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MoJo wrote: When you are facing an opponent armed with a knife once he starts to rush you MOVE off the line of attack. You can gain valuable seconds by moving back and to one side or the other.

I agree with this except the backing up part. If you are lucky you can back up half as fast as someone running forward. The best strategy is to step to the side, this forces the attacker to reajust and change their vector. It is also more difficult to turn while running forward which increases the targeting problem for the attacker. The step to the side provides significant time to engage the knife wielder. The simple side step works even at distances as close as 10 ft while this drill demonstrates you need 21 ft straight for striaght on. Additionally without the side step off the line of attack, a successful handgun shot, which is frequenly not an instant stop anyway, you most likely will be injured. So if you are still on the line of attack then the wounded attacker can still severly injure or kill you. That is not a winning combination, but bringing a gun to a knifefight.