Why study martial arts in the USA for self defense?

Serious question when you can get yourself a gun if you are over 18, why do it for self defense?

I get it if it's for fun, discipline, confidence etc.

Discuss, is it for bragging rights if you ever get in a fight? For non gun places like the club? If you don't want to kill someone there is always bear mace

 

Because women love to watch a dude beat the fuck out of another dude. It will get you laid in the usa.

THAT is the real reason any of us train martial arts, don't kid yourself.





Shooting somebody? Will not get you laid.

 

you do it for the bromance

 

You do it for the nookie





the nookie






the nookie

 

IMO, the only reason to train MA as an adult is for fitness. I guess if you live in a ghetto area like Detroit then it may be helpful but chances are you'd be attacked by multiple dudes who would beat the shit out of you and have weapons anyways.

 

i told everyone that asked, the same thing that i told myself: that i did it for self defense, exercise, competition, spirituality.

but that wasn't the whole truth.

i did it because i wanted to be like bruce lee and daniel san.

 

Am I delusional, or is Waldo in your AV???

TS, mace is a better answer than carrying a gun. Never heard of anyone dying from being maced. Mace is probably a better answer than martial arts, too. Mace + nut shot = you win. Flawless victory.

 

I'll tell you my opinion. I have a CCW permit, but I stopped carrying it after some research. I then took some sanda/krav training instead.

Guns have a social stigma attached to it. When you kill someone with a gun, it's going to be covered by the media and investigated by the law. Even if you fire a gun in a clear cut self-defense case, you can be on the hook for a lawsuit from the family/Brady Campaign. There's only 2 states that I know of, where there's a state amendment that prohibits such prosecutions.

For some situations, there's no replacement for a firearm. IE Home break-in. However, a significant, if not majority of confrontations, can be settled with superior unarmed combat or non-lethal tools like MACE. IE Road rage, bar fight, domestic situations. Cops quite often do nothing after breaking up a bar fight or at worst a night in the drunk tank. However, if you were carrying a gun during such a fight, it instantly becomes a life/death situation. What happens if the other guy grabs your gun and etc. Therefore, a firearm becomes a handicap in the non-lethal cases of self-defense.

A lot of CCW carriers will tell you, they will just suck it up and do nothing until their life is in imminent danger. In a road rage incident, they'll run away or even let the guy beat them up a little until they feel their life is in danger. This is a legitimate stance on the situation, but it's not my style. I'd rather have the ability to throw the first punch or mace the guy without turning it into a deadly situation.

 

Grabbing a guy and grappling him isn't going to be much fun if HE pulls out a glock.

 

Guns make for binary solutions: either you shoot or you don't. With something like BJJ, you can theoretically disable a aggressor without doing any harm.

So you can take that cookie and

 

This isn't the Wild West.

 

Because Murder is 25 to life and maybe Death

 

If you want self-defence, learn krav maga. But a lot of people are ignorant and think that stuff like karate, aikido, kung fu, etc, will help them. Even effective martial arts like BJJ or muay thai are dangerous to use on the streets because the techniques don't take in account guns/knives.

 

If you are normal functioning adult the chances of getting physically attacked are astronomically low.

I think training martial arts actually increases one's likelihood of getting into a physical altercation because you're less likely to walk away or pursue other ways of deescalation. Basically, you go into fight mode more quickly.

As far as carrying a gun on you, unless you're moving large sums of money or jewels or something like that, it's ridiculous to pack heat outside your home. I've thought about keeping my handgun in my car but there's really no reason to. Chances are it'll get me into trouble rather than save my life.

 

Cause they want that Matt Hughes money.

 

I would think even if you maced someone and it didn't affect him, that he probably has no idea, generally, if he will be affected or not, bc most people have never been maced. So it will probably at least make him confused enough for a second for you to still pull off that nut shot, or give him enough time to shoot you, assuming he already has is gun.

I've never been maced, but I've been exposed to tear gas, and people said mace is 100x worse. Can't imagine many people not dropping from it, although I've heard of people doing it. Which makes me believe those that were maced and claiming it was worse than tear gas were full of shit. Eighty something people were gassed, every single one was coughing and gasping and leaking mucous. No one just walked it off lol.

 

awesome post, thanks to you and to others for the clarification.

 

This.

Most of the time when people say self-defense, it means, how-do-I-kick-the-shit-out-of-joe-blow-who-made-a-pass-at-the-boise-dime-I-wanted-to-shag.

The worst case I got was, I got robbed in the train one night. Guy and his friend threatened that they had a piece. I gave up the bling (fake) and they went on their way. I felt like a bitch at the time, but I wasn't going to risk getting injured or killed for total value of property which was around $30.

Even situations like this is rare.