Concealment laws: Why?

[toxicchill]

Pardon my naivety.

But...why are there laws that insist that knives be concealed?

If certain knives are lawful, why do they have to be hidden?

if the matter is of public safety, wouldnt it be better to easily identify who is carrying a knife than who is not?

Is is to placate the general public into a sense of security?

I really dont get it.

 

[DonTomas]

What you can't see can't hurt you. It's like eating a big slice of chocolate cake in the middle of the night: doesn't count if you keep your eyes closed. Out of sight, out of mind. Invisible insanity, so to speak.

Sheeple panic easily. What's the first thing scared sheeple are trained to do? Well, scream. But the second thing they're trained to do is call 911. How many people do you pass on the street during a regular day? If even 1 in 100 called 911, that's still a whole lot of wasted police resources for everybody who EDC's.

Plus they probably don't want people having "conversations" with a weapon showing. But here we're getting into brandishing laws.

OTOH, some jurisdictions have laws that prohibit the concealment of knives/weapons, because like you said, the police want to be able to see who's carrying. Concealment is frowned upon up here in Canada.

 

[mp510]

Most laws probiting carry of concealed weapons trace their intent to a historical idea that only a person with mal-intentions would desire to conceal a weapon. This became especially true in the antebellum south. An honest person had no need to hide their weapon. This has been seen several points through history. Out of similar thinking is an idea commonly used by open carry activists- and spewed by a former Deleware Atty general, who questioned why individuals who make large cash deposits at the end of the business day needed CCDW permits- that a visible weapon is a better crime deterrant than a hidden one (for the carrier at least).

A second driving concept was that the presence of a concealed deadly weapon could cause a person to engage in violence in a "less sober moment. That concept was common in the latter 19th century, and was even put out by the Deleware State Supreme Court as justification for that states CCDW law in an 1890s precedent case.

In many instances, concealment required laws come from an innate public fear of weapons. In my home state, Connecticut, people have been arrested for breach of peace and had their pistol permits revoked for carrying an exposed pistol (or in one instance printing) despite the fact that statuatory language does not prohibit open carry or mandate concealment.

 

[Esav Benyamin]

An honest person had no need to hide their weapon. This has been seen several points through history.

concealment required laws come from an innate public fear of weapons.

Good thoughts in that post. I think what ties it all together is the acknowledgement in the old days that everyone was armed, probably most of the time, and this was unquestioned. Since we knew you were likely armed, what did you have to hide?

These days, arms or anything like them -- down to batons and pepper spray -- are widely prohibited or restricted, so anyone going armed needs special permission to do so (no matter what the Constitution says) and we don't want the unarmed population to get any ideas that they should have arms too.

 

[Esav Benyamin]

Pardon my naivety.

Not your fault.

Laws regarding knives (and other weapons as well) are rarely based in logic. They are promulgated as an emotional reaction, in response to a pressure group, by legislators clearly ignorant of the weapons they are restricting.

Neighboring jurisdictions with identical demographics and geography will differ in whether knives NUST be concealed or MUST be revealed. You're not the one who's naive.

 

[zignal_zero]

FL's in the "lemme see it" catagory. FB's are fine, unless they're concealed. not that i like the law, but it makes alot more sense than the ostrich approach - hide it and it's not there. sometimes i think lawmaker's are like little kids who close their eyes and think you can't see them

the OP's question could apply to handguns, just as easily. ALOT of states ban open carry, but issue CWP's

i can understand the desire to regulate concealment, due to it's sneaky surprise capable nature, but i don't feel anybody's right to openly carry (virtually) any weapon should be infringed on unless they've been convicted of misusing a weapon.

 

[tom19176]

The NYC law that if often quoted here, started with Mayor Koch in the late 1980s. There were many people who wore knives on their belts,both folders and fixed blades and were not violateing any NYS law ( gravity knives were not viewed then as they are now). There were 2,200 murders in the average year back then ( 600 now) in NYc, so there was a cry by police to restrict the right to carry a knife in public. This is when the NYC Amin Code law was passed that made open carry of a knife prohibited and set the 4" blade restriction. To be honest, in NYC this actually made some sense, as two people on a hot subway train or crowded street often got into a dispute and a exposed weapon never hepled the condition. It might not be true elsewhere, but in NYC the unarmed person would often ask "what you going to use that knife on your belt on me ass--le?" which lead to its use. I can't tell you how many times some low level criminal who was being chased or questioned would turn to me while in full uniform and say "what you going to shot me with your gun?" This is one of the many reasons I know work in another field.....

 

[TOM1960]

Most laws probiting carry of concealed weapons trace their intent to a historical idea that only a person with mal-intentions would desire to conceal a weapon. This became especially true in the antebellum south. An honest person had no need to hide their weapon. This has been seen several points through history. Out of similar thinking is an idea commonly used by open carry activists- and spewed by a former Deleware Atty general, who questioned why individuals who make large cash deposits at the end of the business day needed CCDW permits- that a visible weapon is a better crime deterrant than a hidden one (for the carrier at least).

A second driving concept was that the presence of a concealed deadly weapon could cause a person to engage in violence in a "less sober moment. That concept was common in the latter 19th century, and was even put out by the Deleware State Supreme Court as justification for that states CCDW law in an 1890s precedent case.

In many instances, concealment required laws come from an innate public fear of weapons. In my home state, Connecticut, people have been arrested for breach of peace and had their pistol permits revoked for carrying an exposed pistol (or in one instance printing) despite the fact that statuatory language does not prohibit open carry or mandate concealment.

Over the course of the last 30 years or so, I have read many articles on knives and knife carry by such experts as Bill Bagwell, David E. Steele, and Massad Ayoob. Their writings seem to concur with this theory. You are correct; these laws trace their lineage back to the 19th century. While an old-time banker, for example, had reason to conceal a revolver to protect his customers' deposits (pre-FDIC, of course!), a "dagger, stiletto or dirk" was considered the weapon of a thug and had no place in polite society.