Posted by
Mostly Genius – November 30, 2008
Catching Hell
I think that this is pretty good advice if you want to be a martial artist:
1. You have to train constantly, and consistently.
2. You have to be in shape.
I think it is pretty far from the absolutes for self-defense though. I see this from a lot of people that are still invested in their martial art – they assume that the self-defense fight is going to look like a match. They assume that the end states are the same. Additionally, there is usually a lot of styles debate or stack ranking. I have never met anyone who ever admits studying the worst style for self-defense.
More important than practice or fitness is decisiveness. Do the most first. Knock them right off of their mental map sheet. It sounds cliche, but you want to finish them before they are sure they are in a fight. There aren’t rounds, breaks, or referees. I have no interest finding out who is the better fighter, I have every interest in not finding out what loosing is going to be like.
Practice is certainly important, but I would say the major value of practice is the confidence that you know what you are doing – making you decisive. In the last year there was a story of an old WWII paratrooper who defeated an assailant 50 years his junior that was armed with a knife. I am guessing this guy didn’t practice his combatives drills on a daily basis anymore or keep up with his airborne PT. I don’t think he would have won a foot race against his assailant and he probably didn’t have a full round in him. What he did have was the confidence of a few years of Nazi killing and decided he had a plan to deal with it. He started fighting before his assailant knew he was going to be in a fight.
I have argued the importance of fitness for self-defense in other venues for years, and I have not changed my position on that. I will say that it is much lower on my list of priorities than being aware or being decisive.
Posted by
Mostly Genius – November 28, 2008
I guess the thinking is that first you add a spring-assist type of technology so that you can get the knife open quickly, but then you have a problem with the knife opening when you don’t want it to, so somebody comes up with the idea of adding a mechanical safety that locks the blade into the handle. I guess nobody ever decided to just scrap both technologies and go back to manually opening folding knives.
The sad thing is that SOG doesn’t make bad knives, but the marketing department needs to dial it a back a notch. I have never wanted a knife that I absolutely couldn’t open.
Posted by
Mostly Genius – November 27, 2008
BerksMontNews.com
This piece is pure hand-wringing. It is all emotional appeal and no facts. It is worth reading to see how these people think: guns are for the privilege of hunting. There is exactly one sentence directed at a civilian self-defense and even that gets it wrong. The whole article is a full of stupid remarks:
…However, many of them aren’t responsible gun owners because they think it is not their problem if a gun is stolen and used in a crime…
…People get so caught up in their right to have a gun that they lose sight of what is important: Public safety…
…I know there are some legitimate hunters who think they are allowed to have semi-automatic guns too. It is ridiculous to call yourself a sportsman if you need to use a semi-automatic gun. Each shot should be carefully calculated, not just haphazardly shot repeatedly in seconds in the approximate direction of an animal…
…In my opinion, there is no legitamate use for civilians to use a semi-automatic weapon…
Posted by
Mostly Genius – November 27, 2008
A chance for sensible gun laws – The Boston Globe
No surprise that gun violence has risen steadily over the past eight years. There isn’t even a law requiring criminal background checks for all gun sales in 32 states, and criminals and terrorists have been proven to exploit this dangerous loophole in federal law. Is it any wonder why America is the gun violence capital of the world and US urban areas have become war zones
There is no criminal background check on all gun sales (read private-transfers) because there is no practical way of implementing such a system. Such a system would become a multi-million dollar boondoggle that would generate arrests of fathers for giving their sons hunting guns without proper paperwork. The criminals will continue to acquire guns illegally. The straw purchasers will continue to transfer firearms to prohibited persons (already a serious crime) and will simply ignore the new piece of required paperwork.
“War Zones” is an over statement. Less than 1% of Americans are killed by firearms. That is roughly 30,000 deaths a year including suicides, police shootings, justifiable homicides, and accidents as well as violent crimes in a population of about 300 million.
This is all you really need to know:
John Rosenthal is co-founder of Stop Handgun Violence, Common Sense About Kids and Guns and American Hunters and Shooters Association.
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