A wonderfully illustrative video:
This viral vid has attracted a lot of commentary, and most of it centers around either the fact that it shows how poor situational awareness leads to bad outcomes, or if she had only been armed to fight back.
I don’t disagree with either of those, but that is not what I want to focus on. Rather, let’s look at a well worn trope that is often thrown out there. There are a number of pithy phrases that get trotted out in the tactical self-defense world and one of them is that if you cannot use your firearm, than just “run away”. Like most of these tropes, it sounds good in shorthand, and it appeals to our sense of simplicity. But how does it work in real life? Well, when people talk like that, it is usually from the safety of their keyboard when they are nice and comfortable, and also when there are no issues in the way, such as injury or illness, or particular circumstance. The reality is shown by this video. She tries to run away. She abandons her purse and tries to flee. How well does that work? Not at all. One of the attackers is more physically capable and easily runs her down. Note that she is on a flat surface with no obstructions and does not hesitate to start to run, and yet it is all for naught. She is caught and thrown violently around. She is lucky that these criminals were only interested in her property, and not her, because she was helpless.
My point is not that running away is bad or useless. My point is that we as a community must step away from the simplistic and deal with real answers to keep people safe. Don’t settle for glib advice. Look at the real world, and how things can actually happen, and start to plan for those worst case scenarios.