Dodging bullets. ^_^

I love technical questions.
Any replies should be private, btw.

There is a story (can't find my reference right now,
but if anyone's interested, e-mail me and I'll dig
through my books and find it) that in pre-WWII Japan
the Japanese Army got a martial arts master to
demonstrate his trick of dodging bullets. After
several riflemen shot at him, w/o result the generals
wanted him to teach the trick to the rest of the army,
having visions of hordes of invincible soldiers
marching through Asia. Reportedly the master looked at
them and said, �Don't be crazy. The trick only works
if I can see their eyes.  If they're hidden in the
brush or behind me, I'd be dead.' After-which he
headed back into the mountains.

Of more immediate note, I've got a very nice video
"Surviving Edged Weapons' showing Dan Inosanto
�killing' an armed policeman (in training) time after
time, even though the policeman has his pistol in his
hand.

It's all about reaction time. Within about 30 feet the
attacker, if he/she is very good, can initiate an
attack and carry through before the defender can
react.

Although, considering that Ranma & Co. do six
impossible things before breakfast on a regular basis,
this may be a moot point. 

The basic advantages of a firearm is
1)Short training time
2)Force multiplier

In the context of this story (which I'm still trying
to C&C)
I found the entire assassination scenario implausible,
as written. Frankly if someone wanted to kill Nabiki,
they could just push her in front of a train, or stick
a knife in her while she's jammed in a train-car, run
her down in the street. I'd like a little something
more to justify using this much fire-power against one
girl. And why use multiple shooters at all, when for
less effort they could plant a bomb in her cell phone.
(A little trick the Isralies came up with.) Put about
three ounces of C-4 in the phone, call Nabiki up, when
she says hello, the assassin says good-by and pushes
the button.

 Now, it is possible they are just incompetent
assassins, in which case you might want to add a
little something to indicate the multiple shooters are
a case of more money than brains.

This would also fit in with their atrocious shooting. 
It takes about 10,000 repetitions to burn something
into muscle-memory . . .so untrained shooters (which
is most of Japan) in poor lighting and under stress
could easily miss at point blank range. Four NYPD cops
fired 41 shots with 19 hits from 15 feet. In daylight,
against a stationary target. So that part of the story
isn't too unbelievable, IMO.  


I do NOT think anyone in their right mind would hand a
pistol to an untrained person in the middle of a
firefight. Nabiki was more likely to shoot _Ranma_
than one of the bad-guys.  IF this is an integral part
of the story (and I don't think it has to be) you need
to modify the story just slightly to show that �Ranma'
realized this, but the danger TO Nabiki outweighs the
danger FROM Nabiki. He might also advise her to stay
put, out of sight, and only shoot at muzzle-contact
range. (which is probably the only way she could hit
anything under those circumstances)

I _do_ think that Nabiki recovered much too quickly
from the trauma of having someone try to kill her. You
loose fine motor control under stress, for instance.
Yet she's very quickly pulling out a cell phone and
punching buttons, a _fine_ motor skill.  IMO, you need
to show more of the stress she must be under, physical
and mental.  She seemed much too calm for someone who
just had a gun put to her head. 

I like this story. Good writing, especially the
beginning. The "gun fight" needs some work
(particularly the bit about how expensive guns are)
and a bit of work on Nabiki's trauma. (ow what should
be her trauma)

=====
"When I get a little money, I buy books;
 And, if any is left, I buy food and clothes."-Erasmus

"A man is a small thing, and the night is large 
and full of wonders." -Lord Dunsany

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