Bring a Knife to a Gun Fight?

The title of this article is intended to draw attention to the common expression; “Don’t bring a knife to a gunfight,” the implication of which is that the gun is far superior to the knife.   But, even if true, does it matter?

Conflicts evolve in innumerable ways.  With a knife/gun conflict variables may include the following:

 1.     The separation distance at the onset of the conflict.

 2.     Whether the gun is carried open or concealed.

 3.     The degree of situational awareness of the participants.

 4.     The physical fitness of the participants.

 5.     The marksmanship of the gun bearer (under stress).

 6.     The caliber of the gun.

 7.     The capacity of the gun.

 8.     The type and size of the knife.

 9.     The training of the participants.

10.     The clothing worn by the participants.

11.     The location of the incident.

The classical knife/gun conflict is typified by any common variation of the Tueller Drill.  Tueller Drill variants are based upon experimentally derived data that indicate that a typical officer, carrying his/her gun via an exposed duty belt, and without significant retention by the holster, can draw and fire 2 reasonably well-placed rounds within 1.5 seconds of the signal to start.  Additional data show that a typical male bearing a knife can close a distance of 21 feet, from a standing start, in 1.5 seconds.

The naïve assumption is, therefore, that if you can draw your gun and fire 1-2 shots within 1.5 seconds, you will win.  Nothing could be further from the truth, which we explain as follows:

 1.     Most civilians will be carrying their gun concealed, not on an exposed duty belt.  As a result, the first step of the draw process will be to clear a cover garment.  That step alone is apt to account for 0.2 seconds.  This value assumes a belt holster, OWB or IWB, or a belly band.  The time for a shoulder holster will be worse, and for an ankle holster, much worse.  Still worse will be off body carry, such as with a purse.

2.      The 1.5 second value for the average officer is misleading.  The officers knew that they were under test.  They were at a heightened state of awareness, just waiting for the shot timer to signal.  A typical assailant does not approach you carrying a sign with bold lettering saying “Assailant.”  You should assume that the assailant will already be within the arbitrary 21 feet window before you even realize the threat.  Most civilians, even with practice, require at least 2.0 seconds to draw and fire from a cover garment, so you will not only be behind the curve with respect to time, but you will have less time available.  There is a high probability of being stabbed or slashed before you get off even one shot.

 3.     Practicing quick drawing and firing is essential, but cannot replicate a real attack for two reasons.  First, the stress factor.  Bad things happen under stress.  You fall back to your lowest level of training.  Common errors include snagging the cover garment on the muzzle, failing to disengage a safety, failing to establish the proper grip with the support hand, etc.  Second, the lack of stress in most training will give you a false sense of your accuracy.  Statistics show that trained officers, that can shoot with high accuracy during practice, entirely miss adult sized assailants with half of their rounds at distances of 6 feet or less!  If trained officers are that bad under stress, how much worse are you apt to be?

 4.     Even if by some miracle you are able to draw and fire one round directly into the assailant’s center of mass before the assailant reaches you, you will probably be stabbed anyway. Consider the imbalance of momentum.  Assume that you fire a 124 grain 9 mm projectile with a muzzle velocity of 1,100 f/s.  Then consider the assailant weighing 200 pounds (1,400,000 grains) with a terminal velocity of 20 f/s.  We then have;

• 124 x 1,100 = 136,000 grf/s     vs.    1,400,000 x 20 = 28,000,000 grf/s

or, a momentum advantage of 206 times in favor of the assailant.  In other words, the impact of the bullet will not slow down the assailant, and you will probably be stabbed.  The assailant may very well die as a result of your well-placed hit, but what good does that do you if you are mortally stabbed anyway?

 5.     Consider all of the news reports of police shootings in which family members, commentators, attorneys, bystanders, etc., invariably question why the officers had to fire so many rounds.  The answer is simple, and that is because the initial rounds, even if they hit, did not stop the assailants.  One or two rounds seldom result in rapid disablements, especially if the assailants are on drugs.  Couple this point with the Tueller data, and you will see why defending against an assailant bearing a knife is an extraordinarily dangerous proposition, even if you are the best gunfighter in history.

6.      There is one aspect of training that can potentially enhance your probability of surviving a knife attack, and that is the ability to move when shooting.  If an assailant is charging you, his momentum makes it difficult for him to change direction.  Therefore, if you can move rapidly to the side, you enhance the probability of avoiding the charge.  However, you have now compounded the difficulty of shooting accurately, and depending upon the terrain, you have a significant probability of tripping and falling, making yourself even more vulnerable.

7.      For the sake of argument, let’s assume that you are able to survive an attack by a knife bearing assailant by being able to shoot with sufficient speed and accuracy, and let’s further assume that the assailant is either dead or seriously wounded as a result.  Your troubles have not ended; they have just begun.  You are likely to be prosecuted by a liberal district attorney for anything ranging from assault with a deadly weapon to second degree murder.  Even if not prosecuted by a liberal district attorney, you are likely to be sued by a family member of the deceased under the guise of wrongful death.  Even if you survive both legal challenges, you will probably be bankrupt as a result of the legal costs.  With the degeneration of American society and its legal system, right and wrong have fallen victim to political correctness and wokeness.  To compound this issue, liberal district attorneys and trial lawyers will take advantage of the ignorance of jury members, playing upon the time honored but erroneous assumption that a gun gives the shooter a huge advantage over an assailant with just a knife.

The bottom line is:  Don’t get into this situation.  Don’t go to dangerous places.  Maintain constant situational awareness.  Learn to recognize pre-attack indicators.  Maintain your distance from potential threats.  Practice regularly, correctly, and realistically to hone and maintain your skills.  Get concealed carry insurance to cover the cost of legal defense.