Freman, the knife is far and away the most common primary weapon, for instance I am living in California right now, concealed carry is out of the question here although my license is good in more than 30 other states that I don’t live in, so knives are it, and common.
As far as the 1992 numbers, I told you that with 3 MILLION, AND 1 HUNDRED THOUSAND knife wounds that were treated and reported, only 4,095 died.
KNIVES—–3,100,000 = 4095 deaths.
For gunshot that year it was 134,000 gunshot wounds and 37,776 deaths.
GUNS—–134,000 = 37,776 deaths
I don’t know where you get your assumptions about America and weapons, but they aren’t accurate, and anecdotally, as someone who has faced guns and faced knives and has disarmed men with both while unarmed myself, I always want the bad guy to have a knife instead of a gun.
One can’t always be lucky enough to be able to put his hands on a man with a gun, but you always have that opportunity when a man has to face you with a knife.
A ten year old can kill me with a gun before I can reach him, but a man with a knife has to defeat me in a fight to the death before he can kill me (in a face to face confrontation).
Freman, here are some numbers from that same report, indicating the severity of wounds resulting from knives versus guns.
Remember that these are based on almost 3, 100,000 knife wounds and fewer than 97,000 gun shot wounds.
“Annually, gunshot wounds cost an estimated U.S. $126 billion. Cut/stab wounds cost another U.S. $51 billion. The gunshot and cut/stab totals include U.S. $40 billion and U.S. $13 billion respectively in medical, public services, and work-loss costs. Across medically treated cases, costs average U.S. $154,000 per gunshot survivor and U.S. $12,000 per cut/stab survivor.”
Sorry, but even within 16 feet, I have time to avoid/sidestep your initial attack, generate distance, and have my firearm drawn and ready.
now, if you have me cornered, against a wall, and with no way but to accept your direct attack, then I might worry about going CQC for a moment or two….but i”m going to worry more about generating distance and drawing my firearm than I am about going gladiator and pulling my knife out.
While I believe a man armed with a gun will kill a man armed with a knife with alarming regularity, I could use a rugged pressurized pen for work and these look to fill the bill nicely. Just Sunday I went to grab the pen from my back pocket and retrieved it in pieces. Doesn’t look good in front of a client. I found a huge assortment at http://www.bladehq.com/cat—Defense-Pens—257—3. Time to order a couple.
While I do believe a man with a pistol will best a man wielding a blade a high percentage of the time. You will be cut. Depending on distance you will not be able to clear leather quick enough to prevent it. A firearm is not but a tool like anything else. Don’t ever wager on a firearm saving your life in such a situation. It’s one thing to be well trained. It’s another to be over confident. Now if its a shotgun leveled at him, he would prolly wanna stand real still & drop the steel.
Clear leather at the distances we talked about not a problem. I’ll come out and say it. I’m fast. A few years back I was pulling the trigger 200-300 times a DAY. Probably close to half of those drawn from the holster. But I’m not saying a bullet or two is going to immediately drop the assailant!
I just ordered a pen. Maybe not a tactical jobbie, but it suits my need well. It’s a Fisher X-Mark Bullet pen. Go it for 13 bucks on ebay. Should be here Saturday. I can’t wait.
Sergeant Dennis Tueller, of the Salt Lake City, Utah Police Department wondered how quickly an attacker with a knife could cover 21 feet (6.4 m), so he timed volunteers as they raced to stab the target. He determined that it could be done in 1.5 seconds. These results were first published as an article in SWAT magazine in 1983 and in a police training video by the same title, “How Close is Too Close?”
I am one of the 1% I have a CCW (concealed weapons permit) by my own choice since my Chronic disease has taken it toll on and I had to quit my maftial art training and work on honing my firearms skills shot placement caliber and projectile desing all play a role on incapacitating some one also along with hydrostatic shock ofa projectile.
Just because somebody’s skill level is outside your personal experience doesn’t make it fantasy. I put a lot of effort getting to where I’m at. For you to think a gun can’t be drawn and fired in under 1.5 seconds is the fantasy here.
The scenario presented wasn’t realistic. The man was set, with his hand on his pistol waiting for a buzzer. That’s not even close to trying to identify a threat & reacting in real time. But by all means, you have seen the evidence & yet still stand on macho bravado. Good luck with that. Hope you never are put into a situation whereas your life depends on your ego. Have a great day.
Let's face it, the truly dangerous guy is the one that will sit a few hundred yards away, and you might well be dead before you even realize you've been shot.
OK. He was set. And he got three shots off in under a second. I can get one shot off in about a second not being set. There are a lot of variables like was stated earlier. There is also the fact that when an assailant is shot they don’t always go down right away and can stab you plenty of times before they drop. In general I agree with everything you’ve said. I wasn’t trying to personally attack you, just stating that there are people who perform better than the results of that test.
