Never Take a Knife to a Gunfight?

“Never take a knife to a gunfight,” how many times have you heard this sage advice?  What is the contemporary wisdom concerning Knife vs Gun?  Fact: a bullet, shot from any firearm, bores a tiny hole through the air.  Less than a half inch in diameter, that hole may extend in a liner fashion for hundreds or thousands of yards.   But, if it has missed you, by even the smallest of margins, it has missed you forever.  It will not twist sideways or come flying at you from another direction (excluding a ricochet).  Compare the bullet’s flight to a knife’s slash.  The keen edge of a good fighting knife is infinitely thin, but seldom does it travel in one nice straight line.  A blade driven in as a thrust may suddenly cut sideways, disemboweling its victim.  The blade may extend out in a long slash, and failing to reach you, stop in mid-flight to reverse its direction and stab you through the throat or heart.  A knife is not a linear weapon in the same way a bullet is.  A knife will cut a curving swath a foot wide and several feet long, and then, instantly and unexpectedly return along the same path or a completely different path. If you look real close at a bullet, then look at any knife, and you decide. 

The skilled knifer will use feints to draw you into his true attack.  Try executing a feint with a bullet.  Once released, your bullet cannot be redirected or recalled, nor can its impact energy be controlled.  A bullet is a mindless killer.  In the hands of a skilled practitioner a knife can merely prick or powerfully puncture, it can lightly touch, dismember, or terminate, all at the discretion of the user.  Within its circle of engagement, the knife is unexcelled.  The uneducated defender may assume that the knifer’s circle of engagement is only a few short feet, but an attacker possessing even moderately skilled footwork can quickly propel himself forward extending his reach to a dozen feet or more.  Best bet is to take a gun, and a knife, and know how to use them!  Here are two masterpieces by Larry Harley an original Battle Dagger and Battle Bowie.