For the first time, I feel a bit twitchy!

[warringtonmum88]

As the subject line suggests I've been feeling rather twitchy given what has happened in France.

Yesterday I was in our town centre and saw two armed police officers outside of our shopping centre, this prompted me to avoid going in there at all. In the past we have been the victim of bomb attacks twice in Warrington and right now, I don't mind admitting that I feel very unsettled at the moment.
http://www.warringtonguardian.co.uk/new ... s_attacks/

I know and understand the likelihood of being caught up in a terrorist attack is pretty slim but my prepping mind kicked in over the weekend and I found myself watching other people a lot more than usual, found myself taking in every "staff only" door that I could find for potential escape routes and even showed my son good places to hide in the town centre should we get separated. I even showed my children how to use the escape hatches on buses which we always sit next to anyway but it had never crossed my mind to show them how to actually use the lever to get the door open.

While we have been doing our winter preps and making sure Storm Barney doesn't cause too much damage to our garden etc I also found myself double checking our get home bag, checking our documents on our USB, found myself letting my mind run away with me with concerns other than half of my garden ending up down the road!!

In light of the attacks in Paris & the evacuation of specific sites in Hannover last night (Tuesday 17th Nov) have any of you felt uneasy, have you stepped up your preps, have you found yourself changing some of the things you would normally do just to minimise any sort of risk?!

I feel like a paranoid person right now, I started prepping for the right reasons (I can't see many wrong ones to be honest) but I just feel now it is paramount that I feel secure in my abilities to run, hide, escape if I am in public.

This is the first time that other events have made me feel nervous and dare I say it, fearful!

[kernewek]

I've been a lot more of my surroundings travelling across London and made sure I had a couple of useful extra items with me. In terms of going out I've been avoiding places I would consider to be on a terrorist's radar, although after Paris who knows what to rule out.

[hobo]

I've been getting some stares when out with my wife in town (she's British Asian). Maybe people always stare and I'm just more aware of it....

[izzy_mack]

as Kernewek said, who knows where to rule out any more. Being twitchy is not necessarily a bad thing, if you identify why, and you have, and use your ability to do something about it, which you are doing, then as long as you've taken the precautions you feel appropriate for you, you should relax - at least a little.

Worrying about things you can do nothing about is a waste of energy, but we all do it, but if you use that energy to sort things you CAN do, it will at least distract for the other stuff. All we can do in unknown- quantity situations, is our best and you sound extremely sensible, especially with regard to your children. Many will say don't scare them but I think children know a lot more than adults give them credit for and teaching them to think and thereby stay safe is reassuring rather than scary. I wish someone had taught me to be prepared from an early age!

I'm fortunate in one way in that I live in a low risk area, this can mean that should something happen, fewer of us will mentally take in the situation as dangerous as it not really on our horizon. Like many in Paris, we're more likely to think fireworks than guns. whereas those in high risk areas may well react quicker. I must say that I went shopping yesterday and checked my local supermarket exits again, I have already memorised the exits but checked that nothing was changed and now that they're packing in xmas stuff, some exits are not so obvious or easy to get at from all angles. I always buy an extra when shopping no matter how small, I did buy a few more than I might otherwise so maybe I am a little twitchy even if I didn't realise it.

[Arzosah]

Don't blame you for feeling twitchy, not one bit!

I work from home in quite a small town, and I haven't needed to go into the town centre since the day before the Paris attacks, but I think the place itself is too small for the chaos they want to create - this sort of quiet area is usually the kind of place they stay at *before* they carry out their attacks (tho these latest jihadists seem to have stayed in a well-known area - maybe doing it on the cheap? don't know. anyway .... )

What I *have* been doing is gathering tips on what to do, and what to carry in advance - there's a couple of good threads on here about that. And there's a BBC article today about it: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-34844518 which I only know about because of the UKP thread.

One of the things I was doing yesterday was gathering free online resources about how to talk to children about what they're hearing and seeing - France has been really quick off the mark with some good stuff, and America has long had routine talks with children about gunmen and killers

[Mortblanc]

One of the things that everyone must now accept is that there are NO LOW RISK AREAS !!

Everyone everywhere is at risk even if you do not think there would be any interest in your area.

Yes, a lot of people were killed at the arena, but the other focus of the death squads was simple quiet restaurants that were packed with their evening diners.

In the past it has been enough to watch you back, avoid large gatherings and keep off public transport. That is no longer enough.

Imagine if the entire terrorist group, which seems to be growing in number daily, had rolled into a rural village and rounded up every man, woman and child and began their execution process.

That is what they have been seeing in their own countries and I am sure some of them are walking about viewing small European and British communities as easy targets.

What if they walked into you local school and began their work, not as crazed individuals, but as a trained killing team? One medium sized school would offer as many killed as the whole Paris death toll! We avoid crowds, public transport, and danger areas and then send out children and grandchildren to be large target groups on a daily basis! Are your teachers trained to deal with such a threat?

In a small village setting it would take hours for the trained shock troops to react to their presence, the terror work would be done and the terrorists would be dispersed before anyone heard the first siren on a police car.

If I am aware of this information then they are too. One can no longer go about hoping they don't think of that.

Time to wake up and consider the consciences of personal inactivity and lack of awareness.

[kernewek]

I've heard a few comments from people that indicate that they feel safe outside London. It may be true to a certain degree but I wouldn't necessarily rest easy. The message from Paris the bombers intended to send was that nowhere is safe. So what is the next logical step? Beyond cities like London and Paris maybe? I'd be vigilant wherever you are at the moment.

[nickdutch]

just carry on living. Statistically, its not very likely that you will get blown up, but your services might get disrupted, so keep doing what you are doing.

[Plymtom]

just carry on living. Statistically, its not very likely that you will get blown up, but your services might get disrupted, so keep doing what you are doing.

I agree but then I don't get up to an awful lot, nor spend much time in likely target areas, so nothing wrong with feeling a bit twitchy, imagine if vigilance could have lessened the recent attacks, or prevented them, chances are somebody could have put two and two together and didn't, so wilst i agree with Nick we should carry on living, I also think we should be more observant.

[Hamradioop]

One of the things that everyone must now accept is that there are NO LOW RISK AREAS !!

Everyone everywhere is at risk even if you do not think there would be any interest in your area.

Yes, a lot of people were killed at the arena, but the other focus of the death squads was simple quiet restaurants that were packed with their evening diners.

In the past it has been enough to watch you back, avoid large gatherings and keep off public transport. That is no longer enough.

Imagine if the entire terrorist group, which seems to be growing in number daily, had rolled into a rural village and rounded up every man, woman and child and began their execution process.

That is what they have been seeing in their own countries and I am sure some of them are walking about viewing small European and British communities as easy targets.

What if they walked into you local school and began their work, not as crazed individuals, but as a trained killing team? One medium sized school would offer as many killed as the whole Paris death toll! We avoid crowds, public transport, and danger areas and then send out children and grandchildren to be large target groups on a daily basis! Are your teachers trained to deal with such a threat?

In a small village setting it would take hours for the trained shock troops to react to their presence, the terror work would be done and the terrorists would be dispersed before anyone heard the first siren on a police car.

If I am aware of this information then they are too. One can no longer go about hoping they don't think of that.

Time to wake up and consider the consciences of personal inactivity and lack of awareness.

1. a large number of FAC holders live in rural Britain and I dare say most of them would be only too happen to bag a brace of Terrs mate.