Defense Makes the Perfect Victim

If you’re going to kill someone, there are a few things that make the job that much easier:

• Time and space in which to work
• A preoccupied victim
• A non-threatening victim.

Defense gets you all three.  Or, more properly, the best victim is a defensive victim.  If they’re more worried about what you’re doing to them than what they could be doing to you, you’ll have a pretty easy time of it.  Being afraid of you and what you’re doing will cause them to move away in an attempt to gain or maintain distance.  All this does is give you the time and space you need to pick a target and smash through it, or to break something with a bludgeon, or put the knife in again, or fire the gun repeatedly.  Not only that, but the human body is far better at moving forward than backward—chances are they’ll stumble, trip and fall, giving you an effortless shortcut to putting the boots to them.  If you’re not so lucky, at least you’ll have an easier time effecting your overrun, since for every three feet you can move forward, they can only backpedal two.

If you’re using a tool, the best victim is the one who is focused on that tool—you want the person who will try to grab the gun, or bludgeon, or wrestle the knife arm.  It’s as good as pointing and saying, “Look!” to get them to turn away from you as you strike.  Much, much better to have them busy with your hand and arm than cracking open your skull.  With the hand being truly faster than the eye this usually means you’ll get to employ the tool repeatedly while they try, with lessening enthusiasm, to get hold of it while you work.  This goes for bare hands as well—you want a person who wants to block, grapple, or otherwise compete with your skill and strength instead of simply ending you.  A busy victim is an easy victim.

Of course, if they’re trying to keep distance, and their attention is focused three feet out in front of your precious brain, it means you have very little to worry about getting done in kind.  The absolute worst-case scenario would be a “victim” who wants to kill you as much as you want to kill them—that puts the win up for grabs.  Much better by far to have a victim who prioritizes keeping distance over crippling, blocking over maiming, countering over killing.  The ultimate conceit of defense is that if getting killed is the problem, then preventing that killing is the solution.  You know better.  In fact, you want them to be busy with the preventing, since that keeps them from hurting you.  For every attempt at preventing, you get to put an injury into them; if that doesn’t work, you’re free to do it again.  And again.  If they’re looking to block/counterattack, then they’ll always be a half-step behind.  All you have to do is pour it on until something breaks; the rest is academic.  (Or at least as academic as stomping someone to death on the ground can be.)

With all the defensive training out there, chances are you’ll be lucky enough to get a person who goes defensive.  If not, well, then just know it’s even chances—don’t waste any time.  “Whoever screws around is lost.”  If you see them screwing around—backing up, blocking, trying to get control of your arm—that’s just blood in the water.  If they start behaving like prey, take them.  It doesn’t get any easier than that… it’s like having two people tearing them apart instead of just the one.

— Chris Ranck-Buhr