That's a provocative title. Notice, I didn't say self-defense, and I love knives. I have dozens (at least) of all kinds, from expensive custom beauties to cheap, mass-produced junk. I don't go anywhere without a knife, other than places where they run me through a metal detector.
The point is that a knife is not a good defensive weapon. A club or a stick can block and parry. Knives cut, slash, and stab. We're not talking about swords but about something you carry folded up in your pocket or hanging unobtrusively on your belt. Can you get someone to stop hurting you by cutting them with a knife? Absolutely. The problem is that it is an offensive action on your part.
My father told me about a street fight he got into back in the late 1920s. Ninety years ago. That's hard to believe. He was closer to the Civil War than we are to that street fight. Anyway, it was four or five on two, and Dad was one of the two. As things were not going well, Dad's friend pulled a knife and started cutting people with it. I imagine Dad did, too, but he never admitted it. The fight ended with some townspeople arriving with law enforcement. Dad, I believe, found himself in some legal difficulties and was advised to leave the state for a couple of years.
These days, I doubt the law would be so accommodating. He would, most likely, have been severely fined and ended up with a criminal record if he managed to avoid jail.
Can brandishing a knife get someone threatening you to back off? Possibly, but it's not as good as a firearm. Most of the time, when a firearm is used in a self-defense situation, it is not fired. A three-inch pocket knife, while capable of causing serious injury and even death, does not carry the same intimidation factor as the business end of a firearm -- even something as anemic as a snub-nose .22 revolver. No one wants to get shot with anything. No one with any sense wants to get cut, but the number of sensible people likely to initiate an attack against another sensible person is relatively small. I am not a lawyer, but I doubt that it is a good idea to "brandish" anything.
Never draw a firearm unless you have reason to be legitimately "in fear for your life". The same is true of a knife -- only I personally would never draw a knife unless I knew I had to use it. I have advised my granddaughters that, if they are ever in a life-threatening situation, the first indication an attacker should have of the presence of a knife is his own blood coming from a wound. Again, that's not legal advice, that's grandpa advice to smallish females.
I have a concealed carry permit, though I no longer need one in my state. I often carry a firearm, but, as I said, I always carry knives -- sometimes three or four, if you count multitools like the Wave and SAKs. I carry edged tools because I like them. They are handy, very often useful -- even essential, and they could, if absolutely necessary, be used to neutralize a threat.
If some thug tries to choke you in an elevator or traps you in a restroom stall or tries to drag you into an alley, or if you are attacked by a party of thugs -- as happened a few years ago to a couple not far from here one night, you might have to resort to stabbing and slashing. It may be your only choice, and I would rather have the choice, if it came to that, than not have it. Used correctly in a life-threatening situation, a blade might save your life and get you out of that situation. Then land you in court. Still, better to be tried by twelve than carried by six applies to knives as well as guns.
The point is that a knife is not a good defensive weapon. A club or a stick can block and parry. Knives cut, slash, and stab. We're not talking about swords but about something you carry folded up in your pocket or hanging unobtrusively on your belt. Can you get someone to stop hurting you by cutting them with a knife? Absolutely. The problem is that it is an offensive action on your part.
My father told me about a street fight he got into back in the late 1920s. Ninety years ago. That's hard to believe. He was closer to the Civil War than we are to that street fight. Anyway, it was four or five on two, and Dad was one of the two. As things were not going well, Dad's friend pulled a knife and started cutting people with it. I imagine Dad did, too, but he never admitted it. The fight ended with some townspeople arriving with law enforcement. Dad, I believe, found himself in some legal difficulties and was advised to leave the state for a couple of years.
These days, I doubt the law would be so accommodating. He would, most likely, have been severely fined and ended up with a criminal record if he managed to avoid jail.
Can brandishing a knife get someone threatening you to back off? Possibly, but it's not as good as a firearm. Most of the time, when a firearm is used in a self-defense situation, it is not fired. A three-inch pocket knife, while capable of causing serious injury and even death, does not carry the same intimidation factor as the business end of a firearm -- even something as anemic as a snub-nose .22 revolver. No one wants to get shot with anything. No one with any sense wants to get cut, but the number of sensible people likely to initiate an attack against another sensible person is relatively small. I am not a lawyer, but I doubt that it is a good idea to "brandish" anything.
Never draw a firearm unless you have reason to be legitimately "in fear for your life". The same is true of a knife -- only I personally would never draw a knife unless I knew I had to use it. I have advised my granddaughters that, if they are ever in a life-threatening situation, the first indication an attacker should have of the presence of a knife is his own blood coming from a wound. Again, that's not legal advice, that's grandpa advice to smallish females.
I have a concealed carry permit, though I no longer need one in my state. I often carry a firearm, but, as I said, I always carry knives -- sometimes three or four, if you count multitools like the Wave and SAKs. I carry edged tools because I like them. They are handy, very often useful -- even essential, and they could, if absolutely necessary, be used to neutralize a threat.
If some thug tries to choke you in an elevator or traps you in a restroom stall or tries to drag you into an alley, or if you are attacked by a party of thugs -- as happened a few years ago to a couple not far from here one night, you might have to resort to stabbing and slashing. It may be your only choice, and I would rather have the choice, if it came to that, than not have it. Used correctly in a life-threatening situation, a blade might save your life and get you out of that situation. Then land you in court. Still, better to be tried by twelve than carried by six applies to knives as well as guns.
