The many different replies on this topic show just how well rounded this little community is. Some have stressed consistant training with 1 firearm to intimately implant its controls and limitations in your mind. Others have stressed physical fitness,others blending HTH arts with shooting arts, etc. All are worthy of consideration and hold merit. What the good doctor Rob said is the most important aspect of all, imho. The MIND is the most dangerous weapon we possess. Some in the shooting community call it "mindset". If we are truely to call ourselves "warriors", then we must always be in the right frame of mind. Firstly, warriors should always pray/hope for peace, for it is us who die in war. I think this is why most matial arts teach restraint until restraint is no longer an option. Second, we must realize what it truely means to be a warrior. Warriors do battle. And in the course of doing battle, the chances of lives being lost, be it theirs or their opponents, is great. If a person is not prepared to go into battle to take a life, or give up their own, they should not follow the way of the warrior. Those that have been mentioned by others here : the ones that carry a gun to wound an assailant, or scare one off, should find a more peaceable way of life. Another thought on mindset: In my short life of 33yrs, I've be lucky enough to have been a practitioner of Shudokan Karate-Do, Kinjuitsu, dabbled in TKD, trained rigorously in the use of firearms, been a soldier, and traveled around the world plying my "trade". I am also an artist, love to read, try my best at poetry and caligraphy. By no means have I ever been a "master" of any of those things, but I am still breathing, so I must have done something right. The learning should never end. I've seen "masters" who could present an incredibly complicated, intricate kata so perfectly that you were afraid to breathe in case you spoiled the moment, but they couldnt fight their way out of a wet paper bag. They didnt have the warrior mindset. I also know people with bad knees, women with children, and folks not at their optimum body weight that can be the fiercest of warriors. Why? Because of their mindset. The original topic of this thread was about handguns and the martial arts.Should shooting handguns be defined as a martial art? It should be considered an aspect of training for the warrior. Just my opinions.
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"To die as a warrior means to have crossed swords and either won or lost without any consideration for winning or loosing. There is just not enough time and generally not enough strength in the resolve of any man to do otherwise"-Miyamoto Musashi