How public are you with your knives?

[shinyedges]

So let's get this straight, Pinnah thinks all people should carry small folding knives AND small flashlights so everyone is safer... Right?

When you convince criminals to abide by your rules let me know.

 

[Wilsonhome]

No, that's not what I said.

I frequently encounter people with flashlights in my neighborhood on evening walk. These days, they are almost all small AA LED type things although occasionally I'll see an old plastic D battery light.

But a D cell Maglite is another matter. I know enough cops to know exactly why people carry them and if see a scruffy guy of a certain age carrying one, I'm immediately on guard.

You would be too.

You are incorrect about how I would react. It is not an uncommon site where I live. You are simply trying to foist your own views and judgments on society as a whole.

Laws and regulations are made to ensure public safety. Sometimes laws and regulations are made not necessarily to make people safe, but to make them feel safe. This is an area where actual safety and perceived safety should to be carefully balanced so that those laws designed to create a feeling of safety don't impinge on providing for the actual safety of the people.

 

[craytab]

Boy, this has been hoot! The comments from some folks explain a lot about how they post elsewhere in our forum. We've gone from discussing the topic, to prac-tac, to politics, to discussing each other. Don't get me wrong, it has been very informative but it doesn't belong in GKD. And it doesn't look like it will be getting back on topic anytime soon.

Btw, I'm pro big flashlight :thumbup:

 

[22-rimfire]

Laws are sensible to one and not sensible to another. Consider the old hand game; rock, scissors, paper.... rock kills scissors, but paper kills rock.... but, scissors kills paper. So, we regulate all the rocks for public health reasons.... keep it under 3", right?; (How many rocks and other objects are thrown in riots? Weapons...) Paper is just paper, right? After rock is regulated, then scissors will be regulated. We'll all be using blunt pointed scissors before too long. After all, you can use a sharp pointed scissors to stab with.... For pubiic safety, who really needs a sharp pointed scissors anyway? Where does it end? It's all rather silly when you think about it. Ever hear of the paperless society? Lets eliminate that for the public good and charge a whopping paper tax (like tobacco tax) for anyone that continues to use it. It's pretty silly. Laws should generally deal with the action or use, not the object.

 

[GermanyChris]

So were any minds changed? Do you guys feel better now that you got whatever off your chest?

On topic I used my new to me TR4 at the grocery store this morning and no one paid the least bit of attention to the guy with a 4" bladed automatic knife.

 

[pinnah]

You are incorrect about how I would react. It is not an uncommon site where I live. You are simply trying to foist your own views and judgments on society as a whole.

Laws and regulations are made to ensure public safety. Sometimes laws and regulations are made not necessarily to make people safe, but to make them feel safe. This is an area where actual safety and perceived safety should to be carefully balanced so that those laws designed to create a feeling of safety don't impinge on providing for the actual safety of the people.

Where do live that seeing people carry a D cell Maglite around in residential neighborhoods?

In the places I've lived (both coasts and in between) they were common in the 80s but pretty much disappeared by 2000. Only people I see who use them these days are cops and security guards. Not even my buddies in the trades have them anymore.

The D cell Maglites are tactical clubs disguised as lights and as I said, raise my suspicion in the same way that a 10" screw driver does. Context is everything.

 

[22-rimfire]

Batteries last longer on D Cell flashlights. Larger batteries are more efficient. They do make good tactical clubs. C cells will be back! You actually get suspicious when someone carries a 10" screw driver?

 

[Wilsonhome]

Where do live that seeing people carry a D cell Maglite around in residential neighborhoods?

In the places I've lived (both coasts and in between) they were common in the 80s but pretty much disappeared by 2000. Only people I see who use them these days are cops and security guards. Not even my buddies in the trades have them anymore.

The D cell Maglites are tactical clubs disguised as lights and as I said, raise my suspicion in the same way that a 10" screw driver does. Context is everything.

I live in a suburb of Dallas. This is the last word I will have on this subject with you. I have made my points, you have made yours and there is going to be no movement on opinions here.

 

[22-rimfire]

How about some toad?

 

[pinnah]

You actually get suspicious when someone carries a 10" screw driver?

Depends on context. On a job site, on a farm, around a garage? No.

On a residential street with no apherennt reason? Absolutely.

Maybe I've lived in the city for too long and have been broken into too many times. Or maybe I know too many cops.

Seriously, have you ever seen somebody walking down a residential street carrying a 10" screw driver? Would you consider it normal? Or would you have heightened awareness?

 

[Armadew]

For the love of god, shut up, pinnah. Off to knife laws or prac tac with your utter nonsense. Better yet, please leave bladeforums all together.

 

[Quiet]

Hey Trevor, the way I see it, the fact that you can kill somebody with a 1/2" blade doesn't invalidate the efficacy of, say, a 3" blade limit as is common in some high crime cities in exactly the same way that the fact that you can kill a person with a car at 15mph doesn't invalidate the efficacy of a 35mph speed limit is common in some residential neighborhoods.

The point of a 35mph isn't to stop all car related deaths. The point is to minimize the overall number of deaths and to give cops something to charge people with when they act up and speed dangerously. In a city like Boston which is near me, they have problems with drunken college students getting into brawls and with gang violence and their 3" blade limit is designed to minimize the number of knife related deaths and injuries (not eliminate them) and to give cops somethings to use to arrest guys who are posing a threat.

This is sensible to me, just as a 35mph is. Note, I break both laws regularly but I don't in trouble with the law and I use a lot of discretion.



I think that most people would see a 6" Buck 119 as a more dangerous weapon in the hands of your run of the mill drunk and disorderly type or your average street thug than, say, a 3" Buck 113. I'll reckon there are some martial arts types who would prefer a 3" blade, but that's not what the laws are about. The laws are about the average case, and the average thugs and bar fights.



Trevor, 99% of this thread is about using judgement in context. If I were out walking my dog in the early evening and encountered you carrying one of those big D-cell Maglite and if you were between the ages of 15 and 35, I would just immediately assume you were up to no good. The same would be true if you were carting a 10" screwdriver, a baseball bat, axe or climbing axe.

True story... In college, a buddy and climbing partner of mine rode the subway to a climbing store to buy a climbing axe and when he returned, he said, "It's a lot easier to get a seat on the subway when you're carrying an ice axe."

Things out of context make people nervous and for good reason. Knives used indiscriminately and without justification make people nervous and for good reason, IMO.

At this point, I feel like you're just trolling us with this nonsense. "Make people nervous and for good reason" essentially means that you are calling everyone who carries a knife a "pre-murderer". So, your position is that people have good reason to fear others who are carrying tools, and thus, we should make more laws against those folks who carry tools.

Criminy. What a load of nonsense.

 

[Quiet]

Where do live that seeing people carry a D cell Maglite around in residential neighborhoods?

In the places I've lived (both coasts and in between) they were common in the 80s but pretty much disappeared by 2000. Only people I see who use them these days are cops and security guards. Not even my buddies in the trades have them anymore.

The D cell Maglites are tactical clubs disguised as lights and as I said, raise my suspicion in the same way that a 10" screw driver does. Context is everything.

You seem like a very suspicious, fearful person. I guess this is why you're always peddling that sheer nonsense in suggestion threads of that garbage little Opinel/Micra combo. You're attempting to head off being frightened out on the trail by someone carrying an actually decent sized knife, or heaven forbid, an actual fixed blade!

Everything you've said here gives me new understanding about how scary the world must seem to you. A shame.

 

[Quiet]

Depends on context. On a job site, on a farm, around a garage? No.

On a residential street with no apherennt reason? Absolutely.

Maybe I've lived in the city for too long and have been broken into too many times. Or maybe I know too many cops.

Seriously, have you ever seen somebody walking down a residential street carrying a 10" screw driver? Would you consider it normal? Or would you have heightened awareness?

You sidestepped when I asked you this previously (because you have no answer, I understand), but who made you the arbiter of reason, or what's normal? That person could be on their way to their friend's house to help him fix his car, or maybe that person is walking back from his friend's house who he had let borrow it?

This is your problem: you've decided that what constitutes "normal" in your eyes is objective.

So hey, here's an idea. How about instead of deciding that you know best for everyone what's normal or a reason that's "apherennt" enough for you, you just mind your own business?

Anyway, I've had about all of your ignorance I can stomach, so I'm out of here.

 

[stabman]

How about some toad?

 

[stabman]

Hopefully I can get more toad pics in the upcoming week.
The internet needs more toad!

 

[22-rimfire]

The funny thing about the screw driver is that I probably wouldn't notice it in the first place. How about a crow bar? How about three young males with crow bars? How about the same young males with tomahawks? Yep, I'd notice. Damned good weapon and far easier to use than a knife. What if they started yelling Allah Ackbar? Certainly. As you say, it's situational. We all profile people if we are aware of our surroundings.

I asked my wife if I went out side and shot some rounds up into the air with an AR and shouted Allah Akbar, would she think me a terrorist? She said certainly.

 

[benchwarmer380]

Where do live that seeing people carry a D cell Maglite around in residential neighborhoods?

In the places I've lived (both coasts and in between) they were common in the 80s but pretty much disappeared by 2000. Only people I see who use them these days are cops and security guards. Not even my buddies in the trades have them anymore.

The D cell Maglites are tactical clubs disguised as lights and as I said, raise my suspicion in the same way that a 10" screw driver does. Context is everything.

So? Sounds like a dual purpose tool to me. Lights up the dark and can be used to defend oneself from a creeper if necessary. Not such a terrible thing.

Now if someone is lurking in the shadows, messing with car/house doors, or has a ski mask on, etc. that would strike me as suspicious rather than just having big flash light while taking a walk in the early evening.

 

[b yond]

Even if knives were only useful as weapons, what's wrong with carrying a weapon? Isn't self-defense a natural right?

Why the assumption that weapons can only be used for evil?

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

 

[stabman]

Even if knives were only useful as weapons, what's wrong with carrying a weapon?

Can't carry a weapon in many places.
Also, being public with weapons ain't a great idea...pulling out your sword cane and waving it around won't win a date with pretty girls (although you may get a nice date with someone in a cozy prison cell ).

Tools can go more places.
When I took the plane to France in June, I had a a large, heavy hardwood walking stick with me; no problem.
A kubotan on my keys though, that wouldn't have been allowed, even though a hardwood walking stick hits way harder (and has more reach, etc.).