Making an Impact

There is and always has been an interest in impromptu weapons. 

Stab soft tissue with the handle of a spoon  

I remember martial arts instructors telling me to keep my eyes open as I walked about.  The piece of tailpipe, beer bottle or rock could suddenly become important enough to race back acquire it.  I’m not sure how feasible it is to run back a block to grab a neck of a broken beer bottle, but …..

Another instructor told me many, many people in Honk Kong carry a length of light steel cable with an eye on one end and a small hook on the other.  This would be worn on your hips behind your belt.  I’ll leave it to your imagination what a little training and practice would let you do with three feet of steel cable.

The prisons are an advanced degree in impromptu weapons-making.  “Orange Is the New Black” introduced us to a padlock in a sock used as an impact weapon.  In the 60s I grew up with the idea of a sock full of sand as a blackjack.  The sand could be replaced with a handful of change, a dozen bolts, or even bullets.  You could string a half dozen large nuts on paracord and make a flail.  By themselves, they are just nuts and piece of string.

Massad Ayoob’s book Fundamentalsof Modern Police Impact Weapons details using beer steins, flashlights and other weapons.  I’m sure the ancient Roman soldiers carried a small blunt force impromptu weapon against regulations.  

A lock, hand full of large nuts or washers, by themselves harmless.

So what does this have to do with you? 

I want to point out that you may find yourself suddenly needing a force multiplier.  Your belt could be wrapped around your fist leaving six inches and the buckle exposed as a flail.

That gym lock combined with the drawstring on your sweatshirt hood becomes useful. 

Impromptu weapons have two virtues and one requirement.  They must be able to be assembled quickly.  Seldom does anyone have the time to run out to the garage and gather 8 or 9 ¾-inch heavy nuts and string them on a cord or drop them in sock.  You may have time to take off your belt, pull a metal pen from a pocket, or tightly roll that magazine you were reading.  But you never know.  Be alert to your environment.

The virtues are they are simple: a taped roll of nickels in your fist, a lock on a string, the handle on a spoon, all easy.  And they can be discarded when necessary and become just part of the junk lying about in the environment.

If you had the time you could sharpen the edge on concrete or a brick. 

This is not to say you can’t spend time refining them.   Again, prisons are the graduate-level courses in this.

The other point is to be aware that less than honorable people use them.  Don’t discount the guy with a broomstick in his hand or girl with the mini purse on a chain.

There are no sharp edges, doesn't shoot anything bigger than a photon, but in the world of jab, hit, crack, or wack it makes an impact.  And everyone can own and carry one.