Nick,
My long standing arguments have gone along that line. My main argument is that its stupid to ban knives in this manner because by definition any criminal intent on stabbing someone isnt going to care about any knife laws or they wouldnt be a criminal in the first place
the second argument is that a chair/ brick is a far more offensive weapon in the hands of most untrained people.
your point above also adds another argument, that a razor blade/ stanley knife is capable of inflicting horrific injuries.
the fact that any sensible copper/ judge could even consider a leatherman an effective weapon is beyond stupid, the blade is short, there isnt even a suggestion of any sort of blade guard, the handle is smooth slippery steel. anyone trying to use it as a weapon would probably either break the blade or end up cutting their own fingers when they slid onto the blade and would deserve it for being stupid enough to try anything like that with something like a leatherman.
its a big bone of contention with me this subject, I cant have an air rifle over 12ft/ lbs yet I can legally own the crossbow I have which is 5 times as powerful as that, I cant carry a small pocket knife yet I could carry an oak staff and wear steel toecap boots (both far more effective weapons). Im deemed too irresponsible to own any sort of firearm by people who dont even know me and who have no right at all to tell me I cant own something like that.
If I were to go and hire a Land Rover or a Transit van and load it with soemthing heavy like sand and drive as fast as possible into a crowded market place I would probably kill more people than I could kill with anything other than a fully automatic firearm
Our police service is pathetic, they seem to think carrying cans of tear gas is an effective deterrent. I cant carry anything at all to defend myself. some maniac can run at me with a 12" carving knife or an illegally obtained pistol there can be a policeman stood next to me and they cant do anything to help me other than spray liquid at them. I feel very unsafe on our streets, I have been to several other countries, some of which we would consider inferior to ourselves, and have never felt unsafe once because there are police walking around and the ones that arent carrying MP5's or pump actin riot guns have sidearms. I know if some maniac runs at me with a carving knife there and I start yelling the guys not gonna have a head in a few minutes time whereas in this country if I start yelling for a start I will be lucky if theres a policeman within a mile of me, even if there were one they would do nothing apart from radio for an armed response unit which would take about 30 mins to arrive. by this time im a pile of mush. PAH.
I cant drive anywhere without fearing for my license as they have so many speed cameras youre almost never out of range of one. One long distance route I frequent of about 150 miles, im honestly not exaggerating when I say they are in the process of installing 8 - 10 new speed cameras along with the at least 8 - 10 already there. I have to pay 74 pence for a litre of fuel. thats more expensive than milk for gods sake and you have to tend an entire dairy herd to get milk, all you do for petrol is stick some oil in a refinery
I would dearly like to try clay pidgeon shooting but I cant get a shotgun license without knowing two professionally qualified people who are willing to vouch for my charachter on a firearms certificate and who have known me for more than 3 years and who arent members of the police force. even then I would have to keep the shotgun in a locked steel cabinet bolted to the floor and at least one wall with the ammunition in a seperate locked steel enclosure.
what a load of bollocks.
My long standing project is to become fluent in German, unfortunately it keeps getting delayed by various other things I have to study (like Cisco :|) but eventually I hope to move to a decent country like Germany or the US or somewhere.
I really hate this country
,despite our anally retentive, blanket covering laws, we still carry. As you said Rob I think most older plod are spot on, but lately some younger ones ( something may have changed at Hendon), have been getting out of their prams over multi tools ect. :grumpy: 
