Plan. Avoid. Detect. Deter.
Your firearm is a tool of last resort. Everything in the P.A.D.D. Plan happens before you ever reach for it, and in many cases, it’s what keeps you from needing to. I teach this framework in my training courses because the decisions you make before a confrontation matter just as much as what you do during one. In Minnesota, they can matter in court, too.
P is plan
Plan your route, and take note of areas of criminal activity, or areas known to have elements that may be dangerous to the safety of your family or you. Having knowledge of hazardous areas is an extremely important part of situational awareness. Hazardous areas are not just areas of high crime. They are also areas where environmental or man-made dangers exist.
What that looks like in practice:
- Know your route before you go, and have a backup route in mind.
- Pay attention to local crime patterns. Talk to people who live and work in the area. Check publicly available crime data for places you travel regularly.
- Think beyond crime. Construction zones, poorly lit streets, areas prone to flooding, large unstructured crowds: anything that limits your options if something goes wrong counts as a hazardous area.
- Plan your parking: well-lit, close to entrances, with a clear path back to your vehicle.
- Tell someone where you’re going and when you expect to be back.
Planning isn’t paranoia. It’s the same thing you do when you check the weather before a long drive, applied to your personal safety.
A is avoid
Use your plan to help avoid danger areas, and areas that may increase your chances of needing to deploy deadly force.
Avoidance is not cowardice. It is strategy. Every dangerous situation you avoid is one you don’t have to survive, and one you don’t have to explain later.
Why avoid problem areas?
You may be wondering why you should avoid these problematic areas. Look at it this way. If you are placed in a position where you must use deadly force on another person, to avoid death or great bodily harm, you will want as much evidence as you can get to prove that you attempted to avoid the situation in the first place, and that your deadly force actions were a last resort. By showing that you took steps to avoid problem areas, and areas that are known to produce victims, you are demonstrating to the prosecuting attorney, and if it goes to trial, to the jury, that you were not looking for trouble. You were trying to avoid it.
D is detect
Use your situational awareness skills while traveling or moving in your environment. If you observe problem areas or people, avoid the area, or that individual, or that group, if it is possible.
Awareness matters because of what happens to your body under stress. Lieutenant Colonel Dave Grossman describes five conditions of physiologic readiness:
- Condition White: a normal resting heart rate.
- Condition Yellow: psychologically prepared for combat.
- Condition Red: optimal survival. Gross motor skills, visual reaction time, and cognitive reaction time peak, at the expense of fine motor skills, at a heart rate of 115 to 145 beats per minute.
- Condition Gray: a transition phase between Condition Red and Condition Black, which may be modified with training, at a heart rate of 145 to 175.
- Condition Black: a catastrophic breakdown of mental and physical performance, at a heart rate of 175 or greater.
Staying alert and aware keeps you in Condition Yellow, prepared, so you have time to avoid, time to detect, and time to decide. Training is what helps you perform in Condition Red instead of breaking down in Condition Black.
D is deter
Situational awareness and knowledge of your surroundings can have a deterrence effect on criminals looking to take advantage of unsuspecting prey. Pay attention. Showing confidence in yourself, and being alert, shows predators that you are aware of their location and their actions, and that may help deter them from choosing you as a target.
This isn’t just theory. In a 1981 study (Grayson and Stein, “Attracting Assault: Victims’ Nonverbal Cues,” Journal of Communication), researchers showed footage of pedestrians to convicted violent offenders and asked who they would target. The offenders consistently picked the people who moved like victims (head down, unaware, unconfident gait) and passed over the ones who walked alert, head up, aware of their surroundings. Criminals are shopping for easy prey. Don’t be easy prey.
Don’t help them prosecute you
They want to show you in a negative light. Do not help them do their job of prosecuting you. The more steps you take to avoid using deadly force, the harder it is for them to prove that you were not justified in your actions.
Another category of training you should be increasing your skills in is de-escalation. De-escalation generally uses communication skills and body language to de-escalate an encounter that may be growing unstable. Today, attorneys are going after permit to carry holders, like you, on any front they can, to get convictions. They will attempt to make it look like you were looking for trouble simply because you carry a firearm, or because you were in an area known for criminal activity, regardless of whether that information is true.
De-escalation in practice:
- Clear verbal commands. “Stop.” “Stay back.” “Leave me alone.” Say them loud enough for witnesses to hear. Your words establish that you were trying to end it.
- Hands visible. Open palms, at chest level. Non-threatening, but ready.
- Create distance. Step back, maintain space, keep an exit in mind.
- Be the best witness. If it goes bad, you want bystanders to remember you as the one trying to stop it.
Think of it as a ladder: avoid first, de-escalate second, and force only as the absolute last resort.
That is P.A.D.D.: Plan, Avoid, Detect, Deter.
This article is general safety and training information, not legal advice. For questions about the law and your own situation, talk to an attorney.
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