What to do if you are threatened with a weapon
Please note that we are NOT the original writers of this blog post. All credit goes to the original writers. Find the original post as published at this link: http://invictaselfdefense.blogspot.com/2013/07/what-to-do-if-you-are-threatened-with.html
Not a great situation to find yourself in.
People consistently ask me,”What do I do if someone has a knife and they want my purse?”
GIVE IT TO THEM.
“You? With all of your training? You’d give him your handbag?” I value my life and my health, and I don’t feel that wrestling somebody over my phone is worth perhaps being injured or disfigured for the rest of my life span.
Avoid any chance to participate or fight off someone with a weapon; it is not really worth it:
- Everything could be substituted – your phone, wallet, credit cards, car, etc.. None of this
stuff matters in the long term. It might be inconvenient to replace, and it could cost you money; nevertheless this is still a small price to pay in comparison to the long term effects of bodily injuries and disfigurements.
- You will most likely get hurt – this is the very fact of attempting to fight someone wielding a weapon, especially once you have minimum training. Stab wounds are really serious and cause a frightening number of deaths; their wounds can be tough to treat, and the rate of disease is high.
- Run away if you can, and comply with your attacker if it’s reasonable for you to do so
- You are going to die if you don’t
- You are with someone who’s going to expire if you don’t
- Your attacker is trying to get you into a car or van to take you to a second location
If you’re forced to fight off an attacker with a weapon, there are a couple of things to remember:
- You are probably going to get hurt if you do fight. The goal though is to minimize your injuries, and to attempt to have non-vital regions suffer the harms (i.e. out of the arms vs. inside of the arms, where there are all kinds of important arteries that could cause you to die if they were to be cut). Fortunately, the adrenaline that will be coursing through your body can enable you to avoid feeling some of the pain if it is not a vital cut, and permit you to keep holding your floor or to run away to safety.
- Always cover your head and neck
- Shield your body with the outside of their arms, not the interior
- Do what you can to run away and get to a safe area where you can call for medical attention (run towards individuals!)
- Keep moving, don’t stand still and make yourself an easy target
- Be as vocal as possible to attract attention from passersby
- Use improvised weapons to inflict damage to your attacker, and to also create space between you and your attacker (knock over chairs, garbage bins, use pieces of stone or sticks – anything around you that you can use to protect yourself or cause damage) – more on this next week.
