Saved by sgian dubh?

[Panache]

Streetcar made a very valid point here:

Good on ya! Vermin prefer victims that won't fight back.

I believe a lot of Self Defense classes stress the importance of not looking like a victim. People that show confidence instead of fear are less likely to be victimized. Thugs want an easy target.

It was also mentioned early in this thread the importance of being aware of one's surroundings. Attackers want the element of surprise or at least isolation.

I have a suspicion that these two factors were as much responsible for the punks leaving NewKilt as the knife.

I have a couple of sgian dubhs and a couple of "sgian don'ts" and I wear one or the other based on what I happen to be doing and where I am going. So I am aware of the responsibility one must have when carrying a weapon.

(Side note: I was at a school fair at my son's elementary school and was approached by a police officer. She had her hands at a ready position and asked me to step aside and wanted to question me about what was in my sock. Carrying a knife at school would be illegal so this time it was a comb. I explained what it was and asked her if I could show it to her. Only after she said yes did I pull it out slowly. Had I acted foolishly or belligerently I probably could have gotten myself shot.)

The act of drawing a weapon on others offers a choice to those people. Do they stand down or do they escalate things to the next level? It is something that shouldn't be done lightly. If you pull a knife it does offer the possibility of them drawing a weapon in response. Or perhaps taking your knife away and using it on you.

I'm not a pacifist. As an adult human being I am going to assume that any physical assault on me or mine is done with serious intent and I will respond with equal deadly focus. I think if you draw a weapon on another human being it is because you absolutely have to and you are fully intent on using it. I don't see a place for bravado here.

For the record when I go out walking in the foothills I carry a stout walking stick or hiking staff because we have Mountain Lions in the Santa Cruz Moutains and Los Gatos foothills. It also gives me a bit of peace of mind in case of two legged predators. But having a walking stick handy is very different than actively drawing a knife.

In an age where there are far too many incidents of casual violence I think we need to be careful. We need to not be victims, but we also need to make sure we aren't throwing down gauntlets either.


I am happy that NewKilt came out of this incident safe. My only point for posting on his thread was to offer the point that this could have turned out very differently. The five men he encountered could have taken the act of drawing his sgian dubh and presenting it in a threatening gesture as an invitation to take things to the "next level".

Respectfully

Jamie