A complete stranger whose intentions was to rob you at best , but if need be to hurt you, and if the answer is yes, what was your reaction to this attack, and the scenario that evolved.

And if you have studied any of the martial art's, and you were known for having these skills, and used them to ward off the attacker or attackers , where you are located your state, country, etc..... would that make you the aggressor if you got the best of the situation in the eyes of the law?

I am in Arizona, they'd probably consider it premeditated if you beat up someone who was trying to rob you (hell, a lady got sued because she shot a robber who fell through her skylight and got shot and hurt). I know they have a whole "excessive force" thing here, if you have weapons laying around and do some severe damage to an intruded, they consider it excessive force because by all means you should have called the cops and hid in the closet until they showed up to have a 12 hour stand off with the intruder
Know some martial arts, boxing, pressure points, good with weapons... initial reaction was to fight and I did, still got my ass kicked from here to kingdom-come and put in my place (in UK, don't know the laws there).

No, but my sister & myself once attacked a bloke in the street.

It was a misunderstanding though. He was jogging, and suddenly burst out of a gap in a bush at the side of us, panting heavily. It startled us, and for some reason, we both thought it was our younger brother being an arse, so we laid into him. He was curled up on the pavement in the fetal position before we realised it was some innocent stranger.

We tried to apologise, but he sprinted off in terror.

It was a long time ago, but I still get the occasional pang of guilt.

Gilly! How dare you beat on a perfectly innocent stranger like that! And how dare you even consider beating on your brother like that

Don't feel guilt over it, you were in your right to do so... could have been some pervert who had just been jerking off in the bushes. You did what you thought you had to (even if you thought it was your brother, which with what I just said sounds kinda wrong... )...

My brother wouldn't have been wanking in the bushes (well, I suppose he might) but we just thought he was ambushing us.

Gilly wrote:
This guy has a great blog and info Gilly

www.samharris.org/blog/item/the-truth-about-violence

Probably...

when I was close to being at the height of my martial-arts skills, and also very close to a mental-breakdown, two guys tried to jump me outside a bar in Sydney. All of my training kicked in, I really hurt those guys, and at the same time released the pressure that had built up within myself over a few crazy months. I got arrested for assault and GBH, but the landlord of the bar got me cleared, he'd spotted these guys picking me out, to mug me.

I scare myself, even now, thinking about what I did to those guys.

There have been other instances too, a red-mist descends when loved-ones,or myself , are threatened..

Happily that hasn't happened for a long time now...

jhado wrote:
I know that one. Dangerous place to be.

kinda. i wasn't successful and i guess technically i didn't need to try and defend myself, i could have just gone with it.

some guy saw me taking pictures at night and he asked me if i wanted some company. i said something like "uhh... no..." and walked off. he started following me so i sped up. then i felt him grabbing at my tripod so i tried to grab it from him so i could bash his head in with it, but then he said he would cut me so i just let him have the tripod and camera. since then i always carry a knife.

oh but he was nice enough to let me keep the memory card.

Gilly, I'm shocked! That's quite funny though.

I've never been attcked whilst out and about. Did you know that young men are most likely to be attcked out of anyone? My brother got a kicking a few times when he was younger and had been out drinking with his mates.

Tbh I've never had the opportunity to use any martial arts and I intend to keep it that way. My son does a martial art now, so I'm hoping that it will help him to be more aware of his surroundings, so he'll spot trouble makers and be able to get away from them. If the worst does happen, hopefully he'll be able to break their arm and gtf out of there.