Morning y'all! This morning I had an excellent chance for knife advocation and education. I'm standing in line at the AmPm getting a pint of milk for my breakfast. I have my messenger bag on still because I parked my bike in my store across the street and didn't want to carry my wallet and keys etc. Anyways, I carry a roughly 3" blade drop point hunter (thanx to DanCo) in a kydex sheath (thanx to gunfixrjoe) on the shoulder strap. When my bag is behind my back, the knife sits right above my right hip out of the way, but I spun my bag around to get my wallet and the knife is now front and center. The cashier is a nice lady, maybe mid 40's and attractive, I have a great report with her and see her quite frequently. She makes small talk about the day to come, her dog doing stupid pet tricks, and then she spots my knife...she gives me the stink eye nd says, "looks like your ready to take down a bear with that knife." At this point I let it roll off, she just doesn't understand. But a woman standing to my left with her hair tightly pulled back, playing on her i-phone and making a mess with lotto scratchers says, "I should take that from you, you have no business carrying that," like I'm an 8 year old kid or something. I turn and politely tell her that I have to carry it in the open to be legal, california requires that a fix blade knife of any length NOT be concealed, but has no size limit. She says no, it has to be smaller than the width of your palm. Ugh, "No, that's a completely subjective measurement first off, and second, just no." "Your wrong."
I remain very polite and respectful to this woman, but kept reinforcing that it is my responsibilty to know the law if I am going to carry a knife. I know I can't carry it on school capuses, federal or local gov't buildings, and some other places, but god damnit (!) I know I CAN carry it legally almost anywhere I want. After a couple minutes going back and forth with the woman I finally instilled enough doubt in her own mind that she pulled a 180 and stopped saying she was going to take MY knife.
It is my responsibility to know the laws for knife carry, but it is her JOB to know them, she is a cop afterall. She is a city officer that is attched to the university campus, she knows the laws on her turf, but seemed to be just applying whatever twisted common sense she claimed to have to the rest of the city. I was in county limits too, actually, so she was even further out of jurisdiction.
Learn your local knife laws, and always respect any member of the law, but don't just lay down and disarm because they think you should, stand up for your rights.
-Xander
