How To Use The FBIs Crime Stats To Stay Safe

Here at Fight Fast.com our main goal is to help people defend themselves and their loved ones. This is something my team and I care an awful lot about. It’s why we do what we do. Part of that job is checking out crime statistics to see what criminal are up to.

I do this by using the FBIs Crime in the United States service. You can check this site out for yourself (there is more info than you could ever want) but I have already sifted through all the data to get right to the important stuff that will prepare you for what is out there.

One of the most important things to know about is weapons. What kind of weapons are street thugs carrying these days? This is an important question if you are trying to decide if you should fight or give up a possession. These stats might help you decide.

Robbery Statistics:

For the U.S. as a whole 42.6% of robbers will be armed with some kind of gun, 41.1% will be unarmed, the other 16.4% will be using a knife or other weapon.

That means there is almost a 50% chance that if you are getting robbed you are up against a guy with a gun. I don’t know about you but I don’t like those odds. It is shocking though to find that nearly half of all robbers are completely unarmed.

I’m not here to make decisions for you but I think I would give up my wallet pretty quick knowing that there is a 50% chance that the thief has a gun, even if I know that I could easily take down the other 50% using the brutal and effective self defense skills we teach here at Fight Fast.

What about aggravated assault? These situations are a little trickier. These guys don’t want your money, or your watch, or anything else you can easily give up. These guys just want to hurt you. This is where these crime stats can really help you predict what to train for and what to expect on the streets.

Aggravated Assault Statistics:

Guns are only used in 20.9% of aggravated assaults (if you live in the northeast only 14.7% involved a gun). 26.9% of aggravated assaults involve only hands, fists, and feet, 33.5% involve clubs, bats, or other blunt objects, and only 18.7% involves knives or other cutting weapons.

This should tell you that you need to be prepared for just about anything when it comes to aggravated assault.

After taking some time to analyze this stuff I realized that about 80% of these aggravated assaults can be avoided if you are able to keep the attacker at least 5 feet away from you.

Think about it, this keeps the person from using his fists and feet, it is out of range for a knife (unless he tries to throw a ninja star at you), and it is out of range for a club or bat.

The real trick is keeping the attacker that far away. My recommendation would be pepper spray. It is the ideal weapon for this kind of situation because it is pretty easy to be accurate with pepper spray in the 10ft. and under range.

Your other option is to learn how to deal with an attacker who is armed with a knife or blunt striking object. This takes a little practice but it can be done. We have several instructors who teach knife disarming techniques that work in the real world. One of my favorites is Bob Taylor’s Fighting Chance. This video actually teaches you how to deal with guns, knives, and clubs when you are totally unarmed.

I hope you found these statistics useful for your self defense training. One of the biggest keys to successful self defense is having a plan ahead of time so you know how you should react in nearly every circumstance. Knowing what kind of weapons attackers are using gives you the ability to be prepared for whatever they might have.

If you want to check out those crime stats for yourself go to the FBI’s crime stats home page.