Self Defense Against a Gun Attack

Sundar J.

M. Brown: I am Sundar J.

M. Brown with Joe Diamond's Mixed Martial Arts Academy in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Today, we are discussing practical self-defense.

If my attacker is using a particularly lethal weapon, such as a gun, my best self-defense strategy is to cooperate. If I am not a trained martial artist who can't finish the fight, I don't want to risk, angering my attacker and making him more aggressive. If I am stuck in the stick-up position, this is my move. Please don't hurt me; I will do whatever you like; I will give you my money, my car keys. Let's look at it step by step, so we can understand what happens. The first thing you will notice that that I keep my hands where the attacker can see them. The second thing you will notice is that as my hands are raised, I am speaking to the attacker. This has a psychological affect of distracting the attacker, particularly because he is expecting the end of my sentence to come and it's precisely, in the middle of my sentence that I move. So, for example I am saying the attacker, agreeing and cooperate with him, please don't hurt me; I will do whatever you like. My wallet is in my left pocket; I have my car keys in -- see, that's when I moved. So I want to distract my attacker by talking to him. I want to keep my hands where he can see him and my first movement is to reach out with the hand that's on the same side as the gun hand, thumb up aside, thumb up, so that when I have reach toward his wrist, I move myself out of the line of fire.

So, two things were happening; one is that I am talking to distract the opponent and then in the middle of my sentence, I move and secure the wrist and step into him. Here I am, please don't hurt me; I will give you whatever I did like -- now, I secure the gun barrel in the same way with the second hand, thumb up. Now, I walk to my opponent's side. I want to maintain my grip the entire time. When I reach my opponent's side, I push my weight into him and then I come under my opponent's arm and I hold his wrist. I use the hands on the gun to turn the barrel of the gun towards the opponent. If I need more advantage, I can let go my opponent's wrist with my left hand and drag the fingers across his another's. This causes my opponent to loosen the grip and when he does, I take the gun; I retreat and I change the position.

I am standing in the classic stick-up position. My hands are raised and I am telling the attacker that I am going to cooperate with him. Please don't hurt me. Whatever you need I will give it to you. My wallet is in my pocket. My car keys are and I moved in the middle of my sentence, entering thumb up, securing the wrist and gibbeting at the same time to avoid the line of fire. One.

Now, the other hand just follows suit in the exact same manner. I grasp at the barrel of the gun, palm up, thumb up and I walked to my opponent's side. Now, the hand is on the wrist, I move and insert under the opponent's arm as I push my hips into him and secure his wrist and trap his arm into mine. Now, I start to turn the barrel of the gun towards him with my right hand. As I do, I can help by letting go with his wrist and pulling here on his knuckles. This should cause him to loosen his grip on the gun. When he does, I take the gun, retreat to a safe distance and holding that back. This concludes our practical self-defense video. Thanks for watching.