The scariest guy I ever met told me no martial artist was the equal of a true street fighter.
Whoever said that didn't know Jujitsu.
To be fair though, I have said the same thing many times before learning serious martial arts. Serious = the practical arts, not the trophy-fighting competition styles. A learned student of a serious fighting style is way too disciplined and coordinated for a streetfighter to get the better of.
As mentioned before, I've been in very few fights as an adult. Come to think of it, I didn't fight much in highschool either. I was sort of known to be a "knockout artist" in my neighborhood, but I was also a nice kid and I never messed with anyone or started a fight of any kind - so those who I had fights with really deserved what they got. The few fights I've had as an adult were because of the types of places I chose to work when I was 18-22. They were also completely unavoidable, as anything worth fighting over usually is. Having studied several martial arts styles throughout my lifetime and boxing as a super heavyweight for most of my adult life, I find that there's one thing that trained fighters have to our advantage that the average man doesn't.
We (fighters) are used to being hit...
hard.
I'm sure someone will come along and cleverly point out that the objective of a fight is not to be hit. This is true. As an adult, other than in the ring, I've never been hit in a fight. Come to think of it, I never got hit much in highschool fights either.
However, knowing how to react correctly to being hit is vital to the outcome of a serious fight. A man who can take a solid punch square in the face and keep his composure is dangerous.
The natural reaction to being punched is to cover the face. When you cover your face, you cover your eyes - and when you do that, you can't see (I know, rocket science
). A trained fighter not only knows how to exploit this in an opponent, but a trained fighter does not have the same reaction to being hit. If you've been trained, being hit is just a part of fighting, and you've learned to turn off your flinching reflex. You can anticipate the way an untrained person will attack you. You have to ability to adapt to your enemy's fighting style, if needed. You've learned how to counter effectively, or redirect the attackers momentum and use it against him... things an untrained fighter has no concept of. Doesn't matter how many bar brawls the local inbred tough-guy has had - if he isn't trained, then he isn't prepared to deal with someone who is.
Pistolcraft is the same, IMO. A competent, trained shooter with a 6-shot revolver is a lot more dangerous than an untrained gangsta with a Glock Fawty and 3 clips full'a hollows.
Same rules apply. And having said all that, I can only think of how much things have changed in the last 15 years or so. If people still fought as a way of solving their problems, I doubt that we would all carry pistols. However, IMHO, hip-hop, rap music, young black kids on MTV - none of that stuff started the violence we see in our cities today. Rap music is just a scapegoat. Cocaine, particularly crack-cocaine, started the culture of violence we're talking about. Before crack, you never heard of people getting shot over $5... you didn't have 12 year old dealers armed to the teeth... you didn't have inner city mothers addicted to hard drugs. Crack changed all of that. The music is an after-effect.
) There was a fellow who was rather large (6'4", 250) who I KNEW liked her for some time, and he would always smack me around in the hallway just for the hell of it. The year after he graduated, (and went to play football for UW-Madison) a lot of folks were back in town and there was a big party out in the country of our small town. I was out there with my girlfriend and guess who shows up? Big Feller. Sure enough, he starts messing with me and flirting with my girlfriend.
