Realities of the knife in our time of war

Its quite simple.  If you cannot have a firearm, have a knife.  A knife is more easily procured, improvised and discarded than a pistol.  Yes, it is harder to use well, and the risk factor is higher, but using a knife to kill a terrorist is preferable to wishing you had one while they shoot you, torture you, or behead you on video like the Catholic priest in France.  So here is a perspective on real world knife use.

Fred was temporarily incarcerated in county jail until he caught the chain for a nickel at CDC...probably Soledad. He was a convict, and the ink on his arms was a resume of murders and other miscellaneous acts detailing a life of violence.  I will say  Fred worked for me, and we will leave it at that.  His main goal in life at that time was to be able to write to his wife and kids while he was inside. Funny what a pad of paper and a few pencils and envelops can get you.

I asked him once when we were out of earshot. He had stabbed plenty of enemies in his life, many never accounted for in the legal system.

"You grab the shank like this", he showed it held in forward grip close to the body. "Slap 'em in the face like this...then run it in hard and fast until he drops. Shank 'em in the guts and in the balls".

He explained how that worked well against one target...specially if he was bigger than you.  There was no squaring off, but rather a pure ambush.

"If you have two or three you need to take, grab it like this", he showed reverse grip. "Attack the face, then when they block, trap the hand and stab hard into the neck...leave that guy and go for the next one, then come back for seconds".

Most good guys that study the knife study from the perceived notion of "defending against the knife". They begin with the premise that they are unarmed and that the bad man has the knife. In reality that is as difficult a place to begin, and one where success will be difficult. For comparison, it is as difficult as  facing a skilled gunman already pointed in at 5 yards, finger on the trigger, and you have no gun.

Why do we do that to ourselves? If at the beginning of the fight, you are thinking, "Oh me ... oh my...I am going to get in legal hot water for this", you have already lost.  And sadly, that is the perspective from which most good guys begin the fight.

Perhaps its time to get the mind right about this subject and leave the nonsense and foolishness aside. If we change the point of view to "a man armed with a knife", the entire table changes. Perhaps it is time to leave the "Unarmed Good Guy facing The Knife Armed bad Guy" illusion and look at reality through different, darker, and more violent eyes.

Some points from the dark side. If you have to use a knife to fight for your life, things are pretty bad  already. You won't defend any of it so don't even think that way. Think of Reginald Denny the day before the LA Riots. If you would have shown him two alternate futures in the next two decades: One of him trim and muscular, a felon, but successful in life because he did not allow three Five-deuce Hoover Crips to kick his ass into the pavement, or Two, Reginald Denny the elephant man with brain damage and a patched up face and mind, but law abiding to the core. Which do you think he'd choose?

There was a story once about a man in Central America being "followed" by three thugs. It was clear what the outcome would be. But the man in the story decidedly ambushed them by turning a corner into an alley, getting ready and stabbing the first man (probably killing him...it is unknown), stabbing the second man, and then the third man and he ran in opposite directions. That is the sort of "ambush" we are talking about and not a classic "L" ambush or a Richard Ramirez Night Stalker type of ambush. It is getting ahead of the fight and overwhelming the other side with a level of violence they will never match in time to survive you.

I often tell guys that they need to have the ferocity program prominent on their desktop...and that at any given moment they must be able to call up that destructive beast that relishes the demise and pain of whomever you have deemed an enemy and unleash it on them. Then a moment later....be as if it never happened. That is a skill of emotional control. To explode and to contain. To desire destruction and to make it inconsequential. To be ravenous and to be still.

Gns"Every man that knows the power of joy in battle knows what it is like when the wolf rises in the heart." (Theodore Roosevelt).

The wolf needs no morals or justification, or anything else...he is a wolf....he kills...he eats...he sleeps. That is all. Lots of stuff here gents. Lots more than cannot be spoken.

1). The knife is always with you, even in places where the gun cannot go. Make sure you can hide it, and bring it to bear in a flash.

2). It becomes the first line of weaponry when the pistol is not available by choice, policy, inaccessibility or loss.

3). If things have gotten bad enough to need the knife, the use of the knife should be aggressive, brutal and terminal, and not "defensive". Learn to stab hard.

4). There is a place for using a knife against the unarmed adversary if that adversary is younger, stronger or faster than you are...or more numerous.

5). There is a place for keeping them away with your edge, but there is also a place for closing and stabbing preemptively. See Fred's advice.

6). A knife worthy of combat carry should facilitate stabbing and be simple and instinctive to use.  Cuts and slashes will be messy but rarely kill...stabs...deep stabs to the neck and the vitals will usually be fatal.

7). The more complicated and complex a knife is, and the more elaborate its system of use, the less desirable it is.

8). Conversely, the simpler the knife and the system and more gross motor dependant it is, the better it will do in a fight.

9). A fixed blade is more desirable than a folder.

10). Learn to be violent with your knife

By Gabe Suarez: 
http://blog.suarezinternational.com/2016/08/realities-of-the-knife.html