You talking to me?

There are SO many different possibilities when it comes to using force in response to an action that it's very hard to tell how anyone would act. You'll find that it doesn't matter if the person is extremely trained or not, but a majority of the people who think they would respond in one specific way are in fact all talk.

I can tell you, having killed someone in self defense that if you are not in control, not even you can predict what you'll do, so it's just better not to talk about it and avoid looking like a dick by telling the world what you'd do and how badly you'd mess someone up.

Pretty sure I'm pork belly...

I'll add that training and experience won't guarantee success, or that shit won't go right out the window.

When I was presented with a knife, and engaged, everything switched off, I had tunnel vision, and there was just an instinctual 'caveman' feeling of 'no' and 'him bad'....I felt like things just happened.. I was on autopilot...kinda like watching someone else fight from inside my own head. I wasn't scared during, but afterwards, I realized how quickly shit could have gone south had I not reacted the way I did.. It's fucking scary.. I think 'overwhelming violence' is probably the best way to describe it.

I advocate defensive hand to hand combat training before getting a gun and training to use that. There are many more scenarios and it is more likely you will have to defend yourself without a weapon. I have had several times where my hand to hand training has been used, even when I was armed. The idea of not stopping until the attacker is finished is what needs to be ingrained. Too many people are not mentally ready to attack the person with knees, elbows, kicks, etc until they have trained with someone who knows true combat.

Pork bellies are up.

This.

I went through some training that was dubbed "104% Pain" with Korean spec war....giving and receiving pain is highly educational!

I remember my first fight, 5th grade Mark Zenninger, lasted two whole recesses.

That was the first time my nose was broken.....

He never said why he was pissed.

Prolly, bout this girl named Francesca.

(Ginger, long hair, alabaster skin, sat behind me)

She gave me a bracelet she made of Teaberry Gum wrappers.


(weird shit you remember, right?)




Train all you want, most people don't have what it takes to win a real fight.

The pain starts and their Flight kicks in.

Pretty much this, the first sentence.
Violence is ugly, the part MOST people are fully incapable of doing.
There's a higher percentage of people that, at no fault of their own, are not able to go into the mindset of pure ugly violence.
I know plenty of hard assed, gun toting ass kicking guys that'll throw punches and roll around all day long, that just don't have the mindset to fully engage in actual ugly violence.
Pulling a weapon, any weapon, doesn't mean you have the ability to fight, or have the ability to be violent.
A brutal and violet brawl without weapons or rules and having the mindset of killing/stopping the other, isn't pretty, nor enjoyable or anything to brag or talk about. It isn't, not remotely or something to joke about.
Going into a fight, with a mindset of you will lose your life if you don't win, and you must fully destroy the other, is a start to living another day. Learning how to cope or deal with the ugliness is a whole other level.
Crossing that threshold is not easy.
Using a tool (weapon) is easier and safer, but not always the right tool to use.
In life or death, there is no fair fight, you fight to win by all means possible, weapons or not.
But, also avoid it if all possible, by all means possible. You really do not want to want the to deal with the ugliness.

Both of you guys make excellent points. This is why serious training, done repetitively & correctly, must be done if you think you are going to be able to use it in a life-or-death situation. Most of us have not been in this situation before and think that we will be cool and collected.

Great points. Serious training is the key and a hell of a lot of it. It has to be muscle memory to just switch over to your training and that takes years of daily practice.

Adrenaline dump - also heard it called psycho-chemical stress - if your training doesn't specifically include this subject you are missing out. It's not pretty.

Some call it pressure testing. Simply inducing adrenal stress is not enough - need to work on tools to manage and recover from the dump.

Willingness to train is a neccessary, but not sufficient, indicator of will to win.
Humans react one of three ways when they perceive deadly danger: flee, freeze, or fight. Even if you train to fight, you cannot guarantee you will not freeze. Train your *perception*, and your ability to react, accordingly.

True. You need to see how you react under stress.

Sad thing about that is she wasn't prepared at all. I recall once I stopped at a coffee shop on my way to a gun show (which the gal asked where I was going), we ended up talking about guns and she said she had an XDS. I didn't specifically ask if she had it with her, but this dude is lucky he didn't get the one girl with a CPL and 9mm under the counter.