I cannot emphasize enough how important it is to remember that real-life violence isn’t a competition. Predators aren’t looking for a challenge. If you give them enough hoops to jump through, more often than not they’re going to pick someone else. They’re looking for the easiest victim—the lowest-hanging fruit. It’s like that old joke about the two hikers in the forest who come across a hungry bear. One of them stops to put on his running shoes. The other tells him not to bother, since there’s no way a person can outrun a bear. His hiking partner says, “I don’t have to outrun the bear. I only
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