Okay, Newbie, I got some ideas for ya!
The thing that we thought about the most is that you shouldn't let someone get close to you like that in the first place. Like, what happens so that a person has the gun or knife up to you? Hopefully you sense them coming earlier and can keep moving away from them, not letting them get within reaching distance.
But, it does happen, so here's some tips and I hope they aren't too hard to understand...it would be easier if I could show you, but you know...
First, gun. Now, this seems really scary, but what my boyfriend was taught makes a lot of sense. If someone has a gun up to you, you can actually move away from it quite easily by pivoting away. You will not get shot because even if the person has their finger on the trigger, it takes them longer to register your movement, decide to shoot, pull the trigeer and send the bullet than for you to complete your movement. So, let's say someone has a gun to your chest. You pivot 45 degrees out and back from them, so while you were facing them before, you are now facing to the side, with them on your left (or right, depending on which way you pivot). This seems highly risky because of how scary guns are, but it really does work. My boyfirned has been taking these classes for years, he actually has a fake gun that he uses in class and we practiced. Sure enough, there is no way the bullet would hit you if you pivot quickly.
But, you're away from the gun, what do you do next? At that point, you'd have to fight, unless you run and take the chance of a bullet. This is where the eye poke or groin grab comes in.
Now, about a knife. usually someone would hold a knife under your chin. The best way to prevent them from cutting you is to grab them, right around the wrist they are holding the gun with and hang on with your entire body weight. Picture yourself doing a pull-up with your palms and wrists inward, not outward. That's how you hold onto the assailant's arm. Hold it tight, kind of against your body and think of you arm, elbow, hand and whole body as one unit. So, you're holding on to him and if he moves his hand, your whole body moves with it. So, he can't slice you because your body is moving the same way as the knife. This actually works REALLY well. We used my boyfriend's fake knife and I hung on and he said he was literally trying to slice me with all his strength (and he is much stronger than me), but the strength of his arm could not combat the strength of my entire body weight, with all my muscles tensed. He literally lifted me off the ground and was kind of swingin me around, but he still couldn't get the knife into a slicing position, much less move it across my throat. Once you are holding on like that, your other hand is free to grab his groin. There might be quite a struggle, but your most important thing to remember is to concentrate on hanging onto his arm with your whole weight.
So, I hope nothing ever happens to us where we use this, but if it does, I hope we can remember it if so! Maybe you can get someone to practice a few little tricks with yu. In scary situations like that, it's hard to think, but if you've practiced and have muscle memory, you'll be more successful!
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