Like karder's, my experience has been lengthy, not so much with recent classes or seminars.This is interesting info. For a newbie with no blade experience, what kind of blade is best for SD? A fixed blade? Also, how would it be easier or faster to draw a blade for SD in a close-encounter (less than 21 ft) than it would be a handgun? Or I'm guessing a self-defense class and practice would help with that? Are there any SD classes that focus on using a knife? Most of the ones I see advertised are handgun SD classes, but maybe I'm looking in the wrong place?
First, I want to address this: “Also, how would it be easier or faster to draw a blade for SD in a close-encounter (less than 21 ft) than it would be a handgun?”
I want to repeat the Clint Smith quotation: “The only purpose for a pistol is to fight your way back to the rifle you should have never laid down.” Add to that: “Two is one. One is none.”
Your firearm is always your primary weapon. IMHO, for defensive purposes, you should never carry a rifle or shotgun without also having a handgun on your side; and you should never carry a handgun without having a defensive knife at hand.
The stats I mentioned earlier were from NYPD SOP9, a study that included over 6,000 individual officer-involved shootings. In cases where distances could be adequately determined, officer hit-percentages at distances less than 15 yards were:
- Contact to 3 feet: 38%
- 3 yards to 7 yards: 11.5%
- 7 yards to 15 yards: 9.4%
The short answer is: deploy your handgun if you can do so...with assurance and accuracy.
You cannot necessarily deploy your blade faster than your handgun...nor should you. It depends on the circumstances.
In most cases your firearm will be on your strong-side hip or slightly behind it. I’m also okay with appendix carry. Less so with shoulder holsters, and absolutely hate small-of-the-back carry. Here’s why:
We shoot at the range, even IDPA. But our practice seldom includes bad guys charging us from five feet away.
I’ve taught folks who said they would never let a possible assailant get that close to them. I challenge them to go through a normal day in an urban environment and count the number of people who come within five feet of them. They always lose count, but it opens their eyes.
Just like we have to trust other drivers to (basically) stay in their lanes, we have to trust most people we encounter to be harmless. If we really stayed in Cooper’s Code Yellow, we’d have our hands on the grips of our guns all the time. If you’re walking across a parking lot and see a guy with his pants down to half-staff, you won’t do a “tactical” roll and come up behind a Ford F-250 simply to avoid him coming within a few feet of you.
Again, this is not about in-the-home, or about rural property.
Outside the home in a major metropolitan area, threats are unlikely to present themselves at distance. A bad guy ain’t gonna stop and announce at seven yards away that he’s gonna rob you.
He—and probably a partner—will close on you, being very affable and simply asking for the time, or for directions, or for a couple of bucks for gas.
Parking lots are the number one locations for violent crime.
The whole point of the blade discussion—and I think Pecos can relate—is that if an event becomes a physical altercation, job one is to protect your gun.
If a guy bum-rushes you and pins you back against the hood of a Camry, odds are you can’t get to your handgun. If you could, it would be a weak draw and might be easily taken away.
Knives, especially folders, are usually carried clipped in a front pocket. I’d suggest that be high in the offhand pocket.
Why? Because if you carry your gun strong-side hip or appendix, you can protect it by clamping your arm over it and using the blade in your off-hand to disable or fend off your attacker long enough—far enough—to deploy your firearm.
That’s the purpose of a blade: to fight back to your handgun.
