Don’t Bring a Jiu-Jitsu to a Gunfight!

Have you ever heard the saying, “don’t bring a knife to a gunfight?” Of course, you have. Well, this one is similar. I am calling you out! And before you get your panties or speedos in a wad, be reminded that I started training in BJJ with Royce and Rorion Gracie in the ’90s and am still currently hitting the mats three days a week. I am one of you.

Of course, I could have easily said, “don’t bring a Muy Thai to a gunfight.” Or don’t bring a high kickin Tae Kwon Do to a gunfight.” I think you get the point. I am calling out the hundreds…thousands…hundreds of thousands of you that spend hours and hours on the mats and yet fail to address the full self-defense spectrum. You are doing all this stuff to defend yourself right??

I get that most of you are training like you are to both A. defend yourself, and B. because you simply LOVE your martial art. But here’s the deal, we all need to accept the truth. You will NOT win a fight against a firearm if you bring your Jiu-Jitsu to that gunfight unless you are lucky enough to be close enough to grapple. Or if you are a striker, close enough to kick or punch. I get it, you are probably saying, “Mike, I can close the distance and….do whatever!” But in reality, unless you are nearly at contact distance, you are likely to get shot.

A perfect example is the recent church shooting shows that even though the first person shot is within a couple of steps, he either did not react by collapsing (a trained response that MUST be drilled), or was simply too slow in making that decision.

My point is that all you punchers and grapplers are indeed missing part of the equation if you have not looked at the entire self-defense spectrum. From my informal inquiries, I would guess less than 10% of the fighters I train with weekly A. have firearm skills that are anywhere close to their BJJ skills, and B. carry a gun regularly.

So I ask you Kickers, Punchers, and Grapplers, why not??!! Why have you decided NOT to address the elephant in the room? You might NOT be able to use any of those hard-won skills you have if the distance is not viable for you to put your hands on someone.

The funny thing is that most often this argument goes the opposite direction. Most of the time we look at the slightly overweight gun guy or gal that thinks they can solve all problems with the gun and shame them for not having empty handed skills. They respond to the challenge with something like this: “My karate style is Smith and Wesson boy!” “I don’t need that ninja crap, I serve up 9mm!” Whatever. They are as lacking in empty-handed skills as YOU are in your firearm skills.

Hell, I guess we might as well call everyone out. Do any of these fit you?

• “I have no medical skills….don’t own a tourniquet, don’t have a first aid kit.”
• “I carry a knife in my pocket daily…I plan to use if for self-defense yet I have never trained with it..”
• “I carry a damn gun everyday son! Fitness? Why would I need to be able to run or fight when I have a gun?”
• “I got me one of them AR’s when Obama tried to ban them all…it’s still in the box..”
• “I have a handgun in my house…but wait, I am not at my house right now…”

Ok, enough fun. Do you get my point? Am I pissing you off? Are you offended? Feel guilty? Good! Get your butt in gear and if you TRULY want to be able to defend yourself, then address ALL of the aspects of self-defense, and if you can, get some training and considering being armed every day you legally can. I promise you, that a GUN in a gunfight will trump BJJ or TKD ANY DAY.

So where do you start? Well, start by deciding. Decide to explore your options and attack (train) then just as aggressively as you do your BJJ or whatever art you do. Can you legally own, and carry a firearm in your area? If so, then start training now to do so. If you want firearms material, don’t spend a dime on paid programs (I offer some good ones, more on that later). Instead, start with free yet very good video content that will get you started. Sign up here, there is NO obligation of any kind. Just free content, and you will get content emails from me. Click here

Here’s the blunt truth. If I get you to address your self-defense options, you will be safer. If you happen to be the guy or gal that is carrying a gun and prepared to use it on the day when my family is in the store where the psychopath decides to shoot the place up, you might save them. And maybe I will be in the store when your family is there and the same thing happens. You save my family or me, I save you and yours. We create a SOCIETY of like-minded individuals that are prepared to defend our flock! This is a win, win.

So I called you out. Fighters should be shooters! Shooters should be fighters. We should ALL be fit! We should all be able to deal with a medical situation! I could go on, and on. But I think you get it…

Until Then – Train Hard!

Mike S.