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I REALLY enjoyed this guy's newspaper column on knives! Check it out (full text posted below)!
Knife stigma still strong after 9-11
Samuel KeaneRudolph
Op/Ed Columnist
This morning during class, we had an equipment malfunction with a projector cable. One of the prongs on the male end was bent and jammed and we couldnt get it to fit the port. My professor asked something along the lines of I dont suppose anyone in this post-9/11 world has a pocketknife? Rewind. Why on earth have knives suddenly become anathema?
On September 11, 2001, nineteen terrorists armed with box cutters hijacked four airliners. Thats what changed. It caused a hysterical reaction to many things, knives among them.
Why is this hysterical? Lets look at it logically. Why did the terrorists use box cutters? Because they couldnt bring in a more effective weapon past airport security, thats why. What does this tell us? It tells us that if we somehow manage to ensure that knives, like guns, cannot be carried onto a plane, that the next terrorist will find another field expedient item and use it as a weapon. Banning carry-on guns didnt stop 9/11; I doubt banning knives would stop another one.
And where did this foolish concept of knives as weapons come into being? Knives may be used as weapons, but so can baseball bats. According to the FBIs Uniform Crime Report for 2004, knives or other cutting instruments were used in 15.5% of violent crimes. Bare hands or other personal weapons were used almost twice as often, 30.7% of the time.
The most commonly used knife in a crime? A kitchen knife. Funny how nobodys bothered legislating against those. Oh wait, they have! According to the BBC, theres currently a massive fury over the fact that a teenager can walk into a store and buy a kitchen knifeas if he couldnt just walk into his parents kitchen and take one.
Knives are made to be tools. They are fundamental elements of society. When mankind first became civilized, one of the first tools developed was the knife. The basis of all modern production techniques is some instrument which can cut raw material. Factories of all kinds rely on cutting instruments. Every manufactured item you use was created in part by a cutting tool. Knives are the first, most basic and most necessary of tools.
Even people who are horrified at the sight of a Swiss Army knife use knives at least once a week. Scissors, my friends, are two knives joined together with blades that are ground at a less acute angle than single blade knives. And how do you cut your steak? Knives. When you get that wonderful slip in your mailbox that means that someone loves you and a package is waiting, how do you open it?
I see a lot of people ripping and tearing at taped packages with car keys, opened pairs of scissors, their bare hands, and even their teeth. One student was very grateful that I happened to have a pocketknife which easily opened his package. As opposed to chewing it open? It would seem knives are a very civilized and efficient way to do this sort of thing.
Brandishing knives is a matter of freedom. Who is the government to declare arbitrary laws about such things? Here at Winona State University, you cannot have a pocket knife with a blade longer than three inches. Most people, even those who do carry knives on campus, are not aware of this.
What is the justification for making knives larger than three inches unlawful? Do knives a sixteenth of an inch over three inches suddenly become deadly weapons, and those a sixteenth of an inch under are not? A law-abiding student with a knife who doesnt know the rule is in just as much trouble under the rule as a routine troublemaker who carries a knife as a weapon. Neither is likely to know about the length limit anyway.
If this trend of legislating and morally stigmatizing knives continues, pretty soon Ill be the only one on campus with a knife. And I assure you that while youre struggling to cut a tough steak with safety scissors and gnawing open boxes with your teeth, I will most certainly not allow you to borrow my knife. Get your own.
Reach Samuel at SKeaneRu4088@winona.edu.
Knife stigma still strong after 9-11
Samuel KeaneRudolph
Op/Ed Columnist
This morning during class, we had an equipment malfunction with a projector cable. One of the prongs on the male end was bent and jammed and we couldnt get it to fit the port. My professor asked something along the lines of I dont suppose anyone in this post-9/11 world has a pocketknife? Rewind. Why on earth have knives suddenly become anathema?
On September 11, 2001, nineteen terrorists armed with box cutters hijacked four airliners. Thats what changed. It caused a hysterical reaction to many things, knives among them.
Why is this hysterical? Lets look at it logically. Why did the terrorists use box cutters? Because they couldnt bring in a more effective weapon past airport security, thats why. What does this tell us? It tells us that if we somehow manage to ensure that knives, like guns, cannot be carried onto a plane, that the next terrorist will find another field expedient item and use it as a weapon. Banning carry-on guns didnt stop 9/11; I doubt banning knives would stop another one.
And where did this foolish concept of knives as weapons come into being? Knives may be used as weapons, but so can baseball bats. According to the FBIs Uniform Crime Report for 2004, knives or other cutting instruments were used in 15.5% of violent crimes. Bare hands or other personal weapons were used almost twice as often, 30.7% of the time.
The most commonly used knife in a crime? A kitchen knife. Funny how nobodys bothered legislating against those. Oh wait, they have! According to the BBC, theres currently a massive fury over the fact that a teenager can walk into a store and buy a kitchen knifeas if he couldnt just walk into his parents kitchen and take one.
Knives are made to be tools. They are fundamental elements of society. When mankind first became civilized, one of the first tools developed was the knife. The basis of all modern production techniques is some instrument which can cut raw material. Factories of all kinds rely on cutting instruments. Every manufactured item you use was created in part by a cutting tool. Knives are the first, most basic and most necessary of tools.
Even people who are horrified at the sight of a Swiss Army knife use knives at least once a week. Scissors, my friends, are two knives joined together with blades that are ground at a less acute angle than single blade knives. And how do you cut your steak? Knives. When you get that wonderful slip in your mailbox that means that someone loves you and a package is waiting, how do you open it?
I see a lot of people ripping and tearing at taped packages with car keys, opened pairs of scissors, their bare hands, and even their teeth. One student was very grateful that I happened to have a pocketknife which easily opened his package. As opposed to chewing it open? It would seem knives are a very civilized and efficient way to do this sort of thing.
Brandishing knives is a matter of freedom. Who is the government to declare arbitrary laws about such things? Here at Winona State University, you cannot have a pocket knife with a blade longer than three inches. Most people, even those who do carry knives on campus, are not aware of this.
What is the justification for making knives larger than three inches unlawful? Do knives a sixteenth of an inch over three inches suddenly become deadly weapons, and those a sixteenth of an inch under are not? A law-abiding student with a knife who doesnt know the rule is in just as much trouble under the rule as a routine troublemaker who carries a knife as a weapon. Neither is likely to know about the length limit anyway.
If this trend of legislating and morally stigmatizing knives continues, pretty soon Ill be the only one on campus with a knife. And I assure you that while youre struggling to cut a tough steak with safety scissors and gnawing open boxes with your teeth, I will most certainly not allow you to borrow my knife. Get your own.
Reach Samuel at SKeaneRu4088@winona.edu.
