Self defense with a knife, never say never

There is a poisonous philosophy going around the knife carrying world that a knife should never be used for self defence. They give a lot of reasons and sometimes better alternatives, but never is an absolute, and absolutes are almost always, at some point and time, wrong.

Replace never, with "last ditch only" and you would actually be giving good advice. With last ditch only you try all the other alternatives first. Usually they will work, but usually is not always, and when everything else fails lying in a ball getting beat into a hospital or morgue isn't a better alternative than pulling your edc knife.

Lets go down the alternatives, and their fail points.

• A gun/pepper spray/taser is better.
  
  Well, yeah, especially the first one, gun. But hold your cowboy hat Texas, there are states/cities especially in the Northeast that either force you to try to get a "may issue"(meaning they don't have to give it to you) license or an outright ban on one of the above.
  
  
• It's the law, you'll get arrested and assraped in jail!!
  
  Again, going to the hospital/morgue NOW, or possible jail later. This is not rocket science.
  
  
• You can run
  
  Absolutely, if you are fast on your feet, near help, this can be a good solution! If you can make this work, DO SO! However, unlike what the anti knife defense crowd wants you to believe, this is NOT a 100% success solution, I would say not even close or the hoods would go out of business. Running is a MOVE, the same as a martial arts block, a punch, or pulling a gun. Moves don't always work and you need to have more than one in your bag of tricks. While running might work great for a 20 something or even an older person who jogs a lot, it's chances drop when someone is 50 and not in the greatest shape. It also drops when there are multiple opponents.
  Also, where are ya gonna run to on a train/bus?
  
  So run if you can, just don't assume that will always get you home free.
  
  
• Just give them the money
  
  Sure, try that, but I can't tell you how many news stories I've read about people who handed over the money and then were beaten/killed because the crack/meth head loser either didn't think they gave him enough, or was just vicious.
  
  
• If he has a knife, you'll get cut
  
  See "give them the money" above. If they are not happy with the money you turned over and you can't out run them how are you not going to get cut? Your chances are better if you let them know by showing your knife that they are going to get cut.
  
  
• YOU'RE WRONG, YOU'RE WRONG, because Joe Karate at iknoweverythingselfdefense.com said so!
  
  OooooOo, Hong Kong Phooey said I was wrong, gotta concede immediately...not!
  
  I think some of these martial arts guys have been doing it so long they are not factoring in that everyone isn't like them. Sure Karate Dan can head kick someone and then run, good for him, but he's not considering that most likely some 50 year old guy can't do that and can't run very fast or long either.
  
  Just because some expert says something doesn't mean they are always right, and in the case of self defense if they are using the word never take that advice with a huge grain of salt.
  

So my advice on knife defense is of course try the alternatives first, but never, say never.