Any time you turn on your television or look at your smart device you’re likely to see one or more reports of assault with a deadly weapon in your news feed. Daytime incidents of armed assault in public places seem to be more commonplace nowadays, no longer relegated to lonely parking garages in the dark of night.
Guns and knives are the weapons most of us think of when we think of armed assaults. According to the FBI’s Uniform Crime Report statistics, an estimated 821,182 aggravated assaults occurred in the United States in 2019, the latest year for which statistics are available. Of those cases, 27.6% were committed with firearms, 17.5% were committed with cutting weapons and 25.2% were committed with what the FBI terms “personal weapons”—hands, fists or feet. Using those statistics solely as a tool to help frame the threat, it would appear that firearms are the most used weapon, followed by empty hand attacks with the use of knives and other edged weaponry bringing up the rear. Of course, the specific frequency of occurrence will depend on where you live.
The above stated statistics notwithstanding, someone armed with a knife or gun is more of a threat than someone who is unarmed. As martial artists, we know full well the mortal threat posed by someone skilled with their hands and feet. As martial artists, we are by far the best equipped of the citizenry to effectively deal with empty hand attacks. Guns and knives are another matter entirely. Those implements raise the specter of immediate incapacitation.
Can a skilled martial arts practitioner effectively defend against a gun or knife wielding assailant? The short answer is ‘yes.’ Make no mistake—that defense will come at a price, possibly a hefty one. To help define the severity of the threat posed to the empty hand defender by an armed opponent, we will shine the harsh light of reality on what it means to face an armed aggressor. The first step in developing a real-world defense is to accept the realities of using one’s bare hands against a firearm or knife in the hands of someone who wants to hurt or kill you. If a knife is involved, you’re likely to get cut. If a gun is involved, you may well be shot.
The specific style of martial art—of Kung Fu —that you practice is not particularly important. There are no superior styles, only superior martial artists. While a Wing Chun stylist, Shuai Jiao player or Chin Na expert might have more experience in dealing with close range hand engagements than the competitive Wushu practitioner who focuses on Long Fist and high kick techniques, sensible gun and knife defense is not bound by style. Having said that, let’s get down to the nitty gritty.
An unskilled person with a knife or a gun is very dangerous. A skilled opponent with a knife or gun is echelons beyond dangerous. Either way, you won’t come out of the engagement unscathed. That brings us to the first skillset—wrapping your head around the inevitability of sustaining injury. It is better to sustain an injury than to die. Let that sink in. It is better to sustain an injury than to die. Get used to the idea of being injured, for with that realization you will have taken the first monumental step necessary in order to continue the fight. You really don’t have an option. If you don’t continue the fight, you will almost certainly perish.
Before we go any further, let me say that I am not going to try to tell you whether you should fight or not fight if presented with, say, an armed robbery situation where the bad guy demands your wallet or purse. That is your decision. You must decide whether resistance is your best option or whether compliance is your better bet. You’re there and can see and read your opponent. Maybe you have a gut feeling the guy is going to hurt you regardless of whether you comply. Maybe you don’t. It is your call.
What I am going to do is suggest some options for dealing with an armed aggressor if it comes to that. I will repeat what I’ve said in previous KungFuMagazine.com articles: situational awareness is key and may save you from having to defend life and limb. Not being in a situation is the best defense.
I will say this about street assaults, particularly those that don’t involve robbery as a primary motive; you don’t know what’s in the heart of your assailant and you can’t afford to make a judgmental error when the penalty is death or dismemberment. Evil exists. When facing it, you must have the resolve to make split-second decisions that, quite frankly, you’re literally betting your life on.
Let’s talk about jamming.
Jamming the weapon hand before it comes up with the weapon, whether gun or knife, is better than trying to engage once the weapon is being brought to bear against you. Jamming is useful if you and your assailant are close enough for you to close the gap quickly. It also is based on awareness. There’s that term again—awareness.
If you see an individual that you assess as a potential assailant, make a gesture that looks like a draw from his/her waistband, consider it a draw and act immediately. Waiting until the weapon is fully visible does you no good and decreases your chances of survival. You must have a good sense of distance and timing to accomplish this. Studio practice with a training partner is the best way to develop this skill.
Please note that I am not suggesting that you launch yourself at every passerby that might reach for their waistband. The person may be reaching for their cell phone. Situational awareness requires that you prudently correlate multiple streams of sensory data to form a reasoned opinion of whether a threat is there or not. Do not discount “gut” feelings.
Using both of your arms, extend your hands directly towards the point of draw and launch at the opponent’s drawing hand with all the forward momentum you can muster. You are rushing your opponent and jamming his hand in place at or near the waistband. We’re talking about hurling yourself forward and forcibly slamming yourself right up against the assailant and pinning his weapon hand to his body. Colliding with your opponent when executing the jam is an integral part of the technique as your shoulder, headbutt and body mass must create a jarring impact. Not a hug—a jarring impact.
Gluing yourself to the opponent will allow you to headbutt, knee spike and foot stomp while controlling the assailant’s mobility. The headbutt is a contiguous element of the rush and should impact the assailant’s face upon your initial contact with his body. Those strikes can, at a minimum, distract your opponent and facilitate suppression of his weapon hand. Suppressing the weapon hand is your primary objective, as it represents the lethal threat. That objective must occupy 100% of your being.
To practice this, you can duct tape a training knife or pistol to a heavy bag at waist level and practice rushing forward, slamming forcibly into the bag while getting your hands solidly on the weapon. You and a training partner, using due caution, can also pad up and practice it. I recommend starting with the heavy bag and move on to partner training once you’ve got the basic elements down. Those basic gross motor movements are exactly what you need to hone as they will allow you to close the gap and get hands on the weapon threat. Form is not important here; speed of engagement and violence of action are.
Once you’ve closed the gap and are suppressing the drawing hand, do not let go. You can’t. Your entire focus at that point is to maintain suppression and control of the weapon hand while you do as much damage as possible to the assailant with repeated headbutts, knee-to-groin strikes, knee spikes to the legs and foot stomps. Bite if you can. This is a fight for your life.
The assailant isn’t likely to remain static when you plaster yourself into him. He may hunker forward and try to push you back or he may move laterally. You must maintain pressure against him, constantly pushing him backwards as you pin the weapon, headbutt, knee and stomp in a continuous, violent flurry. Punishing and disorienting the opponent with the blunt force impact of your initial contact will be key. The headbutt and knee-to-groin may drop him but keep the pressure on. Keep pressing against him, kneeing, stomping, and slamming your head into his face while pinning the weapon hand.
Practice tucking and canting your head away from your opponent when executing this rushing assault so as not to present your face as an inviting target for the opponent’s other hand. The tuck helps ensure that the bony portion of your head impacts the opponent’s face. The headbutt is going to be your primary offensive technique because knocking your opponent unconscious is your best bet for survival. You have to practice headbutting in order to accustom yourself to using only the bony part of the skull as the impact surface, not your own face.
You can’t leave the assailant armed and functional and try to run—he will shoot you or maybe he will catch up and stab you. Once you have engaged, you stay engaged until one of two things occur—you have knocked the assailant unconscious and taken possession of the weapon, or you have otherwise gained positive control of the weapon negating its use against you.
What does “otherwise gained positive control of the weapon” mean? It means that you have wrested the gun from the assailant’s hand, preferably breaking his trigger finger inside of the trigger guard in the process. Or, if an edged weapon, you have gained possession of the knife.
Most martial arts practitioners have seen the gun disarms where the defender grasps and twists the weapon in such a way as to bend and break the trigger finger utilizing the trigger guard. Those are great if you can apply them. That takes repetitive practice—lots of it. And, be forewarned, if you wrench the trigger finger around inside of the trigger guard, it’s highly likely the weapon will fire. This is particularly true if it is a “Glock-style” trigger or if the weapon is cocked and in “single-action” mode. If you aren’t a gun person and are unfamiliar with those terms, look them up. It is important that you understand the mechanics of the weapons you may face.
If the weapon is a semi-auto pistol and it goes off in your hands, do NOT let go. Yes, the slide will move and you may sustain a cut and/or a powder burn. Don’t let go. To live, you must gain possession of the weapon or completely incapacitate (knock out) your opponent. The same process applies if the firearm is a revolver. If it discharges in your hands, as with the semi-automatic, you may sustain a powder burn or a cut. Those are very minor injuries. Do not allow the suspect to regain control of the weapon. That definitely won’t bode well for you. By the way, if you’re unfamiliar with what a revolver is, look it up. You must understand the threat.
If the weapon is a knife, you must face the likelihood of being cut when executing a suppression or a takeaway. That is simply the reality of it. Getting stitched up in the ER is infinitely better than being toe-tagged in the morgue.
As with the handgun threat, your objective is to suppress the knife hand and incapacitate your opponent. Again, while pressed up against and “glued” to your opponent, the headbutt is the strike most likely to afford you a knockout if executed properly. A knockout will allow you to gain positive control of the knife. I repeat, a headbutt can give you a knockout and a knockout will give you control of the weapon. This is not to minimalize the knee strikes or foot stomps. When you practice, in addition to executing the headbutts, train yourself to literally rain a constant flow of knees and stomps onto your assailant while your hands are engaged in maintaining control of his weapon hand.
The next recommended defensive technique will sound grisly and brutal, but violence of action is part and parcel to defending your life. Once you have gotten both of your hands onto the assailant’s weapon hand, your best option (besides a knockout blow using that trusty headbutt) is to force the blade of the knife into your assailant’s side or leg. Yes, that sounds bad. So is dying. Once you’ve gotten both of your hands on the assailant’s weapon hand, the suspect will naturally struggle to maintain control of the knife, which will likely involve either pulling the knife back from you or pushing it towards you. Those movements are what will open the opportunity for you to redirect that energy and the knife into the assailant’s side, hip or upper leg. Do it repeatedly if you can. You didn’t start this, but you must end it if you want to live. It’s your life.
To train this properly, you need to train repetitions with a safe (rubber) weapon and a training partner. You won’t be able to work out the kinks and burn in the desired neural-muscular memory if you don’t practice against a resisting opponent. Ask your training partner to refrain from slow, smooth, deliberate movements—ask them instead to use quick, panicked, jerky movements.
If you practice Chin Na joint manipulations as part of your martial arts repertoire, you will be familiar with how to direct an opponent’s wrist into unnatural, compromising configurations. Those manipulations also work when the hand is holding a weapon. Practice executing those maneuvers with your training partner while your partner is gripping a practice pistol or knife. Practice them enough that you can do them by feel without having to look at the technique.
If your kung fu practice is mostly striking, I highly recommend that you investigate adding Chin Na to your curriculum. Find someone who is knowledgeable and add those invaluable techniques to your regular self defense practice. In addition to Chin Na joint manipulations, understanding the basics of Shuai Jiao disbalancing methods will also add immeasurably to your self-defense abilities.
In gun and knife defense, both of your hands will be tied up controlling the weapon and, consequently, you won’t have the option of punching. You will be too close to effectively kick. In order to stay in the fight, you not only have to suppress the assailant’s ability to employ the weapon, you also have to simultaneously degrade his ability to aggress without taking your hands off the weapon. Headbutts, knee strikes, stomps, structure compromises and joint manipulations are what you’ll have to work with. If those aren’t in your repertoire, you will be at a distinct loss.
Keep it simple and use direct, gross-motor movements. Anything complex is prone to failure. Knee buckles are designed for just this sort of close-range engagement, but they require proper placement of the foot inside of the opponent’s stance and circular maneuvering of the knee to make them work. Headbutts, knee strikes to the groin, knee spikes to the thigh and foot stomps are simple to execute and require less complex body movement. You don’t want to be trying to put together complicated fine-motor movements while you’re struggling to suppress a knife or gun.
“Victory is reserved for those who are willing to pay its price.” –Sun Tzu
