6 Apr 01

This from a friend in South Africa who owns a local gunshop:

"Earlier this year, a woman came into our shop and bought a fighting knife. It was a cheap copy of a Spyderco. Over here, Cold Steel and Spyderco knives are extremely popular, but they are so expensive that a market has been created for cheap imitations. The imitations run one-fifth the price of the real thing.

This woman had never thought much about defending herself and did not own a gun, but security concerns worried her enough for her to take at least this small precaution. After her purchase, I gave her instruction in the defensive use of knives. Several weeks later she came back to our shop and bought a genuine Spyderco. Her timing, as it turns out, was elegant.

Two weeks ago she was in a small convenience store late in the evening. She was on her way home from work. When she returned to her car, she was confronted by an aggressive male much larger than herself. He grabbed her by the arm and forced her into her car at knife point. He then commanded her to drive to a secluded spot on the edge of town. She cooperated, as this man was threatening to kill her the entire time.

When the car stopped, he forced her out of the car and then forced her to lie down on her back in the grass. It was clear to her that she would be raped at the very least. Rape/mutilations and rape/murders are common crimes over here.

She complied, but, as soon as he put his knife down and started to open his trousers, she discretely retrieved and opened her own knife. He didn't notice. As he attempted to straddle her (with his pants down), she made her move and used her Spyderco to cut him deeply along his inner thigh, from back to front.

He immediately started bleeding profusely. He stood up in a state of confused bewilderment, and the woman took advantage of his hesitation and ran back to her car. She got in and left immediately.

No word on what happened to the potential rapist, as she left him there. She indicated that she is now going to buy a pistol."

Lessons:

>Sometimes we must wait for the window of opportunity to open, but don't wait too long. Have a plan.

>When you are fighting for your life, you hold nothing back. To do less would be to undervalue your life. Strikes must be made with precision and extreme violence with the intent of inflicting crippling injury. However, unfocused attacks, no matter how forceful, are seldom successful. You can't allow yourself to panic.

>When the tables have been turned, disengage and escape. No need to stick around or inflict additional injury when escape is available and likely to succeed.

/John