I hope that it is becoming apparent that merely having "offensive capability" is not enough to provide effective self-protection. The criminal paradigm encompasses victim selection, environmental awareness, planned approach, and rapid (sometimes viciously brutal) dominance of the chosen victim. By definition, we will be in an initiative deficit if we are selected as a victim. As stated by tomelex, overcoming the criminal's "head start" can be difficult to impossible.
So, in order to avoid the deficit associated with criminal assault, we must possess (and actively utilize!!) a skill set that makes us a "hard target" and controls our environment to the extent that the deficit is reduced. Further, unlike much traditional martial arts training, we must practice fighting our way out from various archetypal assault deficits. Note that this "fighting back" might not mean overpowering our attacker, but rather using tactics and tools that are available.
It is with an understanding of initiative deficit that we train officers to draw their firearms while wrestling with suspects, and why we teach them to use a "drive stun" with their Tasers ( pressing the contacts directly against the opponent at close range instead of shooting the electrodes ). For civilians, immediate-access hand-held weapons of opportunity like silverware, books, etc. provide opportunities to multiply the force we use against our attacker.
More as we continue.....
Lee
I've never been in very deep initiative deficit - that is, already under criminal attack - and am not at all confident about my ability to cope with such.
The closest I've come was once when I was getting my then-two-year-old son out of his car-seat, and a man that I hadn't seen (and yes I had scanned before pulling in) suddenly appeared at the edge of the carport and in two steps he's blocking our exit path. He stops and is focused on us. We're trapped in between the two cars, mine and my grandparents' (we shared a duplex), with nowhere to run. Not that I could have outrun him... this guy is eight to ten inches taller than me and athletic (I'm a desk jockey). His presence projects pure predatory evil. I don't think his eyes actually glowed red, but that's what it felt like.
He is less than one car-length from us, and I'm holding my son in my left arm (as I recall). I don't remember doing this, but evidently I've retrieved something from my right hip pocket, because it's already in my right hand, hidden behind my hip. And I am totally fixated on his posture... I've already decided that, if his weight so much as
shifts in our direction (much less he takes a step), OR if his hands move towards his waist, all hell breaks loose and I'll be the one to start it. I've sized him up and accepted that this will be a hard fight and I'm going to get hurt even if everything goes my way in the initial exchange, but I'll at least tag him so that he has to seek medical attention, and hopefully my son will survive, and for me that would be a "win". If I hesitate because of indecision to explode the instant I see him move, because of his proximity, I may not even tag him before I go down, so that's why I'm right there at the verge. But I've already made the decision to act, so the action is only waiting on his slightest threatening move, and I'm confident that I can at least make him pay a price and... he doesn't really know what I've got because he hasn't seen it. We hold our positions like this for several minutes... okay it was probably several seconds, but those were the longest seconds of my life. Fortunately for all three of us he decides to back down, and walks on down the sidewalk, out of view. Maybe he knew that a dad would fight to the death for his kids, and that was more than he wanted. As he leaves I stay where I am, in case he draws a weapon and returns, in which case I don't want to have given up separation distance. Shortly afterwards I hear him loudly growl, "Just gimme your money!" I think, omigosh, he's robbing someone right there, just a few feet away!! I can't see him, but I can tell from his voice where he is. Taking advantage of the fact that he's obviously occupied, I full-sprint across the street with my son to about fifty feet away (I will feel much safer with some maneuvering room). During my sprint I realize that I'm going to have to choose between staying with my son and returning to the situation to assist whoever the guy is assaulting, and am not looking forward to that. Soon as I've completed my desk-jockey sprint angling across the street I whip around to orient to the situation. And aside from the tall guy, there's no one else there! I watch in disbelief and relief while he pantomimes a mugging (knife I think; didn't see a gun). He's in between me and the entrance to my house, so I wait until he's done and has moved on down the street to the next block, and then we go home. I'm pretty shook up, but my sphincter muscles haven't failed me.
That was probably the closest I ever came. But it still wasn't the deep deficit you describe, of being already under attack. I'm not equipped to deal with that (though I would try). The above incident was too close for comfort already.
Let me elaborate on the beginning of the encounter... my back was to the opening of the carport as I got my son out of his car-seat, and then suddenly all the hairs stood up on the back of my neck. I don't remember hearing the guy, I just looked up and there he was coming into view. I can't really credit my conscious situational awareness, as he'd evaded my scan, but maybe my habits had primed my unconscious detection system to be on duty as well.
In hindsight, my son would have been safer on the ground. I probably should have set him down while keeping eyes on my guy. I would have been much more effective on the offensive with two hands, and likewise more effective on the defensive if I could engage without my son getting crushed in my arms. It is possible that I did put my son down when the guy left, and then scooped him up again after "just gimme your money"; I remember scooping him up at some point, and I think it was just before the sprint, but I'm not sure. Now I'm not even sure he was in my arm throughout the encounter - I may have put him down early on after all, or he may already have been on the ground, as I do remember being more confident than having him in my arm would have warranted, so now I don't know. My memory lapses and uncertainty about major details like this tell me that if the fight had happened, I'd have made an amazingly poor eyewitness.
I probably should have issued some verbal warning, as mentally I had rehearsed in practice, but it was like the verbal part of my brain had gone completely offline (this was not the first time words had failed me under stress). My attention was totally focused on his posture and hands, and I don't think I had any CPU capacity available for anything else. Reacting immediately and competently to either his weight shift or hand movement was the only problem I had to deal with, and in that moment nothing else mattered. And I probably would have been easily outflanked by a second assailant, as I had "tunnel vision" real bad.
To this day I don't know where the guy came from. He was either hiding in the bushes next to the carport, or had moved in quickly from down the street after seeing me pull in, because I had scanned the block before pulling into the carport like I always do. Anyway I cut down the bushes after that, just in case.
What if he actually had been mugging someone else? I really don't know what I would have done. Even in retrospect twenty-five years later, two thousand miles away, and safe behind my computer screen, that choice is still hard for me to face. Might have depended on whether he was physically assaulting the other person or not.
I added another step to my arrive-home routine: I made a habit of quickly exiting the car and walking out beyond the end of the carport to scan the street again before taking kids out of car seats.
One other change was made; merely "tagging" an assailant instead of stopping him had somehow lost its appeal.
Lee, please feel free to critique. My ego is invested in my crossover design prowess, not my whatever this would be. I'd like to learn from my mistakes.