Krav Maga Weapons Articles

• Armed Assaults
• Guns, Knives & Videotape
• Edged Weapons
• UK/US Gun Culture & Connecticut Shootings
• Reverse Knife Slashes, Natural Instincts & Working To Principles
• Reality Based Knife Training
• Joining The Dots - Spoiling Weapon Draws
• Violence As A Last Resort
• Notes On Firearm Disarms
• What To Do After Disarming A Firearm
• Defensive Knife Carry
• Weapons Vs Targets
• Knife Attacks - Pre-Violence Indicators
• Why Would Somebody Attack You With A Knife?
• Acid Attacks
• London Calling - Lessons We Can Learn From London's Knife Attacks
• Knives In Context
• Stick, Pipe and Bat Attacks
• Grappling with Knives
• Knife Attacks From A Research Based Perspective
• The Realities of Knife Attacks

All Krav Maga Articles

Dealing with Armed Threats and Attacks

As a reality-based self-defense system Krav Maga has solutions to both weapon threats and weapon attacks. A weapon threat differs from an attack, in that the aggressor is using the weapon in order to force compliance, rather than to injure, maim or possibly kill e.g., a mugger engaging in street robberies may use a knife or gun, not to harm the person they have targeted, but to intimidate and force them to handover their wallet, and/or other assets etc. In an attack scenario an aggressor is actively looking to use their weapon against the other party. It would be a mistake to think that all weapon threats are motivated by a goal, such as acquiring assets in a street robbery, or forcing somebody to move to another location in an abduction etc., as sometimes weapons are used to threaten and intimidate in emotive and reactive situations, such as when somebody has had a drink spilt over them in a bar. One of the issues with weapon threats in such incidents is that one a weapon is drawn it is very unlikely that it will be put away without being used i.e., the threat will progress into an attack. Therefore, the same physical weapon threat may be motivated by very different factors, and may have to be handled differently e.g., in a street robbery where it is only a person’s assets, rather than their person, being targeted, compliance is usually the best strategy. However, after handing over a wallet, phone and/or other goods, if the mugger does not quickly leave then a physical solution and response may be necessitated.

Krav Maga provides solutions to both knife threats/attacks, gun threats and stick/baseball bats etc., as well as techniques to deal with more “improvised” weapons such as bottles, bricks, and chains (flexible weapons) etc. Many people assume that anytime you are confronted with a weapon it must be disarmed, however weapon disarming isn’t always required as part of a solution e.g., it may be possible to temporarily control a knife, whilst delivering strikes and blows that facilitate a safe escape without disarming, or when dealing with sticks and bats, once range has been closed allowing the attacker to hold on to their weapon – not disarming it – at a range where it can’t effectively be used (when grappling etc.), will put them at a disadvantage etc. There may also be times when it is not possible to isolate and control the weapon itself, and instead the attacker must be controlled; this is often the case in knife attacks, where the assailant is using their non-weapon arm to move and control the person, they ae assaulting e.g., if they have their forearm across their target’s throat and are driving them back whilst performing a series of shanks and stabs to the body, the arm across the throat – along with the movement - will prevent any immediate control of the weapon arm etc. It should be remembered where knife attacks are concerned that the free hand is often used to grab, push, and control the person being victimized – an exception to this is active killer scenarios where an attacker is looking to move around and stab as many people as possible rather than simply focus on one.

Where gun disarming is concerned Krav Maa has solutions for both short and long-barreled weapons. Short barrel weapons comprise of semi-automatic pistols, revolvers, and handguns, where long-barrel weapons are made up of rifles, carbines, and shotguns etc. Over the years techniques for dealing with firearms have had to change as weapons have evolved e.g., in the 1940’s when Krav Maga was first developed, it was possible to grab the barrel of most rifles, as they didn’t fire at the rate of a modern semi-automatic/automatic assault rifle. With today’s modern weaponry rifle barrels heat up extremely quickly even on a semi-automatic setting prohibiting grabbing the barrel. This has meant that new solutions have had to be developed to deal with modern firearms.

Just as with other techniques and solutions, techniques dealing with threats and attacks, are grouped into families of techniques e.g., a combative solution to a knife threat to the side of the throat, shares properties and components with a gun threat to the front of head etc. This allows for many threats and attacks to be dealt with using a few similar movements. This direct, simplicity being a hallmark of Krav Maga techniques.