Edged Weapons
and Violent Crime
by Patrick Roberts
Every year, approximately 8.9 million people in the U.S. are personally victimized by criminals. About 2.3 million of these crimes, or 26%, include armed violence, anything from use of a firearm to a baseball bat.
But when we think of armed violence we usually think of guns. We hear so much in the media about the use of firearms in violent attacks. The press from school shootings and gang murders, when guns are involved, gets wide exposure. We hear about the laws enacted to limit the ownership of firearms, to a great degree prompted by the publicity of these criminal acts. But of all armed attacks, firearms are present in 37% of them. What about the other 63% of armed attacks?
In 25% of all armed encounters, the attacker’s weapon of choice is a knife or other sharp object such as scissors or broken bottles. According to the U.S. Justice Department, approximately 570,000 attacks are perpetrated on Americans each year using a knife or sharp object. Yet we hear little press fervor or Congressional debates about these edged weapon attacks, and about limiting and registering the ownership of knives.
The situation is even more extreme in our schools. In a Justice Department survey of violent crimes committed on school property between 1993 and 2001, it shows that 37% of armed violent crimes involved a knife or other edged weapon, whereas 12% involved a firearm. Clearly, on our school campuses, edged weapons are far more the weapon of choice.
Further, when an edged weapon was involved in a violent crime on our school campuses, 32% of the time it resulted in an injury, compared to 8% of the time with a firearm. In other words, when a knife was involved, the knife or other sharp object was used four times more frequently to inflict injury than when a firearm was present.
This trend to inflict injury
with a knife is mirrored in the general population criminal statistics.
According to Weapon Use and Violent Crime, a September 2003 report
from the Bureau of Justice Statistics, your chance of serious injury from
an armed attacker with a knife is 90% higher than if the attacker has
a gun.
42% of all violent crime serious injuries come from assailants using a
knife or sharp object. This compared to 23% of violent crimes arising
when a gun is present.
3% of all rapes and sexual assaults in the U.S. each year are done with an edged weapon. 6% of all assaults are done with an edged weapon. 13% of all robberies are done with an edged weapon. And 13% of all homicides are done with an edged weapon. In 85% of these instances the weapon was a knife, in 15% the weapon was another type of sharp object.
Where are you most likely to encounter a violent attacker with an edged weapon? 25% of attacks occur when the victim is away from home engaged in some leisure activity. 23% when the victim is at home. 19% traveling to and from work. And 16% when actually at work.
“A criminal armed with a knife is a potentially deadly assailant. The first thing to know is how to keep yourself out of situations where you are a desirable target for his attack.” Says Dr. Ignatius Piazza, Founder and Director of Front Sight Resorts, the largest personal safety and self defense training school in the U.S. “Second, you need to know hot to spot a potential attacker, and see when one is in progress. And third, you need to know how to defend yourself against threats and attacks from the armed assailant.”
“The only way you can really learn how to protect yourself is by training and drilling with simulated, real-life attack scenarios.” Dr. Piazza continues. “Knowing how to handle verbal challenges, taking evasive movements to avoid a confrontation, and how to defend yourself, these are skills learned only with drilling and practice from street-proven techniques. Anything else and you are setting yourself up to be a victim of a potentially-armed criminal.”
Next time you are going for that jog through the neighborhood, consider this: You are more likely to be accosted with someone brandishing a knife demanding your wallet than someone holding you up with a gun. But that doesn’t mean you are in any less danger to serious injury or losing your life.
For more information on Front
Sight Resorts world-class self-defense and personal-safety courses, please
call 800-987-7719; email info@frontsight.com;
or visit their web site at www.frontsight.com.
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Patrick Roberts writes on crime and self defense.