Hand Gun vs Knife

[unknownstyle]

i would rather have the knife, but if i was fighting someone whom had one of the weapons i would rather them have a gun, knives go where they hands move.

[tallgeese]

Assuming that you are within a contact range to gain control of the barrel, maybe it's a better option for you given the above statement. Beyond that, the hand gun is real bad news for you if the weilder is even half skilled.

Just out of curiosity, unknown, why the personal choice of the knife? Training background or phyliosphical?

[Jeet Kune Do]

I have a keen interest in Medieval Fantasy and Medieval real life, and so naturally I am interested in swords and daggers...

I don't like guns because it doesn't require skill to point a gun and shoot, but it requires skill to sword fight...Wars today are fought with guns, not skill. I like watching movies with old sword wars (e.g. Braveheart, The Last Samurai) to know how it was in the old day.

[bushido_man96]

Just a couple of things:

1. Shooting a gun does require skill and practice. At short range, it may not, and against the unarmed, it may not. Try target shooting sometime, and see how hard it is in the beginning to shoot a stationary target, let alone get a center mass shot on a moving target.

2. Movies like Braveheart and the Lord of the Rings are great entertainment, but they hardly display a reality of combat. They give some idea of what a mass combat would be like, but they still don't give what I would think is a "real" feel for the experience.

[joesteph]

I once owned four firearms, two revolvers and two rifles, all for target shooting. In my home, I have swords and a combination tear gas-pepper spray, called Sabre.

In answering for home defense, the sword is my choice of weapon.

1. You can't accidentally shoot a family member with a sword.

2. The very sight of the thing, with you screaming for the intruder to get out of your house, has a good chance of him thinking you're insane and taking off.

3. The sword can not only keep him at bay, it can be used to do poking motions (no need to run him through) against his body, or slice at his hands if they should be forward. He's very likely to back up to get out while he's leaking (blood) like a sieve--and you've avoided using lethal force.

4. If he's foolish enough to grab the blade to take the sword from you, his hand will experience a deep slice of fingers and palm. After he escapes, he'll be picked up by the police at the local hospital.

If it's something to carry on my person for self-defense on the street, then I prefer to use Sabre. It's a combo of millitary tear gas and pepper spray, will burn like mad if it even touches the skin, and you can back away from him while spraying him (or them) several times. It even leaves a residue that's picked up under ultraviolet light--the mark of identification if the criminal(s) should be picked up by the police.

Then again, I've got natural weapons: hands, elbows, knees, and feet. You see, I've been studying a martial art . . .

_____ _____

[joesteph]

Is levity permitted here?

Does anyone remember the old "Andy Griffith Show"? I remember an episode in which Barney ("Barney Fife") was steamed up about what some kids had written about him on a wall:

There once was a deputy called Fife,

Who carried a gun and a knife.

His gun was all dusty,

His knife was all rusty,

'Cause he never caught a crook in his life!

If you do remember the show, Barney carried a bullet in his pocket instead of in his gun--because when he had it in his gun, he'd fool around with the sidearm and it'd go off, firing into the floor.

[Jeet Kune Do]

Just a couple of things:

1. Shooting a gun does require skill and practice. At short range, it may not, and against the unarmed, it may not. Try target shooting sometime, and see how hard it is in the beginning to shoot a stationary target, let alone get a center mass shot on a moving target.

2. Movies like Braveheart and the Lord of the Rings are great entertainment, but they hardly display a reality of combat. They give some idea of what a mass combat would be like, but they still don't give what I would think is a "real" feel for the experience.

Oh yeah, target practice does require skill, but for close range murder it doesn't, also I am guessing that a sword fight in real life would only last a few seconds, unlike a movie

[tallgeese]

It takes skill anywhere with the firearm, even from close ranges. Simple tasks such as weapon manipulation can become very difficult under the pressure of actually need. Jerking the trigger has been the cause of many misses from even very short distance.

There is a signifigant science to the use of a firearm, no matter what teh range is.