On Mon, 19 Jun 2000, Eugene Leitl wrote:
>
> Notice that you will be very unlikely to
> encounter firearms in the hands of thugs there (but do not
> underestimate cold steel in the hands of a professional, or the
> confusing aspects of a head concussion).
Most people I know "in the business" would much rather get shot at than
knifed. Contrary to popular misconception, your average person on the
street with an intent to kill is generally more dangerous with a knife
than a gun. The factors are complicated, though. It is considerably more
difficult to use a gun competently than a knife, and statistical gun
homicides are often competent "good guys", like police. While a
competently used gun has a higher lethality than a competently used knife
(statistical delta of about 10% IIRC), in practice a "good guy" has more
to fear statistically from a knife than a gun because of the poor average
gun competence of criminals (and the population in general), which causes
the statistical lethality of a bad guy with a gun to drop below that of a
bad guy with a knife. Overall, your odds of surviving getting shot
up in the U.S. are >80% from all sources (good guys and bad guys).
I am not supporting or refuting anything, merely throwing more facts into
the fray. Personally, I would just as soon avoid getting shot *or*
stabbed.
-James Rogers
jamesr@best.com
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu Jul 27 2000 - 14:13:54 MDT