Self-Defense: Mastering Urban Survival Techniques — Second Edition is a practical personal-safety guide built around one central principle: don't win a fight. The goal is to go home.

Self-defense is often presented as a collection of strikes, holds, counters, and fighting techniques. David Burnell takes a broader and more realistic approach. Effective self-defense begins long before physical contact. It starts with awareness, judgment, preparation, communication, and the ability to recognize when a situation is changing before it becomes a crisis.

Drawing on decades of experience in military service, personal protection, rescue, emergency preparedness, combatives, and instruction through the Urban Warfare Center, Burnell explains how civilians can build a layered approach to safety without living in fear. Readers learn to recognize risk, set boundaries, de-escalate when appropriate, create distance, use barriers, make decisions under pressure, and escape when an opportunity exists.

When violence cannot be avoided, the book focuses on practical survival rather than complicated technique. It addresses close-contact assaults, grabs, chokes, ground survival, weapons, multiple attackers, confined spaces, and the realities of unequal strength. The emphasis throughout is on protecting yourself long enough to create an opening, disengage, and reach safety.

This revised and updated Second Edition also expands the discussion beyond physical confrontation. It covers home and vehicle safety, parking areas, public transportation, rideshare travel, workplaces, schools, churches, public gatherings, active violence, severe bleeding, scenario training, the legal principles surrounding defensive force, and the critical decisions that come after an incident.

Burnell also challenges some of the most persistent assumptions in self-defense training. Size and strength do matter. Weapon disarms are not tricks. Pain does not always stop a determined attacker. Confidence is not the same as competence. And no technique can eliminate uncertainty. Real preparation comes from understanding your limitations, training honestly, and improving your ability to adapt when events do not unfold as expected.

Medical readiness is also treated as part of self-defense. The book encourages recognized training in cardiopulmonary resuscitation, automated external defibrillator use, and ACS Stop the Bleed because surviving the confrontation may only be the beginning. Protecting life means knowing what to do when someone is seriously injured, and professional help hasn't arrived yet.

Throughout the book, the focus remains on civilian responsibility. This is not military doctrine repackaged for ordinary life. Civilians don't need to clear rooms, chase attackers, or hold ground out of pride. They need to recognize danger, make sound decisions, protect the people legitimately in their care, and get to safety.

Self-Defense: Mastering Urban Survival Techniques is for readers who want practical capability without paranoia, confidence without recklessness, and preparation grounded in reality rather than fantasy.

Prepare carefully. Recognize danger early. Protect life. Create safety. Go home.