WingChun Lawyer said:
I live in Brazil, and the law here allows me to carry any blade under 10 centimeters, and to use it as I see fit in legitimate defense of myself or of others.
I have no clue on the law in the USA, but in Brazil the law does not distinguish between "lethal weapons" and "non lethal weapons". You can go to jail if you over react in a self defense situation no matter what weapon you are using, but if you don´t over react (i.e. you use force proportional to the threat, in view of the means available to you at the time), you are OK, wether you used a pocket stick or a rocket launcher.
I still think you are far safer legally in most cases with a pocket stick like a mini mag light than with a knife. The whole concept of a knife is that it is a lethal weapon. If you can't show a need to kill the other guy, you can't use the knife at all. You do not use a knife to try to wound. It is designed for killing and that is it's purpose. By comparison, if you keep your keys on a key ring attached to a mini flashlight, you can honestly say you hit the guy with it because your keys were in your hand when the attack went down. Try giving that excuse with a knife.
Oh, and I sometimes leave the house without my knife even though it is a utility one. But to leave my house without my keys is somewhat rare. And if you ever had to find a key hole in the dark, you will swear by having a flashlight attached to them. I have no trouble letting people know I have a flashlight on me. But I think they may think of me like a dangerous beast if they knew of my knife. Back in high school I tried to be a tough young buck. Now I am just trying to appear as normal and plain vanilla as I can. I don't need to prove my masculinity and am far less insecure than puberty.
And then there are other factors about using a killing weapon. People do not like to kill other people. That seems like an obvious statement. But it is kind of like saying that people don't like high places. It is one thing to understand it, and another to stand at the side of a tall building and look over the edge.
Whenever I hear people say things like, "I would just shoot the jerk" I know they have never looked over the sights of a loaded firearm at another person. So many sites on the internet seem to attract young studs trying to impress each other with just how bad they all are- but I know they have never looked over the edge.
Facts back this up. S.L.A. Marshall found that only a small number of men in combat during WWII would even fire their rifles. Dave Grossman recounts tale after tale of people who would go out of their way to not shoot at the enemy even when they were being fired on. The most killing in war comes from artillary, because of the distance and disassociation. The closer you get to the person you need to kill, the less eager you are to do it.
Police look on folks that use knives automatically as bad guys because to get so close that you can smell the other guys breath and still slice him is pretty much a sign of determination to kill. Some people can't do it even to save their lives.
And that is where the disadvantages of knives can come in and the strengths of weapons that are not designed to kill show themselves.
Can you kill? People can say all they want, but someone who has never been over ten feet can say that they could do a dance on the edge of the Empire State building. Those that have actually been there know better. And unless you have been there- you really do not know what you will do or not when you pull your knife.
I know I could use a knife if myself or my family were in danger. But unless it is a pretty clear case, I know from experience that I will not drop the hammer on someone even when the law and morallity say it is a viable option and I take one hell of a risk not blowing the other guy to hell.
But beat the bejeezus out of him with a metal flashlight? No problem.
Oh yeah, I got the possibilty of a 400+ pound ninja- wanna- be flying into Japan next Sunday to look me up. You can bet that if it comes down to violence I would use a flashlight on him without hesitation even if he obviously has no weapons. No hesitation. But even with what the law calls a 'disparity of force' I do not think I would use a knife on someone in that case. And I do not expect people to show me their weapons until we are engaged and when I engage I do not expect to be able to drop one weapon and pick up another. If I start a fight with this psycofraud with a flashlight in my hands, it will be what I use instead of the knife I carry even if he then whips one out himself.
People do not like killing other people. They do not like the idea of using a weapon that most likely could kill the other person. People tell themselves they can kill and use deadly weapons, but in actual situations the only people that really could do so are barely human. Sociopaths. Animals.
There is much less hesitation to use a weapon like a pocket stick when there is a chance of grave bodily harm. People have had deadly weapons in their hands and still died because they did not have the will to use them. You have more options on the table when you have a non-lethal weapon than having to make the choice to take someone's life.
And it strikes me that we may be looking at some problems with terms and definitions and stuff like that.
Let me digress and try to lay down some explinations of what I mean. I have tires on my car. There are tires on Formula 1 race cars and interstate trucks. You can't use one type of tire on another vehicle. You can't put my tires on a truck and you can't improve my car's speed by putting the tires from the F-1 on. All three types are not wrong or right and each do their job very, very well. But they are designed from the ground up to do very different things and that difference is reflected even in things like tires.
I come from an art that was built around the reality of weapons. The other guy may have them, I may have them, maybe we both have them- or not. Mardi GrasBandit and Ronin Pimp probably do not have the same background as I do. We all use the same terms like "grappling" but the things we base things on are all very different.
I have a tape I was watching where the teacher demonstrates why certain moves with a short stick will not work. When I saw him show them, my thought was, "why isn't he moving anything other than his arms?" The way he does things, everything is on a very stable base, but not one that co-ordinates the entire body or manuevers as much as mine. The problem this guy had was that he was trying to take the tires from one type of vehicle and put it on another.
So I suspect that those that can't get what they see in books and videos are doing things based on their past experiences with their arts and like the guy whose tape I have are just not able to understand a totally different gestalt. Coming from a non-weapon oriented art, or an art that has evolved under situations where weapons are not a factor, they just lack the background to see the things I take for granted.
And that is why everyone is getting so frustrated.
