I Rethink Knife Fighting

I have not written a series in quite some time, but this topic will do better as a few posts of short to moderate length than one long post.

In recent years, I have shied away from the idea of training in knife fighting because:

1. If attacked with a knife, you ordinarily do not have time to draw a weapon of any kind;
2. In the rare case that you might have time to access a weapon, I prefer my .45 forl reasons.that should be obvious.

However, a recent email from Jason Hanson has caused me to rethink carrying and using a knife defensively. This would apply especially to those who find themselves in situations where legal prohibitions to firearms make it unwise to carry them.

Here is the relevant substance of the email:

Soon I’ll be heading overseas for work.
I won’t be bringing a gun or even a knife to the place I’m going.
But, I certainly want a knife on me while I’m there. (A gun is highly illegal and not worth the risk.)

So, how do I plan to get a knife?
Well, I’m not meeting someone in a back alley at 3am to get a fixed-blade knife that could’ve been used in a murder… that’s Hollywood stuff!

I’m getting a knife that I can “hide in plain sight.”
In other words, as soon as I get to this country, I’m going to the local grocery store.
I’m going to pick up a small knife used to cut fruit.

This knife will have around a 3-inch blade and I will buy one with a pink handle if there are any.
As I’m doing my shopping, I’ll also get something such as an apple, a pear and a few other food items.
I’ll carry these around in a paper or plastic bag, whatever is easiest to get my hands on.

The beauty of plastic bags is that you can have the knife in your hand and have the bag wrapped around your hand so that the knife can’t be seen.
If I were ever stopped by police, I could just let the knife in my hand go and it would fall into my bag. (The way the knife is carried, it’s already pointed down into the open bag.)

I don’t really expect any trouble where I’m going, but I do want to be prepared.
And, if I happened to get stopped by police, they’ll find a “dumb tourist American” who’s got his lunch on him with a pink-handled knife in it.

And, they won’t give it a second thought.
How do I know?

Well, let’s just say in my kitchen right now there’s a “souvenir” pink knife that’s sitting in my drawer.

So, if you’re traveling overseas at all, don’t worry if you can’t bring a gun or knife with you.
When you get there, all it takes is one stop to the local grocery store and you can usually get everything you need.

Just be creative and hide things in plain sight (email rec'd from thespy@spybriefing.com on 2/11/20)

I hope this opens up some possibilities in your mind as it did in mine. In the next post, I want to make some comments on this that involve application.