Its another knife on the street. Thats the end of the argument for me. Sorry if this is contraversial but thats the way I feel!
Too many kids getting stabbed and I don;t think the answer is arming those kids to stab other kids who will then buy knives to stab more kids because they are scared of getting stabbed, etc etcd etc feel free to change my mind I am not trying to start a row!
I appreciate your candid answer.
You're right, in that I doubt you'll find a lot of people on these forums who agree with your reasoning. I certainly do not.
As for changing your mind, here's the counter-argument.
No one is suggesting carrying a knife, or indeed any weapon, by people who are not emotionally capable of it. We're not talking "kids" or West-Side Story here. We're talking about reasonable adults. They're not interested in having gang wars or drug deals or the like. All they want is effective Self Defense. The purpose of weapons is as a Force Multiplier. The Reader's Digest version is that it allows someone with less martial training, less physical capability, or some other Disparity of Force to "even it out." This is the prototypical 90 lb. weakling vs. the line-backer, the grandma vs. the burglar, the single man against a gang of thugs, or one person vs. someone else who is armed or who is highly trained.
When you have a Cage Match or a Judo comp., for instance, you have reasonable assurance that the two combatants are going to remain ONLY two combatants, that the two of them have roughly equivalent training, roughly equivalent skills, and roughly equivalent physique. In a Self Defense setting you have none of those assurances. If you even have the luxury of knowing there's an agressor facing you (sometimes you may not know until you've already been attacked) you don't know if he's alone, if he has a weapon or what kind it may be, if he's a black belt in GJJ, Judo, Silat, and is a Golden Gloves champ. You may not know just by looking at him how strong, conditioned, or resiliant to damage he is. In short, you probably won't know how much of a threat your opponent is until well after it matters, if ever.
To further stir the pot, the argument is often made that effective Self Defense using a weapon (such as a knife) requires far less training. This seems self-evident in a way. If it were not so, then you would not be concerned with kids carrying knives at all. You'd shrug your shoulders and go, "well, it's no more dangerous than their fists." But it is. Some folks argue that with proper training a person needing Self Defense could do just as well unarmed. History seems to disagree, since armies and body guards since the dawn of time have been armed, however, that aside, the concept of "proper unarmed training" needs to be put in perspective. What it means is a
LOT of training. One Silat practicioner I know says that if the other guy has a knife, take 5 to 10 years off of your training. And that's if the other guy doesn't know really how to use it. Further, it's not just training, but CONSTANT training. Can't let the skills get even a little bit rusty. Now, the fact is that Joe Sixpack probably doesn't have the time to invest, and likely doesn't have a good reason to when simply adding a weapon with (comparative speaking) minimal training will set him at a parity with the attacker. Why should he, he reasons, have to invest years upon years, thousands upon thousands of hours, and large amounts of his personal income getting "training" just because someone else thinks that knives can hurt someone? He has a job, a family, a life, and other hobbies to pursue besides getting colored belts to wrap 'round white pajamas.
Another argument often made against using weapons for Self Defense is that the person could have avoided the problem by simply using better situational awareness or by avoiding bad areas. The typical "story" is often related of a student who asks his master, "How can I be sure to never lose a Bar Fight?" "Stay out of bars," the master replies. Sounds good on the surface but, to be honest, it's trite. You cannot be assured that you will never be attacked. You can sometimes adjust the odds down by situational awareness and doing your best to avoid dangerous areas but that doesn't mean you won't accidentally wind up in a bad area of town, won't be forced to go there for some other reason (like picking up a drunk friend), or that dangerous folks won't come search you out (such as a Home Hnvader).
In short, a weapon is an "Insurance Policy" that many folks believe is reasonable.
There's a lot more to it, but I think this is a good start.
Peace favor your sword,
Kirk
