How often is a knife used in injurious violent crime targeting civilians? As showcased in magazines and training classes, masked men, public places, and knives are common. However, as we know from my book, except for robbery, we see strangers and public places as not typical for injurious violent crime. Regarding injurious robbery, strangers, public places, and “no weapon” are more common than robbers with knives. In short, if you are injured by a knife in a violent crime, the offender may well be someone you know, and it likely took place at your home or on the property of your home (e.g., domestic violence situation).
Robbery is the most common violent crime where an ordinary civilian will likely run into a violent criminal. Intimidation and surprise attacks seem to be the most common attack vectors. Public places, such as walking from your vehicle to your destination (and back) or to and from your hotel room, are pretty popular for robbery. My book goes through several ways you can avoid these attack vectors. However, for the sake of argument, let’s assume that you are up against a stranger who is a knife-armed violent criminal. Let us further assume that this person will attack you using a knife.
Let’s look at the knife a bit closer as a weapon. To use it effectively, you need to see, and you need to be able to move, and you need some speed, but not necessarily strength, unless you are blocking strikes. For our example, we will assume that seeing, movement, and speed is critical for our attacker. The knife is a close-range weapon. It is easily concealed in the hand for rapid deployment. There is also something primitive about the knife. Many people have an ingrained fear of knives, like people have an innate fear of snakes. This fear leads to a mental obstacle that needs to be overcome: Just because someone with a knife gets to you doesn’t mean you are dead. It would be best to get that notion out of your head, or you’ll lose the fight.
The saying “Don’t bring a knife to a gunfight” has held true for a long time. It still does in many situations. However, when the Tueller Drill became more known, a concealed carrier had to deal with an uncomfortable truth: a guy with a knife could get to you before you could draw and shoot. This mindset borders on “weapon overreliance,” as people are often stationary when they perform the drill. Lateral movement and putting obstacles (like vehicles) in between you and your attacker can usually be done while drawing your weapon.
Now we can ask the million-dollar question: What is the best weapon against a fast, skilled knife-wielding attacker? A firearm makes the most sense, but we can see where we can be at a disadvantage due to the Tueller Drill. To balance this out, some people choose to use a knife in conjunction with a firearm. The thought process is that you can deploy your knife faster than your pistol, which in all honesty, I feel is a questionable assumption. However, aren’t you still going up against a fast, skilled knife-wielding attacker, only now at close range?
In my view, the proper supplementary weapon to a firearm to defend against a knife attack is gel pepper spray. A small container can be carried in your offhand and concealed with your hand. This carrying style means the gel can be deployed just as fast as someone concealing a knife in their hand. The gel form eliminates blowback and has a longer effective distance, like fifteen feet or so. Pepper gel will cause severe seeing and breathing problems for a knife-wielding attacker. These problems can help us get away or give us time to get our firearm ready if the attack continues.
Anytime you are going to and from your vehicle or hotel room, you can easily carry a small can of gel pepper spray in your hand without being noticed, especially if you wear gloves that match the can. You can slip it in your pocket when you arrive at your destination. In short, it is inconspicuous, but extremely fast to deploy if necessary.
Pepper gel does have disadvantages – you need to watch the expiration date, and you need to watch the temperature range where it is stored. For example, if you live in Phoenix, the inside car temperature could reach a range where the canister explodes. Also, pepper gel may not deploy properly if you live in very cold temperatures. Like anything else in self-defense, any deployed solution has benefits and harms. Unfortunately, most people dismiss less-than-lethal weapons without properly evaluating them.