The Osaka school massacre resulted in eight people dead, from one lone crazy with a knife.
True, but a grown adult versus 7 and 8 year olds isn’t the same thing as a 14 year old against his peers and adults.
At close, but not hand-to-hand, range, perhaps–but even then, people miss with guns way more than you’d think. There have been studies (PDF) indicating that police hit only about 30% of the time at close range (defined as less than 7 yards), even if not facing return fire. (Under return fire, their accuracy drops to ~17%, but that’s probably not particularly relevant when considering guns vs. knives.) So, even professionals for whom the use of a handgun is part of their job aren’t all that accurate.
In addition to that, a knife wielder can be dangerous to a gun wielder from farther away than you’d expect. Dan Inosanto did a large number of tests and demos with police officers; the tests showed that the minimum distance at which officers could reliably get a bead and fire two shots at Inosanto before he closed with his knife was 21 feet–coincidentally, the range at which the above study shows ~30% accuracy, so even with 2 shots, there’s a significant chance of missing completely. Inside of about 10 feet, the knife won pretty consistently. Of course, Inosanto is an expert martial artist, so the range is probably less for your average Joe with a knife, but even so, the advantage of the gun is not as clear as some would make it.
The thing is, once you’re close enough for the knife to be a factor, all of it is dangerous. Even an inept klutz can cut you up badly. (In fact, an inept klutz with a knife is crazy dangerous). The gun, on the other hand, has to be brought in line to be effective as anything but an awkward club, and that’s not as easy as it sounds with someone right on top of you. Granted, if you manage it, you’re likely to deal a more serious injury if you connect just once than you would with the knife; the knife is more likely to connect, however, and probably to do so repeatedly.
This is as close to a completely inaccurate statement as can be made. At 10 feet away or less, a knife, particularly one whose primary purpose is to wound or kill (e.g. a razor double-edged knife or a heavy curve blade for slashing) is far more dangerous than almost all firearms.
Without much training and wildly swinging, a knife-wielding assailant can slash muscle,tendons and bones to a depth that would incapacitate or kill most people. A skilled combatant with a knife could easily seriously injure or kill numerous victims,especially if those victims were unaware at first that he was indeed armed.
Had this kid in Pennsylvania used his parent’s credit card or Amazon account and purchased two high quality blades, there would now be several or more people dead and he wouldn’t have injured himself (he used steak knives that he brought home and they lacked the hand guards and pommels necessary to prevent their wielder from slipping along the handle and cutting themselves) while doing so.
While I would prefer a firearm in most defensive situations, I can see where a knife is far more dangerous,especially up close. If someone approached me with a knife intending to do me harm and I was armed with a firearm, I would have no issues at all trying empty my weapon into them.
You’re wrong. There are very few points in a body wherein you can stick a knife into and cause immediate death. The only exception perhaps is if you hit several people with slashes deep enough to cause a lot of bleeding and leave them that way without timely medical attention.
I don’t want to enumerate the available killing points in a body wherein a 5-inch blade will cause instant death but believe me, the body’s a lot tougher than you think.
Okay, we’re all set. If we ever go walking together and we’re accosted by one guy with a gun and one guy with a knife, you handle the guy with the gun and I’ll take care of the guy with the knife.
This is another inaccurate statement.
Most of the major blood vessels in the human body are relatively near the surface of the skin. A 3-4 inch knife blade can easily strike them all and death will occur without immediate medical attention in 5-10 minutes. That’s not an “immediate” death; but then neither would the majority of gunshot wounds be “immediately” fatal to their recipients
A 5-inch knife would actually be “overkill” as for many people (particularly for those who aren’t obese) such a blade could go through their body.
A knife wouldn’t be used to slash to kill by most skilled in killing people. Puncture wounds would cause far greater damage and increase the risk of infection and peritonitis which could allow even a non-fatal injury to become fatal at a later time period. A knife with a double-edged or serrated blade would cause an a wound which could be difficult to close and result in extensive internal damage.
Your argument may be correct in the specific situation where the attacker wants to kill a specific person. However, if he just wants to kill random people, he can do so much more efficiently with a gun. Just fire in the general direction of a crowd and chances are someone will be hit.
And how many would be dead if he brought 2 guns? When a person snaps, what weapons would you prefer they rampage with, guns or knives?
Ok, we need comparative data to judge your statements.
How many people have each of you shot? How many people have each of you stabbed? What is your kill ration for each?
^
We’re not comparing our respective kills. I’ve probably killed more people with bad advice than all of his guns put together.
Well, his phone’s been confiscated. Only two still in critical condition.