Knife instead of gun

So here I am just a half hour ago out walking the dog in the dark with my wife...........can't CC here in NJ so I brought along my Assisted Opening Knife and my Flashlight....Abouy half way through the walk down the sidewalk a car slows down next to me and I hear all this Hip Hop blarring off the radio.

I actually said out loud " OK, here we go" and then the thought hit me. What the hell am I gonna do with this folding knife, I need a gun here.
Well the car pulled up next to me and as I walked past the house I was in front of it pulled into the driveway.....was the kid that lived there.

Realization............I might as well stick the knife up my _ _ _.
Usless to me in this type of situation....at night in the dark on the street.

I wanted my gun with me.....might not be walking poochie in the dark again....there was a lesson to be learned here....somewhere.

Hmmm picture yourself and your burglar rolling in the blood on the floor after both of your guns are empty and you are both wounded.
The fight for Fallujah had some hand to hand in it. I recently read a book where the Soldier lived due to thrusting a knife in an eye socket in a scenerio much like the above.
Naaaah wouldnt be worth your time, he will see your Kimber and fall to the floor and beg for mercy.

With a gun or a knife, both are considered deadly force in any self defense arena. So, if the perp is coming after you with a baseball bat, and you pull a knife, then he can shoot you legally for pulling a deadly weapon. Humm, Knife or Gun? How bout BOTH...

Perp shouldn't see the knife until it's in him

would not be my go to weapon in a sticky situation but it would be nice to have one just in case. on the other hand, if i have a gun and find myself needing my knife then my day is probably getting exponentially worse by the second.

There's a video someplace on the web of a realistic martial arts instructor showing how dangerous a knife can be.

He first gives someone a red marker and has them swing it wildly at him while he tries to defend himself. This part is to show that even someone with a lot of martial arts training ends up with huge red lines all over his arms showing where the slices would be.

He then goes on to swing it wildly into a side of beef hanging in a meat locker and pulls the meat apart to show how deep each of those cuts could be (2-3 inches easily). His advice if you're unarmed against a knife: RUN!

I never leave the house without my tactical folder.

Don't bring a gun to a knife fight.

Try wrestling over a (dummy or sim) handgun with a partner.

Now try it with a (training) knife.

The geometry of a handgun means that the guy gripping anything but the grip always has more leverage than the guy holding the gun. Also, a gun is dangerous in exactly one very, very small direction at a time; it essentially puts a half inch (at most) hole in the sky in one direction.

A knife (assuming double edge) cuts in essentially every direction. An opponent can't grip it without hurting himself, and knife wounds are both statistically more likely to be fatal and more damaging (done effectively) to the parts of the aggressor's body used to attack than a handgun.

Within arms reach, there is no comparison.


Larry

No, I would not choose a knife over a gun as a defensive weapon and I also would not choose a gun over a knife. Both have their uses and advantages, I don't want to limit myself when my safety is at stake.

I would draw a knife if my gun wasn't easily accessible or if I was caught off gaurd and allready in contact distance with the bg. I carry two knives on me daily a KA-BAR TDI on my left side and a SOG Trident assisted opener clipped to my right pocket in addition to my Glock 26 strong side iwb. I would go gor the KA-BAR first due to it being a fixed blade and the design of the knife favoring gross motor skills over my folder.

My knives are carried to create distance so that I can use my gun if need be. If you are close enough to be grabbed you are close enough for your gun to be grappled over. A knife is harder to disarm, harder to defend against in close quarters and has a good psychological effect on your opponent if he knows he's being cut or stabbed repeatedly.

Each of us must choose the defense best suited to the individual's fitness and capabilities.

I simply don't have the muscle memory it would take to prevail in a knife fight, nor am I inclined to want to acquire it at this stage in my life. I do have muscle memory from martial arts training which might serve me better against a knife wielding assailant than if I had a knife as well, but in truth I'd rather just shoot the SOB.

I suspect my best defense is I just don't look like a guy who would be armed. I suppose this in and of itself could make me a target, but ultimately not a soft one.

So, if the perp is coming after you with a baseball bat, and you pull a knife, then he can shoot you legally for pulling a deadly weapon.

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Most states require that to claim self defense one can not have instigated the event. A baseball bat is also likely to be considered a deadly weapon. If you are justified in using a knife then you are also justified in using a gun. The question is, are there any situations in which the knife is preferred? Perhaps while grappling, I think.

I am not sure what happened to the previous thread. I was sure I had posted in it, but it doesn't show up in my list of posts.

Is this the thread you were hunting:

http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=553599

I know our situational awareness never fails us, but suppose it did?

Now if the BG gets you tangled up with your J-Frame in your pocket, or on the ground and you have the weight of two men on top of your 1911 in the 4:00 position, now what?

Even a small blade on the side you may be able to access would be worth it's weight in gold at this moment.

Personally, I carry a folder clipped in each pocket even when I'm carrying my G19 and reload.

If I don't have my gun (usually in my work environment), a much larger fixed blade knife accompanies me along with at least one folder.

Having a weapon available for each hand is a major plus in my experience.

I simply don't have the muscle memory it would take to prevail in a knife fight

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I see posts like this often and I have to wonder, What do most think a knife fight will look like? Do you think you and the bg will be "fencing" each other trying to get a thrust or slash in with lots of parrying and counters? Do you think you will each know the other is armed with a knife?

As I posted before I have seen many untrained people do serious damage with edged/stabbing weapons. The formula that I have seen work best is a grab, thrust repeatedly, escape method. There was nothing fancy or even resembling martial arts about it. It was always very fast and often the only one that knew one of the combatants was armed was the one that in-fact had the weapon.

If you can punch, hammer fist, or throw a backhand strike you can use a knife. I'm not saying that some kind of training with a knife is a bad idea or not necessary. Any training with a weapon you carry can do nothing but benefit you should you have to use it. I think Hollywood has made the knife seem like a weapon that requires great skill to use and ironically has made the gun seem like a very simple weapon that someone can just pick up and get the hang of in just a few shots.

I see posts like this often and I have to wonder, What do most think a knife fight will look like? Do you think you and the bg will be "fencing" each other trying to get a thrust or slash in with lots of parrying and counters? Do you think you will each know the other is armed with a knife?

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I think none of the above. I know if I had a knife in my hand I would have to think about what I was going to do with it - too much time wasted. I do not have to think about blocking and striking, those things just happen. But if I can draw and fire before it comes to that, so much the better.

check it out yourself

Check out any and all of the scenerios where a knife was used in S/D and see what happened to the user.

Even if your totally correct - Grand Jurys and judges alike view a knife as a nasty weapon.

I am all for the use of ANY force that saves your bacon,but legally the gun is allowed - the knife is NOT mentioned in any law that I have read.

I took a couple of self-defense classes instructed by James Williams, who knows his way around a knife quite well, and when asked, he stated that he would take a stick over a knife, because with a stick he would hurt you real, real bad, and that he would take a gun over anything, at anytime.

James designed the CRKT Hissatsu knife, here is a video of him talking about it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRucfn9YGws

slice-and-dice video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hne1sCvb5so&feature=related

As some have tried to explain, at contact distance, especially once things start to evolve beyond the type of best case scenarios that gun-centric folk usually limit their imaginations to.

As some have tried to explain, at contact distance, especially once things start to evolve beyond the type of best case scenarios that gun-centric folk usually limit their imaginations to.

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Thats silly talk. My situational awareness will always allow me to see and plan for the threat before it has time to attack, no one will ever get the drop on me or catch me in a situation where I'm less likely to be able to access my gun.

Good Posts-Killchain? what is your experinece w/ the "silly 21" rule? Are you an LEO or a civilian? If you had any real LEO trainging or experience you would have a clue! If you are nonLeo-save some face and delete that post-it is embarrassing to you. Ccsniper-edged weapons need serious training to be effective and their deployment is even more critical due to the face-to-face contact issues. While as an LEO I've trained in close combat tactics and related situations, our most sucessful tactic on the street was to disengagethe knife-wielding purp and shoot him multiple times to stop the assault.

It is so hard to tell through the written word without inflection. Is this bravado or lack of exposure to unexpected circumstances?

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Just my poor exuse for humor

I don't think I've ever met anyone who couldn't be distracted or couldn't be bested

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Sure you have, they're all over the internet and gunstores.

edged weapons need serious training to be effective and their deployment is even more critical due to the face-to-face contact issues. While as an LEO I've trained in close combat tactics and related situations, our most sucessful tactic on the street was to disengagethe knife-wielding purp and shoot him multiple times to stop the assault.

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I have to ask. If you have to have serious training to be effective with an edged weapon then why were the purps so dangerous? Do all criminals that use a knife have some kind of training that we don't know about? What about the Tueller(sp?) drill/21 ft rule, does the guy with the knife need to be trained to be a threat?

i have often heard "Bring Enough Gun". i have never heard "bring enough knife". to me, that says it all.