What's wrong with karate?

[darrianation]

Umm.... no. If i wanted to kill someone, i'd just buy a gun from one of the many many kind street vendors in downtown Whatevercityyoulivein. If I'm in a streetfight, I want to make the guy want to stop fighting (either by knocking him out, taking out a knee, or hurting him till he doesn't want any more) WITHOUT killing him and having the rest of my fights be over my manbitch in prison. IMHO

This way of thinking works very well against local yokal drunkes and loud mouth teenagers. Yes, you need to know the use of force latter, but if this is your main strategy then you'll find yourself in a world of hurt when the real bad ass, just got out of prison thug wantingly and dertermindly pulls a knife and guts you.

Most politicaly correct Martial arts will get you a body bag or an ICU bed when the real criminal attack comes along.

[kcigam]

You're right. I was mainly referring to said drunken yokkals. But you should be able to assess who you're up against and be ready to kill ONLY if it comes to it.

It's a huge responsibility when you have the ability to end life with your hands and feet, and there are obvious life-altering consequences to making the call that the only way to put a particular guy down is to kill him.

I just wouldn't open the fight with a driving hook to the temple unless it was unmistakeably obvious to me that I was in an inescapable situation with someone bent on killing me.

[darrianation]

You're right. I was mainly referring to said drunken yokkals. But you should be able to assess who you're up against and be ready to kill ONLY if it comes to it.

It's a huge responsibility when you have the ability to end life with your hands and feet, and there are obvious life-altering consequences to making the call that the only way to put a particular guy down is to kill him.

I just wouldn't open the fight with a driving hook to the temple unless it was unmistakeably obvious to me that I was in an inescapable situation with someone bent on killing me.

I have done Martial arts for 27 years now, and I still don't leave my life to my hands and feet.

Yes you need to respond reasonably to level the of force being used against you, but when it comes to lethal force I use lethal weapons.

Your training should provide you with appropriate response conditioning. If your instructor hasn't then he has failed you.

But even non-lethal force situations you want to finish the fight quickly. You want to overwhelm him and make him no longer a threat without further a due.

Remember, unfortunately the winner of the fight is often the one who is willing to escalate the fight the furthest, the fastest.

Loosing means serious injuryor death! Winning means surviving the attack without serious injury.

And by the way I am always armed.

[kcigam]

Your training should provide you with appropriate response conditioning. If your instructor hasn't then he has failed you.

I agree with you completely on this point.

I simply advise that one shouldn't enter a fight with the precept that killing your opponent is the first or only option. It's a call you have to make quickly at that situation, so it's obviously difficult to assess correctly, but its a very very important one for many reasons that do not need to be explained. When you must, you must. Simple as that. You just have to be sure enough that it was a situation that forced you to use lethal force.

Thai Bri, you're a cop, what do you think? If you're approaching a potentially dangerous situation and you have to make the call to pull your gun or not, what do you do?

[kcigam]

Having the skills or not is another matter altogether, isn't it? I thought we were starting under the assumption that we are talking about a person who does have the ability to kill his opponent without a weapon.

[kcigam]

Well i dont know what you assumed. But i do know that you mentioned that you if you wanted to kill someone you'd buy a gun and that in street fighting that you'd go for the KO or knee crippling. I responded and the conversation picked up a life of its own.

I was pointing out that if you dont study for the leathal stuff than your up you know what creep without a paddle if you ever dont have a weapon (or can't find an improvised one) and have to use it.

You're right about the conversation veering off on its own. I was actually joking about the gun; I just meant that deadly force has its place as does non-lethal methods of attack. I think from your last comment we're pretty much on the same page. As long as you don't advocate lethal force as a non-last alternative (sorry for the double negative). Essentially, if the opponent has his temple exposed and I don't need to kill him in order to end the fight, I would not use a strong hook to the temple (or other similar techniques) as an attack for the fight, but yes one should know how to if the situation required it.