I have 3 broken fingers...

If I remember right, mace is illegal under the firearms act, so recommending is in place of an actual firearm is pretty darned stupid.

It sounds like you are describing the fence, but the purpose of the fence is not to signal you know martial arts.

 

A Surefire flashlight is just a tactical shooting light that is designed to illuminate and disorient. Many of them are palm-sized and made of hard plastic. Not exactly super deadly objects. Now the metal ones have a little more heft behind them and might double as a kubaton, but again, a kubaton isn't really meant to cause significant damage either.

 

Are you actually trying to suggest that the self defence application that surefire are trying to sell the product on is the ability to shine a light in your muggers eyes? That's nonsense

The picture you've chosen isn't one of their self defence flashlights.

This is one of the ones we are talking about:


The self defence aspects are clear, and depending on how sharp the edges are, could put it into a bladed weapon category with a mandatory jail sentence.

They're illegal in the UK.

 

I am shocked that mace is illegal in London. So what can you defend yourself with if you're not an expert in martial arts?

I don't know what the fence is. But the point is to communicate to your attacker that while you're not trying to start a fight, if they attack, they will be attacking someone who might know martial arts.

 

All weapons are illegal to carry for offence or defence in the UK. All of them. Every single one. We defend ourselves by ensuring that every single action we take is caught on camera so the police, who we fund through our taxes, can come and rescue us.

Those two things are completely contradictory. You can't achieve both.

 

I understand, it's not at all easy to move to a lower crime area of a city.

I don't know if that's true. Here is America, there are reports in the news of hoodlums attacking and knocking out, with one shot, defenseless people. I am assuming that hoodlums will attack someone who looks weak. If you look like you might be able to defend yourself at all, then they probably won't bother you.

I am quite shocked that you're not allowed to carry mace to defend yourself in London.

If you're the bad guy and you don't know how to fight, who are you going to target? The loud mouth telling you to back off and acting like they might know how to fight? Or someone weak?

 

Surefire does market on the ability to shine a (very strong) light into a person's eyes to temporarily blind them. That's why the military buys the crap out of them along with a pressure switch you can put where you grip the rifle when you're about to fire so you don't have to manually click the button in a potential firefight. These aren't your run of the mill flashlights and they're made for blinding people while clearing rooms.

To me, Surefire products being purchased by normal people (as far as the tactical light line goes) are crossing over the "I want the high grade military stuff I'll never actually use." I don't think you're overdoing it with saying they would be illegal to carry in the UK if you're using it for SD purposes. You could easily use such a thing to bash the crap out of people or even set up mugging somebody by shining it in their eyes while your buddy comes from the side and clocks them, they would never see your buddy coming (yeah, they're that strong).

 

I am so sorry that you live in a weaponless society. I live in America where, I guess by reputation, all (most) Americans have guns. I am just a beginner in martial arts, but I bought a gun anyway, just to have one. There is no very little crime where I live, so it's hard to justify it, in my mind, as home protection. But still, it's good to have.

I am surprised there are no martial artists who understand my point. Who is the hoodlum going to attack if given a choice? Someone who looks defenseless? Or someone who presents body language that they know how to defend themselves? Am I wrong? Is it better to look defenseless?

 

To the OP, don't go to suspected dangerous areas alone. Have a "battle buddy" whenever you can. Let somebody else do the defending for you, and if you get a cast put on you have a bludgeoning weapon at least : P. Not a lot you can do without the use of a hand, especially if it's your primary one.

 

You can wear butt kicking shoes (or sneakers). It's not ideal if you're not trained to kick, but it is something that you can do even if you can't use your hands.

 

Yeah, you could always strap some steel toes on and even a shin kick will do great harm.

I would still go with walking with a friend though, preferably wearing steel toe boots themselves!

 

You are weird.

 

A little zealous about a particular self defense belief, but I'm not really seeing weird as much as I am inexperienced. Dude has a whopping 6 posts man.

 

Fair point. I thought saying inexperienced would be disrespectful.

 

Mattt,
Anybody can kick in self defense. Of course, the more you practice and improve your style, the better you get. But it sounds like you're telling people not to kick if they don't know how. Why would you do that?

 

Hi Artemisia,
I was watching a video of Silat.
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qt0X6wMOMcw"]Silat Suffian Bela Diri - Devastating Throws, Take-downs & Sweeps - YouTube[/ame]

I'm impressed. But I also noticed that the instructor does rely on hands quite a bit. I would consult your Silat instructor. He/she probably knows what's best for your particular situation.

But in my view, nobody is gonna bother you.

Best wishes,

Mazulu

 

You have no idea what a tactical flashlight is used for, do you? Yeah, I'm telling you, it's a marketing gimmick. Those little metal ones with the rough edges are far from highly dangerous weapons. The main purpose of all models of Surefire flashlights is to "blind," "disorient," and "illuminate." You don't easily bludgeon people to death with a flashlight engineered to be small and light enough to fit into your shooting off-hand or to attach to the rail system of a firearm. That flashlight only exists to supplement low-light shooting conditions. It's not at all like a regular flashlight. They use very high illumination technology crammed into the smallest, lightest, most durable flashlight they can design. My Surefire can illuminate an entire acre of land like it's broad daylight. It's like a handheld floodlight. Those thumb buttons on the end are there so you can tap the button and fire your weapon, then displace and repeat.

 

It doesn't matter.

It all comes down to how it would be seen in the eyes of the law and if you can justify carrying it.

Heck you could probably be done for wearing steel toe capped boots.

 

Are you currently in Israel or London? The answer may be relevant to this discussion.