Ever have to go without a pocket knife?

Pilsner said:
Couple of gentle thoughts:

1) It probably isn’t a safe assumption to think that every serious threat that is intercepted is therefore reported by the press.

2) Enhanced airport security has reduced terrorist activity on planes. They are now choosing easier, softer targets, as we here in London learned to our cost and sorrow repeatedly in the past few years.

I don’t know the law in the USA, but over here certain trials are held with a press ban on reporting, for reasons of national security. Many, many more threats are neutralised here than succeed. It is undoubtedly also the case in the USA, when talking about international terrorism.

OP: sometimes I have to visit certain places with an absolute ban on any knife. It sucks but life goes on!
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Thank you, sir. You put it far more eloquently than I ever could. I support my and everyone's right to the 2nd amendment and their unalienable rights, but don't care to get into a debate about it when I can only tap responses out on my phone. Not enjoyable.

As for the the matter at hand, I travel by plane about half a dozen times per year, for work and vacation. Most are quick, two night trips, four at most. I exclusively pack carry on, and bring a pair of cuticle scissors to cut things. They work fine for small tasks, and have never received any scrutiny from TSA. I'm hardly curmudgeonly, but I am over the added hassle of checking a bag. I've spent far too much time at lost baggage to make checking a bag just for a knife worth it.

Other scenarios have been jury duty, Disneyland, where I recently lost a Style PS, Knotts, Hurricane Harbor, the Pantages, and many other places in La. I don't let my knives prevent me from enjoying my life, and vice versa. If something is inconvenient, I'll leave it at home.
 
I'd like to say I mail one ahead, etcc but in the end, I do just what the OP did.
 
microbe said:
That sounds like a recipe to get into trouble, possibly even gets you a goto jail card without passing start, and land you on no-fly lists.
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You have to break the law or the police have to believe you broke the law in order to be booked and jailed. What law would he be breaking? He might lose the knife, but he won't lose his freedom.
 
JD Mandrell said:
Yep, recently visited for the first time, a relative in prison about 2 hours from home. Wasn't going that far without one, so took a decent reliable "budget" folder, and when I got off the Highway Exit about a mile from the prison, I stashed it under a rock on the far back side of a McDonald's parking lot, and retrieved it 3 hours later. :)
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you could have just left it in your car.
 
leghog said:
you could have just left it in your car.
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Probably could, having been there now, I know they don't actually search you at the gate, just the car. But as I said earlier this was the first time I'd been there, and their written visitation rules say "No knives on prison property". Wasn't going to risk being refused at the gate, after driving over 2 hours to get there.
 
The whole TSA thing is NOT about violating your 2nd Amendment rights - it's about your Govt. confiscating your property WITH no compensation in a situation where you have not broken any laws in direct violation of the Constitution. Then your property is sold on Ebay. If you are OK with that then I don't know what to tell you. Coinsider for a moment that the TSA also searches and inspects the bags of the flight crew. They are already in the cockpit flying the aircraft but we must make sure they don't have a knife to use to hijack the aircraft. THAT is just about the stupidest thing I have ever seen. A pilot told me once they confiscated a set of silverware he kept in his flight bag for his own use. He was told he could not take a butter knife on the aircraft because it was a weapon. He told them every person on the plane was handed a set of silverware with the same butter knife AFTER they were searched and boarded. It's not about safety - it's about you submitting to their will. And that is exactly why our Founding Fathers gave us a Bill of Rights.
 
No. It's about bureaucracy and how codes/rules/regulations/laws are interpreted.
 
I work for an airline and my wife and I fly often, all over the country. I first check the knife laws in the State we are flying to, always take a MANUAL folder under 3", and check it in. (In my check luggage).
Good to go :thumbsup:
 
In my old life - pre retirement - I lived in UK. I would always carry a folder , usually a locker.
I was not a trouble maker , never got searched and life was different.

You are not allowed to carry any lockers without a valid reason. Its ok to carry a sub 3" non locking folder - such as a SAK - anywhere normal apart from some buildings.
As UK is paranoid about knives , you cannot carry anything bladed in courts , aircraft , clubs. In some public houses(bars) in the evenings , you find guards - bouncers - and will be frisked .
On some trains , you cannot carry as as you may have to pass thru a metal detector.
You members in USA have it much easier than those in UK.
In France , there is law , but in the countryside , as there is no trouble , we all carry folders.
 
I prefer not to fly whenever possible. I don't mind taking a 2500 mile road trip instead if I can. What can I say, I like to drive. I also like to see new things up close and personal instead of from 30,000 feet. But there are times when flying cannot be avoided. I either check it with my luggage or I leave flight-forbidden items at home. I have never bought a knife to use while at my destination. I will usually be with friends or family - I do not have to fly for business reasons. If we are going to do something that will benefit from a knife, like camping, hunting or fishing, I borrow one if I was not able to bring one (most of the folks I travel to see are outdoorsy types with a few to spare and they know why I do not have my own knife). I cannot think of a trip where I did not have a knife and wished I did.
 
Trip to Walmart/big box store after landing.
$10 folders a'plenty.
Easy peasy.

TSA/anti-knife rules are about control not safety.
 
If you cannot go without a knife for a week or so without feeling anxiety or fear or uneasiness or panic or withdrawal symptoms or some other mental break down, you have issues. Trust me, it'll be ok. You'll survive without your knife in your pocket.
 
I usually fly SW so I almost always always check. That said, if I don’t then I buy something cheap locally and either ditch or mail it.

Heck these days with the shutdown TSA might not even look too hard, I’ve heard reports from DFW and ATL (two of the busiest airports in the US and world) that electronics are staying in bags, no peter peeker scans (just metal detectors), few dogs around etc...kinda scary.
 
I seldom fly, but check a Rough Rider tiny toothpick when I do. If it gets confiscated at some venue I visit, no big.
 
drail said:
The whole TSA thing is NOT about violating your 2nd Amendment rights - it's about your Govt. confiscating your property WITH no compensation in a situation where you have not broken any laws in direct violation of the Constitution. Then your property is sold on Ebay. If you are OK with that then I don't know what to tell you. Coinsider for a moment that the TSA also searches and inspects the bags of the flight crew. They are already in the cockpit flying the aircraft but we must make sure they don't have a knife to use to hijack the aircraft. THAT is just about the stupidest thing I have ever seen. A pilot told me once they confiscated a set of silverware he kept in his flight bag for his own use. He was told he could not take a butter knife on the aircraft because it was a weapon. He told them every person on the plane was handed a set of silverware with the same butter knife AFTER they were searched and boarded. It's not about safety - it's about you submitting to their will. And that is exactly why our Founding Fathers gave us a Bill of Rights.
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Personally I think you are giving the government too much credit for too much intelligence.
What you are dealing with is bureaucrats initiating and following policies designed to put up a public illusion of a government effectively doing something. The terrorist act of 9/11 insured that planes would never be effectively hijacked ever again. The very act went beyond the tipping point and ended plane hijackings as an effective terror weapon. That is proven by the fact that the last plane crashed into a Pennsylvania field instead of the White House. The tipping point caused hijacking to end, mid-plan. They couldn't even make it last for all 4 planes in that plan. The passengers themselves fought to retake the plane. That has been repeated several times in the following years. "The Shoe Bomber" was thwarted by the passengers, not by TSA. The effective weapon terrorists used to hijack planes was not guns, or knives, but the policy of giving the hijacker control and not fighting back.

So in response to that defect in our airline security, the government responds, not with, "do not relinquish control of the plane", but rather, searching everyone, and banning knives, liquids, nail clippers.....
I sorry, but if I allow the plane I am piloting, or even a passenger in, to be hijacked by some clown with a nail clipper, I deserve to be taken out of the gene pool!
The stupidity of it all is encyclopedic in its mass and scope.
 
drail said:
The whole TSA thing is NOT about violating your 2nd Amendment rights - it's about your Govt. confiscating your property WITH no compensation in a situation where you have not broken any laws in direct violation of the Constitution. Then your property is sold on Ebay. If you are OK with that then I don't know what to tell you. Coinsider for a moment that the TSA also searches and inspects the bags of the flight crew. They are already in the cockpit flying the aircraft but we must make sure they don't have a knife to use to hijack the aircraft. THAT is just about the stupidest thing I have ever seen. A pilot told me once they confiscated a set of silverware he kept in his flight bag for his own use. He was told he could not take a butter knife on the aircraft because it was a weapon. He told them every person on the plane was handed a set of silverware with the same butter knife AFTER they were searched and boarded. It's not about safety - it's about you submitting to their will. And that is exactly why our Founding Fathers gave us a Bill of Rights.
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We’re supposed to keep political discussions out of this section of the forum.

You can always turn around and choose not to fly. I agree the rules are crazy but the government is not forcing you to fly.

If you must have a blade buy one of those folders that take disposable box cutter blades and fly with no blade in it. Then just buy a blade when you land.

They even make a high end version of these knives. Just google Spectrum Energetics.
 
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