Awareness and Attack Survival
If you had the choice, would you rather learn attack survival from a US Navy SEAL or an FBI Special Agent? In Sheep No More, you don’t have to choose, because the author has been a SEAL and an FBI Special Agent. He has also worked for the Department of Homeland Security, and served as a Federal Air Marshal. He also went to Ranger school.
Sheep No More is an unusual book for civilians, because in it, Mr. Gilliam pulls back the curtain on the way that the military and federal law enforcement agencies think about assessing and preventing threats. For any responsible citizen who is serious about family safety in public places, it’s an eye-opening read.
Rather than teaching how to react to a crisis once it’s happened, Mr. Gilliam primarily instructs the reader in the techniques of attack awareness, prevention, and avoidance.
Sheep No More opens with a page defining the words “predator” and “prey.” This might lead the reader to wonder if the book is about becoming a predator rather than prey. That interpretation would be half right, but it fails to grasp the nuance of Mr. Gilliam’s theories.
At its heart, Sheep No More is not a book about becoming a “wolf” rather than a “sheep.” Instead, it is an expert instruction manual on how to temporarily think like a predator so that you and your family avoid becoming prey.
Use the Attacker Mindset
The core tenet of Sheep No More is the process of taking on an “Attacker Mindset.” Rather than focus on a reactive form of situational awareness, where the responsible citizen is constantly assessing threats in real-time, Mr. Gilliam prefers a more proactive approach. By thinking like an attacker, a responsible citizen can preemptively assess weaknesses in an environment in order to anticipate an attack.
After explaining the Attacker Mindset in Part 1, Mr. Gilliam goes on in Part 2 to explain in detail how to build an attacker’s target package. This is a method for reverse engineering an attack in order to identify when, how, and where an attacker is likely to strike. The technique is universal and can be applied to any location including a residence, school, entertainment venue, or business office.
For Part 3, the author transitions to instructions on how to become a defender. Once you’ve made a threat assessment with the Attacker Mindset, how can you use this information to effectively defend against an attack. Coming from someone with such varied tactical and investigative experience, this section of the book, while brief, is instructive.
In Part 4, the reader gets the author’s take on the traditional “run, hide, fight” method of surviving a violent encounter. Here, Mr. Gilliam uses the phrase “escape, evade, fight” which assumes a more assertive posture consistent with other reputable active shooter training programs.
Parting Thoughts
For anyone who is interested in becoming a more confident and proactive family defender, Sheep No More is a no-brainer recommendation. At times, the author can be verbose, and the information can feel stretched out over the pages. However, with some patience, an attentive reader will come away with a wealth of real-world knowledge in attack awareness and avoidance.
