Me and my friend both study MA. In two different places. Just recently he purchased a knife I was kinda shocked and alittle dissapointed! I mean if you study and train in a MA why do you need to carey a weapon to protect yourself I feel torn. what do you guys think about the subject?

-Bryan-

This thread will answer all your questions man

http://www.karateforums.com/viewtopic.php?t=17507

Purchasing a knife is very understandable. The chances of defending yourself effectively against an attacker armed with a knife without a knife yourself are VERY VERY slim. People fail to realize the damage knives do, they say "oh, I can take a few slashes".. but don't stop to think that their tendons, muscles, veins and arteries cannot. You get your inner wrist slashed, the tendons could be severed, which means no grip, there's a massive level of bloodflow in your forearm, if any one of those vessels is severed you'll bleed out nice and fast, which means shock, light headedness, and a paralyzing adrenaline dump. I used to carry a knife whenever I was in Detroit or Saginaw, I may have about a decade of martial arts experience, including knives, but are those techniques practical when someone's trying to kill me? I'll put my money on probably not. Better safe than sorry I suppose.

Carring a weapon is fine, but ONLY if you know how to use it and are prepared to use it. If you don't know how to use the weapon you carry your opponent may just feed it to you, and if you're not mentally prepared to defend against and possibly kill your attacker, you're better off either just trying to get away or giving them what they want because you'll be too messed in the head when you try and defend yourself.

well weapons are apart of of Martial arts especially the budo arts like it was mentioned before if you know how to use should be safe like i was told by an ex marine dont walk into a gun fight wth a knife dont go into a knife fight with out a gun

It is a different society today. If you get into a shouting match with someone, and things get elevated, the next thing you know is you could be staring down the barrel of a gun, or looking at a shiny blade. I don't know about you, but I don't think I will take a chance, knife vs. hands, and definitly not gun vs. hands.

dont go into a knife fight with out a gun

As an aside, your marine friend is in serious trouble should he actually get into a knife fight. In the ranges where a knife is dominant - which is, in fact, something like 20 feet or less, shockingly enough - a gun is at a SEVERE disadvantage. I'm talking a win/loss rate of 3% or something like that under a test situation that favored the handgun. The few wins were really only achievable if the gun user kites, fleeing from the knife wielder while they can bring their weapon into play in order to create distance.

dont go into a knife fight with out a gun

As an aside, your marine friend is in serious trouble should he actually get into a knife fight. In the ranges where a knife is dominant - which is, in fact, something like 20 feet or less, shockingly enough - a gun is at a SEVERE disadvantage. I'm talking a win/loss rate of 3% or something like that under a test situation that favored the handgun. The few wins were really only achievable if the gun user kites, fleeing from the knife wielder while they can bring their weapon into play in order to create distance.

The only time the gun weilder is going to be severly disadvantaged is if he does not have his weapon drawn. The statistics you have are against a knifer with weapon in hand, and the gunner not drawn yet, I believe.

Although, it is a good point.

People would always pull that kind of thing on me, when they found out I studied MA. They would always say: "What are you going to do if I pull my gun?" I would just want to smack them and say: "You don't have one," or, "I guess you should have pulled it." Now, I would say, "I would pull mine first."

It is a childish game, none the less.

Carring a weapon is fine, but ONLY if you know how to use it and are prepared to use it. If you don't know how to use the weapon you carry your opponent may just feed it to you, and if you're not mentally prepared to defend against and possibly kill your attacker, you're better off either just trying to get away or giving them what they want because you'll be too messed in the head when you try and defend yourself.

I'm in complete agreement. If you are not trained in how to use a knife or not ready to use it to kill, don't. As for that being the only reason for carrying a knife you're being short sited. I have carried a knife on a daily basis since around 7th grade. Primarily as a utility tool. My current knife is even an automatic, which most people have a hard time thinking of as anything but a weapon. It's amazing how often you want to just hold onto something, draw your pocket knife and cut w/o letting go. As for the later debate about carrying a knife to a gun fight, I would almost always choose to face a person w/ a gun over a knife, if they are inside about 10-15 feet distance. If you get in close and have some control on their arm the side of the barrel cant cut you where the edge of the blade easily will.

Quote: As for the later debate about carrying a knife to a gun fight, I would almost always choose to face a person w/ a gun over a knife, if they are inside about 10-15 feet distance. If you get in close and have some control on their arm the side of the barrel cant cut you where the edge of the blade easily will.

I would agree about the range there. Knifes are harder to control than a gun in defense.