Thats where the adage 'Run from a knife, charge a gun' comes from...

Heh. I hadn't heard that one.

Knives are scary.

Yep. I don't think most people have a good appreciation for what even an untrained guy with a blade can do. I know I sure didn't until I started doing some knife sparring (with training blades, of course). If the guy holding the knife has any decent amount of experience handling a knife, it just gets more and more scary. Even knowing that I'm sparring with training blades that can't hurt me, I've often had to make a concious effort to not show my heels. You can bet I'm not going to ignore that instinct on the street. No empeg is worth the possibility of finding myself sitting on the sidewalk holding my intestines in my arms.

Archeon's experience just adds more weight to it. Even with specific situational training, the first couple shots often miss. There have been studies done where trained policemen have emptied their guns into the dirt before being able to bring the gun to bear on the subject. Even if you hit the guy on the first shot, if he's close enough, his forward momentum can still bring him close enough to cut you up. When you consider that a guy can cover 7 or 8 meters/second, "close enough" is an obscenely large distance.

If a mugger with a knife gets the drop on you well enough to get your wallet, consider your gun gone, as well.