I didn't see where this had been posted previously. Is a knife a tool or a weapon?
http://www.captainsjournal.com/2016/01/07/knives-and-the-second-amendment/
07 JAN 2016
Knives And The Second Amendment
BY HERSCHEL SMITH
1 week, 4 days ago
Smithsonian.com:
Last week, a divided Washington Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that carrying a paring knife is not a protected right under the Second Amendment. In the courts majority opinion, Justice Charles Wiggins wrote that a pairing knife is a utility tool, not a weapon and so does not qualify as a constitutionally protected weapon.
The question was brought before the Supreme Court after a man pulled over for a speeding infraction​ ​informed a Seattle police officer that he was carrying a paring knife in a plastic sheath in his pocket, according to the ruling.​ Seattle prosecutors initially charged the man with the unlawful use of weapons, ​based on a city ordinance that declares it illegal for someone to carry concealed or unconcealed any dangerous knife. The citys law defines any knife with a fixed blade longer than 3 ½ inches as dangerous, Levi Pulkkinen reports for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. The defense argued that posession of the paring knife was constitutionally protected under the Second Amendment.
The jury ruled in favor of the prosecutor, and the superior court and the Court of Appeals affirmed the decision. Though the Supreme Court upheld the ruling, it did so on different grounds. Wiggins wrote that because a cooking knife isnt designed to be a weapon, it shouldnt be protected as one, rendering the defenses argument, whether or not the ordinance was constitutional, invalid, Munchies reports.
Washington state law does, however, consider things like police batons, billy clubs, dirks and switchblades as arms. While Wiggins ruling doesnt specifically mention whether the Second Amendment extends to concealed carrying of these items, it does reinforce that the right to bear arms includes the right to carry a weapon, Eugene Volokh writes for the Washington Post.Still, a knife doesnt necessarily need to be designed as a weapon for someone to use it as one. And while most people might not think to carry a paring knife with them when they leave home, this could be concerning for some professional cooks, many of whom take their personal knife kits with them to and from work.
Other than briefly lampooning the idiotic officer who started all of this and the idiotic jury who allowed it to begin with, we may observe the following about this case.
First step: man is charged with unlawful use of a weapon and concealment of a weapon by police. Second step: Lawyer argues that its protected by the second amendment as a weapon. Third step: Judge decides that knife isnt really a weapon so it isnt protected by the second amendment. Fourth step: Thus the conviction that the man was carrying a concealed weapon is upheld.
Good Lord. Do lawyers have to take classes in classical logic? No, Im not even talking about the hard stuff like modal logic. Just simple schoolchild level classes to teach them how to think? If not, they need to.
http://www.captainsjournal.com/2016/01/07/knives-and-the-second-amendment/
07 JAN 2016
Knives And The Second Amendment
BY HERSCHEL SMITH
1 week, 4 days ago
Smithsonian.com:
Last week, a divided Washington Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that carrying a paring knife is not a protected right under the Second Amendment. In the courts majority opinion, Justice Charles Wiggins wrote that a pairing knife is a utility tool, not a weapon and so does not qualify as a constitutionally protected weapon.
The question was brought before the Supreme Court after a man pulled over for a speeding infraction​ ​informed a Seattle police officer that he was carrying a paring knife in a plastic sheath in his pocket, according to the ruling.​ Seattle prosecutors initially charged the man with the unlawful use of weapons, ​based on a city ordinance that declares it illegal for someone to carry concealed or unconcealed any dangerous knife. The citys law defines any knife with a fixed blade longer than 3 ½ inches as dangerous, Levi Pulkkinen reports for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. The defense argued that posession of the paring knife was constitutionally protected under the Second Amendment.
The jury ruled in favor of the prosecutor, and the superior court and the Court of Appeals affirmed the decision. Though the Supreme Court upheld the ruling, it did so on different grounds. Wiggins wrote that because a cooking knife isnt designed to be a weapon, it shouldnt be protected as one, rendering the defenses argument, whether or not the ordinance was constitutional, invalid, Munchies reports.
Washington state law does, however, consider things like police batons, billy clubs, dirks and switchblades as arms. While Wiggins ruling doesnt specifically mention whether the Second Amendment extends to concealed carrying of these items, it does reinforce that the right to bear arms includes the right to carry a weapon, Eugene Volokh writes for the Washington Post.Still, a knife doesnt necessarily need to be designed as a weapon for someone to use it as one. And while most people might not think to carry a paring knife with them when they leave home, this could be concerning for some professional cooks, many of whom take their personal knife kits with them to and from work.
Other than briefly lampooning the idiotic officer who started all of this and the idiotic jury who allowed it to begin with, we may observe the following about this case.
First step: man is charged with unlawful use of a weapon and concealment of a weapon by police. Second step: Lawyer argues that its protected by the second amendment as a weapon. Third step: Judge decides that knife isnt really a weapon so it isnt protected by the second amendment. Fourth step: Thus the conviction that the man was carrying a concealed weapon is upheld.
Good Lord. Do lawyers have to take classes in classical logic? No, Im not even talking about the hard stuff like modal logic. Just simple schoolchild level classes to teach them how to think? If not, they need to.