Knife.
An attacker can grab your maglight, which renders it (and the hand holding it) ineffective. Anyone who grabs the protruding end of my Ka-Bar is going to be badly sorry.
If you just nick someone with the maglight, you might cause a bruise. The knife will draw blood, which has a big impact on people. Hell, I've had multiple assailants run away when I started bleeding.
Same goes for probing/stabbing motions. You have to do it a lot harder with the light for it to be effective, and it will almost never be as damaging as with a knife.
A flashlight probably has some legal advantages, though I can easily see a lawyer introducing a big, scary assault-light into evidence.
An attacker can grab your maglight, which renders it (and the hand holding it) ineffective. Anyone who grabs the protruding end of my Ka-Bar is going to be badly sorry.
If you just nick someone with the maglight, you might cause a bruise. The knife will draw blood, which has a big impact on people. Hell, I've had multiple assailants run away when I started bleeding.
Same goes for probing/stabbing motions. You have to do it a lot harder with the light for it to be effective, and it will almost never be as damaging as with a knife.
A flashlight probably has some legal advantages, though I can easily see a lawyer introducing a big, scary assault-light into evidence.