The following article was the topic of many discussions among fellow martial artists. It presented us with a tough question.“how can you defend yourself if the following happened to you?”[read the article below]
WINNIPEG, Manitoba - A passenger sleeping on a Greyhound bus was killed and decapitated by his seatmate on Wednesday night as the vehicle rolled across the Canadian prairies, witnesses said.
“All of a sudden, we all heard this scream, this bloodcurdling scream,”said Garnet Caton, who was sitting just in front of the victim, in an interview with CBC Television.
“The attacker was standing up right over top of the guy with a large hunting knife — a survival, Rambo knife — holding the guy and continually stabbing him, stabbing him, stabbing him in the chest area,” Caton said.
The attack continued as other passengers fled the bus and waited for police on a desolated stretch of the TransCanada Highway near Portage la Prairie, Manitoba, said Caton, who helped bar the bus door to prevent the
attacker from leaving.
‘No rage in him’
“He calmly walks up to the front (of the bus) with the head in his hand
and the knife and just calmly stares at us and drops the head right in
front of us,” Caton said.
“There was no rage in him … It was just like he was a robot or
something,”Caton said.
Caton said the victim was stabbed up to 50 times. CBC reported the Royal Canadian Mounted Police took the attacker into
custody.
Authorities declined to provide other details of what they described as a
“major incident.”
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Now when I entered a Martial Arts forum and discussed with others how to defend yourself against this form of attack there seemed to be a lot of silence. Being how grizzly this attack is, it’s not wonder.
Some members in the forum said,“you must pack a gun”I agree with having a gun, knowing how to use it, and use it if necessary. But “you must pack a gun”does NOT solve the problem if you’re in a deep sleep in public and
suddenly someone begins to stab you and saw your head off.
Another member said you“must train for situations that are hostile”I agree with that too, but still it does NOT solve the problem.
The only advice in the forum I saw that had any merit was the member that said“you cannot put yourself in that situation. Think about it, ANYTHING can happen to you if you fall asleep in public. It doesn’t matter if the crime rate is high or low and it’s in the middle of the day.”
Now this man, I totally agreed with him. Sadly we live in a world where you cannot (or should not) leave your windows unlocked, your doors unlocked, and in this case, fall asleep in public.
Even if you’re exhausted from work, and dead tired, I know it sucks but stay awake! The only exceptions I can think of is if you’re on the beach
sun bathing.
And if I were on the train that day, yes, I would have emptied my clip into him. I would want anyone that attacked me to do the same. Even if I had no chance of survival I would still want someone coming to my aid unlike all the passengers there in Canada. They all ran in terror.
Another member was wondering if in Canada perhaps guns are banned. I looked it up for myself and here’s what I found:
[ By law, a potential customer must be 18 years of age or older to purchase a firearm or legally maintain possession of one. Citizens of Canada under the age of 18 but over the age of 12 may procure a Minor’s Licence which does not allow them to purchase a firearm but allows them to borrow a firearm unsupervised and purchase ammunition.]
But even if you did not want to own a gun, you can still protect yourself with a taser .
Its incapactation rate is equivalent to a 9mm handgun.There is no excuse to NOT defend you or your fellow citizens if something like this happens in your presence.
