A news from odia Violence in Rio de Janeiro has claimed another victim on the 20th of June. The jiu-Jitsu instructor at the academy of Ipanema Fight, Bruno Inacio Nunes, aged 37, was recently killed in an attempted robbery that occurred on a bus. The powerful black belt tried to disarm the robber but was shot in the head and reported to be dead.
At the time, the bus was not very full of people, and when the single gunman came and started to take the belongings of his victims, Bruno thought that he would be able to disarm him and get away. He took his opportunity but was later shot in the head, right above his left eyebrow, killing him instantly.
Source: Jiu-jitsu Instructor Killed Trying To Disarm A Robber On A Bus | The Jiu-Jitsu Times
I have seen tons of videos from martial artists on doing gun disarming. Different flavors and choreography for anybody out there, but what you never see (or at least I have not) is somebody failing the demonstration. There is an inherent bias towards successfully demonstrating the technique which includes the person playing the gunman and this leaves you with the misconception that after a couple of practice runs with your little sister, you are now ready to take on anybody.
Sadly, reality bites and leaves nasty puncture marks. From what I researched in the web, Mr. Nunes was a professional who trained hard and long in his craft. I don’t know what exactly happened, but it stands to reason that he could have performed much better than any untrained person, yet he failed. It is not a criticism but simply a reality we must face.
Train realistic, work for victory but understand failure is in the cards.
Once again (sadly) it proves the person with the gun WILL win…
That is not an absolute truth. It just happens more often than not.
Sometimes there is good reason to lose property rather than risk your or someone else’s life. I wasn’t there and don’t know all the circumstances so cannot say the decision to act was or was not sound.
As an aside – it helps to train with people who do not know what they are supposed to do while you disarm them.
stay safe.
It’s a good idea, for more advanced students, to tell the person playing the role of “bad guy” in training scenarios to actively resist being disarmed.
We had one guy who, when practicing knife disarms with a rubber “knife”, would start wildly slashing and stabbing at the “good guy” any time the disarm attempt failed, and he had a good, strong grip, so he ended up slashing and stabbing a lot. But it put things in perspective; there are definite and severe consequences when “disarm” techniques fail.
A disarm is a last ditch effort with a very low likelihood of success even under the best of circumstances. It is not a viable tactic for a fight you want to live through.A gunman with minimal training will win most fights against even the best trained martial artists sans tools. They don’t call firearms “equalizers” for nothing.
My martial arts instructor never taught a “disarm” technique that didn’t include a jab to the face or a kick to the knee or groin (see my comment below). It’s vital to move the bad guy’s focus away from his weapon (and weapon hand) in order to remove it from his grip. Putting him in “defense mode” tends to do that. If you can disarm him immediately, great, but even if you don’t, rendering him senseless or unconscious often works just as well.
But again, every situation is different, and it’s up to you to exercise good judgment or face the consequences of using bad judgment, and even good judgment doesn’t always guarantee a good outcome. YMMV.
My assumption was that the strikes were a given. You though I meant take the gun without harming the gunman? Insanity. If you are gong to attempt a disarm you want to break him. But my assertion still stands; the gunman has overwhelming odds in his favor, only attempt it as a last resort. If you are likely to die anyway a 1% chance of success is better than nothing.
Now if your gunman is an idiot who gives you a golden opportunity (such as turning his back or putting the weapon down) then of course take it. Stupidity (when it comes into play) often wins the day for the underdog. But then again, “stupid” does not fit my criteria for “minimally competent.”
Now if your gunman is even halfway competent i would put your odds at far less than 1%. I have pretty good weapons retention skills, an I have yet to have a successful disarm against me that I did not let happen, or was not heavily staged (poor retention posture, etc.). Yes you can get strikes in against me, but you still get shot, usually multiple times. It is trivial to get center of mass hits, even if you start in a grapple. Having a tool and minimal skill is better than having all the skill and no tool.
To echo Old NFO’s thought:
A “disarm” technique is, by definition, an application of underwhelming force – it’s intended to remove your opponent’s “force multiplier” (read: weapon) and use it yourself when you don’t have your own. Using a “disarm” when an application of overwhelming force is necessary can very easily end quite badly.
I don’t know the details of this particular event, but I do know this: I’ve trained in “disarm” techniques, but in this kind of situation, in the enclosed space inside a public bus, it seems a more prudent idea to leave the gun in the gunman’s hand. Grab his wrist of his shooting arm with one hand, force the muzzle in a safe(ish) direction (straight up, perhaps), and use the other hand to pound his head/face into pulp. Stomp his foot and kick him in the groin while you’re at it. Give him something to think about that doesn’t involve retaining the gun or pulling the trigger. Then take the gun after he’s distracted and/or semi-conscious.
Or don’t engage at all, if that seems the best and/or safest option.
Bottom line: every situation is different. We can armchair quarterback this all day, and we still won’t know all the details or what his thought process was.
May God’s peace be with his family, friends, and students.
“Life ain’t like Youtube.”
It’s not?
lol, commodoreHUSTLE is the best sketch comedy ever.
I am a former Army officer, police officer (SWAT), and a current firearms instructor. I have 14 years of training and a 2nd degree black belt in aikido, as well as instructor credentials in several police defensive tactics systems. Let’s just say I have trained in knife and gun disarms.
But you know what? I carry a gun ALL THE TIME (where legal).
Any kind of empty-hand weapon disarm is an extremely low percentage undertaking, even with quality training. It’s better than zero percent, but not by much. So the math of risk assessment tells us it is only something we want to go to when our chance of survival is approaching zero.
While it is better to have some empty hand skills than not, I would not depend on them to save me when facing an armed opponent. The odds are much better if my attacker is facing an armed opponent.
One big reason you don’t see a lot of gun disarm training where the person manages to get off a shot or squeeze the fake trigger before being disarmed is that the person with the gun tends to keep a finger outside the trigger guard–unless you cut the trigger guard away, most disarms I’ve done have a pretty decent chance of breaking or degloving a finger.