Glad to see a huge dose of reality in this thread. There is no way I am able to duke it out with some young thug and come out on top. I studied Aikido quite intensely (eight classes per week for a long time) when I was younger with one of the students of the man who originated Aikido. Two years after I stopped going to classes (I moved to another city and there was nobody to study with), I was mugged by a guy with a gun and a sharpened screwdriver. There was no way my out of practice Aikido skills could have done a damned thing for me. Now, if I'd had a 1911, like I did after that incident, it might have been a very different story.

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Peter
S&WCA #2620