A famous swordsman of old Japan, said to have fought in over 300 duels and never lost, Mushashi Miyamoto's victories could sometimes entail philosophical lessons on the level of Sun Tzu's Art of War. He would show up hours late to infuriate his adversaries, pick locations that gave him the upper hand, and generally thought outside the box of typical melee combat. Once, when well past his hayday of relishing the fight, Miyamoto agreed to have it out with some young rascal who challenged him on a nearby island. They both loaded up on a small canoe, paddled over to the small land mass, and the young man hopped out. When he turned to find Musashi rowing back to the mainland, he called him a coward and demanded the fight he was promised. With a wise grin, the old master simply replied "don't you see, I've already won!"
Is it a threat? Is it not a threat? Is it a threat that merits lethal force?
This line of questioning should be quick but clear in the face of an impending confrontation. If the answer to the last question is no, then you should consider your scenario before resorting to something that could kill. It can be easy to lose sight of the scale of responses available for a threat when we spend our time obsessing over our pewpews. But, just as so many cry for non- and less-lethal options in police arsenals, it is important for us all to have a variety of options for self defense.
And your first weapons aren't tools at all - they're posturing. You can avoid a physical fight and indeed an array of verbal abuses by simply being aware and savvy enough to prevent things devolving to that point. Via placation, intimidation, and submission, many of the situations we find ourselves in every day are steered clear of violence without even realizing what we're doing. Take that a step further now. You can actively read body language, listen for vocal cues, and respond in kind to increase the odds of illiciting the reaction you want in a given situation. I love my knives and long for more guns, but never forget the power of the human mind.
Sometimes however, when such passive tactics aren't enough, the threat still doesn't need to end with the taking of a life. In these instances, a plethora of (I'll admit it) fun options exist to be utilized:
Batons seem like a natural starting point.
These bad boys can be a pain to get ahold of, as I think the collapsable ones are illegal for civilians to purchase (?), but these suckers are a tried and true alternative to lethal carries - to the point that in the land of car massacres and sword stabbings that's pretty much all the police keep on them. Even our cops' flashlights are a direct mimmick of the form to allow beatdowns with them to be as natural as possible. I'd even go so far as to say it's one of the most comfortable options for the untrained but concerned beginner given that it's the direct ancestor of what Burton deemed the first weapon of mankind - the good lord's stick. There are also cable versions that add a whipping action to each strike and supposedly get very painful with little effort.
Another staple of police the world over that is found in every knockoff gear magazine I've ever thumbed through is the taser.
Whether stuck on the end of a tube or shot in a pair of prongs, the taser has long kept the world of tv criminals safely at bay. Nobody on tv ever dies of a heart attack though, so there is that... It's like the shotgun of purse carries, immediately identifiable by both its look and that crackling sound that can put even people who've never had the pleasure of being zapped on the defensive.
Not unlike a chemical taser, the other item often found in many purses is pepper spray.
It can be found in containers as tiny as one-spritz rings and be powerful enough to stop a bear in its tracks. You know, bears, the most dangerous and unstoppable predator on the entire North American continent? Aside from linking arms and walking through warehouses crying and snotting like newborns, nobody voluntarily gets near this stuff. When they fumigate prison blocks the inmates are left breathing air that burns their throats for weeks after. This stuff is nasty, granted it doesnt seem to share the same scare factor as its electric cousin above.
Before we get to the least less-lethal option on my short list, let's give a courtesy mention for the common items that make one better in a fist fight - knuckle dusters, kubatons, tactical pens (see kubatons), monkey fists, and similar self defense knick knacks can be bought in all shapes and sized and mimmick everything from the bones of a fist to the point of a knife. These can get deadly if you're not careful.
Speaking of deadly if you're not careful, my last mention might not make it on most non-lethal lists but is another ancient staple of modern hominids I find important to include - the knife.
They can be deadly, especially if you know how to be deadly with them (or don't know how to be NOT deadly with them), but they can also be used to induce pain and shock without much danger to life. Thing about this level of lethality, however, seems to be that if you end up having to use it it's likely because the other party is either just as lethal or out of their mind. You may not have a choice but to escalate to deadly, and as a litany of military and paramilitary affirisms will remind you, that force must be applied decisively, overwhelmingly, and indiscriminantly. Be careful not to lwt this option spiral out of control and into a deadly tit for tat without realizing it.
There's no reason to kill if you don't have to - for me it goes hand-in-hand with open carry of a firearm. In much the same way that I'm willing to be the first target and spare less capable citizens that misfortune, I'm willing to take the risk of not escalating to lethal force to potentially save a life. Even if that life is to ignorant to know I'm trying to save it; even if that life is trying to make my own more miserable. Unless I find my mortality hanging in the balance, I like to think I'd be willing to seek another way and would encourage us all to hope and prepare for the same.
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