Ever had to use your MA in a real sreet fight

[alanseijas]

Weapons scare me. You never know if someone is "packing." Another quick story---- When I was 18 (you all know how fired up I was then!), I was driving down the road. All of the sudden, this car comes flying up and gets right on my rear bumper. I start leaning out of the window and yelling at him to back off. It was dark out, so I couldn't see the driver. He wouldn't back off, so I put my blinker on; and pulled over. He promptly pulled behind me. I jumped out and ran to his car ready for a fight. My older brother got out, made like a gun with his hands, and said, "bang, you're dead."

 

What a valuable lesson he had taught me. I never got out of my car or sparked any type of fight on the road again.

[Breakdancer]

dude your brother is a scary * mofo man

[Kamidake]

Bart, where the heck are you that law-abiding citizens can't even carry a pocketknife? There's got to be SOMETHING you can use to defend yourself. Maybe you can become a transvestite and make good use of spike heels.

[Warp Spider]

Ben wrote:

i live in a rough area and everyone has knives or guns, so i carry a blade or two myself.

 

Please tell me this isn't true.

 

What if you are stopped by the police? If they search you, you will be

 

charged with carrying an offensive weapon. You may be sent to a Young

 

Offenders Institute, where you will be faced with dangerous people every

 

day of the week.

 

In many countries, there is no law against carrying a knife. Otherwise, fishermen and hunters would be constantly thrown in jail. Where I live, you can carry any kind of knife you want, in plain view if you like, but the blade must be below 8 inches long. (I think, it might be 6 inches)

If you get into a fight, and you produce your knife, it may be taken off you

 

and used against you. You may die. Or say you use the knife on them

 

(and what's the point of having a knife if you are not willing to use it) and

 

they die. That's murder. The court might not care that 'he started it'. They

 

will see: a young man who carries a knife. A young man who gets into

 

fights. And a young man who is willing to kill during a confrontation. If you

 

are convicted of murder, that's an automatic life sentence.

 

Generally speaking you shouldn't produce the knife except in two circumstances:

 

A) You are a trained knife fighter.

 

B) You are in a grappling situation and can pull on the knife and sink it into the other person without them being able to see you draw it.

 

Both of these effectively prevent being disarmed.

 

Also, I don't know where you live, but around here you don't get an automatic life sentance for murder. Plus, if you stab someone trying to defend yourself and they die, that's not murder, it's manslaughter. I think in most places it has to be intentionally killing the person to be murder.

The problem with your thinking (I live in a rough area, I should arm

 

myself) is that it just feeds the violence. Other young people are thinking

 

the same thing. They aren't necessarily muggers or out-and-out thugs.

 

They are just like you. So you are all walking around armed to the teeth

 

to protect yourself from one another. It's madness.

I disagree 100% with that. Knowing everyone is armed will help keep the peace. Put yourself in the "bad guys" shoes. If you were carrying a 9mm and you knew noone else had a gun, that would make you pretty confident, wouldn't it? You could take on anybody, right? But what if EVERYONE had a 9mm? Now everyone is on level footing. Would you rob a store with your fists, with a similarly unarmed store clerk? Now, would you rob a store with a handgun, if the employee was also carrying a handgun? It's all about having an advantage over the other person. Being armed, doesn't matter, it's only how armed you are relative to everyone else.

I'm very glad your confrontation ended with you in one piece. But I think

 

the lesson is: be fit enough to run away. And don't escalate a potentially

 

dodgy situation by laughing? At least, not when outnumbered eight to

 

three.

I'd also disagree with this. At the beginning, the would-be assailant has control of the situation. They control how quickly it escalates. By taking that control away from them and escalating the situation faster than they wanted it to, you can make them quite uncomfortable. To quote what I wrote in a different thread:

In that situation, I was at a gas station. They first asked for money and my friend said "yeah yeah, keep on walkin." So they said, (basically) "yo man, I gotta knife I'm gonna cut you." Common sense would dictate running, or giving the money, or some other "peaceful" resolution. My solution? Flip open a zippo lighter, start up the gas pump, point the nozzle at them and shout "IS THAT SO?" As you might imagine, the so-called attackers quickly vacated their underpants. My plan worked a heck of a lot better than any so-called "sensible" plan. I realize that that may cause an explosion if you light the lighter, but.. so what? You can deal with that after.

These people had every intention of harming us. However, when the situation went from "stab some guy and run away" turned into "everyone dies in a raging fireball" they definately lost their nerve.

[Kamidake]

*snort* If everyone had a 9 mm. (Glocks and Sigs excepted) we'd all be equally defenseless! Most of those 9 mm. are worthless weapons. Not sure why, but that seems to be the case. Maybe most people aren't running hollow-point ammunition in them?

[Bart the Lover]

People!

 

My advice was specifically aimed at Ben. It was not meant as a guide

 

for everyone, everywhere. I fully appreciate that laws on the carrying of

 

weapons and on self-defence differ around the world. So I won't bother

 

taking issue with the (perfectly reasonable) queries raised by Warp Spider

 

relating to these matters. It's sufficient to say I fully stand by my previous

 

post.

 

This also applies to the third quoted part of my post ('The problem with

 

your thinking...'). Again, this is specifically aimed at Ben.

 

Re the escalation thing:

 

I remember reading this (gas station encounter), Warp Spider, and

 

coming out in a cold sweat! I should really have responded to it then, but

 

I was wringing my hands over the pour water over burning oil advice. I get

 

what you are saying about taking control away from the attackers, and I

 

accept it may work with some people. But it seems a very risky strategy.

 

In your example, supposing the guy said, 'Go ahead'? You could hardly

 

have burnt everyone (and possibly yourself) to a smoking crisp. Even

 

if you survived, you'd spend the rest of your life in jail, and most likely

 

kill innocent bystanders. I feel I should also voice my disapproval of a

 

(horrible) death sentence meted out to anyone, even if they are violent

 

muggers. And it would be other people dealing with it, rather than you--

 

firefighters in particular.

 

Maybe you need this even more than Ben, so I repeat it: take care of

 

yourself--and others. And don't blow up any gas stations, for God's sake!

 

Regards,

 

Bart the Lover

[Ben]

Bart,

 

I have just deleted a decent amount of text justifying why I do what I do. I deleted it because I feel not the need to rise to you in the slightest, Bart. And I refuse to argue with a hypocrite.

 

You know why I carry, because you do it yourself. Do not tell me how to live my life, just because you live yours differently.

 

I would also like you to stop trying to pick faults with what i say, and for you to stop criticizing me.

 

If you have anything to say to me, i'm sure its possible to send me a private message.

 

Back to the thread:

 

"I don't think it would be very practical to walk around unarmed when everyone else was armed. A better approach might be to familiarize yourself with the concealed-carry and self-defense laws in your jurisdiction, and then arm yourself accordingly. Maybe you can get away with a sword cane but not a switchblade, for example, or a knife but not a gun, or whatever. And of course always be on the lookout for things around you that can be used as weapons in an emergency." - Kamidake

 

Indeed. Also to stick with the basic actions like avoiding places with little light, allyways, and avoiding groups of loud/rough looking men/women.

 

[Drunken Monkey]

isn't a scary thought that you guys live in a world where you feel like you have to carry a weapon around with you just to do the shopping?

 

i've read a lot of your stories and sometimes i wonder if it is really that bad over there in the states.

 

a lot of you have stories of fights, attacks, muggings etc etc but i can honestly say that none of that has ever happened to me. i have never faced a knife or a gun and the worst thing was being hassled when i was a kid.

 

i understand the whole gun thing is really different compared to here in britain but does everyone have a gun in the states?

 

you ask what kind of place we are that doesn't allow pocket knives. well, you have to look at it in context. if you are stopped by the police, there is probably a reason (well, at least here there would be...). and if they find a knife on you then you can and most probably will be arrested. their argument is basically, "what do you need to carry a knife for?"

 

one point was that a knife was for defence. are you really attacked everyday? are you really under threat every day? i could understand that it is for IN CASE you are attacked but then i ask does it have to be a knife? does it have to be something that can kill or worse still, be used to kill you?

 

another point was to level the playing field, so to speak. the only problem i have with this is that yes, while it does make things even.however, what would make a mugger more likely to shoot you, you giving your wallet or you pulling a gun?

 

some have said that they wouldn't give their wallet up and would fight for it, but with a gun? is your money worth more than someone's life?

[Warp Spider]

*snort* If everyone had a 9 mm. (Glocks and Sigs excepted) we'd all be equally defenseless! Most of those 9 mm. are worthless weapons. Not sure why, but that seems to be the case. Maybe most people aren't running hollow-point ammunition in them?

 

Ummm.. right. Not that SWAT teams use 9mm almost exclusively or anything. A 9mm is a worthless weapon compared to an FN-FAL, Pancor Jackhammer, CAWS, or FA-MAS, but it's still a highly effective weapon.

I remember reading this (gas station encounter), Warp Spider, and

 

coming out in a cold sweat! I should really have responded to it then, but

 

I was wringing my hands over the pour water over burning oil advice.

This works. I have tested it numerous times.

I get

 

what you are saying about taking control away from the attackers, and I

 

accept it may work with some people. But it seems a very risky strategy.

 

In your example, supposing the guy said, 'Go ahead'? You could hardly

 

have burnt everyone (and possibly yourself) to a smoking crisp. Even

 

if you survived, you'd spend the rest of your life in jail, and most likely

 

kill innocent bystanders. I feel I should also voice my disapproval of a

 

(horrible) death sentence meted out to anyone, even if they are violent

 

muggers. And it would be other people dealing with it, rather than you--

 

firefighters in particular.

 

Maybe you need this even more than Ben, so I repeat it: take care of

 

yourself--and others. And don't blow up any gas stations, for God's sake!

 

Fortunately I have a good deal of experience playing with gas and fires. (I like to watch it flash.) You don't have to carefully spritz each person and then light them. The fuel from the pump is somewhat pressurized. Just squeeze the trigger and wave the nozzle around. Everyone will be coated. (including yourself, probrably.) If that doesn't stop them, then you can create a monstrous inferno. There is a definate chance you'd die, but it's not so bad. Getting stabbed is probrably just as dangerous.

 

You wouldn't have to worry about innocent bystanders being killed either. If they were innocent, they would have gotten involved instead of remaining indifferent. In my opinion, they deserve to be molten!

[Bart the Lover]

Warp Spider wrote:

There is a definate chance you'd die, but it's not so bad. Getting stabbed is probrably just as dangerous.

 

Don't be a silly billy. How can dying not be bad? How on earth have you

 

survived to adulthood?

If they were innocent, they would have gotten involved instead of remaining indifferent. In my opinion, they deserve to be molten!

 

What's an elderly lady supposed to do? Hit them with her handbag?