William April, Unthinkable

Do you understand the threats you face?

The way that we think, feel, perceive the world and behave are all related to our life experiences and how they shape us into individuals. What happens in life isn’t the only influence, but it can be a strong one. The debate has raged for years. Nature or nurture? It isn’t likely an either or situation. Instead a combination. This combination is what shapes us into who and what we are. The who and what that make us what we are has an influence on the decision that we make, It can’t be denied.

So, people like you and me, have had some experiences in life that have provided a motivation of sorts to learn how to lead a safer life. Maybe something you saw on the news scared you. Or someone you know was a victim of violence. It could have been the helpless feeling you had the night you were mugged at knife point. How about the rage you still feel everyday when your brain recalls the smell of the animal that raped you against the cold steel of the dumpster behind the corner gas station?

Whatever it is that provides the drive you have made the decision to not allow this to happen to you. If it already happened you are determined to never let it happen again.  The realization that it could happen to you is the start. It is what separates you from those that don’t take their safety seriously.

You have to realistically know that the realization itself isn’t enough. You actually have to do something about it.

The goal of Unthinkable is to help you understand what to do.

William Aprill, Aprill Risk Consulting

Once the realization sets in that you need to do SOMETHING to protect yourself and those that you love, a course of action must be determined and in most cases the advice of experts is needed. William Aprill is one of those experts and helping you to lead a truly safer life is why Safety Solutions Academy is Partnering with Aprill Risk Consulting to present Unthinkable.

William Aprill is a licensed mental health professional with close to 20 years experience across the continuum of mental health care. Today, William is in private practice and consults specializing in post-traumatic interventions. Mr. Aprill is a former deputy sheriff and Special Deputy for the U.S. Marshals. William is also a decorated competitive shooter.

Over the past 25 years he has taught civilian, law enforcement, and military personnel in various fighting skills and William maintains an active schedule both as student and teacher.  Williams Instructor credentials are impressive. He is instructor-rated by several top-tier trainers and studies under many of the most influential members of the combative arts community.

Through Aprill Risk Consulting, William has presented his material on violent criminals and their decision-making, defensive incident aftermath, mindset development and defensive preparedness nationally, including at the Annual Conference of the International Association of Law Enforcement Firearms Instructors (IALEFI, Rangemaster Tactical Conference, Tactical Response Alumni Weekend.

William also serves as the Training Director for Paul-E-Palooza, the memorial conference and fundraiser for the family of the late Paul Gomez. William has been a popular guest on the firearms/training industry broadcast Ballistic Radio, Safety solutions Academy Podcast and is the subject of two Personal Defense Network DVDs of his original training material on defensive decision-making and mindset development.

Common Assumptions Regarding Crime and Criminals

You may have heard someone else say, “I only carry my gun when I’m going to be in a bad neighborhood.” Maybe you have even said it yourself. The fact is that everyone of us has an idea or an image in our mind about what crime and criminals are. How it happens, where it happens. Who the threat is, how they think and behave.

Our ideas are likely flawed.

Remember, it is our life experiences that can strongly influence who and what we are. Your life experience is likely very different than that of the thug you fear. This makes them difficult to understand. Often we compare the violent criminal to predators. It is an interesting comparison.

When I first heard William speak his presentation helped me to form an image in my mind. Have you ever been to the beach? The ocean? Did you go into the water? When you did, was there a moment when you considered what else was swimming in the water? Did you think about sharks? I’m guessing you did. It is human nature.

Now, read this next question carefully and consider your answer.

While you were in the water did you even for one moment assume that a shark would play by your rules? I would hope not. It is easy to expect the shark to behave like a shark. It has shark skin and shark teeth and so much sharkiness that we don’t pretend to understand. A shark is playing by shark rules. Period.

When it comes to the violent criminals we fear, it isn’t so easy. They look like you and me. In many ways they behave similarly and so we look at the violent thug and we see some of us in them and, if we aren’t careful, we can make a serious error in assumption. It is easy to assume that the bad people in the world operate by the same rules we do. It isn’t true. They do operate by rules. Just not ours. Yet you assume they do.

You are swimming in the world of the violent criminal and expecting them to play by your rules. It leads to problems.

Assumptions Have Consequences

You have decided to do something and that is a good first step. What are you going to do? Maybe more importantly, how did you determine that as your course of action? These are some important questions and their answers could mean the difference between training in concepts and skills that can make a positive difference in your safety and those that simply make you feel warm and fuzzy and safe.

If you are basing your training on your assumptions of violent crime and violent criminals you may be making an important mistake.

To understand what you need to train and how you should train it you MUST understand the threats that you face.

This is why William Aprill is coming to Cleveland. To help you understand violent criminals, violence and what you can really do about it.

Course Details

Unthinkable has been structured to make it easy and convenient for you to select the topics that are most important to you to understand and train. In addition, you can sign up for individual parts of the course as your time permits.
You will find registration info at http://www.ssa.training/unthinkable

YOUR INSTRUCTORS

WILLIAM APRILL OF APRILL RISK CONSULTING AND PAUL CARLSON OF SAFETY SOLUTIONS ACADEMY, LLC

COURSE TOPICS

UNTHINKABLE: CONCEPTS AND TECHNIQUES FOR THE GRAVEST EXTREME (BLOCK I)

April 25, 2015
Garrettsville, OH

● Fatal Choices: Understanding Violent Criminal Actors and How They Identify Victims
● Maximum Cadence: Increasing Your Defensive Shooting Speed
● Threading the Needle: Shooting with Extreme Precision and at Unrealistic Distances
● Open-Source Disarming

UNTHINKABLE: CONCEPTS AND TECHNIQUES FOR THE GRAVEST EXTREME (BLOCK II)

April 26, 2015
Garrettsville, OH

● Open-Source Retention
● Handicapped: Drawing Your Defensive Handgun from Disadvantage
● Rapid Deployment: Getting the First Round on Target Faster
● The 5 W’s of Risk: Constructing an Effective Pre-Need Defense Paradigm

If you think that this course material could be beneficial to you, get yourself registered for Unthinkable today.  We look forward to training with you!