Page 34-41, question and answer by the editors with 5 prominent martial arts figures

Lone Wolf: Staying Safe in the Age of Terrorism, the feature article of this issue, has all of the hallmarks of a cheap headline milking reader grab. The White Separatist bad guy on the cover is just so liberal Left Coast 2015 DoucheAmerica, that I almost skipped it. I’m glad I didn’t.

All of the five experts gave good sound advice in answer to the queasy panic button questions of the editors that could have come from the mouth of any CNN talking head. Michael Janich and Kelly McCann were particularly sharp, but did not push the comfort bubble.

Mike Gillette, however, expanded the terms of discussion and went beyond the ninny worries of Sissy America about facing terrorists who are –so shockingly by our quivering standards—willing to die during the course of doing harm to those they count as enemies, and opens up that oft closed reality canister:

“You just have to play the hand that’s been dealt to you. The idea of being willing to die for a cause is not unique to terrorists. As a cop, I encountered any number of street criminals who wanted to die. They would actually scream things like, ‘Shoot me, I want to die!’”

Later on, after guiding the discussion toward the homegrown mayhem that is supposedly just the victimization of innocent unarmed black teens, he lays it out:

“If a person trains in the martial arts and doesn’t train to defend against weapons, I consider them to be either recreational athletes or historical re-enactment enthusiasts. You will never be attacked one-on-one in the daylight [He just let the readership know that 90% of their effort is off focus] with ample warning and without the potential for weapons to be involved…you don’t get to define what it is. It is ultimately defined by whatever is circumstantially thrust upon you.”

I know nothing about Mike Gillette. But he makes more sense than anyone I have read on the mundane art of saving your ass.

Overall this was a good article, and Mister Gillette was in a class of his own.