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gryphonrhi's LJ with this, I decided to move it over here. ::G::
ann_i_blessing's original post in gryphonrhi's LJ:
And there you have the reason cops are more ready to shoot someone with a knife than someone with a gun -- an unsheathed knife is considered an immediate danger in the hand of someone willing to use it, where with a gun you have issues of control and buck fever. Reasons Pagans stopped by cops for Driving While Unusual better have their blades peace-tied or sheathed in the trunk.
From what I understand, merely having a gun drawn in most states in the US is considered Assault With A Deadly Weapon (or in some cases, Assault With Intent To Kill, or Attempted Murder), because there is such a tiny gap between an assailant having a gun in their hand that is pointed at the ground, and having a victim casting a polka-dotted shadow. Unfortunately, the control issues and "buck fever" tend to mean that the bullet might miss the intended target, but the poor idiot walking his dog 3 blocks away takes a hit.
The prevailing school of thought that I have heard most often runs along the lines of, "Run from a knife, charge a gun." The reasoning is that the fellow with the knife probably isn't going to throw it, which means in order to hurt you he first has to catch you, and "Scared as shit" runs faster than "Mad as hell." ::G:: By contrast, if you run from the fellow with the gun, all he has to do is stand there and pick you off...
Or does he?
I'll have to hunt up the specifics stats and sources again, but they run something along these lines:
DISCLAIMER: These figures are pulled strictly from memory, and mine is just as fallible as anyone else's. They are drawn from a discussion of nationwide crime statistics in my martial arts school roughly a year ago. The source was given at the time, and although I do not recall it now, I remember accepting it as a credible source at the time. However, the information was relayed orally, and the speaker was not consulting notes.
Of assaults involving handguns where the intended victim fled, only 1 out of 200 (0.5%) assailants even fired on the fleeing victim. Consider that most people have a circle of acquaintances that runs in the neighborhood of 250 people. That means that if every single person you knew was involved in a gun-related assault, and they ran, only one of them would actually be shot at.
Out of those, only 1 in 10 assailants managed to actually hit their fleeing victim. So out of our total pool of victims who ran, only 1 in 2,000 (0.05%) has been hit. So let's declare "Get A Gun And Assault Everyone I Know Day" as an annual event. At that rate, it will take 8 years for someone to be wounded.
Care to guess how many of those hits were fatal?
One percent.
So now, out of our total pool of victims who got the hell out of there, all but 1 out of 200,000 (0.0005%) lived to tell the tale.
Compare this against cases where an assailant (gun-wielding or otherwise) coerced a victim into a vehicle. If I'm remembering the figures correctly, less than 1 in 5 are heard from again.
So I tend to agree with the immortal words of Richard Pryor: If someone pulls out a weapon, and you can't pull out anything but a hand with some skin on it -- RUN!!! That "Macho Man" shit only works in the movies! In real life, you go from being "Macho Man" to being "Dead Person"!
I've been doing martial arts of various kinds since 1984 -- 22 years. I know several ways to take a knife/gun/club/staff/etc away from someone. And I'm good at what I do, if I do say so myself. ::S::
You know what? Unless A) the attacker gives me a good opening, or B) I think he's going to try to kill me anyway, I'm going to be as reasonable as he'll let me be. I can get more money/jewelry/whatever. The odds are typically in my favor, but the cost of failure is extremely high, and unless I have sufficient cause, I'm not going to roll those dice.
On the other hand, if he gives me sufficient cause to act (convincing me he's going to try to harm me or those I care for, etc. regardless of what I do), then may whatever deity he believes in have mercy on him.
Because I won't.
gryphonrhi's LJ with this, I decided to move it over here. ::G::ann_i_blessing's original post in gryphonrhi's LJ:And there you have the reason cops are more ready to shoot someone with a knife than someone with a gun -- an unsheathed knife is considered an immediate danger in the hand of someone willing to use it, where with a gun you have issues of control and buck fever. Reasons Pagans stopped by cops for Driving While Unusual better have their blades peace-tied or sheathed in the trunk.
From what I understand, merely having a gun drawn in most states in the US is considered Assault With A Deadly Weapon (or in some cases, Assault With Intent To Kill, or Attempted Murder), because there is such a tiny gap between an assailant having a gun in their hand that is pointed at the ground, and having a victim casting a polka-dotted shadow. Unfortunately, the control issues and "buck fever" tend to mean that the bullet might miss the intended target, but the poor idiot walking his dog 3 blocks away takes a hit.
The prevailing school of thought that I have heard most often runs along the lines of, "Run from a knife, charge a gun." The reasoning is that the fellow with the knife probably isn't going to throw it, which means in order to hurt you he first has to catch you, and "Scared as shit" runs faster than "Mad as hell." ::G:: By contrast, if you run from the fellow with the gun, all he has to do is stand there and pick you off...
Or does he?
I'll have to hunt up the specifics stats and sources again, but they run something along these lines:
DISCLAIMER: These figures are pulled strictly from memory, and mine is just as fallible as anyone else's. They are drawn from a discussion of nationwide crime statistics in my martial arts school roughly a year ago. The source was given at the time, and although I do not recall it now, I remember accepting it as a credible source at the time. However, the information was relayed orally, and the speaker was not consulting notes.
Of assaults involving handguns where the intended victim fled, only 1 out of 200 (0.5%) assailants even fired on the fleeing victim. Consider that most people have a circle of acquaintances that runs in the neighborhood of 250 people. That means that if every single person you knew was involved in a gun-related assault, and they ran, only one of them would actually be shot at.
Out of those, only 1 in 10 assailants managed to actually hit their fleeing victim. So out of our total pool of victims who ran, only 1 in 2,000 (0.05%) has been hit. So let's declare "Get A Gun And Assault Everyone I Know Day" as an annual event. At that rate, it will take 8 years for someone to be wounded.
Care to guess how many of those hits were fatal?
One percent.
So now, out of our total pool of victims who got the hell out of there, all but 1 out of 200,000 (0.0005%) lived to tell the tale.
Compare this against cases where an assailant (gun-wielding or otherwise) coerced a victim into a vehicle. If I'm remembering the figures correctly, less than 1 in 5 are heard from again.
So I tend to agree with the immortal words of Richard Pryor: If someone pulls out a weapon, and you can't pull out anything but a hand with some skin on it -- RUN!!! That "Macho Man" shit only works in the movies! In real life, you go from being "Macho Man" to being "Dead Person"!
I've been doing martial arts of various kinds since 1984 -- 22 years. I know several ways to take a knife/gun/club/staff/etc away from someone. And I'm good at what I do, if I do say so myself. ::S::
You know what? Unless A) the attacker gives me a good opening, or B) I think he's going to try to kill me anyway, I'm going to be as reasonable as he'll let me be. I can get more money/jewelry/whatever. The odds are typically in my favor, but the cost of failure is extremely high, and unless I have sufficient cause, I'm not going to roll those dice.
On the other hand, if he gives me sufficient cause to act (convincing me he's going to try to harm me or those I care for, etc. regardless of what I do), then may whatever deity he believes in have mercy on him.
Because I won't.
no subject
May I have permission to print this out to post on my dorm door? If not, that's cool and understandable.
Anyway, great words.
no subject
On discussing being attacked
If he/she/it pulls a weapon "RUN FASTER"
If you can't run and can't see that giving up everything you have on you and hoping they will then leave you alone will work, then put them down, make sure they can't easily get back up and then follow rule one..."RUN"
And I take it from your comments that this would be correct?
Re: On discussing being attacked
To paraphrase Sun Tzu, the only battle you are guaranteed to not lose is the one you don't get into.
Sometimes altercations are inevitable, but most of them can be avoided. Those that can be, should be.