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Weapons Used by Aggressive Drivers

In approximately 4,400 of the 10,037 known aggressive driving incidents, the perpetrator used a firearm, knife, club, fist, feet or other standard weapon for the attack.

In approximately 2,300 cases the aggressive driver used an even more powerful weapon -- his or her own vehicle.

And in approximately 1,250 cases the aggressive driver used his or her own vehicle and a standard weapon like a gun, knife, or club. No information was available for 1,087 of the cases reviewed.

Without question the most popular weapons used by aggressive drivers are firearms and motor vehicles. In 37 percent of the cases a firearm was used; in 35 percent the weapon was the vehicle itself.

Other weapons used by aggressive drivers have included the following, in order of their frequency:

¥ Fists and feet: In hundreds of cases hostile drivers have used their fists and feet to express their displeasure with other motorists.

¥ Tire irons and jack handles are frequently used as weapons, probably because they are readily accessible in most vehicles.

¥ Baseball bats: Mizell and Company recorded over 160 cases in which baseball bats were used to settle traffic disputes.

There are, of course, thousands of cases in which baseball bats have been used as weapons in other situations, such as gang fights or street.

Celebrities are not immune: In California, Oscar winner Jack Nicholson believed that the driver of a Mercedes-Benz cut him off in traffic. The 57-year-old actor grabbed a golf club, stepped out of his car at a red light, and repeatedly struck the windshield and roof of the Mercedes.

If a person is enraged, irrational, and impulsive enough to kill one person, he or she may also be irrational, impulsive, and crazy enough to kill many people, depending on the circumstances.

There are thousands of mentally and emotionally disturbed individuals on the highway. Charged with anger, fear, and personal frustration, and often impaired by alcohol or other drugs, motorists in all 50 states have murdered and maimed other motorists for seemingly trivial reasons.

¥ Without exaggeration, millions of motorists are armed with firearms, knives, clubs, and other weapons. There are more than 200 million firearms in circulation in the United States, and many motorists are carrying guns.

It is also important to remember that every driver on the highway is armed with a weapon more deadly and dangerous than any firearm: a motor vehicle.

¥ Anyone can become an aggressive driver! People who have maimed and murdered motorists during traffic disputes have been old and young, males and females, rich and poor, well dressed and poorly dressed.

They have been white, black, Asian, and Hispanic. Do not underestimate the potential for violence in any driver.

There are thousands of mentally and emotionally disturbed individuals on the highway. Charged with anger, fear, and personal frustration, and often impaired by alcohol or other drugs

Studies of animal behavior have shown how rats and various primates can respond aggressively in response to overcrowding. It is reasonable to suggest that humans respond in a comparable manner.

Human beings are territorial. As individuals we have a personal space, or territory, which evolved essentially as a defense mechanism -- anyone who invades this territory is potentially an aggressor and the time it takes the aggressor to cross this territory enables the defender to prepare to fend off or avoid the attack.

This may extend no further than a matter of a few feet or less. We may be prepared to reduce the size of this territory according to the available space (e.g. on a crowded subway train) but this can cause tension.

In most cases if the territory is "invaded," if someone stands too close, our social education tends to result in defensive body language rather than physical aggression.

In some circumstances, the defending driver may wish to go one step further and assert his dominance.

Many drivers admit to having chased after a driver to "teach him a lesson," often pressing him by moving to within inches of his rear bumper.

This is comparable to the manner in which a defending animal will chase an attacker out of its territory.

However, the result of such behavior in drivers is, of course, potentially fatal.

If we take an example from studies of animal behavior in the wild, the dominant animal in a group will rarely get involved in petty fights and disagreements. Although confident in his ability to defeat any opponent, there is always the risk of injury.

Psychological Mechanisms of Aggression and Rage

It may be useful in addressing this point to revert to wider analyses of aggression. In many animals aggression is undoubtedly a basic biological response -- an evolutionary drive which helps to ensure a species' survival.

In humans, however, it is still unclear to what extent a firm biological basis for aggression can be assumed, as opposed to being a learned response developed through imitation of others and reinforced by the experience of its results.

This lack of clarity is based on numerous experiments; if a certain area of the brain, the hypothalamus, is artificially stimulated in certain animals, aggressively violent behavior is normally instigated.

This is not the case for humans, however, suggesting that social factors may be more influential in human aggression.

Experiments in which people are encouraged to vent aggression and then record the emotional results support the suggestion that human aggression is not simply an innate drive.

If aggression were a basic biological drive like hunger, it should be cathartic, i.e., after aggressive acts have been carried out the individual's frustration and anger should be to some extent satiated.

Many such experiments suggest that this is not the case.

6 This means that by allowing ourselves to vent "pent-up" anger, by swearing or gesticulating for example, the problem will not be resolved. Venting anger may, in fact, serve only to warrant displays of aggression at a more intense level, since the desired result (satiation) has not been achieved.

In short, there is strong evidence against the commonly held belief that a good way of handling anger is to "get it all out." Venting anger appears to do little or nothing to reduce feelings of aggression.

Scientific evidence suggests that anger is the emotion that people are least able to control.9 As Goleman puts it:

...anger is the most seductive of the negative emotions; the self-righteous inner monologue that propels it along fills the mind with the most convincing arguments for venting rage. Unlike sadness, anger is energizing, even exhilarating.10

Goleman suggests that the seductive nature of anger may explain why views that it is uncontrollable (or that it should not be controlled) and that venting anger is "cathartic" are common, in spite of the fact that the research fails to support these beliefs.

Danger may be perceived in symbolic threats to self-esteem: unjust treatment, being patronized or insulted, or simply being frustrated in attempts to achieve a particular goal.

These perceptions cause the limbic system to release catecholamines (organic compounds known to contribute to the functioning of the nervous system), which results in a sudden vigorous action that prepares the individual to take flight or fight depending on the situation (what Goleman refers to as the "rage rush"). This state will last for a few minutes only.

Simultaneously, however the limbic system prompts arousal in the nervous system, providing a longer-lasting, more general state of readiness upon which subsequent reactions can build particularly quickly. In effect this state of arousal lowers the threshold of the point at which anger is provoked.11

Theories suggest that the "higher," civilized elements of the mind become subordinate to our most primitive responses; successive anger-provoking thoughts become a trigger for surges of catecholamines, each building on the hormonal momentum of those preceding it.

Before the first has subsided there is a second, closely followed by a third, and so on, such that the body is rapidly in a state of extreme arousal. Consequently, an aggressive thought that occurs later in this process is likely to result in a greater intensity of anger than one that occurs at the beginning. In Goleman's words:

Anger builds on anger; the emotional brain heats up. By then rage, unhampered by reason, easily erupts in violence. At this point people are unforgiving and beyond being reasoned with; their thoughts revolve around revenge and reprisal, oblivious to what the consequences might be ...the rawest lessons of life's brutality become guides to action.

Very good Jake. The posted links with the conversations are most enlightening, or should be to the vast majority of us. One cannot really argue with the position of 'aliveness' in the training.

But what is also true is the fact that many students will find this type of training a bit too demanding and so they walk away from it, preferring to immerse into different 'standards' of achieving defensive proficiency_ if you will.

And when we read and talk about street defense and ways of training… it is mostly billed as empty hands affairs and implied single opponent.

Where is the violence mostly apt to originate from?

This is a huge question, made bigger, I think, by the fact that the answer will vary from person to person. A twenty-two year old single male is faced with a different set of possibilities than a forty-five year old soccer mom.