California laws suck

J

Josh Murray

Joined
Jun 19, 1999
Messages
23
I live in California and they have many harsh laws banning Butterfly Knives and Automatics.
What is the point of these laws?, What's preventing a criminal from getting any knife he wants? Tacticals are legal and most can be flicked out almost as fast as an automatic or
balisong.Does anybody know how many violent crimes are actually done with automatics or balisongs? Is it just Hollywood that portrays the knives negatively causing non-knife people want to ban these knives based on a menacing appearance alone?
 
I too wish California permit automatic knives. But to answer your question, one of the purpose of such a law is to charge the criminal with one more crime.

Sometimes the man is plainly guilty but the DA has little to go on. Illegal possession just puts him away for a little longer.
 
Concerning knives, California law is very broad and sloppy and allows an LEO to make an issue of almost any sharp object. In other words, California knife laws are typical of knife laws generally.

Switchblades are politically incorrect in 30 states besides California, and in USA federal law, and in a bunch of other countries. That means that legislators in three out of five US states, the US Congress, and the legislatures of numberous civilized countries were irrational, because no rational case can be made for banning switchblades and not banning kitchen knives.

Did I mention that I argue with God too?
wink.gif


At least California is now a place where conventional one-hand folders are safe under the switchblade statute, as now worded. I can't say the same for other places, if somobody decides to make an issue of them.


------------------
- JKM
www.chaicutlery.com
 
Hello gentlemen, I'll give you a weird perspective.

Autos, balisongs have been lumped w/ the blackjack and nunchaku and other things as illegal weapons as opposed to tools. Such laws meant to protect society and maintain the greater good.

I would be lying if I said illegal items weren't still available, in fact I see the laws as a trap. I was one of a few youths in high school (early 1990s) who carried a knife, totally outlawed at my school. I never used it illegally and the trouble I got into was of legality. I feared getting stopped by the cops more than fighting a bad guy a one point.

I use the term trap as anyone caught w/ any of these items can now be charged w/ a crime. I could easily purchase 'illegal' items even now even though they're usually junk. The real winner is the seller of the items I think as he has my money while I have something, that is at best a novelty.

Last year, a San Francisco youth had a generic Boker auto and a balisong confiscated from him. The police subsequently found the seller and shut them down. One out of many shops that sold the same type of cheap merchandise in the same area.

So again, the consumer is screwed. If he is fortunate to buy a quality tool, it is a tool that can get him into legal trouble. The bad guys? They're laughing because they have access to cheap tools and weapons that they can instantly employ.
 
So how do you figure that "banning" automatic knives and Balisongs and nunchaku "protect society and maintain the greater good"? The only people these laws affect are those who abide by them to begin with. Sounds like naive liberal hogwash to me. They ought to ban stupidity instead.

JK
 
Automatics aren't totally banned. If you are a cop or in the military, it's okay if you carry one. What kind of condescending, finger-shaking double standard is that? The law is saying, "If you are in a uniform then you must be morally sound and pure of heart, but if you are not, them shame on you for even wanting a switchblade. You MUST be evil!!"

This is the same mentality that says commoners + assault rifles = disaster, but its ok if the military/police have them. I find such thinking & legislation very insulting and dangerous.

Fear the government that fears your switchblade (guns, opinion, etc.).
 
How many of you have ever seen the movie, "Blackboard Jungle"? This is the movie that got switchblades outlawed. The cheap Italian knives used were easily broken, if you remember the scene where Glenn Ford stabs the knife into the desk and slaps it sideways, breaking the blade. After that movie, there was a huge hue and cry against the evil switchblades, just as there now is against "assault weapons"(sic). A series ot teen exploitation films followed that only reinforced the image of the evil switchblade that was about to "end society as we know it". Isn't it interesting how often we see a weapon that will "end society as we know it"?

------------------
Walk in the Light,
Hugh
 
Yeah that movie and "Rebel Without A Cause" didn't help at all. California laws are pretty restrictive; Virginia laws are not much better (where I live).

------------------
Professor
 
Hey, Professor. I live in Arlington but work in DC. If you think that the Old Dominion is bad, try DC. That said, it's only a short drive up I-95 to DC from Richmond. Would you care to join us DC Knife Knuts for lunch on 7/21/99?
 
Yesterday me and my friend Josh Murray went down to Chinatown in SanFrancisco to get some more butterfly knives. We went to the stores that sold knives asking if they had butterflys. Most clerks said that they no longer had them. One commented about how the cops prohibited their sale. Finally we asked one clerk and found what we came for. He looked around cautiously and opened a drawer under the counter. We two decent quality butterfly knives and are happy know. I think it is stupid to make knives like butterflys hard to find because of outdated laws. People are going to get them anyways. Of course we could have also ordered butterfly knives over the internet but we wanted to see if we could actually get them on the street. What do you guys think of store owners that sell weapons like these? I feel they are just keeping an endangered knife alive.
 
Hey FULLERH. Didn't see an email thingie for you. Where you guys/gals thinking about going? That would work out since my wife's grandparents live in NOVA.

------------------
Professor
 
It seems representation in movies is responsible for a lot of banning. The nunchaku was outlawed after Enter the Dragon came out in the '70s. It's these stupid idiot legislators, or stupid nosy, ignorant citizens that see these in a movie, like switchblades and balisongs, and say, "Oh, my God, what a horrid weapon! Well, we can't have anyone owning those, you see how devastating they were in the movie!! Duhhhh!!! Which way did they go, George, which way did they go?"
I get a little worried when I see a manual one-hander like a Spyderco used menacingly in a movie, just for that reason. Jim
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top