Tribunal Power wrote:
That's where hand-to-hand combat should stop and firearms training should begin. Lethal force is lethal force, be it a gun or a knife or a baseball bat with barbed wire (probably). If someone pulls a knife on you, start putting distance and taking aim. If you don't have a firearm for protection, get one. If you can't, maybe try one of those projectile stun guns, if legal (and hope there's just one guy). If not that, you better learn how to repent of your sins faster than he can swipe his knife, because practically no martial arts master can come out of a knife fight unlacerated.
But the second someone unfolds a pocket knife, I'd forget all those Jackie Chan disarmament kicks you learned and reach for a firearm before you get yourself shanked.
Imho.
Oh, I concur with this little bit up here ^ 100%, but it's not necessarily going to be easy to create that distance or access that firearm unshanked, unless you have a bit of hand to hand facility. Depends on the situation, of course, but it's quite likely that an attack will be sudden and close, so you'll end up using your hands to fend off blows or control the incoming knife, or trying to disentangle yourself from attacking limbs and hands. Unless you're strolling along with your weapon drawn, the first few seconds of any lethal force encounter will involve you trying to resist unarmed.
That sucks, really, that you'll need to know kung fu just to be able to get your weapon out, but that's how it is.