Gun vs. Knife

CRIME, GUNS, AND VIDEO TAPE: Gun vs. Knife

H/T Syd, from FRONT SIGHT, PRESS (News From The Sight, M1911 - Vol 232, Dec 23, 2006)

"Never Bring A Knife To A Gun Fight"

Good advice.

Or is it?

This article by Paul Huebl in his Crime File News blog includes a video which illustrates in shocking video just how vulnerable we are to attack by an aggressive, determined knife-wielding assailant.

Even if you're a LEO.

Yes, even you IPSC pistoleros, you CCH holders, you IDPA warriors.

...

It's not a new story. People at shooting ranges have been talking about the gun vs knife phenomenon for years. There are answers in the lore, but you have to experience it to believe it.

For example:

Last summer, I went to the ARPC range to do a little practice with my IPSC gun. Mike McCarter was there training his USPSA Junior team. I stopped by to watch, and eventually got drawn into the activity.

In an effort to help his juniors appreciate the importance of the draw, Mac set up the classic training exercise. You are the gunner, you have a (plastic, toy, safe) gun in your pocket and 15 feet away from you there is a knife-man with a (plastic, toy, safe) knife in his hand. Suddenly the knife-man starts running toward you, with his knife held before him. Your job is to draw, point and 'fire' at least once before you are within range of the knife.

Never happened. Knife-man always beat gunner to the draw.

A year or two earlier, I took a "home defense" course at the same range, which (for me) was part of the training needed to qualify for a CCH license. The instructor set up the same scenario.

These were older men, and the goal was to teach students what must be done to defend against a charging knife-man.

After the first couple of students failed abysmally to draw and 'engage' in time to ... maybe ... even get a shot off, the instructor began to talk us through the things we as gunners could do to foil a determined, aggressive knife attack.

First, time is your enemy. The knife-man is ready, he knows what he is going to do and when he is going to start his attack. He either knows he can get to you before you can draw, engage and fire. Your only option is to play for time.

The first thing you do is backpedal, FAST! You have probably started within the distance that the knife-man can run before you can draw, so increase the distance. While moving, of course, you should be drawing. (It is a principle of self-defense training that you recognize the threat before an attack is initiated. This allows you to at least clear for your draw; move your coat-tail out of the way, put your hand on your pistol, even draw it. But how many of us are willing to draw a gun before we see a weapon?)

Moving backwards during the draw gives us parts of a second, maybe even a second or two more time to draw and engage.

Also, as soon as the attacker begins to move he has established a vector of attack. That means he is constantly building momentum toward a point, the place where you are standing when he starts to move. One of your options is lateral movement. Given a choice, you should move to the right when attacked by an assailant holding the knife in his right hand. This forces him to make an across-the-body slash rather than just moving his knife hand forward or farther to his right. When attempting an across-the-body slash, the reach of the attacker is dramatically shortened by the need to reach ACROSS the diameter of his torso, so it may be possible to move outside of his reach.

All of this is predicated upon circumstances. If you are backed up against a wall, or bounded by the walls of a narrow alley, your options are drastically limited.

Lesson: don't let yourself be caught in a corner.

Looking at the video, we see that the pistol armed defender stays in place. As a static body, you're nothing more than a soft target. The assailant has the advantage of speed, timing, and momentum. You can turn these advantages against him by movement; to the rear, and/or laterally.

Still, if you're caught flat-footed, you probably are screwed anyway.

If you choose to carry a pistol for personal defense, you need to spend as much time acquiring the habit of situational awareness as you do in gun-handling. That is, you need to pay attention to your surroundings and recognize that you are in the presence of someone who might attack you. The best result of fight is never to get into one. Avoiding a fight is not cowardness; it's the perfect tactic.

Surely there are people who can give you better instruction and advice. I am a correspondant, not an instructor, and as such I can only present my observations and parrot the instructions I have received. I can only say that I have had the opportunity to see the vulnerability and think about it ahead of time. I've given myself as much edge as possible, small though it might be, by learning to recognize a dangerous situation and establishing a plan to avoid an attacker while I simultaneously move to counter-attack.

One more suggestion:
At an IPSC match several years ago, a clever stage-designer presented a fairly realistic demonstration of this conundrum. He set up a 'railroad track' of 2x4 boards, and built a cart to run on it. He put an IPSC target on it, and powered it by stretched bungie cords. When you activated the target, it 'ran forward' the 15 feet or so ... very quickly ... until it reached a position which was nominally The Danger Zone (where a man with a knife could reach you.) The challenge was to draw and engage the target before it reached 'striking distance', which was the end of the track about 3 feet from the shooter starting position.

As long as the sport of IPSC includes the word "Practical", it occurs to me that this would be a very useful training aid and also an interesting Shooting Problem.

Think about including this stage in a future IPSC match.