For starters if you ever injure another human with a weapon you are in deep trouble. If it happens outside of your home, and not during the course of a clear case of self-defense, expect to go to jail and maybe prison.
If you are in a situation that you cannot survive without a weapon, than you can make three decisions that will minimize your legal liability:
1. Do not use a firearm!!
2. Do not use an edged weapon!
3. Use an unaltered blunt object as an improvised weapon.
What type of unaltered blunt weapons may you carry on your person?
1. This blunt object must not be a purpose built weapon and/or intended for police use: like a baton, an asp, a riot-stick, etc.
2. This blunt object must not have been altered to make it more damaging, lest it be defined as a sap or black jack.
3. You need to have a viable purpose other than self-defense [an act which few municipalities and states recognize as a right] for having this item at hand. This basically limits you to carrying light ‘dog-walking’ sticks, umbrellas, books, magazines; and perhaps a broken down pool cue stored in its carry case—but then only on nights when you go out shooting pool.
Examples of Justifiable Weapons at Hand
1. If you belong to a sports team, and the sport is in season, and you are going to and from practice or a game, than you may carry sporting objects that may be used as weapons. However, if you are a softball player, you better be hauling a glove and ball as well as that nifty bat.
2. This same to and fro clause goes with martial arts equipment as well. Keep in mind though, that most martial arts weapons are illegal to carry in many localities, particularly blades and chucks.
3. If you want to carry a hammer you better be a carpenter and bring the belt as well. Bikers and truckers sometimes carry ball-peen hammers to check air pressure—or so they say.
The Best Unaltered Blunt Objects that May Be Used as Effective Defensive Weapons
1. A flashlight that takes D-cell batteries, the longer the better. Do remember to carry this item only at night. This is a favorite of police and security operatives.
2. A small umbrella gripped by the wire end, using the plastic handle as a striking end. These things only hold up for a few whacks, however you have a hard-edged striking surface mounted on a wire frame that provides a wiping action. This will easily scatter teeth across the street.
3. A cane or a walking stick specifically designed to aid walking, and not altered for striking.
4. A simple stick with no combat grip or lanyard. This is an item that is commonly used by people who walk dogs to keep dogs from getting at each other without getting bitten.
5. The rolled magazine. Held tightly in three thick rubber bands, this is just about as good as a small flashlight or umbrella.
Tactics
The less durable your weapon is, and the more dangerous your adversaries are, the more likely you are to have a need to strike the head. The head is the only debilitating stroke with a blunt object. The problem is it is the only kill stroke as well. For this reason you are always walking a knife-edge between legal liability and self-defense disaster. I prefer the less dangerous light stick and umbrella and even a rolled up magazine.
Stabbing the face is a good alternative to caving in the side of the head.
With the harder heavier weapons it will be difficult to strike the hands and knees and risky to get into the groin. The single most effective and underestimated stroke in stick-fighting is the vertical down stroke to the shoulder. This paralyses and even knocks out tough well-conditioned men that blow off dozens of the hardest stick strokes to the legs arms and torsos that you may imagine.
If it comes down to it, and you need to take a man out and he is open for a lateral stroke to the head, angle it down into his neck. This will slam into the same nerves that descend from the brain through the shoulders to the rest of the body.
With a lighter stick I recommend hand, elbow, face and knee shots.
Conclusion
As a practical matter it must be understood that those methods that favor the larger, stronger and more numerous party, such as grappling and blunt force, carry fewer government prohibitions and less severe penalties than those methods traditionally relied upon by smaller, weaker and less numerous parties, such as edged weapons and firearms.
Many macho martial artists and gun enthusiasts invoke the old saying that ‘it is better to be judged by twelve than carried by six.’ In my view the saying could, in many cases, be amended to ‘it is better to be beaten by six on the street than to be raped by twelve or shanked by two in prison.’ I once spent three months of my life facing ‘assault with a deadly weapon’ and ‘attempted murder’ charges for defending my brother in my father’s house. I got off, but those three months looking at 15 years amounted to the worst period of my life, and I was in my home. Had I been on the street those three months would have been the beginning of 15 years of hell.
Do yourself a favor and don’t maim or kill an aggressor unless you have no reasonable alternative, especially if you are outside of your home.
Twerps, Goons and Meatshields: The Basics of Full Contact Stick-Fighting
How a locking carabiner used as a key chain? I use one large enough to fit all four fingers in.
I would have to punch something with my fingers in it before commenting. I can tell you that simply weighting your fist with a roll of dimes or pennies does add impact to the punch. Just now I am experimenting with marbles and golf balls. Try punching a pillow—not a heavy bag, just to see how it works.
I know it's been a while, but here's what I've got. My own experimenting is basically covered by what this guy has to say:
youtu.be/RzGrAvB6ni8?t=352
(I don't know anything about this guy other than this video.)
You need a carabiner that fits and locks. It's not good for straight punches, because it rolls backward. The shock absorbing effect might even make a straight punch less damaging, but I can't say for certain.
On the other hand, it seems to work effectively with strikes in line with the longer sides, that is, hammer fists and inverted hammer fists. Sometimes, in MMA, I've seen straight armed weaving hooks thrown that sometimes land at the ring formed by the thumb and index finger. A carabiner would work for that:
fat.gfycat.com/DeadBitesizedGhostshrimp.gif
Nice assessment.
I have experimented with one at the gym and would use it like a hay hook. I have a hay hook, by the way.
Hold the U-shaped end in your fist and rest the long bars and bolt end against your elbow, then throw a hook—and let me tell you, it's a hook! Your reach will expand by a foot and you can throw backhands and forehands.
My hay hook is part of my home defense weapon set, paired with a knife. The basic drill is:
Hide the knife in my left hand behind the hip
Hold the hay hook low in front and slap the face with a backhand
Look the back of the head or neck with the forehand
and then run his ass through with the daito, bowie, dagger, arbedo sword, CSA saber or dagger, depending on where I was in my room when he made the mistake of breaking in.
Will post as an article with commentary on the video.
Thanks, DvF.
Also, internet scuttlebutt has it that the fact that you can improvise brass knuckles with a carabiner is not, legally speaking, a secret. If you punch someone with them, it's as if you had used a, probably illegal, set of brass knuckles.
Stainless steel water bottle. Fits in a coat pocket and im sure wont dent if you hit the guy hard enough. Plus you can toss it and get out of there.
Bicycle pumps are good too. A lot of them are hard plastic and about a foot long. Some of them extend out to two feet for road side pumping.
I have my own tool kit so I can say I was working on my bike and left it in my pocket. My personal one is piston shaped (crankbrothers.com/pumps_gem-l) and opens like a mini baton with a flick of the wrist. If I smash someone it might break from the tension where the two cylinders attach and then I can gouge an eye out with the remains.
I also have a stick that was a gift from an ex special forces homeless guy with CPTSD. Its about 3 and a half feet tall. I have a bad knee that acts up in cold from a skiing accident so sometimes I use it to walk with. The top is thicker. If im forced to I can slide it up into my hand and shove the top into the abdomen. From there due to the weight I can swing the bottom up quick and knock the guy right under his jaw.
Very practical suggestions, Lazer. I'm not a cyclist and these things slipped on by.
Driving gloves:
weapons-universe.com/Personal_Defense/Gloves/SAP_Gloves-Fingerless-Large.shtml
Walking stick:
fashionablecanes.com/80585.html
They should give these people who are attacking others 35 years that would stop it.