents depicting what we believe to be their plans.  If there is a disruption or an attack on the speaker, I will cover him and move him out the west door where our car will be waiting.  In this case, we will need you to prevent the students from following us to the car and to have at least one of your officers near our car outside to prevent protesters from keeping us from getting to the car.  Also, when we arrive, we'd like one of your people to meet us at the main door.  Can we count on you for this?  If the security/cop honcho says he can’t or won’t, then say, May I ask why? And then politely wait for his answer, which you will write down ver batim so you can use it in court later, if need be. 

You don’t want to piss off the cops or the security guys because they can shut you down in a heartbeat, but neither do you want them to be unaware of perceived a/o actual needs viz the safety of your principle.  When you clearly communicate to them what your needs are and they either assent to them or shine you on, you’re setting them up for any litigation that may follow should your guy get hurt. Here’s your case, counselor: you did your homework and identified a real threat to your guy.  You fully informed the local authorities of this threat.  Despite your best efforts alone, your guy was attacked and hurt or killed.  Because of your due diligence in identifying and reporting the threat to law enforcement in a timely manner and the fact that there was security and police on the scene, a reasonable person would conclude that the police a/o security should have done the simple drill you proffered.  The attack was foreseeable because you told them about it in advance and provided them written proof of your findings and concerns not once but twice.  The attack and resulting injury a/o death was therefore preventable since it was foreseeable.  They are then responsible for permitting the injury to a/o death of your principle.

Speaking of speakers, they must decide in advance what they will do in event of various negative responses to their speech.  Seems to me the choices are as follow: Continue on while ignoring the waifs.  Stay and argue with them.  Walk away... with you in proper position.  You need to be aware of which one he’s going to do so ~ without shouting at him from your super-duper sneaky position, Looks like you pissed 'em off.  Now what do you want to do, genius? ~ you can know your next move as things develop.

Absent these decisions made in advance by your guy, you have to have plans and the will and wherewithal to make them happen.

Some more considerations viz the venue

• Do you need a permit to record the event?  Find out early and get one and then don't forget it by the toaster when you leave in the morning.
• Record?  You need to do a complete video/audio recording from 10 minutes before the doors open ~ hopefully showing some of the in-house security detail/arrangements ~ until the speaker is done and has left the AO.  The camera needs to be set up behind the speaker, showing him from the rear and as much of the audience as you can get in the viewfinder.  Try to get the main entry doors in the shot, too.  Forget about taking video on cell phones. 
• If there is no stage, find a way to set up a barrier that clearly shows That side there is for spectatin’, and this side here is for speaking.  You’re trying to set up the bad-guys in advance: someone crosses that line and you automatically do... what?

Flimsy but definitely tells one who gets to go where.

Personal Security Officer.  Assuming you're still with me on this, that's you; the PSO.  Generally speaking, private protection teams are best for bodyguarding as opposed to private security guards who dress up in ties that are too short and pants that are too long.  And, don't get trapped into thinking that off-duty cops are your best bet.  Cops are bound by all kinds of chickenshit rules and regs when they're off-duty, not just when they're working.  And since most police "leaders" want to be on the "tolerant" side of the Islam issue, you can bet any cop you hire will probably have been given a stern talking-to before he deploys about how to keep the department and city looking good, even at the expense of what's right and wrong.  You can be sure any security officer will get that lecture.

If possible legally and otherwise, I'd recommend that the PSO be armed.  Legally.  As for the weapon, I recommend a DAO 9mm.  I know the macho types who need their egos stroked on every little issue including pistol caliber don’t like the Nine and I couldn’t care less.  With a .45 you get a max of 8 rounds until you have to reload.  Having carried and fired a 1911 when I was in the Army, I know there is a bigger kick on that caliber/model than on something like a Browning Hi-Power.  And, yes, I handled the .45 kick quite well, thank you very much.  The problem is that there is kick to handle in the first place.  A Nine has almost no kick so there is negligible time spent on reacquiring your target once you fire, no matter how many times you may do so. 

Furthermore, tactical doctrine is no longer what we called the Double Tap; where you’d shoot the bad-guy twice in the center of mass and wait to see if the bullets did what you were intending to do: stop the bad-guy.  SOP today is this: somebody poses an imminent danger to you a/o someone you love, you shoot that fucker until he stops being a threat.  You don’t know what drugs your bad-guy might be on nor what his reaction will be to only two shots in the sternum ~ if you're lucky enough to get that shot ~ so don’t stand there wonderin’.  Shoot him til he or she stops.  When I'm out doing what I sometimes do, I carry one in the pipe,

ten in the well in a spring-loaded mag, three 15-rd hi-cap mags, and at least two 30-rd hi-cap mags.  Those first eleven are going into the very first bad-guy I need to shoot 'cause he asked for it.

So, your position relative to your principle is just behind his right shoulder, less than an arms-length away.  This assumes you are a right-handed shooter.  If you're left-handed, then your position is just off the left shoulder of your guy, a little less than arms-length away.  Why?  In a given situation you might find yourself grabbing the principle by the trouser belt and pulling him away from danger while at the same time drawing your pistol to acquire and engage an inbound threat.  Your shooting hand needs to be free to shoot.  That leaves your non-shooting hand for belt-grabbing. 

Once you get to the parking lot, at the hotel but especially at the speaking venue, you need to have the principle stay in the car until you get to the outside of his door.  Standing by his door, face away from the car and quickly scan for threats. If none, open his door and move a step forward to give him room to exit, but you're still in position to block any incoming projectiles, whether bullets or vomit.  The principle starts to move toward the building and you follow, close enough to grab him by the arm if necessary.  You don't step ahead to open doors, he does that.  Or his humble hosts.  Because you've done your homework and asked for a security guy to be stationed by the front doors to meet you, you quickly ask the security guy if everything's okay inside.  If you really did your homework, you have his number on speed-dial and ask him if everything's okay when you're about a minute away from driving up in front of him at that main door, your primary entrance.   Either way, if he says yes, you go in.  If he doesn't, you don't.  Which means you circle the block or sit in the parking lot until you have ascertained what the situation is in the building.

Once you're inside, you're going to get your guy to the speaking area so he can set up and familiarize himself with the AO.  You are already familiar with it but from a different perspective.  He's most interested in where he can take a leak.  While your guy is setting up, take a quick look around for what might be IEDs or weapons of any sort.  Obviously, you can't go far from your principle so you have to balance watching him like a hawk while the room is mostly empty because the crowd hasn't yet bustled in and quickly doing a visual or tactile check of spots most likely to be hiding weapons of some sort. Have security/cops handle them, if any are found.

Jumping ahead to when the event begins...

Speaker is backstage, you're within arms reach.  He's introduced and steps toward the mic.  You're not looking at him then: you're looking at the crowd, quickly scanning to see if any weapons suddenly appear in the twitching, sweaty hands of the attendees.  If you see a weapon, you move quickly to your guy, take him by the belt and pull him back saying to him Gun front or whatever the weapon is and where it is so he doesn't think you're crazy.  You two already rehearsed this, right?  Put him behind you, have him wrap his left arm around your waist and then you place your left arm over his and lock it in place ~ if you're right handed, so you can draw and shoot if necessary ~ and then shuffle him backwards or to the side to the exit door that provides the safest exit based on the threat inside.  Or, grab him by the back of his coat collar and, pushing him in front of you with your body between him and any incoming projectiles, hustle him off-stage toward one of the exits you scoped out earlier.  If shots are fired or an aggressive advance is made with an edged weapon, just grab the belt and pull him away to the rear and push him to the best exit door.  Remember; in event of an attack on your principle, your job is not to duke it out with the assailants.  Your job is to get the principle away from danger as quickly as possible.  When an attack starts, you're not in a speaking venue anymore; you're far away from a cozy, hallowed university auditorium.  You're in a kill zone.  And you need to get out of it right now.

So, let's say all of a sudden a recreational pyrotechnical device goes boom.  Or, poppity-pop-pop-pop, like my knees sound... only different.  You hear something like a firecracker or a fight or breaking glass and you need to take a step towards your principle and prepare to unass the AO... get out of Dodge.  Any commotion in one spot can be a distraction trying to draw attention, specifically yours, away from impending attack coming from another direction.  Something goes BOOM and you need to remember you should not move toward that commotion but heighten your alertness and begin move toward the principle in order to get him protected a/o out of the maybe-about-to-happen kill zone.

Don't move around from stage left to stage right behind the back curtains. You should have already done recon and found out where your best vantage point is so you can see your principle and most of the audience at the same time.  Hey, if that means you stand in the open at the far edge of the stage, then that's what you gotta do.  If there's no room behind stage or there is no stage, then stand off to the side of the speaking area, behind that spiffy yellow tape barrier, looking at the crowd.  Generally, you want your non-gun side toward the crowd as much as possible.  Why?  Because in event of an attack that is slow in developing, you can unholster your 9mm DAO and have it in your hand by your side.

Before or after the event and you're standing there with the principle, chatting it up with various hoi polloi and poo-bahs.  Some might be unfriendly, eh?  What are the odds?  Somebody seems a little chippy and gets too close to your guy: put your non-shooting hand on his chest so your middle finger is resting just above the tip of his rib cage and the bottom of his Adam's Apple.  Push forward into that little depression there with your finger and it should cause enough pain to make the aggressor back off, if he or she is not intent on a deadly attack, willing to give up him or her self to get to your principle. 

Another way to get someone to back off is to palm punch the recalcitrant and then move your principle smartly out of the area.  One of my favorites, and soon to be one of yours is this: the loudmouth up ahead gets in the face of your guy.  Move between the two with your hands up, about chest level.  Talk to the retard as though you're trying to de-escalate the situation, moving your hands around all the time so he or she gets used to seeing your moving hands around his upper body, and if he or she doesn't back down immediately, slap that clown across the nose.  Hard.  This will cause a nose-bleed that will most likely send the pansy to the floor in hysterical fear and weeping.

Another point: you're standing there close to your principle and he's speaking.  You have to do something with your hands, right? 

Ariel Sharon's detail.  Put your hands like the guy on the left.  Or...

Four out of five of them have it right.  The brother's fucking up.  I walk up and grab his fingers, all eight of them, and he's going down.

How cool would it be to be on Netanyahu's detail.  Wow.  The apex of any protective service career. His team is bad-ass on steroids.

If you're just going as a spectator and will provide armed protection if necessary and nobody knows about it but you, I'm not going to try to dissuade you of that desire or intent.  A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do.  So, if you're that guy, you need first to figure out who you're protecting ~ who is the speaker.  If you're intending to protect the speaker whether he or she knows it or not, then get a seat at one of the forward most corners, on the right side if you are right-handed shooter, on left side if you are left-handed shooter.  If someone attempts an armed attack against the speaker by approaching down the aisles toward the stage, if you open fire as soon as he gets past the front row of spectators but before he gets to the stage or where your principle is standing you have a flanking shot from right to left or left to right that won't be bouncing off spectators.  But you have to shoot him after he passes the front row of seats and is moving toward the speaker.  Snipers call that an ambush: shooting at a place where the attacker is going to be in a half-second so when he gets there, there's a bullet to meet him.  If you open up on him when he's further back up the auditorium aisle you may have too many potential stand-uppers to try to not hit.  In the very front row, if you need to stand in preparation for a shot, you can conceal your weapon from the crowd by keeping it at your right side, left side to the crowd and vice versa.  And to avoid fun turning to tragedy, if you and some other attendee are providing armed protection on both the left and right front corners, be sure you know each other.

If intending to go as spectator generally supporting the speaker, and your intention is to help protect the speaker, or to fight if there is a rumble, presumably you'll have made this decision ahead of time and will be at least mentally prepared.  I'd recommend taking a krav maga class if you're serious about helping out in situations like this.

Let's assume you're just going as someone who likes the speaker, not intending to do anything but sit there and nod and clap and mutter now and then, Run it on down, Robert or You da man, Pam.  Where to sit?  Since there are probably no assigned seats at such an event, get there early and sit on the periphery... the seats next to the aisles.  Don't get trapped or surrounded by those mutts who may be coming to stir up trouble and who don't mind thumping your melon in the process.  Good guys control the venue.  And the outcome. 

Go ahead and tell them I said so.

Item last:  if there are some of you who prefer to pray for the misguided who come against right and good and civilization; hoping they will see the Light, turn from their wicked ways and join the rest or hmanity, I'm sure that will be efficacious for some of them.  So, what the heck; give it a shot.

Comments

[Undaunted]

Thanks, NVUH. Assessing Farmer's actions in "The Bodyguard", he screws up a few times. When he carries Marin out of the club to the waiting limo, the passenger door is closed. He should have trained a/o told the driver to have the door open. When he sees the black truck tailing the limo as they arrive at the house, he jumps out of the car and chases the truck. You never leave the principle. Another; when they're at the lake house and the assassin is stalking them at night, he pulls out a 1911 .45 and then jacks a round into the chamber. A professional would already have one in the pipe ready to launch. Those are the things that catch my eye, and of course, he falls in love with the principle.

[NextVoiceUHear]

Your intel is excellent info for this 2012 election cycle. There will be many important guests at many political venues.

Every one should re-see Whitney Houston's 'Bodyguard'. Kevin Costner's character did a good job, I think. How would you assess his actions?
NextVoiceUHear