In-Vested

When the rise of the pocket .380 took off a few years ago it was an attempt to answer the common man's problem with carrying concealed. They sold like a house-a-fire (as did the ammo). Easy to carry and weighing next to nothing it can be easy to get lured into such an attractive package.

I don't ever really preach against one gun or another for one reason, it's your life and you are an adult you should carry what YOU want for your own reasoning. That said one has to concede that some are simply more limited than others. Don't misread the intention there, all are capable of putting holes into the anatomy of a miscreant.

The problem arises with the circumstances in which that miscreant presents himself. While virtually sightless pistols like the Ruger LCP, Kel-Tecs or Beretta cats can serve well for the "street mugger"  or "backed into a corner" scenarios where the distance may be just a few feet; little guns with little sight don't serve well for contending with a spree shooter where you need sights desperately as you are shooting around other people.

Dry wall doesn't forgive. And while intentions to stop a bad guy are good a missed round that zips through the wall behind him and into someone is never okay as we don't hold to a collateral damage philosophy.

That is not to say you can't miss with any gun, but the bigger the gun, the better the sights, the more control we have on the grip, coupled with good training and even better marksmanship on the range increase our propensity for a solid hits on the bad guy.

The challenge to carrying conceal though is often the concealed part, especially when we start looking at mid size and full size framed guns. Something I learned early on in executive protection. One Principal that I worked exclusively for an extended period of time was a VP on the payroll for corporate America, which meant so was I. So those workaday dress codes applied to me.

In the bodyguarding world your manner of dress generally reflects that what the Client is wearing (though you don't ever out dress a Principal). So if the Client is in a suit, you are in a suit and, frankly this is the most ideal circumstance for concealed carry because the jacket affords a lot of latitude in what can be concealed.

Ironically enough so does uber relaxed summer wear like bowling and Hawaiian shirts that are expectantly worn un-tucked. So while your client is at the beach in swimwear you can appear to the casual observer like another noob on the beach but still be heavily armed.

My challenge while working that Principal in particular was in fact corporate casual, where I was expected to wear my shirt tucked in be that a polo or a button down dress shirt. While those instances made for a more relaxed setting from the suits I wore the absence of a jacket meant all guns had to go internal. 

Thus my form of holsters went to things like ankle rigs, pocket holsters, and Thunderwear (don't knock it till you've tried it). No doubt there are tuck-able IWB holsters I've just never really cared for them as a whole (attribute this to muscle memory). Needless to say these were all small framed and short barreled guns. While I have absolutely nothing against them and carry them regularly through out the the summer months they just are not my preference for working a protection detail.

This rolls over into other aspects of work and of course personal life as well. While It's easy to wear my Woolrich Rhodesian Army or Carhartt jacket or even just a shirt untucked there are times when the Wife likes a little more effort put in for an evening out. And of course there are client meetings that don't necessarily require a suit but there still needs to be a professional appearance.

Hence about three years ago I started wearing and utilizing a variety of vests and it has worked out very well on numerous fronts.


"Vests?" You ask

Yep. Not the notorious photog vest that everyone has (they do work in some environments after all) but rather a variety of suit style vests to heavy wool vests from Filson and Orvis.

The obvious benefit is the ability to cover, in most cases, the grip of a handgun carried in the waist band with some vests cut long enough to cover the traditional hip carry.

The not so realized benefit to the vest is the flexibility it allows the wearer. Take for instance the colder weather of the winter, coats and jackets allow for easily concealing practically any handgun the individual so desires....until one becomes to warm. Take your pick from the perennial problem of the winter coat vs the movie theater, the mall, the cafe....the drive across the state. The moment you become to warm in your coat and in public you get stuck with the choice of either suffering through the ordeal and looking somewhat out of place two hours into a movie and still in your parka or going into the bathroom and un-tucking your shirt that was previously nicely tucked in.

I get it. You're saying "geez what a prissy SOB doesn't want the world to see a wrinkle in his shirt tail". I assure you my I like my Triumph motorcycle shirt and my ten inch topped boots very much but I also have a damn practical streak I can't shake either.

Growing up hunting here in the Midwest I learned early on the value of dressing in layers, something that has applied well to work life. One of the first vest's I got was a heavy wool western cut style from Filson. Not long after getting it I had to make a long single day drive to locate a few individuals and gather varying pieces of information from them. That morning when I left it was somewhere in the mid 20s outside so I threw on some light weight long underwear, jeans, a long sleeve waffle shirt, a button downed winter weight shirt, slipped on my Combat Commander and then put the vest on, I tossed my wool pea-coat in the back seat and headed on down the road as they say.

As the day progressed through a series of in an out of the vehicle to talk with people, get fuel and coffee it was nice to be dressed in such a manner that I could drive with the heat on and not burn up and get out and not freeze to death. This I realized when walking with a guy through a largely abandoned warehouse as it snowed outside and he kept asking if I was cold without a coat on. I never really was.

Fast forward to late Spring when the Wife and I went to wedding of a friend that was going to be a rather formal affair..even as weddings go. A few days before the event I picked up a black suit vest that I could wear under my jacket (and lest you think this was some overly priced one I think I picked it up at Target for around $25). At the reception as dinner was served gentlemen were told they could remove their jackets (this is actually proper etiquette of a host for formal events......and no I don't frequent such events normally unless I'm getting paid). Me being the proper guy I am for such an occasion wanted to wear my "nice" Colt 1911 (read: Combat Elite) as opposed to my workaday one. Thanks to my $25 vest I was able to dance with the Wife throughout the evening while being well heeled and no one the wiser.

The one piece of advice I will pass along that I learned from my first vest, which led to the choice on my fourth or fifth one, of which are both of the Filson wool variety. When I paired my collared western cut vest with a coat like my Carhartt or Pea-coat the collar cause the jacket to ride high on my neck an shoulders. It fit fine it just looked a little odd so when I got around to the next one I purposely went with a collarless version. Problem solved, the jacket sat on my shoulders as normal.

It's not so much that it's trial and error as it is more of a "not a one type fits all solution". Just something to keep in mind.

So how does this apply to you?

Vests like an individual's preference for manners of dressing come in a variety of....fashions. Maybe you're a cowboy or rough neck who spends most of his time in Wranglers and pickup trucks, or a pro-gun urban hipster who likes skinny jeans, rolled up long sleeves and baby Springfield XD's (I actually didn't intend for that to rhyme btw), or you are a corporate creature where work allows conceal carry but you just have to do in khaki pants.

More hand waving, "wait a minute I'm a stay at home mother of three" or maybe you're a self-employed woman with a business to run and a CCW permit to use. Don't worry there's a vest for that.

Like everything else in the CCW game you have to do your own work. Find out what might be too short or too thin and might leave you with an exposed gun.

Look it's easy to get lazy in carrying concealed because "nothing has ever happened yet" but, I caution you this, if that is your philosophy on carrying a handgun you've turned it into a talisman not a gun.

"but you just wrote about carrying a .22 pistol a couple of posts ago". Indeed I did and if you read it carefully you will see that I don't ever say it's the best solution only that it can be "a" solution or even a intentional secondary piece for varying occasions.

Personally I'm not a fast successive shooter...you know the guys who knock down all those pepper poppers at lighting fast speed...yeah it ain't me. I am however pretty decent in the accuracy department and when the barrel is longer and the sights are bigger I tend to do better. While you might envision all sorts of positive aspects of yourself in an imaginary gunfight let me assure you, the hands shake, the pupils dilate and you seriously think about not fucking up. Because while you and I might be exceptional on the pistol range you can bet you are going to be mediocre in the fight. So give yourself every advantage on an increasingly frequent basis to up the odds of winning and keeping your life.

Here is the endgame. We are so inundated with "tactical everything" and then mocking each other for it that we have forgotten that OUR gear....clothing included needs to fit the specs for our lives and their varying degrees of living.

The .22 LR Pistol and You

Once upon time I spent a week with a retired CIA spook (in Oklahoma of all places) who was kind enough...well actually he was paid, to give me some training in electronic counter measures, lock picking and a few other useful skills that would aid me in some of my future en devours.

One evening after a steak dinner someplace he went to pay the tab and was looking for a pen or something in one of his pants pockets and in the process laid out a worn pocket holster with a small automatic resting inside. It turned out to be an equally worn blued Walther TPH (German made) and, having never seen one before I wanted to know more about this Walther PPK someone had left in the dryer.

He told me of a few misadventures surrounding the piece but, it was his parting remark that stuck with me "If you are lucky enough to travel around the world armed and doing it mainly alone do yourself a favor always carry a .22 pistol, regardless of anything else you pack."

It was a piece of advice that I remembered sometime later when I was tasked with recovering someone who was missing on purpose because bad men were hunting him. For a real nice ten days I had a Beretta Bobcat that never saw use only because the gentleman who was in-charge of granting me access to where I was decided he liked it as well and the price of admission was...you guessed it. One itty bitty .22 pocket gun.

Some nights later sitting in the dark with the no-longer-missing-person-in-question getting ready to make a mad dash for the territory ahead so to speak and, people with not-so-questionable intent well within my comfort space...which was down the stairs. I didn't think about wanting a rifle, or even one of my beloved 1911s I remember longing for that .22. Not because I thought it superior weapon to anything else (because it certainly is not) but, rather due to the fact I should have had it with me.

I see you. Your neck all tense your fingers locked in tight. You've barely made this far without leaving me your expert opinion in the comments section.

Breathe man.... breathe.

If you are going to compare the calibration of the .22 long rifle to anything else (minus the .25) you have to ask why are you even having the internet figh....I mean discussion. Obviously it falls short so if you can bear that in mind you should be fine reading the rest of the post. If not there's not much I can do for you.

While some of us who inhabit parts of this planet are allowed to own, shoot, and carry a wide array of calibers, actions, and magazine capacity, others are not so fortunate.

For example contrary to popular knowledge gun ownership and even handgun ownership for self defense in Mexico is not actually illegal. It is just damn near impossible.

Why?

Because in Mexico there exists only one legal gun store and it sits on a military base in Mexico City. The law says a household can only have one defensive arm and it can be either a pistol or a revolver but, it has to be within the .22 to .380 scale...and you can only possess 200 rounds of ammo a year.

If I were a honest Mexican citizen and left with that choice I'd choose the .22.

"Whoa!" you say

If you live in such a place where it simply is that difficult to obtain a firearm what do you think the availability of shooting ranges are? Hence some things need to be done covertly where a drive into the country side and back into the trees you can fetch you some quality private time without a lot of unwanted attention.

And for people who live in countries such as those with restrictions it's also easier to FIND .22 ammo on the pseudo black market without having to delve truly deep into conversations with individuals your mother wouldn't approve of let alone the policia.

Say you had to be on the move through a varying landscape from Urban to semi-rural for a few days with various unfriendlies about. And you had to do this primarily on foot, or catching the occasional mass transit system, or train, or negotiating a ride for the next twenty miles. Maybe its to get in and find someone and extract them...maybe its just getting out. There on your hip concealed in all of its glory is your beloved full size center-fire pistol and two fully loaded magazines.

The point two two handgun, as the Brits like to say, offers a level of flexibility to your self-defense/feces-impellar kit.

There are times and places in this world were suppressive fire is just good application. For some folks who work alone, far away and, outside of official channels there is a place for the .22 in your life.

A fixed, threaded, or extended barrel can be temporarily suppressed, ripped off and tossed away in a moment solving an up close situation.

Likewise it can serve as a not so gentle reminder that incoming fire has the right of way to those who are actively shooting at you and trying to close the gap.

Perhaps the need in solving the problem is less than conventional.

In a mobile pursuit or an about to be mobile pursuit tires can be flattened from a distance. Traffic jams can be created BEHIND you thus assisting in the escape. Being pursued on a long and rural darkened road head lights can be shot out (don't intentionally misinterpret that as one bullet for one head lamp as if it were an steady and calm Olympic event). 

And say what you will. I've never met a soul willing to pursue at a high rate of speed in near pitch black conditions. And while I've seen plenty of spare tires on vehicles I don't recall too many spare headlights.

What message would it say to your would be aggressors walking down the street if a shot rang out, then another and still another as street lights systematically were shot out. A man (or woman) willing to not only embrace a fight but, to deliberately do it in the dark will give pause to most anyone.

All that can be done without having to sacrifice your limited ammo availability to your primary center-fire handgun.

Because two hundred rounds can be squirreled away most anywhere let alone fifty or a hundred.

But then you knew this...

You know if need be, you can stash a couple hundred round of .22 high velocity long rifle rounds into a 20 oz Starbucks paper cup without having the bottom fall out.

There is something else you have to remember about bullets. All of them. The lowly .22 included.

Bullets cause destruction when fired into living things and in self-defense situations where it is your life or the bad guy's, creating trauma that stops his onslaught is the general idea.

Oh I know....I know. Your brother's cousin's nephew once put a .22 through his frontal lobe while squirrel hunting and, sneezed it out a few days later.

Bullets do weird things but those weird stories are about solitary rounds.

But five or six of those itty bitty rounds into the forehead or sternum cause repetitive systematic destruction.

Take your index finger and tap yourself once between the eyes. Just once.

Now do it five or six times.

If those where fast moving .22 rounds what do you think it would do to you.

Mentally? Not to mention physically?

Now apply this to a bad man.

Bone has been fragmented and broken, the body's primary control area has received substantial damage and things begin to shut down and not in some priority status way. The visual ability to target a victim has been either removed or compromised, not to mention the most basic ability to conceive, maintain, and rely upon any real thought process is gone....gone.

The attack breaks. Because the attacker is breaking down.

Repetitive-Systematic-Destruction

There. Again... I see you. Arms crossed. You are gonna play the trump card.

".22's misfire...end of story".

Guess what. There are no free lunches anywhere when the fight for your life is on.

Clear the fucking round and get back in the fight. There is nothing different about a misfired .22 and a stove piped 9mm. Both require you to disengage, do some manual labor and, re-engage. Personal responsibility isn't going anywhere.

One gentleman I knew, who worked all over the world in varying capacities carried two guns for the majority of his work. A Browning Hi-Power and a Ruger MK II.He managed to repeatedly come home from really shitty places and situations and, to do so he had to put in a lot of personal effort.

So do you.

Ultimately there the opinion of many out there who don't ever favor the .22LR for defense work. I can say for me it has been a choice at times and it is never my first choice but one does have to remember this amidst the "stopping power" business. Bullet holes of any caliber in the throat end a fight as do puncture wounds to the lungs especially multiple ones. Regardless if they come from a .22, a .460 Rowland or a kitchen knife.

Do ya get it.

When we woke up this morning, like the rest of you, we learned of movie theater shooting in Aurora by James Holmes. When the report said it was at the premier showing of the Dark Knight Rises, I immediately thought of the above scene and told, The Wife "He wanted to be the Joker. That's the whole motivation behind his attack."


I'll be interested to see if it bears fruit, though it matters not.

I'm a student, as it were, of spree shooters. In my work one has to be a student of many things and, violent people are one of them. There is no mystery to them. In the countless number of profiles I've read most of them didn't "just snap" over some event. Some claim it, without a doubt, but generally they do it because they want to.

On a Monday morning in January 1979, Brenda Ann Spencer, a seventeen year old high school student, opened her bed room window and took aim at a play ground at the elementary school across the street with her .22 rifle and started shooting. When she was arrested she didn't fight, she didn't complain, she just said "I don't like Mondays; this livens up the day."

And that is that.

I grow weary of the immediate blame thrown out by the media, the politicians, and others the hours after these senseless massacres towards every gun owner and conservative. Which is rarely accurate. And in most cases these individuals identify themselves as "anarchists", the type that are in the fringe of the Left more often that the Right. Though politics in any of it is horrid.

The fact is he could have jammed the doors shut taken out gasoline and done the same thing....and its happened. If you don't recall it may be because it's the M.O. of mass killers in parts of the world where there isn't access to guns or ammunition or more likely the money to acquire several hundred dollars of guns and ammo. A few liters of fuel and a willing evil son of a bitch is all that is required.

At the gym today I got a call from someone I know wanting me to weigh in professionally on this. Later he turned the topic to handguns and he told me about the pocket gun he carried religiously...mostly. He wanted to know if it was enough...which the irony is in the blogger dashboard under "draft: Mouseguns". He said finally "you know...my fear is I'd piss my pants if that ever happens." I'll tell you like I told him "piss them and then shoot the son of a bitch".

This is my parting advice to you all. Stop with the ridiculous caliber debates, the "my gun is better than yours because...blah blah" debates. Get the fuck off the seven yard range and hit the 25 yard and yes...the 50 if you can. If your gun doesn't have a front sight or a rear and it can be milled put a fucking set of sights on it. Carry reloads, carry a flashlight....always. Look at the world around you, what is bullet proof, what is not....

Tactics aren't a color or a cloth. They are plans. What is yours?

Finally above all. Be Brave.

We are so devoid of heroes these days.There are three kinds of people, those who commit evil, those who want to reason with evil, and those who stand against it. When "Dark Knight" came out a few years ago I was leaving a cafe' and I saw a teenager wearing a black t-shirt that had the face of Heath Ledger's "Joker" on it. My heart broke. We need every generation to understand that evil isn't to be embraced it's to be fought against....at all costs. At-all-costs.


Don't flee from evil. Engage it. Fight it. Kill it.

Proper Leverage

Sometimes in the American gun culture there is this all or nothing idea when it comes to being prepared for bad situations; often ignoring the reality of the middle ground in the realm of day to day preparedness.

On one end there is the OCD end-of-the-world-zombie-apocalypse idea that if you haven't squandered your families earnings on MREs, multiple military grade rifles and hundreds of thousands of rounds of ammo you are, as Chris Rock says, "gonna die".

The flip side of the coin is this weird obsession by the gun market and manufacturers to build uber light weight .380s and 9mms that can only be held onto with two fingers, has a light rail, and no sights (don't want to weigh the gun down you know...'cause there's a light rail).

One could suppose, justly, that my cynicism is leaking through.

Earlier this week I had to escort a client on a protection detail that on a threat assessment chart was medium edging towards high. The information in his care was literally worth millions but, he was basically an unknown player in the world. The problem was further exacerbated by the fact the opposing side knew 60% of the intelligence he was running, coupled with the two hour drive through both urban and rural areas to get there and back.

That morning as I was getting ready to leave The Wife walked past the dining room table were I had laid out all my gear the night before and jokingly said "think you have enough firepower?"

"I will, unless I run out. Then I won't."

Just like you I'm a private citizen, held to the same rules and the same potential legal problems only coupled with a "for hire" tag. So there is always this fine line of being more than adequately prepared for the worst, while being completely aware if the worst does happen I may be living it out on the national news the next day.

The other half is that I work alone. I do this intentionally because I have trust issues you might say....all for good reasons but, that isn't the point to be made here.

So when I work I carry a lot of hardware....like the other day. Two to three handguns, multiple magazines and a rifle. What you might find ironic is that I heavily avoid a "tacti-cool" image. Nothing I use is less "tactical" looking than my choice of rifle.

Simple and straight I have always preferred the lever action rifle for defensive work in a non-combat theater. And the reasoning goes beyond it's humble appearance. 

When we think of a rifle in use for fighting it is easy to imagine the "Super Fight" scenario. Mount an AK or AR to the shoulder it's not unlikely to imagine you against overwhelming odds with hordes of Tangos descending upon you as while ripping through one hi-cap mag to the next, empty and gleaming surplus casings at your feet.

What we rarely consider is a rifle's ability to be concealed.

"Concealed? Surely you jest....why would I need to conceal a rifle?"

You don't ....if it never gets beyond the range or back of the closet, but to put it in use or rather potential use where the world is NOT ending and the day to day is the norm concealability and discretion are the watchwords of the day.

The charm of the compact lever gun as a working defensive arm lies in it's slim, compact design in contrast to the large profile of an assault rifle (not a pejorative term by the way).

For instance a thirty round magazine in an AK variant makes the overall height measure out to be around 10-11 inches from the bottom of the mag to the top of the receiver and that is with out some type of glass mounted atop or receiver rear sights. The AR and M14 are in a similar situation.  Width is easily around two-three inches and, we haven't even really begun to clamp things onto those wonderful picatinny rails, that even flashlights come with these days.

In contrast a lever gun varies between three and a half to four inches in height and an inch and a quarter to and inch and three quarters wide.

Nice flat and compact.

So compact that I can often stash one of my lever guns along side the driver or passenger door (i.e. next to where I am seated), under foot of a bench seat, or if no one is seated in the back seat I can slip it to where the back rest joins the seat and lay anything from a blanket or towel over it. The magazine is fully stoked and should the need arise I simply need to yank it from its location and work the lever justly in that process and I am ready to make my stand with a rifle. All of them are fitted with peep sights and shoot inside a playing card at a hundred yards.

"ah yes" you say "but they are very limited in magazine capacity".

No disagreement there but I am supremely confident... just like I was earlier in the week, that seven rounds of .30-30 170grn soft points in my model 94 Winchester will see me through. If they don't I'll reload and keep going.

I see a raised eye brow of doubt.

The most predominant used long arm in civilized countries amongst civilians, including police forces, is the 12 gauge pump shotgun whose tubular magazine capacity varies from five to eight rounds. Few people would consider this inadequate firepower for most any task involving a fight with other humans. And while it enjoys immense popularity its always the least trained with because a scatter-gun doesn't do what a rifle does (or is supposed to) to do...deliver little tiny groups on a target which leads to confidence building in the head of the user.

The other strange irony is contending that seven or eight rounds simply isn't enough ammunition in a rifle should it come to a fight. Yet it would be remiss not to point out that some of the most popular selling handgun choices in the concealed carry market today are single stack magazines that hold between six and nine rounds.

Until I sold it a few years ago I carried a Marlin 1894 in .44 Magnum loaded with 240 grain jacketed hollow points almost everywhere for every job. Today my two primary work rifles here in the U.S. are either a .357 Magnum Marlin or the previously mentioned Model 94 in .30-30.

I value them for their ability in protection work not only for concealability but, also in the event of an ambush that leaves my vehicle disabled I have adequate fire power to make a prolonged stand as need be (I never said I didn't carry more ammo elsewhere in the vehicle) over a range of a few yards to a couple of hundred. Given that most police snipers rarely take a shot over 70 yards and both of my lever guns can put all their rounds into a human head at a hundred I'm not concerned.

There is significant reasoning in the ability to shoot through or into a vehicle at a distance and disable the bad guys on the inside of their vehicle or the vehicle itself some capacity.

Buffalo Bore makes some wonderful dangerous game rounds for both the .30-30 and the .357 magnum (to the point the .357 loads out of a rifle surpass standard .30-30 loads). That allows for a lot of penetration in a civilian shootout.

The third reason I like the lever gun so much for work use....travel.

While there is no law in the U.S. that restricts rifle ownership overall, some states do restrict the type or mag capacity. With any lever gun I can travel wherever need be, and this bodes for outside of the U.S. as well. Where some countries may allow you, in a security role, to bring in a long arm they might not be to keen on the self-loaders or military calibers. But a manually operated firearm chambered in a "hunting caliber" has this cowboy charm to it that has this innocuous way of being presented and dismissed in the same moment.

You might also be surprised as to the amount of lever action rifles still in use all over Central and South America in the hands of the civilian populous...even where they aren't supposed to be.


A couple of years back a friend of mine who is a new gun owner and has just a couple of handguns said he wanted a long gun, "I was thinking a pump shotgun or maybe a rifle but, I don't think I need something...you know...complicated", I told him I thought a Marlin 336 would make a fine choice.

Still do.

Don't mistake my support of a fixed magazine lever gun as being against the citizenry owning assault rifles. I think as long as the financial means bear it and the Individual so desires it a good high-cap rifle and a stockpile of ammo to feed it, is a good idea to thwart the Huns should it ever come to that. It is just that we are so inundated with a gun culture obsessed with the "tactical entry this" or the "long range sniper that" too such a degree that we often over look simple effectiveness and practicality in the wake of what is en vogue at the moment.

Dark Arts for Good Guys: The Right to Knife pt II

Everything about fighting starts inside your head.

Gun, knife, or hands. It makes no difference.

The response that begins in your head flows to your hands. That response is strongly aided in micro-planning, or rather the ability to deal and confront in immediate fashion because you have previously trained to do so.

Translation: In the eternity of a whole second a defensive resolution has to be formulated in your head and reproduced at your hands. After that your ability to overcome is dependent upon your ability to reduce the attacker's rate of survival in their encounter with you. This equates to liquidating their body of blood or stopping the transmission of signals from their brain to the appendages.

Damage has to be significant enough to encourage them to break off the attack, lose consciousness, or the use of the arms and/or legs....and it has to be done quickly.

Because in an encounter with violent humans it is generally a hands/brain combination that is your biggest threat, legs and feet being the second (yes dear reader you can still be stomped to death in the 21st Century). Most likely though hands are the problem this is why you hear it preached "Watch the hands. Hands kill."

If you are forced into the position to defend yourself with a knife-in-use this means being on the inside of the "dance space" as the late Patrick Swayze referred to it in Dirty Dancing , "This is your dance space. This is my dance space" (yep).

The Chest & Upper Body

No other portion of the body allows for such an array of significant multiple and viable targets that in a matter of a few short seconds can lead to cascade-like failure for your attacker. Unlike the abdomen the chest has a protective bone structure in the form of the ribcage and shoulder girdle. However unlike the head/skull it is not a vault like structure and is readily penetrable. In fact 25% of all deaths in the U.S. is attributed to chest trauma. The trauma we are looking at here is predominately stabbing.

The slash cut has its place...without question. Where a slash to the surface of the chest cuts muscle and tendons its also stopped from further penetration from bone and a lack of  pressure on the knife because the grip angle for a slash is reduced in comparison to a push (read: stab). It's physics.


In the span of one second the average and capable adult should be able to deliver three smashing stabs across a span of nine or ten inches. Look at your shoulder and poke your finger inward every three inches.

Now instead of thinking skin deep, with each poke think was sits in between your finger tip and the skin of your back.

Or you can keep reading.

From the shoulder socket you can severe or atleast lacerate part of the lateral cord; which contains the lateral pectoral nerve, the median nerve, and the musculocutaneous nerve. But as the knife slices nerves it also cuts through multiple layers of muscle tissue and does so regardless of whether you are going at it front-to-back, back-to-front or from the outside of the arm inward. Cuts to the deltoid muscle works in tandem with the the chest muscles, biceps and on down to the forearm. A stab (or multiple stabs) while not necessarily lethal in the short term sense they greatly reduce your attacker's ability to attack effectively.

His mechanical ability to maintain a grip on you or a weapon is now reduced in significant fashion, but so is his ability to rotate the arm and the hand.

Why is this important?

Say for example he has a handgun, a stab here followed by a hasty exit on your part reduces his ability to raise, aim, and fire. The multiply factor is you are also now a rapidly, erratically moving target ever decreasing in size...meaning hard to hit under "good" conditions for him.

The other winning factor in this is if in your fight he ends up down on the ground it makes it difficult for him to push up and get up...not impossible...but the difficult factor is high. All because of a three to four inch deep cut.

Moving inward from the arm several inches a stabbing blow delivered to the chest has a high probability of puncturing a lung. It sounds "meh" to read it but instant deflation of one of the two lungs is almost an instantaneous fight stopper.

The internet experts like to tell you of the raging bull attacker who can't be stopped by multiple cylinders of .357. No one thinks of a 105lb woman with a folding knife deflating his lung that leaves him gasping on the floor like a fish out of water. Yet the reason is simple. Your chest expands and contrasts as you inhale and exhale and since breathing is an involuntary act your attacker is breathing while he attacks you. Sounds stupid right?

Who thinks of bad guys breathing in and out?

In the brief interlude between you slamming a four inch folder into his chest/lungs and pulling it out he has either inhaled or exhaled. One or the other. If he inhaled just prior to your stab you have unexpectedly robbed his body of air as it rushes from his chest. If he exhaled the lung has contracted.

Once a lung has contracted the internal world of his chest takes up that space (or tries to). This inward exerting pressure along with the hole in his chest prevents the lung from re-inflation either fully or parially. No re-inflation means no air.

No air. No fight.

His very own body begins to act like a boa constrictor, with each exhale the body tightens around the lung.


That last third of a second and your third stab wound going towards center mass stands a high probability of a direct hit on the heart. Unlike a slash to an arm or leg, a deep puncture will not stop bleeding from applying pressure alone. Drill the heart and you get severe-crippling pain (ask someone who suffered a heart attack about pain), and blood loss at an increased rate. Since the heart's job is to act as a double pump to collect de-oxygenated blood re-distribute freshly oxygenated blood to the body a laceration to it is "problematic" for the attacker. The body can not get fully resupplied (like any wound with blood loss) and significant trauma means the body can not get the oxygen it needs to aid in lung function and...brain function.

Count one full second while tapping your finger three times.

Three wounds in one second. From you to the bad guy.

Arm function is reduced, ability to breath deteriorating, severe pain in multiple locations+blood loss+unexpected negative impact on achieving goal of attacking victim....

Any attack is going to last several seconds under the best conditions for you. As you counter attack he has to block. If you are attacking the upper chest and head region almost everyone is going to try an raise an arm to block the attack. When an arm goes up to protect exposure also occurs.

You now have a direct line of counter-attack on the arm pit, the elbow, the lungs again, the forearms. A knife in one hand and an empty hand or closed fist allows for a quick barrage attack of slashes and stabs in short order. Hitting the underside of the arm near the arm pit means there is strong likely-hood of cutting open the brachial artery.

It sounds redundant doesn't it. Muscle damage, blood loss, puncture wound.

But do you get it?

Your attacker is human...just like you. When you are armed in one fashion or another you fight less an attackers brawn and more his ability to think through what was supposed to be a short win and is now a rapidly changing lethal encounter.

An attacker doesn't think in a sense of planning a defense. Yet we do. That means we have an elongated plan based upon being attacked and then overcoming that attack.

There is something else. If you haven't picked up on it yet. A knife defense doesn't mean a knife fight i.e. knife-on-knife. We are talking about the honest citizen/good guy taking on a bad guy armed in any fashion and winning.

The utilization of knife work in defense work also will get the internets fired up with statements like "you're gonna get cut". It's just not true that this is a "guaranteed" outcome. A woman in minivan can kill a rapist with a knife and never get cut, a dad grocery shopping on vacation fresh off the beach with a folder can blindside a gunman bent on a mass shooting and prevail physically unscathed. Everyone seemingly obsesses that they will get cut because there is a knife around yet most never seem to think or give more than a passing thought of being shot in an exchange of gunfire. Because in case no one ever told you in a gunfight you're downrange.

Stop trying to predict the future. You will either get injured or you won't.

If you obsess about getting shot or getting stabbed or otherwise killed you won't engage or you will do so blindly, stupidly and wildly. You can't treat your injury until the bad guy is dead, down, or fleeing. Make that happen faster. No one, not me, not you, not the best instructor in the world can guarantee your  life...if it comes to a toe to toe fight remember this:

You came into this world covered in someone else's blood you should, in the midst of a violent attack upon you, atleast leave in the same fashion.

Dark Arts for Good Guys: The Right to Knife

 

To what extent are you willing...and capable of saving your life? If no gun were available could you ...would you...are readily capable of doing so with a knife.

Would you slit an attacker's throat?

Could you use a knife to filet three inches of forearm off of a rapist, a serial killer?

Can you descend to that primal place of fight at bad breath distance and prevail? In a very real world people are attacked inside of elevators and the ability to escape may not occur until the word “Lobby” is back-lit. Mothers are forced to the floor boards of vehicles and raped in front of the children, adventure seeking teenagers are found beaten and tortured to death with their heads found in creek beds. Grown men are jumped and beaten by teenagers on subway platforms left mangled and crippled for life.

And this happens every-single-day.

Whether you are in the back streets of Kuala Lumpur, NYC ,a remote camp site in New Mexico or in the cubicle at your office park as a gunman walks around shooting people. A knife beats bare hands and, while a big knife is better the reality is when it goes down you're most likely going to have a folder or small fixed blade to work with.

Isn't a gun better?What brand makes the best tac-folder? I heard knives are illegal to use in defensive situations? Don't worry about it. This isn't an argument about which is better, or knife-nerding about why knives are cool.

The situation is this, you are about to lose your life. Save it. Because what you need more than anything is the willingness to engage..to step INTO the fight.

Into a fight......WITH a knife?

Why do you think you practice that 21 foot in one second drill at the pistol range? The dictum is that the average person can cover twenty-some-odd feet of ground in a second and start killing with a knife. Well brother the phone rings both ways don't it. If a bad man can cover a short distance fast and kill with a knife, the average citizen can reverse the role.
 

Look the human body dies from either one of two ways. Natural causes or trauma. When we talk about knives and bad guys we are talking about trauma. Therefore the idea in self-defense is to create a negative alteration to the attacker's body and...... to their mind. Screw with both of those simultaneously and winning is the by product, because you should never give an attacker much credit in the bravery or the commitment department. The moment they start losing they are in the hole, because they just invested in you or rather who-they-thought-you-were (read: Food).

It's a hard concept for decent people to get around, but for a career criminal they spend the majority of their time devoted to their career...just like you do. A rapist, a serial killer, a spree shooter, general thug doesn't think about getting on with a normal like. Rather they attempt to appear normal so they can operate in the same theater as you and I. Hence the old saying a wolf in sheep's clothing.

You having a bad work day, might mean a ding in the pay check or a reprimand from the boss, or an unhappy client. For the criminal it means getting hurt, getting caught and locked up or getting killed.
 

How do we go about delivering bodily harm with a knife to an attacker? After all there really isn't a place on the body that can't be stabbed or cut or cause copious amounts of pain so why bother thinking this through? I mean in a fight its going to be blind stabbing....right?

For the same reason we go to the pistol range and do live fire defensive drills, aim center mass or for the head. Because in these regions bullets cause the most destructive damage to the body.

And like that, using a knife for defense has some great areas, good areas and available areas. I won't say bad because lets face it even if someone can function with a knife stuck in the top of their skull it's not “ideal” living conditions for them.

Here is the last thing I want you to remember as we go about breaking down the target areas of the body. Think about it now, occasionally as you read this by stopping and closing your eyes, and when you lay in bed....IT-IS-GOING-TO-BE-A-CLOSE-FIGHT.

Closer than you want....and closer than you may think you are capable of dealing with.

Think of his bare teeth and spit an inch from your nose, his hand gripping a fistful of your shirt, his forearms snaked around your throat.

Worried a bit? Hesitant with that idea? Scared out of your head but don't want to really admit it...that's cool get it out. Now take a minute to close your eyes, wrap your weak hand around his throat, take that thumb of yours and *click* open that tactical folder of yours and win.

Upfront. Stabbing beats slashing for the purposes of increasing a lethal wound quicker. A slash bears a strong psychological bomb. Lance the body and it opens. When it opens things spill out. It also creates a long external but, shallow (relative to how deep you cut) wound area. Blood and muscle are now exposed and there is likely nerve damage but the slash cut does its best on bare skin. Great if your attacker is naked or even half naked. Not so good if he is wearing a down jacket. Though from a tactical advantage the slash-cut to the face (especially above the eyes) is going to be a thin cut because of the amount of bone-to-skin but head wounds bleed bad. Blood in your attacker's eyes is going to keep blinding him until he contends with it. This requires putting pressure on the wound, which in turns requires one or both hands. Thus increasing your target area on him and decreasing his ability to cover his vitals.

The puncture however is what we are looking for whenever we can get it. A ball point pen requires something like 5lbs of pressure to break through and create a puncture wound on soft areas (like around the carotid artery). A knife, especially with a good clean point a pound...maybe two. Go push on a scale and see what that feels like.

But we are not talking about being nice here. If you are puncturing you should be s-l-a-m-m-i-n-g the blade into him with 20 and 30 lbs of pressure. The deeper the wound channel the better. Couple that with multiple stab wounds and the fight changes quickly and in your favor.

Queasy uneasy yet? 

Not very politically correct? What do you think your bullet fired from your pistol does?

It creates a penetrating wound that in some cases will go in the front and out the back. Your bullet stabs a hole in the body of your attacker. With a gun you are getting to do it from a distance. With a knife and especially a small one you are doing it body on body contact and you are having to physically manipulate that blade past clothing and skin hopefully glancing or all together missing bone in the process.

Still think you don't need to practice?

 THE HEAD

 

 

The head isn't that great of target for the knife as it is for the bullet. The skull, which acts as both a vault to protect the brain and to give structural support to the face is dense, hard, and round. All joking aside it's not an unlikely possibility to slam a knife into the cranial vault and find out it's stuck. While a blade in the head is....well odd and obviously dangerous it's not necessarily fatal or even painful (though it could make for a decent handle to grip on while deliver blows with your fists until he stops). There has been more than a couple of people who have walked themselves into an ER with something stuck in the skull.

The vulnerable areas of the head are the face and the base of the skull, which if you look at sits higher than you think. The chin for example can sit more than a few inches below the skulls base by comparison.

So while stabbing and slashing the back of the skull is pointless when compared to other parts of the anatomy, the skull's base is not a bad area to attack. Get below the Occipital region and target the Cervical Vertebrae with stabbing blows or deep cuts and it's light out. Sever the spinal cord here and death is anywhere from tenths-of-seconds to-seconds.

How would that be possible?

Take for instance if you were on your back, your attacker on top of you or your body pinned up right against the wall (think kissing position) with your arms free. Roll/shift your body to the side while grasping the top of his head and pulling it either sideways or over your shoulder and the skull's base/spine is just a few inches from your face. If you can get your arms either around him or above the shoulders you are in. You are also right in the same area as the pharynx. Since this is where both food and air pass through you've got this tiny flap of connective tissue called the epiglottis that closes over the glottis when you swallow food thus preventing pulmonary aspiration. Ever hear those horror stories about drunks being found in the jail cells dead on from choking on their own vomit (as if this post wasn't gruesome enough I know). Well same principal. Stab wounds into this area can cause blood to back up in the throat. If an attacker can't breath he can not fight (you will see this again).

An attack on the face is no doubt traumatic, but not necessarily lethal. Take out the eyes and the attacker loses any ability to target you. Not to mention the immediate reaction of losing sight. His interest in his own dilemma is now greater than his interest in you. The nose is the next decent target and is probably the pain center for the head. It is also home to the Nasal Concha or turnbinates, which divide up the nasal airway. They are responsible for forcing inhaled air to flow in steady , regular patterns. It also acts as a filtration and temperature control center and is the last stop before encountering the cribform plate that separates the nose from the brain. Damage here can be lethal from the immediate impact to the brain in some cases. Regardless, a knife slammed here or a severe laceration where the nose is removed and blood begins actively flowing back inward (and outward) in copious amounts thus making breathing difficult.

The Temporal bone aka the Temple isn't necessarily thinner, but rather flatter. It does make a good point of attack as a knife blade attack from the side is less likely to break or jam and it is also near the Superficial Temporal Aretery (i.e. it's close to the surface of the skin). Either way a knife blow here is just that a blow and any good and solid impact is going to cause disorientation and possibly unconsciousness. This is due to referral shock to the brain not because the area is inherently weak, this is the “punch drunk” scenario. Motor function is disturbed along with the ability to think clear.

The ears are also an area very susceptible to damage. Mind you I said damage, not death, but severe crippling pain. A Ka-Bar LDK may not seem like much more than a shiv but, slide that little 1.5 blade into the ear canal of an attacker and use it's little bent handle like a cork screw and the screaming you hear won't be your own.

The Neck/Throat

No target area (in my opinion) on the body is more ideal than the neck and throat region. It rarely bears any significant cover from clothing and even then generally one layer from either a collar, or mask. And where a lot of areas that “matter” on the human body ,like the brain or the heart, most are protected by bone in one way or another...the throat isn't, the neck not so much. There is a small support system of Thyroid cartilage that essentially acts as a base, and while it is somewhat tough and fibrous it doesn't have the density and strength of bone.

Without question your three best points of counter attack here are the right and left carotid arteries and the trachea (read: wind pipe). If you take your thumb and index finger and open them like you are prepared to pinch something and put them each on the opposite sides of the wind pipe you will feel a soft border on the outside edge of each. That is essentially where the arteries are. Severe and forceful slashes and stabs here stop a fight. Not so much because they cause immediate non-voluntary incapacitation or death like a rifle bullet to the head or a snapping of the neck, but rather they cause rapid blood loss...rapid. 

Cutting the trachea creates a back flow of air and blood. Again when an attacker has to fight to get air he can't fight you. He has to choose. The thing about this area is you don't have to work to find one over the other because more likely than not you're gonna hit two out of the three.

You have to be willing to go at it. If you can use both hands....actually use everything. There are no rules that say you can't stab a rapist in the throat while deliver a knee to the groin...or each one repeatedly. If he drops his chin to cover his throat, stab the lower portions of the face and eyes. Or instead of trying to force the head back to open the target area, get a good grip on the back of his head and pull it even lower using his idea against him. His neck area is now tight and fully exposed, and what does the neck do? Supports the head and the throat. Slashes, stabs and cuts here cause structural support problems. Air and blood are again introduced into airways, blood is leaving the body as fast as the heart can pump it out and...you are slicing through neck muscles, nerves like the cervical plexus. Severing all of this creates irreparable damage to shoulder functions.

Since the arm relies on the shoulder and the shoulder relies on the nerves here signal function becomes disrupted. Grips aren't as strong on you, blows less severe. Combine that with an amazing amount of blood loss in short fashion and an inability to breath your ability to escape is almost immediate.

Mind Games

Knife defense is seen as controversial. It's also necessary. Talk to a career police officer and he will tell you about how to defend against a knife attack. Talk to a combat Soldier, a Marine, or someone out of Special Activities where attacking and hand-to-hand combat is about killing and, not detaining and you will find that the ability to use a knife lethally is fundamentally important.

It is easy to say “not me” I'll never need it. The paramount problem I think most people have with defending with anything other than a handgun is one of several things. For starters its a combination of training and muscle memory. You get it ingrained it into your head to draw, aim and fire. Even with taking a good firearms course that really gets into raising your heart rate and reality 90% of your range experience else where is very sanitized. You shoot-you go home.Training creates confidence. Confidence creates reassurance, reassurance creates bravery.

Understand that is not belittling, it's just how it is. The knife suffers from what the gun does not. There is no “knife range” to go to. No target to set up so you can “knife” at it for 50 or 100 rounds. So most people who carry a knife for defense don't get beyond drawing it and presenting it while standing in the kitchen, only to fold it back up or to re-sheath it.

Get in the habit of mentally visualizing an attacker inside of an elevator and launching an quick barrage attack upon you. Or trying to shove you into the back of a van. Oh I get it. You are thinking this part is for the women...cause you know...rapists. True enough. But at some point Bob Levinson, Daniel Pearl, Paul Chandler and only a few other hundred thousand men through out history have been forced into captivity. This isn't a “please come with us kind of thing” it's an shit kicking assault until submission happens kind of thing...and that is just the kidnapping.

Not long back in Boston, a guy was riding a subway with his toddler son. He told the boy to wait “over there” pulled a claw hammer out of his back pack and began slamming a complete stranger while yelling “Allah Akbar!” ...and no I'm not kidding. The man he attacked could have fought back with a knife and won.

In India, where everyone from the West who practices yoga sees this as a “spiritual place”, I stopped an assault that occurred inside of vehicle with a CRKT Hissatsu fixed blade.

The Virginia Tech Massacre, where guns weren't allowed on campus, could have ended in short order if someone with balls and a blade would have chin grabbed the son of bitch and cut his throat.

And that is the reality. It is an incredibly scary prospect for many to step INTO a fight with a knife and kill the bad guy. Some people are cowardly by nature, they have water where there should be blood. Can't fight because they're afraid to fight, afraid to fire, afraid to stab, afraid to resist.

And then there are others who don't fight because they can't think beyond the pistol. If this is you I suggest you stop and reorganize. Because there may come that day where you are vacationing somewhere where your conceal carry permit is broken and as you look out over a beautiful chasm from a suspension bridge taking in the view with your family the guy next to you decides he want to throw people off it...just because. 

The end game is this. There is a difference between "feeling safe" and having viable options to safely defend oneself. 

We don't talk, train, and fight out of a sense of hatred. We do these things out of love. The love to get home, to see our children raised, our families thriving as a whole. I don't “hate” anyone who is trying to do me harm. But they sure in hell are my enemy and I intend on seeing them dead first if it comes to that. I've come home beaten, bruised, battered, rattled, torn, cut, bit and burned...but I've come home.

I expect the same of you.

The Right to Knife Part II coming soon.

Screw Luck

It's odd that man's oldest tool, the knife, is regulated to bastard status in self-defense.It's focus for study is often seen as after the fact, or in addition to. Yet it is the easiest to obtain, to smuggle and in some cases deploy.

As the saying goes "The man with a knife has a chance. The man with no knife has no chance"....and that goes for the ladies as well.

So get ready to get bloody, get low down and world class &$*#)%# mean.

The Dark Arts for Good Guys series is returning with a few articles on edged weapons of all shapes and sizes.

Keeping your CCW options open II

As somewhat previously stated the additional advantage of the ASP is that is can go where firearms can not. A couple years ago I escorted a client over seas into Dubai, then Pakistan, followed by India. Our initial plan was to stay in Karachi for a week and I had begun talking with their Embassy in Chicago in regards to obtaining a permit to carry a firearm. Then I discovered that India wouldn't allow me to come in country with anything larger than a .380 (guess who didn't have a .380 then but does now), and the paper work for India should have been started six months earlier I was informed.

The situation then changed again we would only be in Pakistan for 24 hours before going into India. In a week I went from planning on carrying two handgun to no handguns and was left with few options.

So I went with a 21 inch (extended) ASP Airweight and a 7 inch fixed blade fight knife,a CRKT Hissatsu in desert tan.

Why desert tan and not black? Two reasons. The first: if you are going to find yourself wearing a lot of khakis, white shirts, tan shirts, blue shirts, a tan handled knife blends in better over black.

The second: bought of e-bay I saved $40.00 dollars because everyone wanted black and no one wanted a light brown knife.

We flew out of JFK in New York, bags x-rayed no issues (fly out of NY sometime with a gun :P good times), x-ray and screening through Abu Dubai customs, no problem...I'll cut to the chase I flew internationally for three weeks and multiple times inside India and never once had an issue.

To be honest when I carried the knife and the baton was I legal?

Nope.Not once that I could decipher.

But I have learned one thing about security check points and x-ray machines if you want to get something through. Overwhelm the poor bastard whose job it is to watch the monitor. The only trouble I had with the x-ray machine attendant was the morning we flew out of Karachi and the city was on high alert as Islamabad airport had been bombed about an hour before.
What caught the attention of the man behind the machine? My walkie talkies and the wires wrapped around them. Once the pucker factor went down and we pulled out the radios for hand inspection they were repacked and off we went.

What I'm getting at, is there may come a point in time when you have to weigh the options of being in a dangerous place and providing some measure of protection for yourself or others and NOT have the law in your favor. And even the smallest pistol isn't an option.

You want to really learn how to carry with discretion and go unnoticed (and this is not advice so don't send nasty letters from Rikers Island) find yourself in a position where you have to chose to be legal or right.

Should the situation you're in deteriorate to the point of fighting things like ASPs and knives hold several distinct advantages over guns. No serial numbers that are attached to registration papers someplace. No bullet with rifle marks left behind, nor gun shot residue. Neither requires being reloaded.

They are also highly advantageous with one in each hand against multiple assailants. The concept isn't new at all. The mountain men learned to carry a knife or tomahawk combined with a skull cracker like their Indian counterparts. Go watch Michael Mann's Last of the Mohican's and then look up Subway attacks on youtube.

You will find times aren't any more violent the people have only changed.

Again I'm not advocating anything here. But we live in a mean and nasty world where evil hunts and stalks and doesn't play buy the rules because there are none anyway.

ASPs come in four lengths and two weights. Standard and the Airweight which is 40% lighter and a nice option to have especially if you are going to carry a pistol and reloads.

Lengths go as follows
6"closed 16" Expanded
8"closed 21" Expanded
9.5"closed 26" Expanded
10.5"closed(I think) 31" Expanded

Personally the 16 & 21 inch models carry a bit more readily on the body. The 31 inch is more styled for riot cops.

If you're an outside the box thinker, that 31 inch model can have a grip cap put on and the shaft painted brown and suddenly you've got this short looking walking cane.

Traveling into unfriendly places that say no guns and have a couple of security "conscious" buddies going along or you just like packing spares of everything? Pack two or three of the 16 or 21 (ooor 26 inch) models together wrap them with rubber bands and pack them with the camera equipment and gosh darn it if they just don't look like a tripod.

Or so I've heard.

No nasty letters or asking for bail money or money for F. Lee Bailey you are responsible for you (hippies included).