I thought I might offer up a few thoughts for discussion on a topic that I think deserves some attention. It was triggered from the recent Knife Techniques In The Kenpo System poll and in particular Mill's knife pictured in a post by Kenpo Yahoo. I went to the Mill's site in order to determine the length of that knife and it was a bit bigger than I had guessed from the Kenpo Yahoo's picture. Well, on to the point of all this...
* It strikes me that there a good number of Kenpo people (and I'm sure more generally, MA people) practice using a knife, such as the Mill's knife mentioned above for use against other people rather than for defensive practice (disarms, etc.).
* It also strikes me that there are a good number of Kenpo people (probably a subset of the above) that actually routinely carry such a weapon on their person, in their car, etc., with the intent to use it in the practiced manner should the relevant situation ever arise.
* Without getting into a detailed discussion of first year Criminal Law (not to mention civil liability), I'm guessing that many of these knife fighting practitioners don't appreciate how unfavorably the criminal justice system looks at a knife wielding individual (even a knife wielding person defending himself). Now certainly the particulars of the situation will determine what will happen, but generally speaking there has to be extremely dire circumstances to warrant the use of the sort of knife AND the sort of knife techniques that I've heard/seen mentioned by Kenpoists over the years.
I ask Kenpo knife carriers and knife fighting practitioners, what are the sort of circumstances that you think would warrant (i.e., would be criminally exculpatory) using a knife against another with said techniques? What sort of situations do you think would not warrant said use?
I'm honestly curious and concerned.
Thanks.
* It strikes me that there a good number of Kenpo people (and I'm sure more generally, MA people) practice using a knife, such as the Mill's knife mentioned above for use against other people rather than for defensive practice (disarms, etc.).
* It also strikes me that there are a good number of Kenpo people (probably a subset of the above) that actually routinely carry such a weapon on their person, in their car, etc., with the intent to use it in the practiced manner should the relevant situation ever arise.
* Without getting into a detailed discussion of first year Criminal Law (not to mention civil liability), I'm guessing that many of these knife fighting practitioners don't appreciate how unfavorably the criminal justice system looks at a knife wielding individual (even a knife wielding person defending himself). Now certainly the particulars of the situation will determine what will happen, but generally speaking there has to be extremely dire circumstances to warrant the use of the sort of knife AND the sort of knife techniques that I've heard/seen mentioned by Kenpoists over the years.
I ask Kenpo knife carriers and knife fighting practitioners, what are the sort of circumstances that you think would warrant (i.e., would be criminally exculpatory) using a knife against another with said techniques? What sort of situations do you think would not warrant said use?
I'm honestly curious and concerned.
Thanks.