Securing Your Six: Teacher's Edition

Whether it's psychology, sociology, or a culture of deconstruction we fail to address what the actual problem is with the Spree Killer. Because in all frankness it is neither the before, nor the after, but the during we must contend with.

Having spent close to two decades running backgrounds, building profiles, and trying to predict what people will or won't do despite indicators to potential behavior there are no guarantees as to a "when". Let alone an "if ever" that the behavior of a solitary "known" individual will in fact act upon your predictions.

While you may possess a list of "knowns" you also have the "when's" and "where's".  Given this how can we ever expect to stop some "unknown"?

You of course can not.

"You can!" cries the arm chair expert.

Last year I had a brief opportunity to be attached to a case where a woman was murdered in her home. She had been stabbed multiple (multiple) times and then set on fire. As I walked through the burned out house I couldn't help but notice her collection of books on serial killers. She had, on some level, compiled data in her head concerning the matter yet on the night she was killed she did one very basic thing. Answered the door.

Life and death are often balanced by such simplicity.

Our problem in combating the Spree Killer is that we are facing a continual and, always up hill battle by soft handed arm chair neophytes that have embedded themselves into an ideology of self-sustaining ignorance. They are far more interested in hearing about psychological pathology that may have contributed to an incident but, has no benefit in the future to saving a life....or lives.

After the atrocity at Virginia Tech I was asked by several people what would have been a viable solution to stopping Seung Hui Cho. My answer was simple: Killing him early into his attack would have solved it rather well.

Jeff Cooper, who organized, and promoted modern pistol craft once said it best when a reporter asked him, "Mr. Cooper, won't all of this violence beget violence?". In true Cooper fashion he responded "I certainly hope so".

But for every action, there is of course, an equal and opposite reaction. In the context of which we delve here that opposite reaction is to arm everyone, all the time. It will simply never happen. Base it on the given variances of both law and regional political ideals. There is also the consideration that a fighter, the gun does not make.

A statement true for a variety of reasons.

More realistically based is what can one individual, one teacher, one principal, do against a psychopath bent on the killing of as many people and children as possible? While it is quite a noble feat to lay one's body in front of a door to stop a rampaging killer there is a far better solution, even if one appears to be unarmed in the gun sense.

The solution is not in tech but, rather in history.

"History?" you think aloud.

History indeed.

Primary Education

Whether you choose to look at Columbine, Jonesboro or Sandy Hook what you are examining are attackers laying siege to a occupied establishment, both on the large scale (a school) and the small scale (the individual classroom). It is the classroom to which we are looking at defending.

One killer against One room.

Everything begins at the door. The door is a chokepoint. That narrow gap which decreases an aggressor's ability to attack, while increasing your odds for a successful defense. Everything depends upon what does or does not happen here. Therefore THE primary concern is to prevent an active shooter from gaining entry to the room. Locking a door is a problem if the door doesn't have locks. Reasoning as to why they don't is not the objective here. Creating a solution is.

Of course the prevailing thought is to push a desk against the door. A decent piece of advice on the surface, unless the door opens into the hallway instead of the classroom.

Yet access can be denied to a room without ever locking a door, provided the hallway floors are not carpeted. A simple gallon (or two) of cooking oil poured, albeit frantically, into the hallway creates a viscous barrier that denies an attacker the ability to enter.

One need not to complicate the process. Take the lid off, tip the jug over into the hallway, stomp your foot down on to it, cover the floor and shut the door.

The eye brows have raised and now come the hands...

"What about the people down the hall? What if they can't get across?" "How would the police feel about this?" "How do we get out of the room if the hall is covered with oil?"

With all do respect to law enforcement. Their problem is not your problem. Sounds harsh but doing nothing as opposed to oiling up a hallway to prevent the loss of life is far more harsher. Yet the question of getting out of room whose main entrance is now viscous bears merit.

The answer of course is simple.

In the closet where you keep that gallon (or more) of cooking oil should also be a very large bag  (30lbs) of kitty litter and a sizable scoop (2-4 cups). When the time comes that you need to exfil apply with deftness and walk out on it.

Beyond oiling the floor one must how to barricade a door shut when no lock is present. If the door swings inward (into the classroom) something as simple as two or three non skid rubber door stops kicked under the door have essentially locked the door . One by itself might allow for a possible slip, two or three however work as fail safes. A door wedged shut can be kicked and shot with all the fury in the world but, that does not mean it will open.

Faced with a door that swings outward, rather than inward a very simple solution comprised of one or two six foot long 2x4s screwed together, two or three eye bolts inserted into the 2x4s, and three short steel cables looped at the end and secured at the other to the eye bolts is a quick fix.

The 2x4s lay across the bottom of the doorway overlapping each side of the door jamb by one foot or more, the looped end of the steel cables are slipped over the door knob. The key is not having slack in the cables. Something as basic as this can keep a door help shut long enough to buy time and save lives.

I get it. It's undignified. Somewhere in the closet is this six foot 2x4 with cables attached to that may rest there forever and you have to explain why if someone asks. Allow me explain this another way.

What you are doing is barricading. While you may find the idea of raw lumber and cable not exactly technologically advanced in the world of the smart phone, "tech" such as that kept cities, castles, and citadels safe for a few thousand years.While you may snub such a simple idea the question posed to you is this.

What do you have planned right now that prevents a gun man from entering your classroom and murdering everyone in it?

Life and death are just that basic. If an aggressor can not enter he can not win.

School for the blind

The prevailing winds are finally beginning to change in contending with the Spree Shooter. The 90s feel good advice of "hiding & cowering" has proven to be what the rest of us always knew. Fatal.

Much like the concept of  a "lock down" with no locks fails in rather short fashion the legions of ignorant peaceniks and cowards have discovered that desk chairs and hands clasped over the back of heads do not actually stop bullets.

Not long back I spoke with a woman who had been violently abused by an ex-lover and that he kept breaking into her home and assaulting her. This, despite the fact she called the police every-time and had a restraining order. When I asked her what her course of action was when this happened she said "what do you mean?" so in plain English I asked "what-do-you-do-when-he-breaks-in?".

She hid in her bathroom or the bedroom closet. I asked her if those are places she felt most comfortable dying. The doors where cheap, the closet did not lock and she kept no weapon. Her problem was a combination of both fear and willful ignorance. Finally, after much discussion I told her that she should atleast die on her feet with some sense of dignity or... she could engage him. Offering to her that the next time he broke in not to run away from him but TO him or at the very least to the kitchen, open the knife drawer and keep the biggest knife she had in her hand and throw every steak knife, paring knife, lettuce knife and butter knife at him till he fled or died.

The smoking light had been lit so to speak.

Years of fear became a grin. "What do I do if I run out of knives?" I told her to throw pots and if he advanced through the hail of kitchenware to stab him to the point of significant discouragement brought about by pain and blood loss. Of course all of this to say that a handgun would serve her much better.

While it is safe to say that most teacher's desk will never hold a butcher's block full of knives there should be conveniently parked near one of the legs or within easy reach a fire extinguisher. It should be larger enough for the individual to use freely in all manner of speaking.

While the chemistry composition of the fire retardant inside the red can is difficult, the application for our purposes is simple. Use to fire extinguisher to engage an attacker from a distance, blinding him with the foam/powder until empty or sufficiently applied.

Then beat him with the can and take the gun from him.

Lest I depart from this particular means of defense in vague terms allow me to instruct a little more precisely.

A person blinded in any kind of situation whether accidental or intentional will instinctively lower their head and raise their hands towards the face. This is self-protecting posture. When the head lowers the neck becomes exposed, as does the back of the head. Utilizing the nozzle and trigger area of the fire extinguisher as a grip area bring the base of the can down onto the neck in hard fast blows. If the neck is not exposed or the angle is wrong use the can to attack the sides of the head and face, the eyes, the nose, the mouth, etc.

These blows should be delivered repeatedly with as much power as possible. Should the moment present itself in the course of action that the gunman can be disarmed then do so. One of course should scream "DROP THE GUN" as you bludgeon. Or take the weapon from them if the fail to comply. The gun no matter what it is relies on four fingers curled around a grip. Nothing more. If the hand does not open upon request and the weapon dropped...hit with the can.


Force x Velocity

Much like one does not want to rely upon the door wedge alone, the fire extinguisher while making for a sufficient tool to blind and labor an attacker's breathing is really only fair as an impact weapon. Fortunately the world is filled with everyday items that excel as impact weapons while allowing for reasonable excuses to be in a teacher's possession.

Call it applied science, the history of hand tools, or constructive camouflage, but there are innumerable reasons for a teacher to have a short pry bar, a claw hammer, or a two foot piece of re-bar tucked away in a closet or a drawer.

In 1835 Solymon Merrick applied for the first patent on a wrench. The tool changed the course of construction history with it's grip giving mechanical advantage by applying torque in the tightening of bolts and nuts. One combination wrench I have on my work bench measures around fifteen inches long and weighs over a pound. If someone needed to lecture on the history or use of tools, for example, a wrench such as this would be ideal, due to it's size so that people seated in the back could see it easily enough.

From a perspective of defensive use the design makes it available to gain a significant grip on one end to be swung hard and fast, while it's all steel construction ensures that blows will literally crush bone and cut skin.

Much like applying the blunt force from a fire extinguisher a hammer, crow bar, wrench or re-bar does so only better. Such items allow a good purchase on the grip handle as not to be easily taken from you, while light and fast enough to deliver wicked blows in rapid succession. A foot long pry-bar can smash against the fingers wrapped around a gun, or deliver a decisive blow to the head. If the upper arm were the only target available to a teacher defending a classroom of children from a would be mass murderer, one hand is free to fight for control of the gun while the hand gripping the steel bar can crush the humerus and the clavicle in under five seconds. Elbows can be rendered inoperable upon impact.

One must understand that it is not the attacker, the killer, the would be murderer as a whole that must be defeated. A killer is only as dangerous as his hands and brain. If you begin doing systematic damage to one or both he his forced to cease an attack.

One can not will broken bone to work.

Have your cake and eat it to

I know a metal shop teacher who is forbidden by school policy from carrying a pocket knife. He has access to a dizzying array of tools, not to mention the ability to forge a sword if he so desired. Apparently there is substantial hoplophobic fear towards the Case Trapper or Victorinox Spartan that can potentially lock-down an entire school. This despite the fact both designs predate the public school system.

The war on common sense not withstanding, a teacher or parent can walk into school with a birthday cake and twelve inch butcher knife and no one will bat an eye.

Throw a party and leave the knife.

When I wrote about the after math of the Virginia tech massacre I couldn't help but wonder how many young men cowered under a desk with a pocket clip sticking out from their pants pocket. A backpack in the face and a judicious use of blade would have saved countless lives.

I see the over-acted rolling of the eyes and read your mind "You expect me to take on a gunman with a claw hammer and a butcher knife?"

Yes.

Here in the 21st Century where everything is climate controlled, and for many the outdoors is walking on a gravel path as opposed to blacktop; one might be surprised to learn that the North American continent was settled by way of butcher knife and tomahawk as much as it was the flintlock rifle. Modern day New York state with all of it's nannyness was fought and lost, fought and won in hand to hand combat. Because once fired if the attacker was able to close the gap before that musket was reloaded, your great great great great granddad transitioned from gun to knife and war hammer.

A solitary gunman, despite the fact that he may have the appearance of god of war, is no such thing. Incapacitating his view with a cloud of fire retardant, then launching an immediate assault upon him with a butcher knife and claw hammer will yield in lives saved.

It is not only potentially winnable it is probable.

We must remember if these socially inferior cowards like Cho or Lanza wanted a fight they would attack a police station or call 911 and wait. Instead they want helpless victimized, terrorized targets of opportunity.  One should instead inflict a war upon them.

And I mean that quite sincerely.

Problem Solving
A large part of the problem is that we lose lives in these attacks because no one plans to fight.

Lock down is not a plan, and it's not a solution. It is a law enforcement procedure gone mainstream. The idea that a first floor classroom filled with children, with no lock on the door and no reasonable means of defense are simply supposed to wait for death to arrive is barbaric and sadistic.

Were I a teacher looking out at a school's football field, play ground or parking lot that was merely a two foot drop to the ground I would apply a chair to the window and encourage every child able to do so as well, and I would take my students and leave.

Left with no reasonable means of retreat, I would instead prepare to resist any siege and prepare to put my defense plan into action. The ones that were rehearsed at home, after school, and countless times in my head. Knowing it like any fire drill. Should the time arise. Implement it.

Hiding children in a closet, laying down in front of a door have the hallmarks of heroism without a doubt. Yet why no one would think to pile twenty (or more) desks and chairs on top of each other, along with every table available in front of the door is simply beyond me.

I understand. The profession is education not fighting. But there comes a point and time when lay people run out of excuses. Of course always will there be the cry for gun control, the weeping and gnashing of teeth to reduce the capacity of bullets capable of being fired from a gun, yet some of us seem to forget that people murdered each other long before someone thought up the rifle barrel and gun powder.

There is this resounding remark after every atrocity that invariably makes the rounds of "I don't want to live in a world where principals and teachers have to...."

You already do.

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.

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.