A knife attack are you prepaired to defend yourself?

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BerettaFS92Custom wrote:

http://personaldefenseblog.com/2009/05/28/knife-dangers/


http://www.useofforce.us/3aojp/


when iattended a personal protection class i was taught 21 feet and my weapon goes boom. if a knife is wielded in a threatening manner and he is not carving a piece of woodi would draw and tell him to drop the knife immediately or i will shoot, he hasvery little time left if he does not change his posture beforei would fire.

just the act of weilding a knife in an aggressive matter is enough to cause me to act on that. if we need to defend our life then do it. We get one spin on earth as far as i know and i sure the hell would not want to try to assess if he is a professional or an amateur with a knife. Let God figure that out, we are not mind readers. if you can not retreat then defend yourself.

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Note that your link says "Beware of anyone wielding a knife within 21 feet." It does not say "Shoot anyone wielding a knife within 21 feet." There is no absolute rule about distance that tells you when is the time to shoot.

"i sure the hell would not want to try to assess if he is a professional or an amateur with a knife"

I think most knife "professionals" are circus acts. There are knife experts however. It's a pretty safe bet that if you see a knife at 21 feet it's not a knife expert. A knife is dangerous in almost anyone's hands, expertise is not a prerequisite to do damage with a knife. With a knife expert you are likely to be unaware that there IS a knife until it is slashed you several times in the blink of an eye, and you're wondering why you've lost the use of a limb and are getting dizzy quickly from the loss of blood.

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i will probably be getting dizzy from the loss of blood, but my attacker will be on the ground in shock from 2 .40 cal slugs entering his body in rapid succession. as i lose consciousness i will contemplate who is going to die first; him or me.

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davegran wrote:

So can any of us join this combat league or does it take some special qualifications or prerequisites? Is it pay as you go or do they offer their expertise for free?

Thanks,
Dave

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Anyone can join the league, but it's definitely not free. It meets Wednesday nights in Deerfield, 10 weeks long. Currently $250 for the advanced level league, plus the expense of 100 rounds of ammo each week. One must complete at least one Level One league to the satisfaction of the league administrator before going into the advanced league because they want to have a good idea of your proficiency but even more so, your safety habits and awareness before allowing you to do the more dangerous things in the advanced league. Even then, the league administrator takes into account his assessment of the abilities and safety habits of the individual members before proceeding with certain scenarios or exercises.

Level 1 I think might be $200, and 50 rounds each night. I am in the midst of my 16th 10-week league.

I don't know for sure, but I believe the LEO's receive no compensation when they come in to assist or instruct. There have been Non-LEO guest "experts" at times also, such as lawyers from the Justice Dept. or Public Defender's office talking about legal aspects of defense, carrying a gun, and so on. Also a few times military personnel who recently returned from a Middle East deployment have come in to give some first-hand accounts of what they learned about use of cover, shooting while moving, etc.

While it is technically a "competitive league" generally most people are not concerned with scores as much as they are with improving their skills. 100% accurate scoring isn't always possible because of certain variations at times, or simply because some people will have a large ragged hole in their targets that make accurate counting of how many rounds went into the 10 ring or the 9 ring impossible. They stopped giving out a prize to the highest scorer at the end of the league a long time ago because it was basically meaningless. I think that's a good thing because it allows us-- or at least me-- to concentrate on getting shots on target quickly with "combat accuracy" rather than having a concern with bulls-eye accuracy. I'm much happier when I can draw and get 4 shots in a six-inch group before another person who is trying for only 10-ring shots gets off their first round. Being the most precise marksman in the world is of little benefit if you've been shot several times before you can get off a round. It is a combat league, after all, not a marksmanship league. Nothing wrong with precision marksmanship, but it's not needed in many handgun fights.

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McX wrote:

i will probably be getting dizzy from the loss of blood, but my attacker will be on the ground in shock from 2 .40 cal slugs entering his body in rapid succession. as i lose consciousness i will contemplate who is going to die first; him or me.

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HEH! MxC, small consolation that would be! The goal is to live! Considering relatively small targets such as major arteries are easier to sever with the broad blade of a knife than to hit with a bullet I wouldn't place bets on who dies first.

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Not everyone can join a combat league or go to fancy training schools. If people want to get some of the most practical and realistic video lessons, I like the Kelly McCann (aka Jim Grover) series. Gunfights are not like TV or the movies.

Example:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHB7R-aL9Go

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thank you shotgun, these are realy good videos! it will take me awhile to get through all of them, but thank you for thinking of me!

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The old 21' rule rises its ugly head again. Never put an absolute number on anything that somebody can refute with 17 examples of why it doesn't mean a hill of beans in a real life scenario.

Lets play 'what if' for a second. No chest thumping, no heroics, no I would do this or that because most of you have never been to the party and wouldn't know how you would react if the balloon really did go up. It has to happen to you once first.

Scenario: You are 65, walking with the assistance of a cane. Locale is near the middle school athletic field where you are going to watch your nephew compete in his first track and field event. 2 punks approach and ask for change and you say no. They are within 12' of you, as per law you are not armed with your 40 caliber Glock or anything else that could be considered a firearm. Big punk #1 pulls out a knife with what appears to be about a 5" dagger shaped blade, punk #2 laughs. Closest people to you are about 50 yards away, no cell phone in your pocket and no police in sight. What do you do O' chest thumpers?


What I did and I freely admit I was younger then, (only 63 because this was 2 years ago), I swung my can over my head and came down on punk #1's head bone and swung again coming down on hand holding knife. I didn't have time to swing again because punk #1 and #2 were holding their own track event.

I would have guessed their ages to be between 15 and 17 and in this state if they had called the police on me I would have been the one in trouble because they were minors. If they hadn't been full of chicken feces I would have been in trouble but they ran and kept quiet about it.

Point is I have been in 3 knife fights in my life and I don't count this little aborted mugging as one of them and not one started at 21'. All 3 of them had no knives showing at the start and all 3 of them were face to face confrontations. Don't make me no rules, there is only one. Be aware, act accordingly and survive.

If you come to the little hut in the woods you may very well see me walking around with a knife in my hand, I have a large number of them and I use them for lots of things that I do. If you drew on me and told me to put my knife down you had better just shoot me and be done with it because its going to be a real long day for you otherwise.

21' rule my aching patootie.

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Shotgun wrote:

davegran wrote:

So can any of us join this combat league or does it take some special qualifications or prerequisites? Is it pay as you go or do they offer their expertise for free?

Thanks,
Dave

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Anyone can join the league, but it's definitely not free. It meets Wednesday nights in Deerfield, 10 weeks long.....

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Thanks for the information, Shotgun. Would you please PM me a point of contact email?

Thanks,
Dave