Out of the box self defense thinking

[SIG_Fiend]

I came across this video recently. The main instructor is James Williams, and his self defense system is called the System of Strategy. The dude excels at what he does. It may seem cheesy or even somewhat fake but, believe me this guy is an expert. I figured some might get a kick out of this:


I guess I never really realized just how devastating a book or rolled up magazine could be, and especially a bright flashlight in the eyes at night. Even if I find myself in a deadly situation without my gun, after seeing this I won't hesitate to blind the attacker with a flashlight and beat them with a book! lol Interesting stuff to say the least.

 

[idleprocess]

I guess I never really realized just how devastating a book or rolled up magazine could be, and especially a bright flashlight in the eyes at night. Even if I find myself in a deadly situation without my gun, after seeing this I won't hesitate to blind the attacker with a flashlight and beat them with a book! lol Interesting stuff to say the least.

I would not count on more than a second or so advantage from "blinding" someone with a flashlight, and that's assuming perfect hotspot placement as opposed to searching for a face and giving the eyes a fraction of a second to begin adapting.

Surefire gets way too much mileage from their "blind an attacker" ad copy.

 

[JKTex]

I'll watch the vid in a few minutes but I'll say this about Surefire, I have an E2D Executive Defender and keep the higher 60 lumen bulb in it. In the daylight, it'll blind someone. While I agree, you can't count on it knocking someone down or out of service for that long, it will certainly leave someone with hurting eyes quickly. It'll buy you enough time to make the next move which hopefully is to draw if you didn't have time to begin with.

Or, with the Exec. Defender like mine, enough time to regrip the light and take a punch or 2 and remove sections of the BG's face.

 

[idleprocess]

I'll watch the vid in a few minutes but I'll say this about Surefire, I have an E2D Executive Defender and keep the higher 60 lumen bulb in it. In the daylight, it'll blind someone. While I agree, you can't count on it knocking someone down or out of service for that long, it will certainly leave someone with hurting eyes quickly. It'll buy you enough time to make the next move which hopefully is to draw if you didn't have time to begin with.

I would not be eager to test that theory at night, never mind during the day. Human eyes are not dilated so much during the day that a pseudo-point source of ~60lm in even a ~2-degree beam is going to do anything dramatic to your vision at much more than a foot away. I've had it happen to me unexpectedly during the day when friends were horsing around and it was nothing more than a distraction.

I'm leery about this because I've seen the idea given way too much credit on candle power forums (flashlight enthusiast site) only to hear the occasional report about how it worked when tested with the occasional "it kind of surprised the other person" being about the best result.

 

[Texas1911]

Just carry a mag light. Hit them in the head with it using your off hand whilst pulling your weapon. Even taking a swung mag light to the forearm would hurt like holy hell.

 

[SIG_Fiend]

I wasn't saying I would consider use of such objects as a substitute for a firearm or anything. Though personally, I feel that if I'm carrying a firearm I should also carry a less lethal weapon like pepper spray, knife (yes I know they are plenty lethal as well), etc in case the situation doesn't quite warrant a gun (fist fight or less serious altercation). I just found it interesting that certain objects like those in the video might be beneficial to have around, and in some cases could actually be pretty effective at disarming the situation. I'm definitely going to have to get a small flashlight like that, and will likely carry a folding knife in addition to a handgun (still procrastinating on turning the CHL paperwork in, yeah I know I'm lazy).