One of the primary issues the civilian operator faces is one of legitimacy – that is the armed civilian, whether legal or para-legal, is always seen as less than his police or military counterparts – in some instances, even if the armed civilian is former military, and a combat veteran at that . . .

Of course, why not, when there are guys like this out there

The primary tool in your toolbox is of course the one between your ears.  Many articles have been written about the “grey man” approach, the idea of keeping as inconspicuous as possible to avoid issues or confrontation in the first place.   We’ll discuss this later – and it’s geographic-based corollaries – but the basic idea is to blend into your surroundings.

However, there are sometime when a civilian operator finds his- or herself in a situation where he or she needs a weapon, something to force-multiply, and the circumstances of location prohibit the most obvious examples as being possible.   Often times this is combined with the inability to blend-in – or the fact that the blending in wouldn’t make a difference.   A hostile situation on an airplane for example – in this case, the inaction or failure to act while “blending in” would be a far worse outcome than by interdicting into the situation.

So how to escape & evade in a Weapon-Free Zone (WFZ)?