NYC self defense, thinking about buying a knife?

(Repost for r/PublicSelfDefense) I've been living in NYC for about 6 years, fortunately nothing has happened to me personally and I've never felt unsafe until a couple of months ago. There have been numerous, and when I say numerous I mean that on a weekly if not daily basis I see either a fight or harassment of some kind either on the street or subway. Additionally my good friend/roommate got beat up while trying to protect a girl that was being harassed and my girlfriend who's a bartender recently had a small stalker-ish incident at her workplace (she's fine just some random creep). All this in general has got me thinking about self defense in the city.

To give you guys context on me: I'm a skinny dude not much muscle on me. I exercise by running and biking so I'm fast but that's all I really got going for me. I took self defense classes when I was younger basic karate. BUT I do have some recent sorta training: I went to school for acting and got intense stage combat training for unarmed fighting, rapier/dagger and knife fighting (which was all learning the techniques, styles and stances without actually hurting anyone). The classes were taught by a fight master from the society of American fight directors (SAFD) there are only 7 fight masters in the USA and are all professionals who have been studying this stuff for years so it was legitimate and not just fluffy nonsense,. And I'm thinking about purchasing a knife, here's why:

A. I'm small and not physically threatening, if someone bigger than me wants to fuck with me they will.

B. It is legal to carry certain knives in NYC as long as I'm only using it purely for defense.

C. Though I'm personally all for running when things get hairy that isn't always an option. If I'm with someone who is not as fast as me OR if I'm in an enclosed space like a subway car then I definitely can't escape.

D. I do not have the money to spend of hand to hand self defense classes as much as I would like to. The most recent knowledge I do have is the 3 years I studied stage combat and knife/dagger study was a big part of that.

What do you guys think? Good or bad idea? Any knife suggestions if I do get one?

Submitted August 11, 2017 at 08:33AM by Yuerky http://ift.tt/2uuPSrn