People wonder if small guns, like the .25, .22, and .32, have enough power to stop an attacker with a body shot? Research on actual shootings shows that about 25% of the time it will. So in 3 of 4 shootings, a lightweight caliber is shown to be ineffective

One shot isn’t enough. Statistics show that the .25 rates a 25%, in one-shot-stops to the body. That means that for every four shots to the body, three won’t stop an attacker from further violence.

Statistics then, also show us that these small caliber handguns only stop an attacker 25% of the time with a body or torso shot. We have to fire several unexpected shots from a low powered handgun. These shots should send your attacker reeling back, perhaps with wounds, or out of shock and confusion. If not, they’ll probably run away, as the noise and/or wounds caused by one of these small bullets ripping into their body changes their mind quickly.

For those who live in “conceal carry” states, I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend a high quality handgun, in a low caliber, for those who will spend the time it takes to get comfortable with one and through practice, will be able to place their shots where they were aimed!

Review: Cops call it the “Quiet Man’s” Self-Defense

I just read the “USP” …. (unique sales proposition) for a great martial arts system that is so incredible that this headline gives one pause to wonder: “Just One Lesson Of This Simple New ‘Cop-Tested’ Fighting System Will Give You The Confidence To Force A Bigger, Meaner And Angrier Attacker To His Knees Whimpering In Pain…Using Just One Hand!”

Yeah right!

“Without much fuss, and without breaking a sweat, you can put a stronger and more skilled attacker down and under your total command with simple yet agonizing “pain compliance” moves that take just one hand… and yet, despite the intense pain you inflict, you will leave no marks or long-term damage.”

Yup uh-huh, one lesson and one hand right?

Total control… zero damage. And you win every fight in just seconds, every time!

 ~ Wow, sign me up! I’m tired of training every day! ~

Now I’m feeling feisty since all of this is of course a crock of sh*t, designed for one reason: to separate you from your money!

I have had many police officers ask me to show them martial arts moves that they could use to help them with unruly “perps”. In every scenario provided, there was one awful conclusion, you have to cause bodily damage to the “perp” at some point.

I know exactly what you would receive in this course. A series of joint – locking maneuvers that really are quite simple to apply and will drop the most skilled fighters…..if you can pull it off on them! Most skilled fighters I know, and that is many, would never allow you to close the gap that close without hurting you on the way in, and hurting you while inside and possibly using the same techniques as you would be shown. In the real world tough attackers and street fighters carry guns, steel batons, or maybe a nice razor sharp knife.

“How to end any fight in seconds – even with an enraged attacker bent on violence without getting hit yourself, without breaking a sweat, and without even getting your knees dirty when you take him down!”

Yes, you can quickly draw a pistol and shoot him!

“Amazing one-handed “pain compliance” holds that will turn an angry attacker into a whimpering puppy at your feet!”

Ok, lock my wrist, elbow or shoulder and I’ll lock yours back, or maybe just punch you directly in the kisser as you begin to apply it!

“How to “freeze” an attacker with severe pain… so you are instantly in total control! How to take out an attacker while you are seated… without ever leaving your chair!”

Ok, sit in a chair and let me attack you. Be sure to prepare for a trip to your nearest E.R.!

“How to quickly escape from a professionally-applied choke-hold!”

Uhmm, there is no way! Only a man with equal or more skill has the very slightest chance of escaping a “fully sunk” choke hold. And I mean the very slightest chance. If you’re not highly trained in martial arts and submission fighting, you’re going beddy bye!

While I’m sure the man that created this course is probably a proficient martial arts practitioner and may be quite good at what he does. I fault his claims to impart this level of knowledge and the execution of extremely advanced techniques in one lesson, and against highly trained fighters, “absolutely ludicrous” as Mike Tyson would say!

Knife Defense for Your Life!

Moving on to other interesting topics, I’d like to take a few minutes and wind up the fighting knives segments with an incident that interrupted my musings on a picnic table at a sunny park last week.

As usual, the warm sunshine drove everyone inside on a 70 degree afternoon, to eat a grand feast celebrating some birthdays in the family. We live on the Great Lakes and 70 degrees in the spring is not warm near the water yet. The chilly breezes rolling in from the lake make you feel cold in a very short time. I was of course, prepared by throwing an insulated sweat jacket over my shirt before I arrived. Apparently no one else thought about it? So, I sat in the warm sunshine to smoke, indulging my remaining vice. Fine with me. I get a lot of my best thinking done with a smoke, staring into the cosmos while the wheels upstairs spin methodically along.

It wasn’t long before a nephew’s “little puppy” had to be brought outside for pissing all over the inside of the house. He was just a young, but full sized Boxer, rippling with muscle and barking like heck. Naturally they chained him to a 30 foot logging chain which did wonders for him, as he immediately began behaving aggressively. Chains do that to dogs, not a great idea for a young dog eh?? He spotted me quietly smoking & looking at the lawn, and raised a royal fuss about it. Again and again he came shooting toward me, only to be cut short by the chain.

After watching this scenario play out over and over again, I began to think; “what the heck would I do if this was an older and dangerous model, and he was bent on chewing me up”, then what would I do? This young male had the ability but probably not the “heart” to follow through with a full blown attack. My mind drifted back in time to a “Canine Command School” I managed for a year, while laid off from my normal job. These were very tough dogs! All big Shepherds, Dobies and a few big old Rott’s. They were in various stages of “police training”, as well as similar education for “personal” guard dogs. We kenneled about 15 – 20 dogs daily and the trainers worked them on obedience and attack in both English and Schutzen (German) commands.

I recalled a pattern in these dogs behavior that could be exploited for one’s safety. Unfortunately such dogs, and other very aggressive dogs will not back down and the stakes become life or death. No joking! I’ve held the mitt and took a bite from a 110 lb. German Shepard, you’d have to be there I guess? I noticed that the chief problem with most trained dogs is that they will “hit the pads” 99.9% of the time. I have thrown the mitt on the ground before making contact and the vicious police dogs would abandon me without pause, and break off to nail the pad EVERY time. I also noted that most UN-trained dogs will lunge at, or bite whatever is offered to them first. That could only be the arm.

That’s when the light went on! While wondering how to defend against this young boxer that wanted to jump on me, I thought of weapons. A nice 500K volt stun baton would have been wonderful, but at a picnic, nah! But as always, I felt the light polymer handle of my large, “Cold Steel” tactical folder against my leg. The Voyager model, with tanto blade was definitely up to the job as a last resort weapon.

Timing, and of course a high quality folder like I was carrying, or my razor sharp butterfly knife with a partially serrated blade would be the right medicine for vicious dogs. (we’re talking “tough dogs” now…the kind that will kill you or make you wish they had) The trick would be to wait for the last moment before the final leap, and softly slide into a fighting stance, then offer the lead arm to the attacking pooch. A trained dog will take the arm like a “bee to honey”, and most other dogs will take it just because it’s the first thing to bite. As the dog locks down on your arm/hand (this really hurts BTW!), simply yield your stance back if they are coming to hard, (this will buy you a second) or step up with your back leg and arm (holding the knife), and open his throat from ear to ear with your knife.

This scenario assumes a left foot forward stance, and the knife hand to the rear in the right hand. The forward foot (left) stance leaves the lead hand empty to act as what we call our “check hand” or “sacrifice hand”. Feed him the check hand and either slide in or step around, (if you had to yield a step) and open them up. Roll those sentences through your mind a few times and you’ll see it quite clearly. These are some harsh words to swallow but if you get squeamish reading this, then you have no business carrying a knife or gun for self defense. Guns + Knives + Attacker = possible use of deadly force!

Self Defense & Knives

The Grip:

I am acquainted with all of the B.S. about knife fighting and “grips”. In my many years of formal training with sticks and blades, I’ve come to the conclusions that the grip is determined by the situation, and that all grips have their place in blade fighting. Long hours of practice will prepare you for using the knife in whatever position you want, and not be in the least disadvantaged. Practice – I promise!

Stance:

I just read another load of “cr*p” on the “proper stance” for knife fighting. It’s preposterous to believe, that a single stance will hold up in vigorous life and death fights against a similarly armed adversary. The stance should be close to a “boxing stance” and one should be comfortable in either right or left foot forward stances. Let’s make sure the weight is distributed fairly evenly so that you can move in any direction without loss of speed. Practice!

Footwork:

“A fighter’s body should be able to move in all directions, either to avoid a strike by the attacker, to attack, or carry out a combination of moves. Footwork will be used in combination with knife attack and defense moves.”

Footwork needs to be taught to fighters and “trained”, to move in a proper response to achieve your attack, or to defend against one. Feet should never “cross the centerline” of the body and whether left foot forward or right, one should be able to quickly glide to the right or to the left, also easily move to the same sides but in a 45 degree angle forward-right and forward-left (with either foot forward). You should be able to attack or defend by thrusting forward (a shuffle) and backward. One must also be able to shuffle his stance quickly, back and to the right, or to the left at a 45 degree angle, with either foot forward, while attacking or defending. This covers eight directions with a “left forward” stance and eight more with a “right forward” stance. Sixteen (16) smooth boxing-like stance shuffles. Practice!

Attack and Defense:

Beginning knife fighters will learn basic cuts and thrusts. To keep the blade moving lightning fast, the wrist and arm should be relaxed during the execution of the movement. Strength (muscle power) is not everything, as speed = power when exerted with a knife blade, or other weapons. Knife defense moves often “mirror” the cuts and thrusts already learned, but they’re now applied against the attacker’s attack. This engages and blocks their blade as they attack, or better, slide a little deeper into your opponent to engage the arm and damage it, to disarm, disable or kill them. Practice!

Combination Techniques:

As with all fighting attacks, defense and footwork are all merged together into combination movements with the objective of disabling the attacker. Take care of your training partner! Drills with knives and rattan sticks get extremely fast and powerful. I have to be able to trust my partner NOT to hurt me if I “goof up” and he needs to have that same trust in me. Good training partners are hard to find, so take care to keep everything at a safe and controlled speed. Try the footwork movements above and add a cut, or a block, and you have quite a training regimen to begin with. Practice!

Training Aids:

Good knock-off versions of a knife (similar to your “carry” knife) can be purchased cheaply. Just blunt the edge of the blade for use in training. Rubber knives are also fairly decent for drills as are rattan sticks. As the prospective knife fighter drills more, and over a period of time, the knife fighting technique becomes instinctive, affording very fast reactions to attacks and confidence in battle. Practice!

Targets:

There are several major targets in a knife fight, muscles and nerves, blood vessels and vital organs. Cutting through the muscles and nerves disables the attacker’s limbs causing great pain, loss of weapon (hopefully) and loss of coordination. Severing blood vessels or vital organs causes the inevitable death of the attacker. Oh yeah, this all takes quite a bit of practice!

Don’t forget to select a 400 – 440 stainless steel knife along with those rattan training batons Grasshopper!

Knife Fighting: An Overview

Knives are highly under-rated weapons. Capable of inflicting great damage, in the hands of a skilled knife-fighter they become even more dangerous. Let’s take a look at knife fighting and issues connected to this martial art.

Knife Types

We will talk about two types of knives. The simplest type of knife is the “full tang construction” blade, (knife that has a handle “fixed” to the extension of the blade), it is constructed from a single piece of steel covered by a handle. Another type is the folding blade (known as a lockback, or tactical folder), the commonly known knife which can be made half its size, by folding the blade into the handle. There are specialty knives like belt buckle knives and credit card knives which are in a category all their own.

Choosing a Knife

Even with all of the knife manufacturers, good knives are hard to find, as every knife is not suitable for knife combat. There are several things to consider when choosing a knife. Knife size is very important, even though the largest knife is the best, (debatable) in practical civilian use a large knife can be uncomfortable to carry, and difficult to conceal. Generally, the accepted ideal knife size is a blade length of 3″, and another 3″ or 4″ inches for the handle. A knife that size is lightweight, can be carried easily, and is easy to conceal.

Quality of manufacturing should always be a deciding factor in the selection of a tactical folder. A poor quality folding knife can close on the carrier’s fingers when striking a target, causing serious injury. Folding knives are perfect for concealed carrying. They are small and fit neatly into a pocket. “No name”, or “unbranded” types of steel, such as “Stainless Steel” should be avoided as it’s a sign of low quality, it is more desirable to select a “branded” type of steel such as “stainless steel 420″ or “stainless steel 440″, other excellent choices are also available.

The butterfly knife is the most trusted and rugged of the folders. The simple, swingarm latching system, keeps the closure “behind the hand”, at the “butt” of the handle. The butterfly knife, commonly known as “Balisong” knives are usually 440 Stainless, inexpensive, extremely simple to operate, they’re battle proven, and will sit on the “top of the heap” of folding knives for centuries, past and present, due to their super – safe and heavy duty construction.

Prices for good knives can vary from $40 to $1500 and more! (that figure is for handmades – in many cases they’re no better than a $50 folder).

Next post: Concealed Carry – The Mental Game – and more if we can!

Don’t Get Mad – Get Even?

This is a mischievous little piece – Techniques are NOT RECOMMENDED!

Repressed fantasies of revenge are in all our minds and they apply to everyone from the person who took your parking space, to the guy who stole your girl. It’s very difficult to get revenge due to the fact that all our actions are covered in a system of laws that clearly shows – breaking the law leads to consequences. So, if you decide to kill your girlfriend’s new boyfriend you’ll end up in prison for the rest of your life.

There is a “way of life” dedicated to revenge that has less consequences than jail-time and is very effective in aggravating the target of your revenge tactics. These tactics are designed to be very easy, and are probably untraceable.

Vehicles

A target’s car is wide open to revenge. It’s an expensive piece of machinery that can be damaged or manipulated to cause damage and expense. An easy way is to use a can opener to scratch the side of the car. Another is to place a dead rodent underneath one of the seats, causing a very horrible smell in the vehicle. If the car is closed, a few eggs broken and poured into the air intake will become stale and give out a horrible aroma. Milk on the carpet, upholstery and in the air intake are killer techniques.

Fax Machine

If you have one of those small fax machines they can be used to send embarrassing faxes to the unsuspecting target’s fax machine. Be sure the fax does not send your name and phone number printed on the papers you send! You’ll need an untraceable phone line, available by checking into any motel that has a phone line in the room. Write a lot of embarrassing information on a few papers and use the “endless looping system”. This works by taping a few papers end to end with sticky tape and finally taping the last paper with the first. The fax machine keeps sending all these documents endlessly with the loop of paper revolving through the machine.

Telephone

By placing a “personals ad” in the paper you guarantee that you will have a lot of people calling your target at all hours. Flirtatious personal ads have a much better response rate. Another way to take revenge on the phone is to wake up your “mark” by calling his/her home phone at early hours of the morning. Don’t forget that these days caller ID is very common, and a pay-phone will have to be used instead of your home phone for obvious reasons.

A favorite revenge is to see the “mark” suffer in a more personal way. For those among us who are more confrontational in nature, a good scenario would be to have your target’s routine down. Once you have established a solid “night time” contact point, conceal yourself in the shadows of the “mark’s” car, or a spot along the way, that is clear of people. As they approach their vehicle, simply rise up and throw a blanket in their face. The blanket must be held in front of your face to control being fingered for the incident. Usually a long blast of 15% Wildfire OC pepper spray in the face will take care of the visual identification problems. Followed promptly with a solid stroke from a steel baton – telescopic type is best. This will usually end any internalizing of revenge cravings. You’ll probably end up feeling sorry for the “poor sap” that stole your girlfriend afterwards!

Remember this is a spoof for your entertainment and is not recommended by Crime-Information.com or any other associated entities!

The Fang of the Snake

We’ve posted on personal alarms to stop attackers, stun guns, and defense spray too. Sometimes these deterrents stop attacks, and sometimes they fail to stop attacks. It depends on the attacker, and your abilities.

As a practitioner of Eskrima for many yrs. now – all strikes (or cuts) were taught and practiced with the stick coming at the training partner. The use of the wrist, stances, and footwork are stressed with the rattan stick, after substituting a knife, the cutting edge would always be used to strike with.

I like a “Bowie Knife” or a broad, double edged knife – heavy in the handle. The power of the Bowie is in it’s weight, plus they will stab and slash with the best of them. The double edge is a deadly blade, both sides cut and the blade can’t be controlled easily.

I have switched back to the folding knives that I first used in Escrima training. We had butterfly knives. They are very durable, and the locking latch is in the rear – out of your way. It keeps one from worrying about the blade closing on your fingers at just the wrong moment. My favorite is a butterfly knife with a partly serrated blade, of about 400 or higher stainless steel. That makes for a lightweight butterfly with a high grade 440 stainless steel blade that will hold a razor sharp edge. The butterfly knife is proven in combat and scores very high marks! They’re worth looking into – and the price is right too!