Yes, I have read all of the Landover series and enjoyed them. Never could get into the Shannarra series, though. My other favorite author (in that genre) is Tad Williams ... I love the Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn trilogy ("The Dragonbone Chair," "The Stone of Farewell," and "To Green Angel Tower"). Until I read Goodkind's Sword of Truth series (which I've read all of them to date), this trilogy was my favorite fantasy series. I also, though, *love* the "Guardians of the Flame" series by Joel Rosenberg. Umm ... "Night Riders" ... I assume you mean "Texas Night Riders" ... I haven't read it. I haven't heard of the Borderlands series ... I'm not sure if that's Joe's or not. I'd have to ask him. Mike
Back to Rending, Bashing & Slashing. Are deadly bladed weapons too accessible to irresponsible individuals? Can anything be done about it?
Re: Back to Rending, Bashing & Slashing. Umm ... huh? What's to be done about it? Not allow people to have knives in their kitchens or restaurants (including cooks and chefs)? Anything that cuts is potentially a "deadly bladed weapon" and that includes *a lot* of useful tools used by people in all walks of life. Mike
quote: Last time I went on a plane they gave everyone plastic knives instead of real ones. Wouldn't have done much good though since they also gave us all metal forks and spoons.
OK, I asked the question badly. There have been attempts at controlling Martial Arts weapons and such like over in the UK. Swords and Nunchakus for example are supposed to be transported in an inaccesible fashion e.g. at the bottom of a kit bag. We also had a media ban on Nunchakus. It all seemed quite pointless really, because anyone could go and buy a rack of Kitchen knives with no control whatsoever.
Personally I'd rather have everyone carrying swords than everyone carrying a gun. At least with bladed weapons if you've both got the same weapon then the skilled person will win, rather than the lucky one, or the one with the gun pointed at the back of the other's head.
Sorry to nitpick ... but it would be better to say that "the skilled person will have the advantage" ... luck is *always* a factor regardless of weapons or skill level. The best fighter in the world can have an "off" day ... or a bug may fly in his mouth at the wrong moment ... or whatever ;-) Mike
My favoirte weapons are the tuifa and a stick (escrima). In my dojo we have a class every so often where I say ok grabb a weapon and defend yourself. I always run to the biggest shoe I can find. You could be surprised what you can do to an attacker with a size 13 Nike. Linde
I like every one to be able to carry a sword around but then you'd have to let people have knives and other smaller concealable, silent weapons. At least guns make noise and let you know when it happens barring a high power silenced sniper rifle - too expensive anyway. A bag full of Ninja Stars equals a bagful of detah in crowded place.
Or a cheap, silenced handgun. Or a handgun with a rubber bottle nipple over the barrel. Or a silenced handgun fired from a coat pocket, or from a bag, or from close behind someone, or... Not really...you've got to be fast enough and accurate enough to throw them to start with, you need to be accurate in order to kill with one since you're not going to be able to penetrate through bone which narrows your targets down to essentially head and neck. And you've got to be fast enough that someone who sees you get out your ninja star and throw it doesn't stop you from throwing the next one. On top of that have you ever reached into a bag of sharp (and working ones are sharp) objects in a hurry?
Correction. They make ninja stars that are designed to break bones - real heavy and sharp. Accuracy isn't that important in a crowded place, just hit the person and move on. You won't be in a hurry to get the next one, take you time then there will be less commotion and wear thick gloves. Most people take little to no notice of what occurs around in a crowded shopping center - espcecially around christmas. They would see someone collapse and keep going. As long as you kept your movements small and didn't make a big scene you could do it pretty much all day. If you use a gun it can be traced - you'd just drop the gun but then that gets expensive. Stars cost about $5-$10 AUS from South East Asia. We should probaly stop talking like this other wise people will think I'm contemplating a mass murder along with being wierd and crazy. Hey where did everybody go? < I'll get them > *starts to bag up his stars*
Which stops them from being light, convenient weapons and turns them into somewhat bulkier things. Remember we're talking about trying to kill here, so you need to kill them with the first hit, which takes time to aim. Even if they are designed to break bone there's still a high chance of you missing, or just not causing a fatal wound. Well, there'll be plenty of commotion because you've just killed someone. And the wearing thick gloves in public would be slightly odd to any alert watchers. To a degree they don't, but screams of pain, large sprays of blood, people collapsing...even in a shopping centre this type of thing gets attention. And yet still throw hard enough, fast enough and accurately enough to kill with each shot? Depends where you are. Here guns are illegal anyway, so tracing really isn't an option since no records are kept except of legal sales. In America an hour or so with a vice and file can make the gun nicely untraceable, as can buying a fourth or fifth-hand gun from a private citizen. You should sit in on one of my gatherings sometime, they get much stranger than this.
yeah so do our talks after training. Guns are traced by their rifling, you remove this you are gonna hurt yourself with an exploding gun. You know you can fire a shotgun shel with a piece of plastic pipe te length of the brass, a screwcap with a spring loaded pin? cheap easy to use, safe and completely untraceable. If you really want to mass murder people you'd be better off using a big, heavy car (think 4 wheel drive tankish thing). Ater you fit a few blades, ramming spikes and the like you can drive around killing people at will. Ninja stars are razor blade sharp, hitting flesh with intention to kill requires only a flick of the wrist. Accuracy isn't that hard to get, just practise. Its more the shape of stars that are designed to break bone than the wieght - they are bulkier though - lob one at someone and it will do damage. Do you walk around looking at every person for signs of being a mass murderer? People just don't pay attention to other people. You can make throwing the star look like waving to someone, yell out their name then after throwing move off. It would be harder to dodge scrutiny after the 4th or 5th ones but not impossible.
Again, so long as the gun is registered under your name in the first place, which if you're going to be committing mass murder isn't particularly likely. A rocket launcher's almost as easy to make if you just want mass destruction. Or just break a gas line. There's no way people're gonna miss that one, and the police will take it out. Failing that the army. Doesn't matter about the shape, if there's not enough energy in the projectile it won't break bone. A heavier projectile can carry more momentum, and so doesn't need to be thrown as fast to break bone, although you will need to throw it harder. Uh, yes, I do, but that's not normal so we'll leave it aside. Remember that you're still going to have someone dying, cause of death a large chunk of metal slicing through their flesh. The collapsing, blood, scream and death rattle will generally get attention and cause panic. That'll put anyone on the alert. Hmm, maybe we should start a mass murder thread. Then again we don't really want to scare people any more than necessary.
Revisited this thread because I'm working on another article related to it. When I got here, I realized that I had a new post in this old topic. Lately, I've been playing with whips. They're a lot of fun. That "crack" is so satisfying ... and multiple cracks is even better. Of course, when you screw up, you get bit ... and boy does it sting. The worst injury I've had happened a few weeks ago. I was practicing some double whip using a 6' whip in each hand. As I came around with my right hand whip, the end of it caught under my heel. I expected to take the handle up over my head and crack the whip in front of me ... instead, the whip (caught under my heel) reached its limit and the handle smashed into my mouth. I felt the tug at my heel and realized what was about to happen when the handle was about an inch from my mouth. I had just enough time to think, "Oh ... this is gonna hurt." Then it hurt. I had a fat lip for a couple of weeks and it bled every morning when I brushed my teeth. One of the guys who was watching me said later, "Man, you're scary. You hit yourself in the mouth *hard* ... and your only reaction was laughter." My response: "What else could I do?" Mike
So how much use is a whip in a fight, hard to get the distance and timing just right to hit your opponent and when you hit yourself you managed to laugh it off, sounds a lot of fun though I can use the 3 sectional staff, another weapon that likes to injure it user more than the opponent but its not gonna be off any use for everyday self defence. The sword is a weapon I like, but again what use will its practice be. Practice with sticks will probably be of the most value in everyday self defence. Maybe we should be training with weapons we’re likely to have around, as the sword was when it was originally taught. Maybe things like keys, belts, and the most dangerous weapon we can legally carry, a chain dog lead……….
Actually, the whip can be very practical ... indirectly. I was first introduced to whip work by my uncle (who learned it from an old indian [as in Native American] on a reservation near where my uncle grew up). He also taught me some lasso and throwing knives/axes. I recently got back into whip because I started training in Sayoc Kali. Sayoc Kali uses the whip to practice projectiles. When you throw a projectile, you use the same wrist flick as used with a whip. So, by practicing with a whip, your projectiles get thrown a lot faster and, if you practice accuracy with your whip, you'll throw with more accuracy. This can (as has been mentioned earlier in this thread, I believe) be applied to *anything* ... coins, a knife, a pen/pencil ... etc. We don't worry so much about "sticking" the projectile (if it's stickable ... though we do practice throwing knives also and try to stick them). They're thrown, primarily, as a distraction while we run or close the distance with our other weapon(s). On top of which, playing with a whip is *a lot* of fun. It's very cool to know that you're making a little piece of string (the cracker on the end of the whip) break the sound barrier (that's what the "crack" of a whip is). We also do some work on "combat whip" ... which is also applicable. The same principles can be applied to a jacket, shirt, towel, rag, etc. To me, the whip is just another flexible weapon (and, if you review this thread and others, you'll find that I'm a *huge* fan of flexible weapons). I do practice with things I'm likely to have around Review this thread and you'll find a lot of discussion about that. Mike
Ok, I'm back, that was a large thread to catch up on! I take your point about how many everyday things can be used quite effectively as weapons. But what about purposefully carrying everyday objects that your ready to use as a weapon if need be. I’ve always considered the dogs chain lead as a very effective weapon, I’m surprised how chains aren’t more commonly used! More damaging than sticks and a lot easier to carry, and sort of legal if you have a dog.
