Frankly, facing a knife attack alarms and terrifies me.
I can’t tell you the number of times
shooters, men who choose to carry a gun have told me, that if confronted with a
knife they’ll just pull their weapon and shoot ‘em. Some of this is macho bullshit. Too much of it is ignorance.
One range I use sets up a simple
mover on a 21 foot wire track pulling an IDPA target. It’s essentially a Tueller Drill, but when that
cardboard jumps off the mark more than one shooter has found themselves frozen
in amber. God only know what would
happen if the cardboard target could actually hurt them.
A large part of the knife/gun mystic
in popular culture comes from entertainment.
We have all laughed at the Indiana Jones scene where faced with a huge,
knife wielding thug, Jones takes out his revolver and with one shot resolves
it. That is fiction. Here’s an article from Mr. Davis who has seen
a bit more of the elephant then most of us will ever.
I only know Jim Davis from his
articles at Breach-Bang-Clear. Your
mother always warned you about internet hucksters, so can you trust this over
the million movies you’ve seen? Yes, you
can. What he says matches much of what
I’ve read, seen and experienced. I’m
reposting his work because I think it’s too important not to have his
understanding. I’ve underscored a few
ideas I think are important and my comments are in italics.
https://www.breachbangclear.com/knife-attacks-insights-and-strategies/
Knife Attacks: Insights, Strategies,
and Pro Tips by Jim Davis
“Don’t bring a knife to a gunfight.”
I’ve heard this phrase uttered by people and seen it typed in so many internet
forums, that it boggles my mind. Each time I hear or see it, I chuckle and
shake my head, then say to myself, they have absolutely no idea.
“I’ll just pull out my (insert favorite zombie blaster here)
and shoot ‘em!”
Well…good luck with that. But wait – surely a gun would beat
a knife in a confrontation. Right?
It all depends.
If you have warning that the threat is present, and you have
the time to access your blaster, and your aim is accurate, and the subject is
not mentally deranged and/or using some sort of mind-altering substance, and
the threat is far enough away, and…well, you get the picture. There is a myriad
of factors at play that enter scenarios.
WARNING: There are graphic images further down in this
article. These are not shown to be sensational, but to make it viscerally clear
what we are talking about.
One pesky problem is that the person with the knife knows he
is going to assault us before we do. As a result, we will be playing “catch up”
in this life and death scenario. Situational Awareness is our best ally here.
Being aware can tip us off to the mental state and
intentions of those around us. Watch the hands; why does he have his hands in
his pockets, is there a weapon in there? Are his hands clenching and
unclenching? Watch the eyes; are they crazy and wild? Are they darting about as
if he is looking to make sure there are no witnesses for what he is about to
do? Is he nervously shifting from one foot to another? What are his speech
patterns like if he happens to be talking? Are his teeth bared?
The above questions are pre-assault indicators and can tip
us off as to what may take place next. Learn them, because your life depends
upon it.
Keep a Distance
Distance is our friend when it comes to solving the issue of
being attacked with a knife. The further away the attacker is, the better. The
Tueller Drill (which, admittedly, is not 100% accurate but certainly provides a
place to start) tells us that a person can cover the distance of 21 feet in
about 1.5 seconds. That gives us very little time to access and draw our
favorite handgun with which to end the threat. In many cases, we would be
stabbed by the time we get our pistol into operation and rounds on target. And
that is assuming that we even know that we are being targeted, which is highly
unlikely because the majority of attacks are of the ambush type, and the
victim’s first clue that he is under attack is when he feels the first stab
wound. Attackers often carefully watch to see when the victim is at his most
vulnerable and pounce at that moment.
Normally, the attack plays out like this: overhead stabs are
repeated numerous times until the victim goes down and sometimes continues even
when the victim is down.
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| Awareness |
Speaking of Rounds on Target
Pistols suck at stopping bad guys! Most people do not
just fall down and die immediately when they are shot. In fact, it often takes
several shots to stop an attacker. An internet search of shooting videos shows
us that attackers often fail to stop after being shot, even several times.
A friend of mine who was a police officer had to stop an
armed subject on an occasion. After several other officers delivered an extreme
amount of pistol rounds into the bad man with no effect, my friend had to put
four rounds of 00 buckshot (12 gauge type) into the baddie to put him down.
Yes, four rounds of 00 buck! Why do we carry pistols? Because they are
convenient, and people would likely become upset if we walked around with a
rifle or shotgun in public places.
So don’t expect to put an attacker down just because you
landed one or two rounds on target. If that happens and is successful, more
power to you. The bottom line is that we must shoot until the threat stops
being a threat. If it takes one shot, that is excellent. Remember, we are not
shooting to kill a person; we are shooting to stop a threat. Killing is not our
goal.
In my career in the state prison system, I have personally
witnessed quite a few knife attacks and been on the receiving end of a couple
myself.
One occasion that I vividly remember is an inmate being
stabbed repeatedly in the stomach with a large clothing shears. He continued to
go after the person who stabbed him, long after he should have fallen down and
died. But his determination kept him going, even as his intestines were hanging
out and he was gushing blood like a sieve. Oh, eventually he fell down, but even
then, he continued to try to get back up and go after the stabber again. After
a few minutes, his blood pressure went to zero and he did die right there in
the corridor in front of me. It took a while, though, and illustrated the point
that some peoples’ determination can carry them amazingly far in a physical
confrontation.
Knife Attacks Aren’t All That Uncommon
In 2018, the FBI Uniform Crime Reports indicate that
there were 1,515 homicides with knives or other cutting instruments. That’s
just the people who were killed, that’s not counting those who were simply
attacked. With the easy availability of knives to everyone in our society, it’s
no wonder that attacks by people using knives are fairly common.
Anyone can walk into a grocery store and buy a cheap kitchen
knife to use as a weapon without raising any suspicion. A screwdriver can be
sharpened, a scissors or shears makes a fine stabbing weapon. There are dozens
of items readily available that can be used as edged weapons. They’re silent
(unlike firearms) and never need to be reloaded. And after the crime, they can
be thrown away with no regret because they’re either free or cost next to
nothing.
It takes no training or skill at all for a person armed
with a knife to be an instant deadly threat. Even a 13-year-old kid armed
with a knife is capable of killing us, so it’s important to take the situation
very seriously.
As I said, no training is necessary. The convicts in the
prison rarely trained with knives, and yet they were famously successful in
taking each other out. It’s not rocket science, the user takes the knife in
an ice pick grip, ambushes the victim, and stabs repeatedly. That’s all
there is to it.
Sure, you can get fancy, you can take classes in how to do
it and over-complicate the process. But all that is not necessary. Mindset and
commitment are vital keys to successfully using any weapon, and the knife is no
different. The convicts whom I worked around were more than willing to use
weapons, and so they did.
All of this is not to say that carrying a pistol is a waste
of time or useless. Quite the contrary; I carry a pistol myself all the time.
Rather, we should expand our mindset so that we don’t solely rely on a pistol
as though it were our ultimate savior, a talisman that guarantees our safety.
We may very well have to employ empty-handed defense to save our life at the
outset of an edged weapons attack.
Mental Aspects
The mental aspects of close combat, and edged weapons, in
particular, cannot be understated. Consider that every moment I was on duty
in the prison, I fully expected to be attacked by an inmate wanting to kill me.
On at least three occasions (that I’m aware of), they did just that using edged
weapons. I say “that I’m aware of” because on two of those three occasions, I
was not immediately aware that I was facing a blade.
The first time I faced a blade, it was very apparent what
was happening. The second and third time, I didn’t find out until after it was
over. On one occasion, I grabbed an inmate who was running through the door to
my cell block as he was pursued by officers. He spun as I grabbed him, and his
body language told me not to press the attack, which may have saved my life. I
wasn’t able to leave my post, but the pursuing officers apprehended him on the
cell block and discovered a large shears that was in the same pocket that he
had his hand in when I had grabbed him. Had I stopped him, I am convinced that
the shears would have come out and been used upon me.
I told you earlier to always watch the hands during
incidents, and I stand by that. However, when the adrenaline is flowing, tunnel
vision often sets in and it can be difficult to see details. You try to do
everything right, but the old saying rings true: “Everything goes according to
plan until the first shot is fired.”
Even though I was in a hostile environment expecting to be
attacked, when the attacks happened, there was always at least somewhat of a
mental shock that I experienced. Sometimes it was minimal, other times it
was mentally devastating.
Now consider the average person walking down the street, or
maybe doing his weekly shopping. Suddenly, he is confronted with a deadly
scenario. Imagine the mental impact he will experience, maybe having never even
been involved in a fight in his life, and now someone is trying to kill him!
Shock can paralyze us, or at least delay our reaction, which is not good
because fractions of a second mean a lot during an attack.
I can tell you that each time someone tried to kill me, I
was terrified. It’s not a video game or a movie, it is serious business. In the
movies, the good guy gets cut a few times but keeps on fighting and wins every
time. Sadly, that is not reality.
You may notice that the adrenaline makes time seem to slow
down, auditory exclusion (lack of hearing) can occur, tunnel vision is common,
and a host of other strange things can happen. Adrenaline also dulls pain, and
I’ve seen very many instances in which someone was wounded and did not realize
it until after the festivities had concluded. One man whom I witnessed was
stabbed four times in the back, nearly fatally, and did not feel any pain for
quite some time (he knew something was wrong when his lungs began filling up
with blood).
What About Specialty Knives?
I see some knife makers introduce very specialized knife
designs that are purpose-built for knife fighting, and martial arts styles
intended for the same. Often, I wonder at the effectiveness of such things, as
many of the people making these items and teaching these things have never been
involved in deadly conflict. To me, it’s almost like learning how to swim
without ever touching water, or being taught by someone who has never been in
the water. Maybe I’m being a bit pessimistic, I don’t know. To me, for the most
part, such things are cool-guy novelties that are not practical.
So what can we do if someone with a blade attacks us? The responses that we employ for knife attacks can be similar to how we’d react if attacked with other weapons.
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| Attacked! |
One of the most important principles that I feel has saved my bacon a few times is footwork. Zone away from the attack at an angle by moving to the attacker’s outside. What I mean by that is, if the attacker is coming straight at us, holding a knife in his right hand, we move to his right at an angle, which will cause him to have to change his direction if he wishes to press home his attack. It buys us a very small bit of time that we can use to either try to escape or employ a weapon if we are blessed enough to have one at our disposal.
We should try not to move to his inside (the attacker’s left
if he has a weapon in his right hand) because that just makes it easier for him
to index to the inside (as opposed to the outside) and press home his attack.
It’s better than standing still, but not optimal.
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| Grab the wrist, hard jab to the throat, continue with follow-up strikes |
Just as in gunfighting, it is important to “get off the X”; in other words, move off the center line of attack!
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| De-fanging the snake |
Beware of moving backward because he can run faster forward than we can backward, so the attacker is capable of closing that distance very quickly.
I’ve also heard people say that, if faced with a knife
attack, they would simply “run away.” Discretion is the better part of valor,
for sure, and if we are able to beat feet out of the situation, that would be
optimal. It would be the height of stupidity to voluntarily go into an edged
weapons attack willingly if there were any other option out of it.
That said, we cannot always safely turn tail and run. There
may be no exits available. What’s more, the attacker might run faster than we
can, and our reward may be a knife in the back. Simply claiming that we will
run away is shortsighted and not a cure-all for every instance that we might
face.
One fallacy that I seem to hear time and again is, “If
you’re attacked with a knife, you will be cut.” I’m not sure who came up with
this one, but it is repeated like a religious mantra. Personally, I believe
that such thinking sabotages our performance. Kind of like telling a sports
team before the big game, “You’re going to lose.” We wouldn’t expect much from
that team, would we? Except that close combat is not a game. Sure, we could be
cut, but nothing is guaranteed.
Immobilize
The Filipino martial arts have a concept that is referred to
as “Defang The Snake”, and it refers to attacking the hand that is holding the
weapon being used to attack us. You can use a knife, impact tool, or
whatever is at your disposal to strike or cut the attacker’s hand in which he
is holding the weapon, thereby diminishing his ability to attack us. If he
can’t hold the weapon, he can’t attack us with it.
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| Move outside and grab wrist, counter attack like your life depends on it |
Maybe you don’t have a weapon to use against the attacker’s
limb, or perhaps you’re not in a position to defang the snake. In that
instance, I’d recommend somehow latching onto that weapon arm and hand and
holding on for dear life, because your life is exactly what is at stake. Once
you gain control of that weapon hand, deliver every strike imaginable to the
attacker. Knee strikes, elbow strikes, head butts, hand strikes, run him into a
wall or other solid object. Bite, kick, scratch, claw, do whatever you need to
because it’s better than being stabbed to death. Once you immobilize the
attacker’s weapon limb, you might then be able to access your weapon to employ
and save your life.
Beware of trying to use blocks to defend against the knife.
You may get lucky and block a few slashes or thrusts, but that is not likely to
continue as a trend, and it’s not like blocking punches, which typically won’t
kill you. The majority of people can take a punch, but taking a strike from a
knife is a different story. Given that most people who attack with a knife use
wild, powerful swings, expecting to block more than a few of those is
unrealistic, and I’d not count on that as a defensive strategy for any length
of time.
Another principle about knife attacks to be aware of: He
who hits first often wins. If you see an armed attack coming your way and
you are in fear for your life, launching a strike might help you survive. Interrupting
the attacker’s OODA (Observe, Orient, Decide, Act) Loop is a Very Good Thing and
may buy us precious time.
Wounds
Regarding wounds, stab wounds are far more prone to kill a
person than slash wounds. Stabs tend to penetrate and hit arteries and organs,
causing internal bleeding.
This isn’t to say that slashes don’t kill people, but rather that it’s rarer for a person to die from a slash wound. I literally lost count of the number of people I’ve seen suffer a knife attack, and everyone who died had been stabbed. The image of one guy who had a hole in his forehead from being stabbed there sticks in my mind as vividly as the day it happened (his birth certificate had expired).
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| Yes, that a knife stuck in his head, no I don't know the long term results. |
Watching a person die from stab wounds is especially scary; they gasp for that last breath, blood often pours from wounds (the human body holds a LOT of blood), they make gurgling sounds…it’s pretty hideous.
That said, being stabbed or slashed (or shot or pummeled for
that matter) doesn’t mean you will die. Mindset, as discussed, can and will
affect that.
Sometimes in improbable ways.
According to the ACEP, a stab wound is a “…A stab wound is a
form of sharp-force trauma caused by a thrusting action whose injury length on
the body surface is less than its depth of penetration into the body. The force
is delivered along the long axis of a narrow, sharply pointed object. The
impact force is concentrated at the tip of the object—and the sharper the tip,
the more easily it can penetrate the skin. Stab wounds can be homicidal,
self-inflicted, or accidental. Internal and external hemorrhage are of concern
when treating stabbing victims. Knives tend to make up the majority of weapons
used in stabbings. However, any pointed object can be a weapon (eg, pencil,
screwdriver, barbecue fork, scissors, awl, etc.).”
That doesn’t help you to defend against it, not to detect an
attack before it occurs, but knowledge is power. Understand your threat.
Do some research online, check out videos of knife attacks,
it will open your eyes, and provide valuable information. More than likely, it
will also scare you, at least a little bit. Beware of those offering magical
solutions or training that might be offered; if it sounds too good to be true,
it is. Unfortunately, there is no magical, fool-proof solution to the
problem.
Good luck!
Some solid advice. I remember a video from Doug Marcaida
“Contact weapons aren’t meant to be seen, just felt.” That’s worth remembering too.
There is a rich field
of authors simply writing combat pistol, combat knife books and making
videos. Anyone can hire several actors
and run them through histrionic techniques that only work because the
performers cooperate with them and separate you from your money.
Jim Davis served in the PA Dept. of Corrections for 16 ½
years as a corrections officer in the State Correctional Institute at
Graterford and later at SCI Phoenix. He served on the Corrections Emergency
Response Team (CERT), several of those years as a sniper, and also the Fire
Emergency Response Team (FERT). For 25 years, he was a professional instructor,
teaching topics including Defensive Tactics, Riot Control and Tactical
Operations, Immediate Responder, and cognitive programs as an adjunct instructor
at the DOC Training Academy. He was then promoted to the title of corrections
counselor, where he ran a caseload and facilitated cognitive therapy classes to
inmates. His total service time was close to 29 years. He was involved in many
violent encounters on duty, including incidents of fatalities.
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