You don’t knife fight, the knife is for if fleeing is impossible or you are caught anyway and you just stab as much as possible in the best area you can in an effort to get free.
Again the idea of worrying about hurting or killing your assailant is missing the point.
I don’t really get how you need much training to beat the shit out of someone with a baton Martin Hyde, unless you’re fighting Jackie Chan or something.
The problem, I think, is dropping it or having it taken away from you.
Telling someone to carry a knife with that game plan is no different than telling someone to carry a pistol for which they’ve received no training in its use, and telling them to just “wildly fire it at the attacker” if things get ugly. It’s gravely stupid and likely to result in the person getting hurt or killed. The only way it’s less bad than the pistol scenario is of course a knife isn’t going to have the chance of collateral damage.
Okay. Who said anything about worrying about that? You need to know how to use a weapon to use it effectively, and it takes training to use a collapsible baton or knife. A can of pepper spray takes much less training than any of the other items that have been suggested here–but even it requires some to increase your chances of using it correctly. At the very least one should practice pulling out and quickly utilizing it, in the heat of the moment it’d be easy to drop it in your haste, to not have it pointing the right way, etc.
A knife (switchblade or otherwise) is pretty much the worst weapon for self-defense. A baton is not much better; without training, you’ll either be ineffectual, unintentionally lethal, or possibly both. Pepper spray is of questionable effectiveness agalinst a determined attacker. Tasers are expensive, very bulky, only good for one shot at short range, and not always non-lethal. Martin Hyde is correct; you best defense is situational awareness combined with the ability to project a forceful defensive posture, and sufficient fitness to egress from a hazardous scenario rapidly. Beyond that, you need a disciplined study of a practical martial art or a firearm.
Stranger
If we are talking at night, a modern insanely bright LED flashlight is totally legal, and will blind someone for a short period of time. No night vision anyway.
This would give you time to get away.
Inferior to Mr. Glock, but better than nothing.
Oh yeah?
I’ll see that and raise you
The Unbreakable Fighting Umbrella
(it is not illegal to carry an umbrella, even if it is not raining)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozeDlXeEH78&t=1m29s
The OP doesn’t want to use a taser because the assailant might fall backward down a flight of stairs(?!) and die. The OP also seemed aghast at the idea of running way after using pepper spray.
I don’t think the OP is capable of any kind of self defense psychologically.
EDIT:Single person capable of fleeing? FLEE, I would this isn’t a videogame fight or something you’re goal should be getting away unharmed. If that isn’t possible you do whatever it takes to get free.
Just to elaborate on trying to use a knife, mind all these considerations:
-Where will you keep the knife?
-Will you be able to draw it, “in the blink of an eye?” Do you think that’s something anyone can do with no practice/training?
-What is the length? Many areas have limitations on the length of a fixed-blade knife you can carry on your person concealed (basically the laws are written not to penalize hunters carrying a knife for field dressing, but banning you from carry them on you in the middle of town.) Longer knives are better for defense.
-Is it fixed blade? If it’s not, one good stab and it probably isn’t being used again by you, as the knife will likely break or even worse you’ll stab at a bad angle and it’ll just fly out of your hand without hurting your attacker. If it is fixed blade, it’s probably illegal to carry. There are some that are legal in most states. Cold Steel makes a few knives of varying lengths in this line which may be street legal most places. But it’s unlikely you would be able to use it effectively anyway.
-Are you familiar with how stabbing can incapacitate someone? Basically you need to go movie action hero mode and stab somewhere in the neck that cuts the spinal cord or severs a the major blood vessels in the neck (which will cause near instant incapacitation) or hit some other organ or major blood vessel such that you cause near instant unconsciousness. Directly piercing into the heart such that it’s too damage to continue functioning, or maybe severing the femoral artery. All of these strikes are basically action movie scenarios. You’re very unlikely to do that. Instead you’re most likely to wildly stab in the torso, usually with not enough strength to go more than superficially deep. If you get it in all the way you may even cause serious injuries that can become fatal, but because of how knives work most of these injuries the person could take tens of minutes to exsanguinate or even longer to die due to the organ damage you’ve inflicted. During this time the attacker will still have pretty much all of his muscular strength at his disposal, in addition to probably an immense surge of adrenaline that comes from being wounded.
My cousin (who is more like a nephew to me due to being much younger) was in a fist fight when he was 17 with a guy a few years older (over a girl.) He got the better of the guy in the fist fight, so the guy pulled a knife on him and stabbed him. It cut into his liver. My cousin was still essentially fully functional and able to try and get to his car (the assailant kept backing him away from his car so he couldn’t flee, and then slashed the tires of his car.) Eventually someone drove a car in between the assailant and my cousin and the assailant fled. My cousin made a full recovery–but importantly he was stabbed in a major organ and was still fully ambulatory, albeit in pain for sure.
A knife is not very effective at quickly disabling someone in the hands of most people.
What about an unarmed “blitz attack” by an untrained person, going at the assailants, eyes, nose, throat and ears. That’s what all the books say to do. My level of training is somewhere between trained and untrained so if that is an effective technique it is probably what I would try.
I’m not sure what you’re specifically responding to with your comment on fleeing, but running away is an effective an useful strategy. Especially given the parameters OP laid out. The way he’s phrased his requirements, pepper spray is really the only thing he’s willing to use that will actually do him any good (I have no idea why he was comfortable with a collapsible baton or a knife but not a taser, but a taser isn’t really that great either.)
Pepper spray isn’t going to “remove” an attacker from an equation. If someone comes at me and I shoot him multiple times center mass, he will likely be removed from the equation in a matter of seconds. I say likely, as nothing is certain and that’s why guns have more than just a few rounds. Especially in such a situation, if the shots have brought the attacker down, he’s not likely getting up again under his own power.
But if you’re relying on pepper spray, even a “soft” attacker he falls to his knees screaming and writhing in agony…pepper sprays effects fade over time, and so too does the mind adjust to being in pain. During that time a person like OP needs to either flee or subdue the attacker more permanently. Given all the stuff he’s said, I think fleeing is what makes sense, as he’s not got any sort of martial training in physically subduing someone, and probably wouldn’t be comfortable just kicking someone’s head over and over until they stopped moving (also that’s illegal.)
The hammer of common sense, and the sword of situational awareness.
Yes, if you stab someone in the throat, eyes, or into the ear canal with a fixed blade knife it has a decent chance of killing the attacker. I think it’s quite the fantasy that someone who has never handled a knife or been trained to do so will be able to so accurately wield it.
No, I said (not trying to be rude) an unarmed, untrained, blitz attack at the eyes, nose, throat, ears… is it going to work that well against a determined person set to do you harm?
Again this is the exact thing I mentioned in my last post, at the point you use it worrying about killing the assailant is not something you can worry about. You are NOT attacking to wound, you are not threatening, you are making a last ditch effort to flee from a deadly situation.
The assailant should never see the knife, much like you only upholster your gun to fire with intent to kill AKA stop the assailant. You don’t pull a gun to scare or fire to wound, once the gun is used we’re beyond that. Any gun self defense course teaches this.
That is why I said the knife is a last ditch weapon, if fleeing is ineffective for instance if you are tackled. You’re not looking to instantly disable someone, just cause as much damage as possible in an effort to get free.
You don’t pull a knife and brandish it, you flee.
You can get a police grade taser that fits in a pocket. Here’s one. The electronics are the same, but there’s a little bit less range than the one the cops use.
It isn’t a “stun gun” - the company engineers developed a way to actually force the victim’s skeletal muscles to contract. No human being is capable of “fighting off” a taser - the small number of videos that show it not working, the problem was the electrical connection wasn’t good.
(technically, if you packed a pistol instead, a small 5 shot .38, you could shoot a person 5 times and not stop them - in close high stress combat like that, it’s rolling dice where your bullets hit, you aim for center mass but may or may not actually hit anything vital)
That’s probably the most effective tool out of everything discussed. Get a bright pink one or something. The reason it’s shaped like a taser is so cops won’t think it’s a gun. Your fighting strategy should be :
**Best self defense weapon thats legal?
**
Your brain. Use common sense, be aware of your surroundings, don’t drink or use drugs, and control your environment.
I used to carry a kubotan. Most LEOs are now familiar with it, so I carry amini-Maglite instead, which gives the bonus of lighting up dark places.
However, I also know how to use the weapon. Just having it and not knowing how to use it means that it is simply a flashlight with some keys attached to it.
brain
don’t be there
be big & ugly
run fast
why is you car so far away
Biggest problem for the one being attacked is thinking that human life is important. ( = automatic defeat by a real thug, they don’t think that way )
This is OP and i wanna thank you guys for the advice. But i did wanna clarify some things.
2.With that being said, i want to invest in something to protect myself for the following reasons-
1a. I’m small and skinny.
2b. I wear a lot of expensive jewelry. I’m not going to “not” wear it as that defeats the purpose of buying the jewelry!
3c. I just actually managed to get a job at a store near me. The store is in a semi-sketchy area overall with a lot of rednecks and lower class people.
4.I’ve determined THAT^ to be my ultimate form of self defense that is portable, effective, useful in a quick situation.
