My answer

[BillKephart]

ooooo I think I have a good one.

Even if you have a gun you do not always, but you always have your body. Also the discipline, challenge, and sense of achievement martial arts gives you is good for you even if you never use it physically.

[yingampyang]

This is true , and there are some situation where a gun can not be used effectivly.

[Jay]

Yeup close combat for one when you are infighting it would be very hard to draw and shoot a gun.

[JohnASE]

Training in martial arts isn't just about learning self-defense! There's so much more to get out of it.

What about the discipline you learn? Learning to set goals and achieve them. Learning to handle stressful situations, like when testing. How about the comradery of a dojo and the friendships you make? I took some judo as a kid, and I can't tell you how many times learning how to fall has saved me from injury, especially when playing other sports. The list goes on and on.

[Athena]

XD yes that's right.. there's definately more to get out of it...but people in general think fighting and the good ones think self defence when they hear "martial arts"

[The BB of C]

recently I have come head to head with the following creditted but very annoying opinion: Why practice martial arts? we are in the age of the gun.

O.O

And now I prance around with a smile on my face because I have just the answer.

Because not everyone HAS a gun.

There you go, simple as that..and I just wanted to get this off my chest so there it is.

Thank you for tuning into this bit of randomness ^.^

That's an observation a lot of people make, Athena. However, it is possible (though difficult and dangerous) to disarm an assailent of most weapons. Guns included.

[NightOwl]

any disarm is quite dangerous:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Ua_XCOAgE0 (he says 'ouch' at the end of the vid by the way)

[bushido_man96]

any disarm is quite dangerous:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Ua_XCOAgE0 (he says 'ouch' at the end of the vid by the way)

I would say that is about the extent of it. If you really think you are going to disarm a skilled swordsman, you may get a rude awakening. Same with a knife, or even a gun.

Yeup close combat for one when you are infighting it would be very hard to draw and shoot a gun.

Not necessarily. It is all about training for the situation. A friend of mine and I do some "slap leather" drills, which involves drawing a gun at close quarters. It can be done, and done successfully. I am not saying that gun disarms are impossible, either. My dad tells a story of watching his dad take a gun away from a guy and proceed to beat him severly about the head and shoulders. Things like this happen most often when the person with the gun has it only as a threat, without a true intent to use it.

[NightOwl]

Or maybe if they don't think that you'd do something crazy enough to try and take it away

[yingampyang]

Yea that could be a possiblilty