Car Defense Tactics
Beau Doboszenski, Owner/Lead Instructor
Originally published October 15th, 2018
I watched a video this week where some protestors got into a confrontation with a motorist at an intersection in Portland, Oregon.
The situation sparked the thought: what vehicle defense tactics are critical for the citizen defender?
If you spend five minutes online searching vehicle defense tactics, you’ll probably find the same basic elements:
Cars are bullet magnets
Cover/concealment around vehicles
Shooting through the windows of the vehicle
Or drawing your handgun in a car
All of this is good stuff, but let’s step back from the gun ninja’s tacticool tips and focus on what you really should think about for vehicle defense.
1. The Vehicle
Every year some 30,000 people die in vehicle accidents in the US. In fact, just last week two people died in a head on collision not two miles from my home. The causes of these crashes range from mechanical failure to distractions. For our purposes though, let’s ignore the causes. Instead, think about how you could make sure that you survive a crash with as little injury as possible. Having properly working seatbelts and airbags is a start. Then ensuring that you have proper tires, since the four inch square of each tire on the ground is your total connection between the ground and the movement of the car. Finally, cleaning up your car so you have as little debris as possible in the passenger cabin that might cause additional damage when set in motion.
2. The Driver
I have DMT students that have been training with me once a week for more than 5 years. You can imagine how good their firearms skills have become. Many of you train firearms on a regular basis to be prepared for the worst possible moment, when you must rely on your skill and training to deploy and use that firearm as quickly and effectively as possible.
How many of you have taken that same care with your driving?
Driving courses - beyond introductory courses - are expensive because they’re risky, and they take a fairly sizable area to facilitate. But in my opinion they’re also crucial. Find a precision/racing driving course or a “tactical” driving course near you and take it. If you live in the frozen tundra, like I do, you may also need to take a winter/ice driving course.
Outside of professionally taught classes, I personally do some driver training once or twice a year. Simple things like threshold braking drills, spatial awareness drills, and reaction drills are simple and highly effective for learning how your car moves, how its weight shifts, and how the car fits in the world. If you're near Minnesota, the instructors at Brainerd International Raceway and their anti-kidnapping tactical driving course is first rate.
3. Situational Awareness
For the citizen defender, the most likely violence in the vehicle is being ambushed while getting into or getting out of the vehicle. The key to defending against this tactic is Situational Awareness: identifying threats early and taking action to avoid conflict.
If you haven’t been to training with us, get a copy of Avoid-Deter-Defend and really master it. I have had dozens of clients use this material to identify serious problems early, and either pre-position themselves to defeat the threat or avoid/escape the threat entirely. It is the best $47 dollar investment you can make in your defense.
A couple of car-specific elements for you to develop until they
become habits:
When coming into a parking spot, don’t just scan for cars and parking spots, but scan the people around it as well. If you see a threat, move on.
Be prepared to move to defend yourself if someone approaches the car. Your first choice should be to drive away. Your second, exit the car and run.
Be prepared to move by getting that seatbelt off. As soon as the car parks, the seatbelt comes off.
As soon as you (and any passengers) are in the car, lock the doors and start the car right away. Many of these assaults in vehicles happen as the victim is sitting in the vehicle with the doors unlocked and the engine off.
Check your vehicle and it's surrounding area as you approach. Having a defensive flashlight makes this check even more effective.
Some schools of defensive driving thought say to park in a space backward, your front facing out. I actually disagree with this, as it was designed for law enforcement in law enforcement cruisers, which have a Push Bar mounted to their front bumper. In a citizen car, if you have to hit something to get out of a space, there’s the possibility that your engine’s gas line safety valve will trip, cutting off the gas from the tank to the engine, not to mention deploying your airbags. This will make your vehicle effectively dead. By parking with the trunk out, you can ram or push another car with the trunk using a lot of force without risking the gas shut off.
When pulling into your garage:
Scan the street and the house. If something looks wrong, give yourself a split second longer to look at it to make an assessment. If it’s a problem, keep driving and call police.
If everything looks clear, open the garage door and pull in. Put the car in park (turn off the auto door unlock if you currently have it engaged) and unbuckle your seatbelt. Stay put.
Close the garage door. Watch in your mirrors for threats to come into the garage. This will take all of ten seconds, so be patient.
When the garage door’s just about closed, turn the car off and get out.
If a threat does come into the garage while you’re in the process of closing the door, put the car in reverse and back out, quickly. Don’t worry, your car will absolutely bust through a closing garage door.
If the vehicle is intercepted:
A threat may step out in front of your car while you’re driving, expecting you to stop. (This happened to a DMTer recently.) This move is to give themselves, or their accomplice, time to hit the car from the side. This is why you should practice threshold braking, and slow to almost a crawl, but don’t completely stop. Do a 360 degree check, looking not only for the potential accomplice, but for an avenue of escape. Remember that it could be backwards, too. This is why it’s important to learn K and J turns (which have the added benefit of being really cool to practice).
If for some reason you are ambushed inside the vehicle and you cannot drive away, your next goal should be to get out. Don’t stay in the vehicle to fight, and don’t try to push your attacker out the way they came in. I watched a recent dash cam video of a driver trying to push a mugger out of their car. The mugger, rather than just trying to fist fight the driver, used an 8 inch chef’s knife to stab the driver in the chest, armpits, and neck some 40 times. There is zero room to defend against this kind of fighting in a vehicle. Give up the car and get out.
If you have children in the car - same thing, get out and go to higher force. Shoot the lethal threat from outside of the vehicle. If you’re stabbed to death inside, you can’t save your kids either.
If for some reason you cannot get out, this is where having quick access weapons in the car becomes critical. Tools like knives work very well here. Practice getting to your knife or firearm from very awkward and uncomfortable positions.
We often treat our vehicles as some sort of moving castle, but attacks at vehicles happen all the time, not to mention how often car accidents occur. Prep your vehicle, learn how to manipulate it to an advanced level, and practice getting out of the vehicle quickly or drawing tools from very awkward and uncomfortable positions.
Remember that it is preparation that gives us the best chance of effective response in a lethal threat situation.