Ellis Amdur

It is unavoidable that koryu are regarded as wonderful antiquities, of no real utility in the modern world, other than to enhance one's life (a hobby) or to enhance one's modern (real) martial art. Contrary to that viewpoint is this account:
A friend of mine, a police officer in Hawaii, trains SMR. He got a call of "man with a machete," something he said is not all that uncommon on the west side of Oahu. Then a second call, "man cut with a machete." At a prison half-way house, one inmate, on meth, was offended by another and cut him from shoulder to hip, to the bone. My friend arrived at a nearby parking lot to see huge shirtless man with a machete, fighting with man with a broomstick, who was able to hold him off (the latter turned out to be a bystander who was trying to stop man with machete).
Police officer gets out of his car, pulls his gun, yells "drop your weapons." Man with machete turns his focus and man with broomstick retreats. Man with machete, sweating and bright red (thanks to that drug, paradoxically named "ice,") paws the ground with one foot, says, "It's a good day to die," and from twenty-five feet away, charges. Police officer fires a round and due to time dilation, tells me that he could see the bullet (a .45 round) fly thru the air and strike the man in the left pectoral and could also see a circular pressure wave of impact ripple through his body. (Bullet later found to have penetrated the man's heart). Man with machete did not even pause, and in the instant of gunfire-bullet strike - officer trying to fire a second round, man with machete is cutting off his gun arm with a downward swing.
NOW - SMR - there is a move in SMR where as the swordsman cuts down, one swivels one's body at the last instant, drawing one's arms inward in a very idiosyncratic SMR wave, and follows that swivel with a strike. Police officer automatically does THAT move, so that as he drew his hand inward, the machete struck the slide of his weapon instead of his arm, just as he fired, and the gun, deflected downwards, discharged and the bullet, it was later determined, tore out the man's femoral artery. He, not pausing one bit, spun with the impact of the bullet and cut at police officer's head, who jammed the gun under his chin (an irimi, also done in a particular SMR way) and fired, the bullet exiting out the top of the man's head. Who stood there swaying for a number of seconds, staring at him, machete still in hand before he dropped dead.
Police officer backed up, weapon on point, some twenty five feet, and when his back contacted his patrol car, he went "boneless," and slumped to the ground. He was found some moments later by back-up officers sitting on his butt, legs in front of him, weapon still pointed forward, unable to move.

Now, I could have made the point far more simply, "SMR has utility in the modern age, and there are first person accounts to prove it." But this is better, isn't it?

Ellis Amdur