When it comes to self defense, your greatest weapon is your mind. Your mind keeps you out of danger by avoiding it when you see it. It also allows you to make a conscious decision to take action if you must ever defend yourself.
Now how you take action is a matter of selecting the most appropriate tool for the job. Many martial artists are purists and see weapons such as pepper spray, stun guns or firearms as wimpy weapons for people who aren’t tough enough to use their hands.
A whole other segment of people have a stigma of weapons, guns in particular.
I think the whole reason can be blamed on TV and movies. On the big screen the people with guns are almost always the bad guys. The bad guys use their gun to hold up the helpless good guys (without guns) until the bad guy makes a mistake and the good guy takes advantage of that mistake and knocks the gun away. Now fists rule the day!
Well this has led to a society that is tragically unprepared to defend themselves.
For instance, imagine you are leaving the mall after a late night of shopping for a birthday gift for your 10 year old and while walking to your car and 5 thugs quickly run up to you, one of them with a knife and another other with a crowbar. If you are a man they may want to beat you, rob you and/or kill you. If you are a woman they may want to rape you, rob you and/or kill you. Let’s say you are a woman trained in Brazilian Jujitsu, you are pretty darn good at it and can even beat many of the men in your gym. What are you going to do in this scenario?
I can tell you that your Jujitsu is not going to be the best tool for this job. It may come into play but it surely will not be enough. You are outnumbered, each one of your attackers is bigger, stronger, meaner and already determined in their minds what they are going to do to you. PLUS, they have the element of surprise and in this scenario, at least two of them are armed!
If you had a knife and were skilled in using it you would be in a heck of a lot better shape. If you had a gun and were trained to use it you would probably be able to instantly end this situation. Likely the would-be attackers would turn tail and run like hell. This is ideal as you didn’t have to risk your safety in order to fight.
Is this cowardly? Does this mean you aren’t a true Martial Artist? Are you a bad person because you have a gun? Are you some crazy right-wing militia member because you own a gun and carry it concealed?
Let’s answer these questions logically:
Q: Is it cowardly to use a gun or other weapon to defend yourself?
A: What is the primary goal of self defense? It is to defend yourself. It is not to defend yourself and look good doing it. It is not to use some esoteric technique you learned in your last Martial Arts class, if that technique works great! But the goal is not to use any particular system or technique. The goal is to ensure you are safe and that your loved ones are safe. So you should use the most effective method at your disposal. If you have a cop or a squad of Marines then that is your best tool. If you have a gun then that is your best tool. If you are in your car then that is your best tool. If you have none of those then look for other tools. You go down the chain of most effective tools only if you must.
Q: Does it mean that you aren’t a true Martial Artists if you use a weapon to defend yourself?
A: Once again, what is your goal? The original goal of Martial Arts was to hurt or kill people. They were designed for soldiers in combat. In our use we are using Martial Arts to hurt other people only if we are forced into the situation, we don’t go looking for trouble. So what did the Samurai of feudal Japan use when they went into combat. As famous Samurai Miyamoto Musashi wrote in his legendary book “The Book of Five Rings” the Samurai would use swords, spears, bows and arrows and once they were invented they would even use guns and cannons. Why? Because the Samurai’s goal was to win. A fist is a tool, a kick is a tool, a headbut is a tool, a choke or armbar is a tool and a gun is a tool. A person with a gun is a Martial Artists with a better tool. Not to say that a gun is always the best tool because at close range a gun disarm is fairly easy. Basically a true Martial Artist uses the best tool for the job. After all, a carpenter wouldn’t use a hammer when he is screwing in a screw.
Q: Are you a bad person because you carry a gun or other weapon?
A: Pop quiz. If you get drunk and decide to drive and get into a wreck and hit another car injuring the driver of that car, is it your fault or your car’s fault? Of course it is your fault. You wouldn’t assume someone who drives a car is a bad person with bad intentions unless they are drunk and willingly taking other people’s lives in their own hands by driving drunk. Likewise someone who carries a weapon for self defense is not a bad person. A person who carries a weapon for evil purposes, to commit a crime, is a bad person. How do you know the difference? Well the good person won’t use their weapon unless they are forced to, in fact, you probably won’t ever know they even have it.
Q: Are you some crazy right-wing militia member because you carry a gun?
A: Aside from the fact that the founding fathers gave every American citizen the right to own and carry weapons/firearms in the 2nd Amendment of the United States Constitution, the answer lies in the individual. I’m sure Jeffrey Dahmer didn’t carry a gun but he wasn’t the kind of person you would invite over to play cards. The fact of the matter is that anti-gun laws are sexist against women. Women are almost always smaller and weaker than a man who is attacking them. All of the moves you see in the movies like flying wrist locks or spinning kicks and fancy throws work about as good as the now defunct 3 cylinder Yugo would work as a tow truck. The reality is that female 5th degree black belts get pulled behind bushes and sexually assaulted all of the time. And no matter how tough you are if your attacker has a gun, has greater numbers or is physically superior to you then your options are quite limited. A weapon, I mean a “tool”, can even the odds to your favor.
Now please don’t misunderstand me, I am not saying that learning empty-hand self defense is a waste of time. Quite the contrary! I am saying that you should use the best tool for the job. If you are on your back with someone choking or punching you then you will not likely have a chance to reach for a gun anyway, this is where a grappling style such as Brazilian Jujitsu or better yet, BJJ mixed with the Filipino art of Kino Mutai (biting and eye gouging) will be the best tool!
Additionally, if I, as a 6’2″ martial arts instructor and kettlebell instructor known for tearing decks of playing cards in half and bending bolts with my hands, is attacked by a high school kid then the goal of this encounter is to not hurt this poor dumb kid. I wouldn’t want to pull out a gun and shoot him unless I truly feared for my life. Instead I might throw him down, restrain him and wait for the police to arrive. But this is a case where I would be the physically superior person. But what if “I” was in that parking garage with 5 men with deadly intentions and weapons ready for use coming at me? I better have a tool that can turn the odds to my favor or I better hope I can run faster than them!
Ultimately you as an individual have the right and ability to defend yourself. Once again your mind is your greatest weapon. If your mind is preventing you from using the best tools then your mind is not a very sharp weapon and could use some polishing.
Concerning tools you can use here is a quick breakdown:
- FISTS: Proper punching skills take much time to acquire. Personally I practice them but I have been doing Martial Arts for over 2 decades. In a real violent encounter my fists will not be my primary tools. For a woman trying to out punch a man in a fight is just stupid. Sorry gals, but you have better tools available to you that actually give you a much better chance of winning.
- ELBOWS, KNEES, HEADBUTTS: Take a little less skill than punching and can cause much greater damage. But could a 14 year old girl use these tools against a pair of grown men trying to throw her into the back of a van? Not likely. You may be able to use these tools very effectively to take out multiple attackers but she probably will have other tools she should use.
- KICKS: Pretty broad here but fancy high kicks take a lot of skill and training to use in a real violent encounter. Nothing beats a good solid kick to the groin but this may or may not end the fight, it for sure sets up an opportunity to finish off your attacker.
- SUBMISSION HOLDS: Submission holds such as chokes, arm bars, leg locks and other things you would find in sport grappling or Mixed Martial Arts are only effective if you are fighting one attacker and you are either physically or skill-wise superior to them. As soon as their buddy grabs a bottle and breaks it over your head you just lost, and if losing means you get beaten to death then your friends and family lose as well. Don’t make the mistake of using the wrong tool. There are other, better things you can do that work quite well with your grappling skills.
- MACE: Worthless. I have been accidentally maced in a crowd before and it wasn’t a big deal. If you attacker is on drugs he won’t even know you did anything!
- PEPPER SPRAY: This stuff really hurts and it hurts for several hours! However, most pepper sprays spray out and if there is a light breeze then it comes back on you. Or your attacker gets sprayed and charges you getting the pepper spray on you. Now he most likely has a higher pain tolerance than you so now you are pepper sprayed and getting attacked. Wouldn’t be my first choice.
- STUN GUN: Stun guns or Tasers will stop someone flat. They are also intimidating. This is a decent self defense tool. There are some draw backs. If you use a stun gun that shoots a dart then you usually only get 1-2 shots. They better count. After that you have a hand held device that must make contact. If they have a thick heavy coat on the electrodes may or may not penetrate their clothes. Also you can get the stun gun taken away. This is a viable tool if you train with it and get good.
- KNIFE: I always recommend this for women and men who do not want to spend a lot of time training with other tools. Despite what you see on TV, it is virtually impossible to disarm a knife from someone. It takes little skill to use, in fact, all you have to do is quickly make a figure 8 with it or stab wildly.
- GUN: This is an effective tool but requires a lot of training. You have to be a gun person to be skilled enough with this tool. Anyone with fear of guns will need to spend time handling a gun to get over their fears and everyone, EVERYONE! must take a gun safety course and a combative firearms course to be able to use it safely and effectively.
By the way, for you anti-gun enthusiasts here is a scenario for you. 13 people were just gunned down by a Chinese immigrant in New York. He barricaded the door to a building and had free reign to shoot people at will and no one could stop him. Before you say that we should outlaw firearms, please realize that criminals will always have guns… Why? Because they are criminals; they don’t follow the laws, they get guns from the black market. Now imagine that same scenario where several of the law abiding citizens in that building (not all of them were citizens as it was a place were immigrants went to learn English and prepare for their citizenship test, but the employees are citizens) were carrying concealed handguns and were trained with them. We no doubt would have had far fewer deaths as several armed citizens would have shot that asocial maniac! Food for thought. Self defense is having the best tool that is practical to carry with you. All of my police clients and friends wish more law abiding citizens carried legal concealed carry handguns. Please check your local laws before carrying a concealed firearm. In the US laws vary by state. Internationally there are many nations that do not allow the carrying or owning of guns at all!
- WEAPONS OF OPPORTUNITY: Pens, pencils, bottles, etc. are all around us. When I teach underage girls who can’t legally carry weapons I teach them how to conceal and carry a weapon of opportunity that they can quickly and easily use to defend themselves from much larger, stronger attackers. They don’t have the same advantages of a knife or gun or whatever but they can still be used effectively.
- OTHER EMPTY HANDED TOOLS: Biting, eye gouges, ear pulling, etc. I won’t go far into these as they are quite brutal and vicious. I teach these to men, women, experienced Martial Artists and responsible teenage girls alike. Why? Because you can use them from virtually any close encounter position and they instantly defeat an asocial attacker. But like any tool, you have to use them correctly or they won’t work.
Well I hope I haven’t freaked you out but if you made it this far you are probably either nodding in agreement or pissed off because I tore down your straw man. Either way, good people have a right to defend themselves. Bad guys have guns, knives, clubs, superior numbers, etc. and they have already decided in their minds what they are going to do to you. As a law abiding citizen you must be prepared to fight back to defend yourself.
