Good Posts everyone, thanks
CXT
You bring up alot of good points.
But your points often remind me of why I even bother to train MA'ts. Don't get it wrong, your absolutely right about everything, but it disturbs me with the fact that defending yourself can also be a crime and you have to take many responsibilities into account, especially when its a life threatening situation and YOUR the one who's gonna suffer. In that case, I would go all the way with the submission, but in other cases, I would probably let my opponent go, but I don't think thats a good idea, because
a) you don't know the person at all
b) he might have a gun or knife in his other pocket
c) most likely attack you anyways
Obviously, the streets are full of surprises, thats why I don't think that letting anyone go is such a good idea. The way I look at it is you either finish the job, or prepared to be finished. Your opponent won't feel compassion towards you, and therefore why should I feel any towards him?
In terms of the legal aspects, what if that person does not know me at all, does'nt know what my name is or where I live, how can he possibly sue me? Is it safe to say that the legal aspects don't apply any longer. Is there other methods I don't know about that allows this person to still press charges.
Note: don't get the wrong idea about me, I'm not some
ba@#$%^ who's going to choke you to death the first chance I get, I treat all opponents with great respect, but what I'm really getting at here is; you don't know how extreme the situation maybe until you let your opponent go, then you'll really hope you were a
ba@#$%^ in the first place