Avoid the three stupids:

Don't go to stupid places and do stupid things with stupid people.

Unless job related, I don't go places where I wouldn't go if I was unarmed. Period. Having a gun doesn't suddenly make a place less crime riddled or drug infested, it just means you are *slightly* more prepared to deal with a bad situation.

I go, sometimes alone, into trailer parks, housing projects of the low income welfare receipient variety, ****** rundown apartment buildings, drug infested encampments out in the woods because my job requires it, not because a gun, badge, or a belt full of other useful tools makes it safer.

Sure, my job has made me choose my every day carry items and my habits differently than maybe a regular joe would, but I've seen bad things happen to good people in good "safe" places enough to know that often the "safe" places can be as dangerous if not more so than the "dangerous" ones because people drop their guard when they are in a place that *feels* like a "safe" one.

I've been attacked from behind as I got out of my truck, hit in the side of the head knocked unconscious with a tube sock full of D-cell batteries(I know that because the sock fell apart and they left a trail of batteries Hansel and Gretel style all the way up to the disgarded tube sock),because I let my guard down in a "safe" area even though I knew better. Why was I hit from behind? Likely they were hiding in the dark attempting to break into another vehicle, when I pulled into the parking space and disrupted their plans, they saw mowing me over as their only means of escape.

I let my guard down, was unprepared, and learned my lesson. Never assume some place is safe just because it always has been in the past. Just be alert, and don't learn the hard way like I did.