Defensive Mindset:
Lessons from an Attempted Presidential Assassination

It’s not very often that an American president gets shot. Real assassination attempts are also thankfully rare; most are either whacko hoaxes or identified and prevented before shots are fired. Not so this past week.

We’ve all seen the emerging story, video and talking heads ad nauseam — all presented with few known facts at this point, so I won’t go over it here. Rather, I’d like to discuss some observations that, quite frankly, stunned me and reminded me of the importance of actively living with a defensive mindset.

It Can and Does Happen

When we look at any kind of violent event in the scope of the odds of one happening to us individually, the odds are thankfully low. I can walk into 1,000 stop-and-robs for a Reese’s fix and most likely not get mugged or shot. But it does happen. Major events like mass murder attempts and presidential assassinations happen, too.

While the low-odds math doesn’t support living your life from inside a tank, given the fact violence does touch some of us, it’s wise to consider a prudent investment in sensible preparation. And that doesn’t necessarily mean going about your daily business in full kit, complete with thermal vision. One of our FMG expert writers is a guy you’ve seen standing behind Presidents and First Ladies at various photo ops, and one of his nuggets of hard-earned wisdom has always stuck with me. “If you have to draw your gun, you’ve failed.” Given the state of known facts about the Trump attempt, it’s looking like that maxim is holding true, but time will tell.

We Really Don’t Like to Violate Social Norms

Did you note all the folks milling around outside the shooter’s building? They were pointing, talking and trying to get the attention of law enforcement officers. While hard to tell from the brief video clips, they must have been just 10, 20 or 30 yards away.

First, and without reservation, hats off to them for noticing and trying to raise attention.

But some other things jumped out at me. A guy with a rifle was just yards away, clearly getting ready to do something despicably awful, yet people were milling around casually like they were viewing something in a zoo, with some magical protective wall between them and the source of violence. At that point, no one knew this idiot’s intentions. Was he just hanging out of a roof with a rifle? Was he going to take shots at the stage? Or was he about to unleash a “kill as many MAGA hats as I can” rampage?

I also noticed that efforts to get attention were, in the scope of all this craziness, relatively tame and, for lack of a better word, polite. While it may have happened, and I just didn’t pick it up on the videos, the witnesses didn’t lose their collective minds to raise attention to the matter.

Believe me, I’m not criticizing those there. Again, kudos to them for being observant and making an effort to do something. What I am saying is that we all have a seemingly insurmountable aversion to doing things outside of our society’s definition of normal behavior. It would seem socially awkward to start screaming at the top of your lungs and making a scene in public, wouldn’t it?

If we see something so entirely unexpected like this, or a guy walking into a restaurant with a gun, are we prepared to make a public spectacle of epic proportions? If you saw something awry, would you, without hesitation, do something like break through a door or window where you “weren’t allowed to go” to escape before something bad started? I’d postulate that our brains are so strongly wired not to do crazy stuff like that in public that it would be a big mental hurdle to overcome in a split second.

Brain Inertia

Other interesting human reactions we all saw were reflected in the crowd seated and standing behind President Trump. It was quickly clear someone was shooting towards the president. These people were right behind him, in other words, the target backstop. I haven’t counted frame by frame, but the majority of those folks remained standing and watching the scene unfold as if, in the previous example, they were watching from the safe environment of the other side of a TV screen. Yes, some quick thinkers dove for the floor or tried to shrink in place, but most seemed frozen in disbelief. It’s hard to blame them, as this was an unbelievable situation to find one’s self. The initial flurry of shots was quick, but at that point, no one knew where the shooter was, if there were other shooters, or how many bullets might be yet headed their way.

Again, our brain inertia is an incredible force. “What’s happening? Are those gunshots? Yes, I saw the president drop to the ground and get tackled by a mob of agents, so those must have been gunshots. But this can’t be happening. No way.” And so on. You get the idea. Meanwhile, you’re standing there being a rifleman’s backstop while all this questioning and debate goes on in your head.

The Importance of Planting and Cultivating Brain Seeds

While there’s no guarantee how each of us would react in a situation like the one we saw at the Butler, Pennsylvania rally. But we do know preparation matters, and perhaps the most important part of that starts right where the inertia to non-action lives — in the brain.

Top-tier athletes have used imagination and visualization techniques forever to pre-program their brain responses to improve later performance. While not a popular example now, I remember an old interview with O.J. Simpson where a sports journalist asked him how he so easily found and leveraged the emerging holes in the line. He responded something to the effect of, “I’ve pictured all these plays in my head a million times. When on the field, it just happens.”

It’s no different for us to pre-program a better defensive mindset. If you accept and internalize that things like this can and do happen and think about how you would ideally respond, you’ve given your brain a head start should you ever end up in a real situation. If you’ve already considered the fact you might experience gunfire coming your way at some point and decided you’re best move is to seek cover, you’re far more likely to be one of those people behind the president who immediately hit the floor.

Of course, the everyday situations work the same way. If you’re the one sitting in a restaurant when a guy walks in waving a gun, maybe you’ve already thought about where the kitchen door is and decided you’re willing to risk public embarrassment by leaping up and ushering your family through the sous-chef’s station. You can always apologize to the manager later if you’re wrong.

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