The Little Black Book of Violence

you with any knife he chooses to wield.

We have a mutual friend named Jeff who works as an emergency room physician. In addition to being a doctor, he is an accomplished martial artist as well. Wilder once asked him, “Have you ever looked at a person bleeding on your operating table and thought to yourself, ‘the guy who did this really knew what he was doing’?” Dr. Jeff answered, “No. Violence is violence.”

You need to remember that statement. Violence is violence! The end result of contact with a knife, whether in the hands of a pro or the hands of a punk, is the same. It’s all bad.

From time to time Kane teaches a seminar on the realities of knife fighting. It is primarily designed to scare the crap out of people who don’t fully appreciate what a blade can actually do to a human being and subsequently enhance students’ awareness of how to avoid running afoul of one and not get cut if they do. Among other things, he shares stories like the Young/Beckman incident and autopsy photos of unfortunates who did not learn those important lessons.

While the graphic pictures have made more than one student lose his lunch, the demonstration that really hits home goes like this: To show just how dangerous a knife truly is, Kane hangs a large hunk of meat, something that comes on the bone such as a leg of lamb, from a rope. He then takes a legal-length,[13] two-and-a-half-inch-blade folding knife and makes three cuts—a horizontal slash, a vertical slash, and a stab. After slicing up the meat, he whips out a measuring tape to show the damage. He can consistently make five- to six-inch-long by two-inch-deep gashes in the meat. It’s actually quite easy to do with a sharp knife; most students can duplicate that feat when given the opportunity to try. Kane can also reliably strike the bone with the stab, even when it takes two to four inches of compression to do so, providing that he hits hard and fast enough. The noise of the blade hitting the bone is particularly chilling. After showing what a legal-length blade can do, he duplicates the experiment with a larger weapon. That can get really scary indeed.

If you are thinking feet and fists only to discover a knife or other weapon in the middle of a fight, you are more than likely doomed. The stark reality is that most victims of weapon attacks do not recognize the severity of the threat in time to react properly. Imi Sde-Or, the founder of the martial art Krav Maga, wrote, “Victims who survived a violent confrontation against a knife-wielding assailant consistently reported that they were completely unaware of the existence of the weapon until after they had suffered stab or slash wounds. In essence, these survivors of edged-weapon attacks state that they believed they were engaged in some sort of fist fight; only later, after sustaining injuries, did they realize that the assailant was armed.”

While we are on the subject of knives in the hands of an aggressor, you really needn’t think knife at all; any old weapon will do. To illustrate the point, Wilder knows a guy named Ben who was hit so hard in the face with a beer bottle that it shattered. Unlike Hollywood movies, real bottles are pretty tough to break. That strike not only knocked him out, but he still bears the scars on his nose today. That fight ended right then and there—one blow, one weapon. Done.

Near everybody has a knife and it changes everything in a fight. Consider this carefully before you throw the first blow.

Know When He’s Armed, You’ll Live Longer That Way

Warriors who lived in the times of Sun Tzu and Miyamoto Musashi fought life and death battles using various weapons from swords to spears, halberds, arrows, and more. These fighters were rarely, if ever, unarmed; even the fans that samurai carried in their belts could be used as impromptu weapons. Every comment these authors made was against the backdrop of armed opponents. You would do well to assume the same environment. Bad guys cheat to win, frequently employing weapons on the street. The major difference is that nowadays you rarely see them coming.

Nearly anyone can cripple or kill you quite easily with a blade. It takes no special skill or training.

Despite what you may have learned in martial arts class, unarmed civilians who tangle with weapon-wielding attackers invariably get hurt. Often quite badly. Armed assaults are far more dangerous to the victim than unarmed ones. While crimes of non-lethal violence committed with or without weapons were about equally likely to result in victim injury, armed assaults are three-and-a-half times as likely as unarmed encounters to result in serious injuries. In fact, some 96 percent of all homicides involve a weapon.

The best way to defend yourself against an armed aggressor, of course, is to avoid the altercation completely, using good situational awareness to spot the bad guy before he attacks you and find somewhere else to be. Otherwise, your only options are either to run like hell, respond with a better weapon, or both—clearly not the best choice but an effective one nevertheless. It is important, therefore, to learn how to spot a weapon before it is used against you.

An estimated 70 percent of adult males carry a knife on a regular basis in the United States. While most are law-abiding citizens who use these knives as the tools they are intended to be, the presence of any knife changes everything in a fight. The end result of contact with a knife, whether in the hands of a pro or the hands of a punk, is the same. Anyone can cripple or kill you quite easily with a blade. It takes no special skill or training.

With few exceptions, civilians who carry a weapon need to do so in a manner where it cannot be seen by those around them yet can be drawn in very big hurry should the need arise. If you are legally carrying a weapon for self-defense, you will not want to be stopped every twenty feet by a police officer summoned by some frightened bystander who spotted and reported your weapon. Further, you will not want to forewarn possible aggressors of the fact that you are armed. Bad guys also conceal their weapons not only for the reasons listed above but also to increase the chances of a successful ambush when they attack you or whomever they have chosen as their victim.

A sharp knife can do tremendous damage. A big, sharp knife can get downright scary. Even a cheap blade can easily mutilate or kill you.

Since you will not generally see a weapon carried openly, it is really important to know how to spot when someone is armed with a concealed device. This is especially important when you consider the aforementioned fact that an estimated 70 percent of adult males carry a knife. While that statistic includes multi-tools that may have dubious value as weapons, even a cheap blade can easily mutilate or kill you.

The vast majority of weapon concealment strategies have one thing in common—accessibility. After all, a weapon does you no good if you cannot get to it rapidly when you need it. Blades, handguns, batons, and just about anything else concealable can be hidden in similar ways, most of which are centered on or around the waist.

Most law-abiding civilians who own a gun use a holster to carry their weapon. Holsters make the most reliable carry systems because they rigidly affix the weapon to a specific spot on the body. That way it can always be found when it is needed, even under extreme stress. There are varieties of holsters that can be attached to one’s belt either inside or outside of the pants. Shoulder and ankle holsters also exist, of course, but are far less common than other types. Many folding knives come with belt clips designed to hold them firmly against the side of your pocket where they are easily located by touch. Knives can be carried in holsters too, of course.

Criminals, on the other hand, rarely use a holster. The most common ad hoc carry position for firearms is inside the pants, either in the front alongside the hipbone or in the small of the back. Because the weapon has a tendency to move around when carried in this fashion, you can often spot a bad guy touching himself to assure that it is in the proper place or adjusting the weapon to get it back into the proper carry position.

Pants or jacket pockets are always a handy choice as well. Like the inside-the-pants carry, they are not as reliable or easy to get to as a holster when you need rapid access since the weapon may become repositioned as you move about during the day. For example, a pistol slid into your pocket may flip around such that the handle cannot be grasped without moving the gun first. If you pull it out by the barrel, it will not do you much good until you change your grip. Similarly, knives carried in a pocket take longer to orient and open then when a holster or belt