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"There is a reason why most concealed carry classes focus on a range of 7 yards-one lesson (the Tueller Drill) is that a fit adult can close 7 yards before you can draw and fire an aimed shot. The lesson of the Tueller Drill: don't bring a gun to a knife fight".

Thank you. I'm glad someone gets it.

I'm in no way advocating "knife control". I love and collect knives myself, but in nearly thirty years of military/police/security work, I've been stabbed twice, once in the arm, and once in the leg. I've seen a number of others stabbed as well.

When I was a much younger man, I was an SRT Officer. We routinely trained for just that eventuality. From any distance inside of about 7-10 yards, pretty much any even semi-decent knife-fighter can close on you and stick you before you can draw and put even one round in him. You might kill him, but you will get stuck, probably more than once, and it'll hurt like a bitch. If you come up against a proficient one (there are those who study the techniques very diligently...like convicts), it could be far worse.

Knowing that, I'm always amazed when the news automatically portrays a police shooting of a "mere" knife-wielding assailant as "excessive force". There may very well be such cases, but it's far easier to point a "blanket" finger of blame than to examine the dynamics of a deadly force encounter with a knife wielder.

Just try to make a split second "shoot-no-shoot decision in the face of an onrushing blade. Then compound it with having to choose between your service sidearm, a "less-than-lethal" alternative (i.e. Taser, chem, PR-24, etc.), or even the ludicrous "warning or disabling shot".

If you don't believe it, train for it sometime. You'll be surprised. I've always maintained that anyone who says "never bring a knife to a gunfight" has never been in a gunfight or been stabbed.

All of that said, I always have (since I was a small child), and always will carry some form of edged weapon.

Excellent post. I once read a magazine article by Massad Ayoub in which he mentioned that from across an open room an ordinarily fit adult male can close and stab you in the heart in one and a half seconds.

He mentioned it in the context of the fact that he often testifies to juries as an expert witness about this issue, when someone is on trial for shooting someone who was armed with "only" a knife.

I've also posted many times on this forum that the key tactical advantage that firearms offer is the advantage of distance. You don't have to close with an enemy to kill / disable them. Of course, as I like to semi-jokingly point out, knives don't run out of ammunition, either.