id take an emerson commander.
oh wait this is the spyderco forum...
oops(commander still)...
ok really, id take the civilian.
i saw one of the gunting videos, and i got to say the part about pinching the guy with the gunting, oh well please. when was the last time you pinched someone. yes, it probably makes a dandy fist load, but most knives do.
the part where the guy is pnching at you and you draw the gunting an hit his incoming fist between the fingers? that sounds like a scripted encounter where the mighty X block would be all Powerful and how the guy with the knife is at a disadvantage...
lets look at size, shall we. or mors specificly legality. yes, the civi may go over the limit of a jurisdiction and on POSESSION CHARGES you can get caught.
if you use it to defend yourself and are correct, pay attention Bram cause you get this 100% wrong every time you mention it, YOU CAN USE AN ILLEGAL WEAPON LEGALY IF THE CIRCUMSTANCES ALLOW FOR ITS USE.
if you are being attacked by a gang intent on stomping your (pick your racial group)'s a$$ into the ground, and you defend youself with a consealed 5 inch bud nealy in NYC you will be charged with the knife. maybe.
if the circumstances were such that the use of force was reasonable then the actual tool of such force is irrelivant to the decission to charge for agrivated assault or murder. you are either in the wrong, or in the right when it comest to criminal law.
does that mean you should ignore the law restrictions in your jurisdiction? i do sometimes. but its for a good cause. really. it is...
think to yourself what looks better.
you are suddenly vioently attacked and you pull the civi and use it for self defence.
attacked and had the possibility of great bodily harm or death so you responded appropriatly in the circumstances. hey, not your fault they chose you.
or
you are being harrassed, so you decide to do a joint lock with your gunting. you pull your knife(lethal force cause it is a knife, it just is to the court on the face of it) and do the lock. oops though the lock was not enough so you try another technique but the dam kenetic opener opens and now you were not planning on cutting the guy, but hell its open, so why not prick him a bit and make him stop from the fear? now he strugles more cause their is a nut with knife after him. now he is really trying to hurt you to get away. now you really DO need to geek him cause if you dont, he will pound on you till you go away cause he is scared and needs to save his own a$$.
well, now ye is in the hospital cause you decided to "defend yourself when the guy you were trying to restrain went nutts on you" and he is in the hospital cause you decided to biomechanical cut him.
prosecutor looks at this charitably as agrivated assault, mayhem, maiming, brandishing, agrivated battery, agrivated wounding... attempted murder?
a knife is lethal force. period. end of thought. if you are going to pull a knife, closed or open the situation had better be such that lethal force is reasonable whether you use it or not.
CIVILIAN every time over the gunting.
