29 dead in Chinese mass stabbing

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And if you know how to use a handgun it's quicker still.


There is a lot of space between very close range and long distance. Anything much more than 4 ft. on out the sword is not going to do much good whereas a handgun will.



Take equal amounts of time practicing tactics with the handgun and the sword and you'll be quicker with the handgun and better able to retain it. There is, after all, a reason why handguns are far more common than swords for personal defense. For all practical purposes, good can of pepper spray is better than a sword. The only time pepper spray really sucks is if you have to discharge it into a strong wind.


Depends on the law as it applies to open carry. To me it doesnt look cool only because I have my own guns to fondle and no need to drool over other people's guns



Although I generally disdain the use of movie clips for examples of tactics, this scene from Collateral is actually authentic in its portrayal of the tactical use of a handgun. This can be practiced with other people and "blue" guns or on targets with a real gun. Good luck executing this in the real world with a sword.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UiqwF_Y9S5Q&list=PLPd7_E1soBydm0YcWqKincfVIIJOoly0d[/youtube]

Last edited by Raptor on 10 Mar 2014, 11:02 pm, edited 2 times in total.

Oh, you mean like an AR-15 or Mini-14. You said "assault rifle" which, to a real gun person, is a class III firearm. My bad; I'm use to hearing only anti-gunners and fifteen year old shooting range commandos calling AR-15's "assault rifles". So do these guys on these OC rifle walks have magazines, oops, for you I mean "clips", in their assault rifles?

Now that we have our terminologies sorted out, it depends on the laws where these OC walks are taking place. It's probably illegal to carry a rifle around in public in most states so that takes care of that question. Where it is legal then there's not much more to say.

Fixed your Youtube, you have to remove the 's' if it's https in order for the bbc code to function.

"Yo homie, that my briefcase?" is perhaps my favorite movie quote of the last decade, that movie was so good it even made Tom Cruise seem cool again.

A sword is pretty lethal, I'd think in any situation that would justify using one on someone, the degree of injury inflicted on them should be the last thing on your mind, in fact that concern might well get you killed. I had to have a chat with a female friend of mine who had a similar idea about carrying a gun loaded with rubber bullets for the first two rounds; if you need to shoot someone (or slash and stab them), it's sort of an all or nothing proposition.

Ironically enough, it's much harder to carry a sword legally than to carry a gun, it's illegal in most every state with no permitting process to allow it (except states like Florida who specifically issue concealed weapons licenses that cover things besides guns), with sword canes seeming to be a specific concern to law enforcement. I'm convinced that cops in the 70's watched too many kung fu flicks and got freaked out about getting their asses kicked by little Chinese dudes with articulated flails and just decided to ban any strange weapons they could think of on general principal, yet the stupid laws are still on the books and still being enforced. A buddy of mine was practicing his nunchaku kata in his own front yard when three cop cars rolled up, threatened to arrest him for 'wielding' an illegal weapon outside of a dojo, and took his 'chucks. We used to joke that he should just get a gun permit and chain a couple of inert handguns together, since technically that would be legal...

Ever wonder where my lack of respect for the law, especially weapons law, comes from?

Thanks, I went back and fixed it. The quote or even the movie didn't do much for me but I loved the way he dispatched those two.

My bad - I was operating on about 2 hours of sleep when I wrote that.



It's actually legal to OC rifles in the majority of states that it's legal to OC in period. But that wasn't the question, the question was whether it makes you look like an idiot or not.

I'll fully support that it's legal, but just because something is legal doesn't make it sensible.

Fair enough. I was going to leave out the two humor emoticons that I used and instead use an eye roller at the end to create an actual air of condescension and incivility I'm so famous for in PPR but decided not to at the last second. I must be getting weak.


It's actually legal to OC rifles in the majority of states that it's legal to OC in period. But that wasn't the question, the question was whether it makes you look like an idiot or not.
I'll fully support that it's legal, but just because something is legal doesn't make it sensible.[/quote][/quote]
Personally, it never would have occurred to me to consider that it would be legal to carry a long gun in public even where open carry is legal. The only exception would be if things have gone to s**t and Rule of Law is kaput. Aside from that scenario, I'm guessing it would attract the immediate attention of Johnny Cop who would cite or even arrest someone carrying a rifle in public for something even if it doesnt legally stick.

True, but here we need to get into some specifics about the attacker. Is he armed? With what? What is the attack like, and what direction does it come from? The only scenario where I'd personally want to have a gun rather than a blade would be if the attacker had a gun and was shooting at me from a distance - in which case, see what I wrote above about body armor.


only if your goal really is to kill the person.


That's assuming that you're taking someone with no experience in either. I already know how to use a sword, but I've never held a handgun (a rifle, yes, but not a handgun).

Like if you live on the coast? ;p

@Dox: you are undoubtedly correct wrt. the legal issues for sword use. IIrc it's legal to own & carry swords in CA; not sure about OR. But I imagine that drawing a sword in a fight is regarded legally about the same as drawing a gun in a fight: you'll be convicted of attempted murder if the guy lives, and be acquitted of murder if he dies (that's only sort of a joke).

Seriously, I'm not trying to claim that a sword would beat a gun in a real fight, or that a sword is a 'better' weapon, or more dangerous, or any of that. There's a reason soldiers at war now carry guns rather than swords. Personally, though, I would be more comfortable with a sword than a gun, even knowing that some fraction of the 'bad guys' out there would be better armed than me.
Like I said, though, I don't want to live like Musashi; I don't want to jump at shadows, I don't want to walk around in body armor, and I don't want to be armed with more than a good knife.

At the end of the day, once you get past all the BS, this is what it comes down to. If you want to carry a knife, carry a knife. If you want to carry a sword, carry a sword. If you want to carry a gun, carry a gun. If you don't want to carry anything, then don't.

As long as you're making an informed choice, and you're respectful of other people's capacity to look at the same set of data and come to a different conclusion, then there is no problem.

I don't think I'd be too good with a sword,I'm a klutz.On the funny side of swords, I know of two teenagers that went down the county road at night to harvest a neighbors goose with a samurai sword.The good thing is they didn't have the heart to dispatch the goose.

We don't know how our opponent is armed until the encounter. That's why it's best to be closer to the high side of personal armaments. A lot of times I'll carry a handgun and a pocket size can of pepper spray. If the situation allows, I'd rather pepper someone or use the fist than to put bullet holes in them. However, I won't put myself at very much risk if for a second lethal force seems like the wiser and safer (for me) alternative. I look at it like this; I'm out minding my own business and if someone goes out of their way to become clearly a threat to life and limb then they are in the wrong, not me.


We shoot to neutralise / incapacitate. All things considered, the handgun and the skill to use it is generally the best tool for the job. Even multiple gunshot wounds have reasonably high survivability with today's medicine. My first priority is my survival, not theirs.


That's assuming that you're taking someone with no experience in either. I already know how to use a sword, but I've never held a handgun (a rifle, yes, but not a handgun).[/quote]
Use a sword then. My point is that the handgun is generally a far superior weapon. There's also the issue of discrete carry. How do you carry a sword discretely?

The windiest places i've been have been in the interior, not the coastal areas.