Karate ni sente nashi - There is no first attack in Karate

[jaypo]

I have mixed feelings about rights. While I agree that all human beings have rights, I also believe that once a person decides to violate someone elses's rights, he's held to a different standard-basically, I believe that he has sacrificed his rights to do wrong to someone else. I always remember that scene in "Cobra" with Stallone when that irritating reporter started barking at Stallone for violating the killer's rights. Stallone grabs him by the neck, drags him to covered body of the kid that was just murdered, pulls back the cover and says "What about HIS rights?"

[CredoTe]

...

As for "no first attack in karate" that is hardly a Japanese mindset, just ask the folks at Pearl Harbor. Within Shotokan itself is also Sen No Sen and that is seizing the initiative and it certainly comes with a first strike opportunity.

The "seizing initiative" concepts are not unique to Shotokan, either (I don't think you are implying that). Indeed, as part of our Matsubayashi-Ryu (Shorin-Ryu) / Ti training, we go through go no sen, sen no sen, and sen sen no sen (all combined with tenshin training, of course.) My instructor uses the Japanese terms, rather than Ryukyuan/Hogan, more because of prevalence than anything else.

Certainly Funakoshi didn't want street brawlers in his dojo or those who would start fights when conflicts didn't need to exist or could have been avoided. But we have to be careful about accepting every single word as literal in a dogmatic form.

Do you suppose he had bad dreams of Choki Motobu coming into his dojo and wrecking the place..?

If you see it coming, and you can't see a way out, the best thing you can do is end things decisively while the opportunity still exists. You owe no considerations to those who bring you violence. I'm a peaceful person meaning I don't start conflict when it doesn't need to exist, but I will protect myself and my loved ones at the cost of the life of those who threaten us if need be. There is of course a simple way to avoid the entire matter.

Absolutely... If someone enters my house intent on harming my family, I will do everything in my power to protect my family. In this scenario, my "karate-do" starts off as "gun-do" and hopefully doesn't need to go any further...

[SteyrAUG]

Absolutely... If someone enters my house intent on harming my family, I will do everything in my power to protect my family. In this scenario, my "karate-do" starts off as "gun-do" and hopefully doesn't need to go any further...

I practice a little MP5 Ryu Ha myself...

http://imageshack.com/a/img76/8541/p1003832nh1.jpg