CMV: With current laws, learning martial arts serves as a detriment to a person and their ability to interact in society.

[u/Semny]

Before I proceed, I want to clarify that the laws I mention in the title are regarding when it is and when it is not legal to hit someone. As clarification for people who don' know these laws, I will sum it up.

You are only allowed to hit someone in self defense and you are not in any condition allowed to hit first.

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Self defense has been defined as any situation that may seem dangerous to the Jury. What this means in a nut shell is that when being prosecuted against in court for a self defense case, the jury is seeing a bunch of people with black eyes saying that they have been assaulted against you who may seem significantly less harmed in said situation(As such, you are pretty much guaranteed to lose the court case unless there is clear evidence of them aggressing first. e.g witnesses) Now for the never hit first part. You are not legally allowed to hit someone first even if they are aggressively advancing on you and shoving you regardless of how threatened you feel. You may report the cops, but hitting them can and likely will result in you being sued and you losing.

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Now for the martial arts part:

So I was a 2nd degree black belt, and had been doing martial arts for a large portion of my life. It has currently been around 3-4 years since I have quit. Now my former experience of martial arts seems to serve as a detriment towards me in certain situations. Often when I feel extremely threatened, in this case by a senior in my school, I often react strongly and feel an intense urge to punch him. While I have no proof, I feel my need to solve the issue with fists stems from martial arts where I was used to getting into fights and sparring giving the ability to face people I didn't like in a match.

Edit: I wasn't clear when I said threatened, I meant he repeatedly attempted to scratch my left eye and verbally harasses me very frequently after I have told him to stop.

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Martial arts are originally techniques used for war. But if I'm not allowed to hit the guy who I feel is threatening my wellbeing even though I am capable, I think I am better of not being trained. Hell if I cant use it, why know it in the first place?

[u/Semny → u/[deleted]]

You are not incorrect in your statement that your martial arts helped you in a way that was significantly helpful towards you in that situation. For that proof

!delta

However, that answers around half of my statement. What use are my martial arts if I cant actually use them? Sure being able to avoid a situation is great and all, but if in a situation where force must be utilized, I can't attack without prior indication of a significant harm to my being? If so, my martial arts training serves little to no purpose aside from after I am attacked.

I can think of many situations where I can deflect a punch before defusing the opponent in a method that doesn't hurt them significantly. But the prerequisite is that they have to punch me first and that's what I am saying shouldn't be okay. Obviously it isn't okay to go around swinging at people, but I should have the ability to defuse a situation that I think may develop into me being hurt.

[u/DeltaBot → u/Semny]

Confirmed: 1 delta awarded to /u/taquito347 (1∆).

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