This episode of Ballistic Radio features John Johnston, the host and Paul Sharp of Sharp Defense. Sharp is a long time self defender, police officer as well as a martial artist and firearms instructor. His views are from his frame of reference as a metro police officer.
Sharp and Johnston start our going through some of the issues in modern self protection, but the conversation gets even more interesting when Sharp starts talking about his time in Law Enforcement. His focus in this interview is not about police defensive tactics (in which he is a subject matter expert) or in how the police need to learn Brazilian Jujitsu (which he teaches). His focus is on understanding the other side. When we are constantly bombarded with public statements and mottoes designed to divide us, Sharp offers a view that many people do not consider, which is that each side is not wrong, we just don't understand each other. Sharp offers a personal story about a boy that stole some food because he wouldn't have had anything else to eat outside of school. Johnston shared a story about his own life when he was so desperate to feed his wife and newborn child that he stole groceries. These are some of the stories that show us the other side of what we consider normal. It shows us that normal is a sliding scale.
This podcast is profound in that it may help us understand each other better and limit how we see our differences. With all of the anger in the country now, with sides divided more than they have been, we need to work harder than ever to listen before we speak.