NerblyBear wrote:If the consensus seems to be that it's a bad idea to carry a knife, then I'll submit to it. I've heard good arguments. Honestly, I've just started thinking about this issue, because it is a serious one, and I'm open to refutation.
But answer me this:
Why does anyone carry either a gun or a knife for self-protection if it's supposedly so self-evidently a bad idea? I mean, if that were the case, then why do so many people choose that route? It's obvious why criminals carry weapons, but what about the rest of us?
If it's so obviously a ludicrous idea, then why do so many people buy it? Are they all just fools?
Simple: You can carry a knife if you know how to use a knife and are willing to use a knife.
You
cannot think of carrying a knife as a defensive measure. The knife is a
weapon, an extension of tooth and claw, and has no utility for you apart from its ability to injure and kill. If, in your hands, it has no ability to injure or kill, it has no utility.
If you draw a knife in response to a mugging you have intentionally escalated the situation, and you are now in a fight - a
lethal fight, because you have drawn blade. To enter a fight is failure in and of itself, because you have failed to avoid violence; to intentionally escalate a fight to levels at which you are incapable of participating is idiocy.
-----
Defense comes from bearing. I had two roommates; one was small and bookworm-looking, and carried himself as though he was in constant fear; he was mugged. My other roommate (and bassist) walked with a certain air of confidence, chest held high; nobody tried to mug him. I've wandered through some seedy-ass parts of Chicago alone at inappropriate hours and had no problems, because I walk like I know where I'm going and what I'm doing, and interference would be both unnecessary and more trouble than it's worth. Nobody fucks with my
sensei even though he's about 65, simply because he does not look like anyone you should cross for any reason.
If you're mugged, hand over your cash. Money is not worth getting killed over,
and money is not worth killing someone over.
The only precaution I take is, if I'm going to be on foot late at night, I put my cards-of-significance in another pocket, so that if I am mugged I can just hand over my wallet with no worries.
