Creative Speculation
In reply to the discussion: Does Spooked911 Post Anywhere? [View all]Flatulo
(5,005 posts)so he's studied various martial arts systems for over 40 years. He settled in on American Kenpo as taught by the late Edmund Parker, for the simple reason that it was developed as an effective defense against common weapons of the street, such as feet, clubs, knives and guns.
He used to always emphasize that the weapon he feared most was the knife, even over guns. The reason he feared the knife so much was that it is so easy to kill or main someone with it, even if the attacker has limited skills. The blade can be swung wildly and can do damage from almost any incoming angle. A gun has a rather narrow cone of effectiveness. Plus it's fairly easy to take a gun away from someone, as the mechanics of the way one grips it lends itself to many different kinds of releases from any direction - up, down, left, right or straight on. You can safely grab the barrel without injury and by squeezing it you can take it out of battery, even a revolver. If the distance between you and a gun-wielding assailant exceeds arm length, you can simply run away. Most untrained shooters can't hit a moving human center of mass from even 10 feet away. If you've ever been to a gun range and fired anything 9 mm or larger, you'll see that it's really hard to hit anything at even 10 to 15 feet, unless you're a naturally gifted shooter.
I believe I could walk into a room armed only with a utility knife and easily kill four to six people before I could be stopped. Add in the element of surprise and the relative positions between the attackers and their victims, and the fact that they had no place to back away to, and I'm afraid your argument doesn't hold up.
You can call my guy and chat with him. He owns East-West Karate in Worcester, Massachusetts. His name is Patrick.