Jim March
Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
- Joined
- Oct 7, 1998
- Messages
- 3,022
Ah. OK, if that's where you're coming from, it's more understandable.
But you're still utterly wrong.
Here's the deal: there's no moral difference whatsoever between defensive firearm carry and defensive knife carry. (At close ranges, even the practical differences fade, or in the case of somebody who REALLY knows what they're doing, there are actually advantages to knife over handgun at really close ranges, but I digress.)
In England, Australia and elsewere, people used *exactly* your arguments against "people killer" type guns in defending their "sporting arms". Many people who wanted to keep their target pistols, bird-hunting shotguns and sporting bolt-action rifles eagerly signed off on requirements to have guns locked and unloaded in the home, to put in bans on "ugly guns" with big clips, or all-black paint jobs and night sights, or defense-grade handguns.
Because after all, these people who wanted to keep "mankiller" guns were making the "sporting and collecting crowd" look bad, and increasing the pressure to ban guns.
Right?
WRONG!!!
Giving up home and personal street defense was the worst tactical mistake made by pro-gun forces in England and Australia and now Canada.
Why? Because #1, you can't keep guns out of the hands of criminals and lunatics, no matter what. So as soon as some jackarse takes one of the remaining legal guns and goes ape$hit with it against an unarmed population (such as the massacres in Scotland and Australia), you now have a government pondering a balance between the "right" of rich sportsmen to own "sporting arms" and the "right" of the general population to "be safe". Or at least, that's how they'll see it.
Well guess what? IF I thought your "hobby" was endangering my life, or if I'm a voter that can be convinced of that, your hobby is TOAST.
But in America, the dynamics of the gun rights debate is a whole different thing. Here, it's a matter of balancing my right to defend my life against crooks, versus dumb sheeple's percieved "right" to "feel safe" by banning my gun(s). So you get debates over which course saves more lives and guess what? HCI's side of that debate falls WOEFULLY short. Especially with the research by John Lott, Gary Kleck and many others.
That's why HCI likes to whimper about how "if it saves just one child's life"...lots of emotional impact, not a lot of fact.
Well guess what? KNIVES ARE NO DIFFERENT. The fact is, the one life I personally saved with an obvious "fighting knife" three years ago balances what some fool might do drunk in a bar, or in an armed robbery, especially since YOU CANNOT BAN KNIVES and keep them out of criminal hands. Hell, they can't keep knives out of PRISON, because any idiot can grind down a chunk of metal on some concrete and make a knife.
So these same "ugly tactical knives" can save lives, especially in the hands of somebody who knows what they're doing. Heck, somewhere around here I've got a police report from the time I did so (and I didn't know what I was doing yet
).
That fact, that defensive knives SAVE lives, MUST be brought into the public and political awareness as quickly and as widely as possible for the same reason we're doing so with guns.
Jim March
Equal Rights for CCW Home Page
http://www.ninehundred.com/~equalccw
But you're still utterly wrong.
Here's the deal: there's no moral difference whatsoever between defensive firearm carry and defensive knife carry. (At close ranges, even the practical differences fade, or in the case of somebody who REALLY knows what they're doing, there are actually advantages to knife over handgun at really close ranges, but I digress.)
In England, Australia and elsewere, people used *exactly* your arguments against "people killer" type guns in defending their "sporting arms". Many people who wanted to keep their target pistols, bird-hunting shotguns and sporting bolt-action rifles eagerly signed off on requirements to have guns locked and unloaded in the home, to put in bans on "ugly guns" with big clips, or all-black paint jobs and night sights, or defense-grade handguns.
Because after all, these people who wanted to keep "mankiller" guns were making the "sporting and collecting crowd" look bad, and increasing the pressure to ban guns.
Right?
WRONG!!!
Giving up home and personal street defense was the worst tactical mistake made by pro-gun forces in England and Australia and now Canada.
Why? Because #1, you can't keep guns out of the hands of criminals and lunatics, no matter what. So as soon as some jackarse takes one of the remaining legal guns and goes ape$hit with it against an unarmed population (such as the massacres in Scotland and Australia), you now have a government pondering a balance between the "right" of rich sportsmen to own "sporting arms" and the "right" of the general population to "be safe". Or at least, that's how they'll see it.
Well guess what? IF I thought your "hobby" was endangering my life, or if I'm a voter that can be convinced of that, your hobby is TOAST.
But in America, the dynamics of the gun rights debate is a whole different thing. Here, it's a matter of balancing my right to defend my life against crooks, versus dumb sheeple's percieved "right" to "feel safe" by banning my gun(s). So you get debates over which course saves more lives and guess what? HCI's side of that debate falls WOEFULLY short. Especially with the research by John Lott, Gary Kleck and many others.
That's why HCI likes to whimper about how "if it saves just one child's life"...lots of emotional impact, not a lot of fact.
Well guess what? KNIVES ARE NO DIFFERENT. The fact is, the one life I personally saved with an obvious "fighting knife" three years ago balances what some fool might do drunk in a bar, or in an armed robbery, especially since YOU CANNOT BAN KNIVES and keep them out of criminal hands. Hell, they can't keep knives out of PRISON, because any idiot can grind down a chunk of metal on some concrete and make a knife.
So these same "ugly tactical knives" can save lives, especially in the hands of somebody who knows what they're doing. Heck, somewhere around here I've got a police report from the time I did so (and I didn't know what I was doing yet
That fact, that defensive knives SAVE lives, MUST be brought into the public and political awareness as quickly and as widely as possible for the same reason we're doing so with guns.
Jim March
Equal Rights for CCW Home Page
http://www.ninehundred.com/~equalccw
