- Joined
- Oct 3, 1998
- Messages
- 3,264
A lot of the "knife people" around here are also "gun people," and there is a lot of fear in this crowd that the anti-gun movement will set their sights on knives. (Excuse the gun metaphor!) There are people who fear and hate any object that can be construed as a weapon, but in the USA at least it's not necessarily the same people who are grabbing guns and restricting sharp objects.
Take California, for example. A few years ago, the CA Legislature passed a bill, by State Senator Lockyer, a Democrat who is now the CA Attorney General, which would have legalized the carrying of "dirks or daggers" as a recognized religious practice. This was intended to help the Sikh community in particular. The Democrats in both houses voted for it, the Republicans voted against it, and Republic Governor Wilson vetoed it.
The infamous (in this crowd) broad definition of "dirk or dagger" that, read literally, criminalizes a ball point pen in your pocket in California, was passed unanimously by both Democrats and Republicans, liberals and conservatives, and the guy who wrote the phrase was a deputy DA who is very conservative and talks like an NRA officer when it comes to gun issues.
When I first heard about a bill this last year to outlaw "undetectable knives" in California, I thought I would be dealing with some sort of hoplophobic liberal as its author, and found that he was a conservative Republican. That bill was sponsored by the CA sheriffs' lobby, since they're the folks in charge of courthouse security.
People defending the right to keep and bear firearms are defending both a right to personal defense and a right to maintain an Ultimate Check and Balance against arbitrary and tyranical governent.
People defending the right to keep and bear sharp objects are defending both an universal and essential tool and a personal defensive weapon, but generally not a political deterrent. And when a knife does show up in politics or war, it's a nasty subversive spy's or assassin's weapon.
And there are states where you can get a pistol-packing permit rather easily, that have the usual catch-all restrictions on sharp objects.
The impetus to restrict knives comes mainly, not from "liberals," but from "law and order" people. Police, in particular, have rational concerns about unhappy people they contact coming up with sharp steel at close range.
There is some overlap, of course, between knife arguments and the gun arguments, but we should be careful not to mis-identify people we're arguing with and the issues we need to deal with to get to some agreement.
Or, in short, give a knife to a liberal!
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- JKM
www.chaicutlery.com
AKTI Member # SA00001
Take California, for example. A few years ago, the CA Legislature passed a bill, by State Senator Lockyer, a Democrat who is now the CA Attorney General, which would have legalized the carrying of "dirks or daggers" as a recognized religious practice. This was intended to help the Sikh community in particular. The Democrats in both houses voted for it, the Republicans voted against it, and Republic Governor Wilson vetoed it.
The infamous (in this crowd) broad definition of "dirk or dagger" that, read literally, criminalizes a ball point pen in your pocket in California, was passed unanimously by both Democrats and Republicans, liberals and conservatives, and the guy who wrote the phrase was a deputy DA who is very conservative and talks like an NRA officer when it comes to gun issues.
When I first heard about a bill this last year to outlaw "undetectable knives" in California, I thought I would be dealing with some sort of hoplophobic liberal as its author, and found that he was a conservative Republican. That bill was sponsored by the CA sheriffs' lobby, since they're the folks in charge of courthouse security.
People defending the right to keep and bear firearms are defending both a right to personal defense and a right to maintain an Ultimate Check and Balance against arbitrary and tyranical governent.
People defending the right to keep and bear sharp objects are defending both an universal and essential tool and a personal defensive weapon, but generally not a political deterrent. And when a knife does show up in politics or war, it's a nasty subversive spy's or assassin's weapon.
And there are states where you can get a pistol-packing permit rather easily, that have the usual catch-all restrictions on sharp objects.
The impetus to restrict knives comes mainly, not from "liberals," but from "law and order" people. Police, in particular, have rational concerns about unhappy people they contact coming up with sharp steel at close range.
There is some overlap, of course, between knife arguments and the gun arguments, but we should be careful not to mis-identify people we're arguing with and the issues we need to deal with to get to some agreement.
Or, in short, give a knife to a liberal!
------------------
- JKM
www.chaicutlery.com
AKTI Member # SA00001