Mythbusters Never Bring a Knife to a Gun Fight

so it's knife vs. gun part two and back at bout HQ Adams readying to run rings around Jamie the myth is that it is foolish to bring a knife to a gunfight but if you were standing in front of me with a knife in your hand and I've got a gun in my holster I think I'm in danger what we want to know is what is the minimum distance at which a knife is in fact dangerous to a person with a gun this circle is how we're going to figure that out Jamie and I will stand back-to-back on this dot when he feels the museum will start to run towards the outside of the circle the moment I feel him move I pull out my gun [ __ ] it pull the safety off and fire around the moment Jamie hears we fire around he stops running the distance at which he's standing when he stops running should be the minimum distance at which a knife is dangerous to a gun are you ready to do this absolutely all right here we go now how are you gonna tell when I'm moving we go back-to-back like this we have to touch unfortunately okay with the boys in their just-good-friends starting positions the waiting game begins until I was a little slow on that one not only was Adam slow but Jamie was fast passing beyond the 24-foot perimeter before Adam got his shot off I'm totally blown away by what this test suggests which is that bringing a knife to a gunfight might actually be the smart move if the distance separating the knife-wielder from the gunslinger is 24 feet or less which is a heck of a lot more distance than I ever thought it would be now of course we don't know this for sure until we reverse-engineer it and have Jamie run at me from that distance we'll see who gets the first kick and to do just that Adam adds a foam knife to his samurai switch box so it'll make for some safe stabbing here's how this goes I wear the hat I wear the shirt Jamie runs at me with a knife if he successfully stabs me I die the lights tell you that I'm dead with both duelers dressed for success I feel conductive it's go time now this time I'm not shooting at any cardboard cowboy I'm staring right at the face of death cause Hyneman is running straight towards me just like the time before I'm gonna be starting at will running like crazy for Adam and trying to stab in before he shoots me perhaps now is a good time to say don't try what you're about to see at home you ready I'm ready when you are that had to happen sooner or later it's a spectacular result if a little unexpected less True Grit more Blazing Saddles and unfortunately for Jamie the high-speed caught every last frame right up Giggy takes aim at revenge Once Upon a Time in the West Cowboys were coached to never bring a knife to a gunfight and after test one that seems like good advice I'm ready when you are but with Jamie reset at the 24-foot mark it's kill or be killed take two yep a sprinting screaming Hyneman is what nightmares are made of but at this distance it was Adam who won the duel just barely so Jamie shifts the start line to 20 feet all right my Safety's on gun is loaded I've never heard you make that noise ever and he's face to face test I've been able to shoot Jamie at both 24 and 20 feet although 20 feet was quite close but the fact that I'm able to make that distance shorter than I was but the other test makes sense to me because watching him run at me while screaming is a fantastic adrenaline rush it is absolutely an incredible motivation to get things in order to shoot it before I die but will it be motivation enough for a 16-foot showdown fire you had the knife deep in my chest yep at last the hyneman's the hero from 16 feet Adam could draw and [ __ ] but not fire a pattern repeated on subsequent tests I'm dead it's official I'm totally dead so what does that mean for the myth when you hear the phrase don't bring a knife to a gunfight it implies that if you're the one holding a gun you should feel completely relaxed in your superior firepower against your opponent's stone-age good and I think we've totally busted that here we have demonstrated that a close-quarters a knife is a very respectable and to be feared opponent well that is pretty definitive you're able to get to me between 16 and 18 feet yep let's call 18 feet a guaranteed Death Zone by knife is a shock you know not called it being that far me neither

Channel: GhostDog

Views: 5,421,123

Rating: 4.7988796 out of 5

Keywords: Mythbusters, Never, Bring, Knife, to, Gun, Fight, part, entertaining, great, good, funny, season, 10, episode, 11, fun, cool, interesting, running, paintball, gun, Adam, Savage, Jamie, Hyneman, best, t.v., show, ever, documentary, Robert, Lee, myths, tall, tales, urban, legends, scientific, busted, experiment, modern, technology, lol, reality, cowboy, hat, lights, terrifying, yell, fast, quick, science, amazing, awesome, fantastic, HD

Id: ckz7EmDxhtU

Length: 6min 33sec (393 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 20 2012

Reddit Comments

[u/DarthTheon]

Sure you can, just gotta make sure they guy with the gun doesn't know when the fight starts.

[u/quicknote]

Another video on the topic with Dan Inosanto.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9igSoJHEdUo

[u/yknik]

Looks like the gun wielder would get off a shot much quicker if a double action revolver or pistol with a round in the chamber and no manual safety was used. But then again, who (in a civilian situation) carries a side arm in a fast drawing thigh holster. Maybe they cancel each other out.

Also, unless it's a CNS (central nervous system) hit like a brain shot or one severing the spinal column high enough up the body, chances are the knife wielder, even if shot will still get in a good stab. I think people tend to overestimate the stopping power of a hand gun and underestimate the potential damage a knife can do.

[u/FatherLucho]

Fascinating. The 21-Foot-Rule or Tueller Drill brought to life.

[u/phauna]

There could be double kills also, where both people suffer a fatal wound.

[u/Aleucard]

It makes perfect sense. The thing that firearms have over melee weapons is range; if you're already close enough to hit someone, it becomes a matter of personal skill over equipment, but nobody that's not had at least several months of hard training on it will be able to throw something and hit as reliably and as far away as a gun. That's why guns are the ultimate weapons nowadays. Knives and other melee weapons may not need reloading or as heavy maintenance (most of the time), but there's a lot to say about being able to reliably take down a target at range.

[u/Bikewer]

We had a great deal of discussion on this segment back when the MB forum was still open. I was a regular on that forum since it started...

Anyway... I'm also a cop and a long-time combat shooter (since 1965 or thereabouts) The notion of the "21-foot" rule is commonly taught to police officers.... Primarily as a mechanism to increase awareness and caution. No one can "interview" a suspect on the street at 25 feet... That'd look pretty silly. There may have been instances of highly-trained, fast, expert knife fighters attacking armed police officers somewhere...Sometime. I have never heard of any in 40+ years.
At least around here. There was that video from Venzuela or somewhere that surfaced a while back.. the officers were woefully undertrained and under-equipped.

As pointed out, no one knows why they had Adam use that rather silly rig and "weapon". No police officer on Earth would carry a weapon that you had to "charge" before firing. Our Glocks... Pull and shoot. And if you train... Pull and shoot very fast. If one has never seen video footage of competitive combat shooters in action, it might be instructive.

[u/loafmcloaf]

I'm betting Jamie would've gone 2-1 instead of 1-2 if he was holding the knife right.

Yeah, holding it reverse looks menacing/cool, but holding it the forward adds probably an effective 8 inches to your range. Especially for a charging attack.