W.I.D.T.H.6. Chapter 1: W...

Weapons

In his book Clear and Present Danger Tom Clancy once wrote that the first rule of unarmed combat was "don't get into it." This fascinated me because at that point I was about 3 years into studying martial arts and it was the central focus of my life. I was especially fascinated with the philosophies of martial arts such as Bushido and the animism associated with the various Shaolin animal styles of Kung Fu. Clancy's quote got me thinking that maybe kickboxing, of whatever style, was not the be all and end all of being a warrior. So, I started to focus more on weapons training in the martial arts. As a teenager that mainly meant ancient weapons like the bo staff and swords rather than firearms, but unlike many martial artists I did not see a moral distinction between guns and knives. Many martial artists are, bizarrely to me, vehemently opposed to firearms, believing them some sort of disgrace to their "Ancient Chinese Secrets" or something. Introducing weapons to training begs the question, though, when using them would be justifiable?

I studied ten different martial arts over twenty years as I moved around the country and the world, and they all called themselves "self-defense systems." Only one of them was actually an unarmed combat system that taught useful self-defense principles, the rest were crap. Even the good one didn't fully understand what self-defense is. In his book When Violence is the Answer, Tim Larkin defines self-defense as a legal determination made by a criminal justice authority after the fact that what a person did was justifiable violence. It is not a set of skills or a system of martial arts. To meet that standard several things have to be true in a situation. One, you have to be in imminent danger of being maimed, raped or killed. Two, you have to be without other options, such as escape or utilizing social skills to de-escalate the situation. In other words, bar fights are not self-defense, but every martial art I studied was teaching me how to win bar fights, and calling that "self-defense training." It wasn't.

But that brings us to the good news about Weapons. In an actual self-defense situation, where those standards are met, as opposed to a bar fight, you are perfectly justified in using whatever weapon you can get your hands on. If somebody is actually trying to maim you, rape you or kill you, there are no limits to the tools you can use to defend yourself unless you live in a criminal-loving jurisdiction run by lunatics like New York or Chicago. If you do live in one of those places, you should move. If you live in a sane place, where you are allowed to defend yourself, and somebody is trying to maim you, rape you or kill you, it's perfectly justifiable to shoot them, stab them or even run them over with your car. Which gets me back to Tom Clancy's quote: "The first rule of unarmed combat is: Don't get into it." There's no reason to get into a fist fight with a psychopath who is trying to do you or your loved ones grievous bodily harm. Find a weapon and use it.

1) Anything can be used as a weapon with a little creativity. Look at the world around you constantly and identify potential weapons. I once watched an Arnis master beat a sixth degree black belt senseless with an empty water bottle by doing knife patterns on his face so fast that he fell down backwards, so anything can be used as a weapons. Beer bottles, chairs, soup cans, cars, knives, keys or best of all a firearm. Anything can be used as a weapon, because:

2) My brain is the real weapon. My body is a decent enough tool for my brain to use for self-defense, but I can extend its lethality by putting another tool in my hand, but the real weapon is the human mind. The human mind that designs aircraft carriers and bombers and their bombs, as well as samurai swords, the longbow or a sniper rifle. The brain is your weapon. It is also your adversary's weapon, which makes it your best target. I will talk more about that when we get to the "H" chapter. Thus, in conclusion,

3) "The first rule of unarmed combat is: don't get into it!"

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