By Don N.
A Mormon bishop used a samurai sword to come to the aid of a woman who was being attacked outside his home yesterday. Can you imagine the national media covering an incident in this same manner if a gun had been involved? A guy’s teenage son alerts him to a woman screaming for help. He quickly grabs the sword he keeps by his bed for home defense, goes outside and confronts the thug. The attacker backs off, runs away and the man with the sword pursues him. Now he’s a hero . . .
But imagine the story with one slight difference. A guy’s teenage son (OMG a white teenage male…that’s the spree killer demographic!) alerts him to a woman screaming for help. He quickly grabs the gun he keeps by his bed for home defense (You have a gun in your home with a child? Why do you need a gun? Don’t you keep it locked up? Are you paranoid or just irrationally afraid?)
The gun owner goes outside (What were you doing? Are you the town watch captain? Why didn’t you call the police and wait? Were you looking for a fight? You’ve just been waiting for a chance to shoot someone, haven’t you?). He confronts the thug (How did you know he was a mugger? Were you just presuming his guilt? Were you profiling? Do you think you’re some kind of a hero? You obviously watch too many cowboy movies! All you did was make the situation more dangerous. What if innocent people had been caught in the crossfire?).
The attacker backs off, runs away and the man with the gun pursues him (Hold on there Dirty Harry, that’s illegal…you aren’t the police! You had no business running after him! You have a duty to retreat!). Now the man who was a hero while holding a sword is instead held up as a another nut with a deadly weapon. There will probably be a rally against vigilantism in his town and a lawsuit against him for profiling the alleged mugger and recklessly endangering the community.
Very nice, I’ve always liked the katana-style swords, but I’m still going for a decent shotgun/handgun first.
Still, seems like the guy knows how to use his weapon. 🙂
Can’t get behind the asian thing. Rather have a basket hilt claymore or a rapier.
He’s taught martial arts for many years. I’m a Roman gladius man myself.
I’ve been pining for an Ames Civil War era artillery short sword, modeled after the gladius.
In the close confines of a home defense scenario there’s a lot to be said for the gladius type weapon if for some reason you can’t or won’t own a gun.
Have a katana (technically an unsharpened iaito), been thinking about switching to a hand and a half once i get the money… after i get a pistol and a suppressed sbr.
Strength and Honor.
I prefer a light saber. This is the weapon of a Jedi Knight. Not as clumsy or random as a blaster . . . an elegant weapon for a more civilized age.
I have a short two handed katana (the blade is Wakazashi length…22″…..instead of around 30″ on the regular length) under my bed. I can use it one or two handed.
Wow, that guy has some Cajones. Like seriously.
Alas, in a true HD Scenario that blade would be only marginaly better than being unarmed.
Disagree. The sword, short sword, or combat knife can be 100% badass in the hands of a skilled individual.
Especially since most confrontations happen in less than 3 yards, also he doesn’t have to worry about over penetration does he;)
Also disagree. A college kid in Baltimore had a break-in and his lap top stolen. Cops came, but no bad guy. Just as the po-po are leaving, kid hears something in the garage and goes to investigate–with his Chinese made stainless katana in hand. The burglar (a career criminal) tries to jump him, and for his trouble gets an overhanded blow that slices four inches down from the top of his shoulder, killing him.
Word to the wise: a well-made sword and a little skill are a deadly combination, quite able to easily remove various appendages, cause massive stab and cutting wounds, and generally kill quite efficiently and with far greater effect and range than a knife.
I’m remembering what a knife instructor, many years for the USMC at Pendleton told me once about knife fights-
The winner of the knife fight between two experts is the guy who goes to the emergency room and dies on the table.
The loser dies in the street before the ambulance gets there.
Point being, better to be shot than get cut by someone who knows what they are doing. Which leads to:
Dont bring a knife to a gun-fight.
A proper two handed short sword is not a knife. You can incapacitate quicker than anything BUT a shotgun, inside a room. You are correct about knives though, as you REALLY dont want to be involved in a knife fight.
Well, don’t I feel silly.
I’ll stick with hot lead instead of cold steal, but to each his own~
Couldn’t hurt to learn swordfighting though, I’ve always wanted to LARP errr-Be a Ninja, yeah. Ninja.
Nine, I agree that I would rather have a gun. But for some that’s not an option. If something was to happen to my guns, I have several edged weapons that would fill the void.
I would rather meet an intruder with my Ka Bar cutlas machete than bare handed.
In many instances, it can be more effective than a gun……people can see that they will have their heads and other body parts cut off if they choose to fight, and you can reach them in less than a second with violent and overwhelming power.
While we’re at the “what if” game; what if that mugger had a gun and a previous record? Never bring a knife (even a 29″ one) to a gunfight and all that.
Fred is correct
True, but never bring a knife to a sword fight.
I saw this this morning on ABC’s Good Morning America and thought the same…. damn… thought
A double barrel shotgun is what this guy really needed. Fire two blasts…ok that old now.
I’m surprised that he didn’t use a firearm, considering the huge numbers of firearm owners in Utah.
I have a Shinwa sword mounted on my wall. It’s ready for slicing up zombies and watermelon!
Wait! Now there’s a Watermelon Apocalypse coming?
Yeah, Zombies are so yesterday.
It’s terribly unfortunate that history doesn’t record the final thoughts of gun-banners, who realized their awful folly in the final seconds of their lives!
It’s too bad the perp didn’t go after him. They could have buried him Mon,Tues & Wed, Randy
Sad that the leftists have created a nation where coming to someone else’s aid leaves one open to legal and media butchering. At least there’s some poetic justice, where good people may now be too wary to come to a leftist’s aid. Not that I would come to their aid anyway if I knew they were a leftist. I’d do exactly what they’d want: call their beloved police and wait fifteen minutes for them to get there, eating some popcorn as I watch.
Wow. Though the mental picture of the mugger dropping his knife at the sight of this screaming Mormon bishop with his sword is a hilarious thought.
It’s true that guns beat swords, but there’s reason why human beings used swords in centuries of warfare… it’s an efficient weapon in trained hands.
An elegant weapon for a more… civilized age?
NEEEERD!
+1
Though the mental picture of the mugger dropping his knife at the sight of this screaming Mormon bishop with his sword is a hilarious thought.
Ayup. Someone didn’t listen to Anne Lennox.
Aw damn, you had to go and post that music vid! Now I gotta find some Anne Lennox tunes for the mix. Thanks.
I have a bat signal on my roof for home defense and its wired to a clapper to turn it on and off.
You have no idea how strongly this resonates with arguments I’ve had with people about DGU. Every counter and rebuttal you present as if thrown up by them is spot on.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Tim_McLean
Need to ban greyhound buses. It’s for the kids.
i wonder how far Joe is going to insert his foot this time
Armed good Samaritans credited for stopping two crimes:
http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=news/local&id=8932866
Edged weapons are also covered by the Second Amendment. I could see the carrying of swords coming back into fashion.
We should start carrying around cutlasses. Then when they tell us not to we can say “well these were arms back when they wrote the second amendment!”
Sorry Dan, but I feel this article is pretty cynical. Yes, it’s true that the antis have the tendency to downplay or even bash law abiding gun owners acting in their or someone else’s defense. However, I think if this had been a DGU, it would have been more like this:
A certified NRA instructor defended his neighbor, whom he knew, simply by flashing his home carry weapon. His son stayed inside to call 911. He chased the perp down the street, not to incite violence, but to attempt to detain him or get more info about him (which Hendrix actually did by memorizing his license plate). While it would be possible to paint that in an anti-gun light, I think they would be hard pressed to. Either way, I think it’s up to us as the responsible community to not be biased, cynical, or make ourselves looks as closed off to new facts as the hoplophobes.
I understand what Don’s getting at, but I think in his altered history scenario the response from the press would be silence. There’s no way to spin this one unless the gun owner shoots the fleeing kid in the back.
This was my kids’ MOST REQUESTED ‘bedtime story’ for YEARS (Daddy has to read it ‘with the voices’): http://wearethevoicesinyourhead.com/?p=300 . [Am still looking for the original author… anyone? Beuller?]