Stopped by authorities

Johndies said:
To be clear, I have never been stopped, and there should be no reason for it. And in addition, I never carry illegally. But, there have been times when, for whatever reason, the a:Dmount of legal blades could cause a discussion that I do not have a ready answer. I like knives?
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Are you walking around with a dozen fixed blades on your belt and a machete over your shoulder?

I did a quick check....I believe I have 4 knives on me today. (Or 3 and a Leatherman.) Nobody searched me. No problems.

I suppose if you are expecting to be searched, and, as you say, the "style and amount [of knives you are carrying] might be hard to explain" then you could always either:

1) stop doing what you are doing that leads you to believe you are going to be searched; and/or
2) stop carrying all those tacti-stabinators.

I guess it would help if we knew what you were up to and what you are carrying.
 
Hey I was stupid enough back in the early 90s that when we took our 5 year old daughter to see the Statute of Liberty and back then the only thing ya couldn't have in a national park was a switchable, dagger or gravity knife,it was not uncommon for me to be carryin' 8-14 knives on me at the time, (I was at the peak of my indiscriminate accumulating back then).

To make a long story short they had me empty my pockets before goin' through the metal detector and as they saw the knife count go past 5 they asked me to step aside while they examined all my knives to make sure they were legal, legali remember my daughter asking my wife what was happenin' to daddy and my wife telling my daughter to get comfortable because daddy was gettin' arrested and they were gonna be there for a while yet.

Now after 4 park rangers tried to wrist flick and gravity open all my knives, (they were all Spydercos and Benchmades back then so I'm guessin' they really wanted a reason to confiscate 'em) fortunately for me all my pivots were tight and they couldn't flick, flip or drop the blades open so they have me back all my knives and let me go into the Statute of Liberty with this piece of advice, "...next time how about bringin' only a couple of knives so it's don't hold up the line while we go through the knives..."

Try that post 9/11...
 
the4th said:
C - Cop measures blade across the palm of his hand, of course the 4" blade is longer than his hand is wide - I'm going to have to confiscate
B - Ok, but I'll need you to call a supervisor and I'll need a receipt complete with both your names and badge numbers
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On point#1, no cop has same size hand so ya can't do a palm measure on a knife, it's inaccurate. Without being snotty I would have told the cop to get a ruler.

On point#2, I've done just that explaining to the officer that each of those knives cost over $100 each and had the officer just hand me back my knives and send me on my way rather than go through all the extra paper work.
 
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No machete, but maybe some day.
You bring up the exact point. My EDC standard is three blades. One day I threw my jacket on and I had three more in it, didn't know it until later. So if I had been stopped I was legally carrying six. My question to the forum is how would you explain it, justify it, rationalize it. Or because it is legal, don't say anything.
At times, my non-knife friends have asked "how many knives are you carrying?", and my typical response is "how many do I need?" But friends are not "authorities" and I realize I haven't pre scripted a respond to a LEO asking why I have six knives on my person. Responding that I have a legal right seems pretty obnoxious, clarifying that it was a wardrobe mistake suggests to suggest that somehow I know that carrying six knives is wrong. Last time I was stopped was in the Sixties and I had a small Case, it happened a lot then, and I lost a few Cases.
 
Several years ago, my son and I attempted to visit the Holocaust Museum in DC. They don't allow knives. I was carrying a Buck Squire. I had a similar thing happen when I visited the state capitol in Baton Rouge, but they put the knife in an envelope and kept it for me.

My son and I went around the corner and down the street to an aviation museum and the knife was no problem there.

I have been a supporter of the Holocaust Museum and wrote them an email about my experience and received a very nice note in return.
 
Only a few times. I was once asked what I used a 6" serrated Vaquero Grande for. I replied, " In case I'm ambushed by a bunch of thugs and I use up my 61 rounds of 10mm I have in the truck. "

He told me to go ahead and grab my knives and have a nice night.
 
Nope, it's never happened to me once. But then again, seeing as where I live here in the mountains of NC in a fairly rural area, no one really looks twice at someone carrying a knife, be it a folder or a fixed blade for the most part. Up here, its pretty much just as common for a guy to have a knife on him as it is a wallet. On a related note, if a cop asks to see your knife, I consider it to be good practice to pull it out with your off hand and hand it to them handle first (handle first only applies to fixed blades).
 
This is a little off topic, but I was at my local Fire Department Explorers classroom, andt here were a few cops there. I asked one what the legal age to carry a folder was, and he asked if I had one. Showed him my Tenacious. "You cant have this. Gotta be 16." "you could get in trouble". But of course I was on relatively good terms with all these guys, so he didnt do anything. One of them took it and examined it, he said, "Is this a Spyder?" *looks at other cop* "This is a really nice frickin knife! Sharp as hell too." i nodded. The first cop told me not to carry that anymore, but said if I had a "Boy Scout knife" (SAK?) then I wouldnt really run into trouble. Nice guys. Oh and the one who praised the Tenacious was carrying a white S&W Baby Swat
 
Also, there were a few other cops there, and they started comparing. One or two of them had SAK's, another had some sort of old traditional (had a damned nice patina too), and they seemed like cool guys. Would never expect anyone else besides me to carry a knife around here, judging by the looks I get.
 
evilgreg said:
I had an Illinois state trooper ask what I was carrying while we were both waiting in line at the McDonalds on a toll road overpass (I-88 out by I-39). He saw the pocket clip on my beat up old green and purple 940. I thought I was in for a hassle, until he said "nice knife, but I couldn't handle the purple" and showed me the black combo-edged BM 943 he was carrying.

Another time I was with some folks in Wisconsin and one of them was stopped by a local cop, again spotted via pocket clip. He was carrying a little ~3" liner-lock of some type. The cop asked to see it and proceed to attempt to wrist flip it open. It took him, no joke, a couple of dozen tries to get it to open. He flailed around to the point that it was taking so long it was a bit embarrassing to watch him. When he finally got it to open, he declared it a "deadly gravity knife" and said that it was completely illegal and "you could be in a lot of trouble". The options he posed where these: he would confiscate the deadly weapon and give him a verbal warning, or he could take a free trip in the back of a cop car. As this was happening, I unclipped the BM 707 that was in my right front pants pocket and let it fall inside. I know that means I was concealing it, but my 707 will flip open if you just give it a stern look ;) so I knew it was, at least to this nutball cop-building-a-free-knife-collection also a "deadly gravity knife", ha.

I was so pissed after that encounter. The person I was with just gave up the knife, saying the fifty bucks to replace it was a better deal than trying to fix some cop's bad behavior and possibly ending up in trouble doing it. Since then I've seen a few other LEO bad behavior incidents in person that have left me with a deep and abiding distrust of law enforcement. Even if most of them are great, the fact that they protect the bad apples rather than punish them more severely than citizens (which IMO is what should happen when someone given that kind of power abuses it) is what causes my concern.

Better safe than sorry, when some badged bully can ruin your day. That's why I've recently taken to actually obeying the brain-damaged Chicago 2.5" blade length limit, after ignoring it for most of my life.
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OMG im am so mad just reading that. what an a-hole for taking his knife.
 
When I had to collect and deposit allot of money on a daily basis, I carried a Cold Steel Scimitar (4" blade) clipped to my pocket in full sight. I made sure it was not hidden. I was receiving many daily threats from drug dealers and pimps due to my goal to clean up the place and keep the kids safe. The previous manager and my current boss (district manager) and my assistant manager were involved in doing whatever they could to make money off the mostly underage children which included selling drugs right out of the store office and theft.

After talking to the mall manager and the police about the incompetent mall security personnel (who also knew what was going on), about what I was up against, one of the worst female security guards called the police on me for having that knife. She was in a relationship with one of the previous managers and thought she was really tough (X Military).

The police officer stopped in to talk with me. Before I knew what was going on he grabbed my knife and held onto it while we talked. After we were done talking, I asked for my knife back. He looked it over, gave it right back to me and said "nice knife". He had some very nice, black, tight leather shooting gloves on and I asked him where he got them from and bought a pair for myself.

I pulled out a piece of paper with the complete details of my phone call to the state police which had the police officers name, time and date of our phone call on it. It also had what I was told was legal to carry in our state and what wasn't. He looked it over, and said it was correct.

The incompetent security guard was fired the next day.

I keep a yearly copy of that information in my wallet at all times and follow the information so I don't have any issues or any of my knifes taken away. I also make a few copy's and give them to my family and friends.
 
I have never had a knife problem in my Northern California area. I always carry whatever knife I want and I can't notice anyone having a problem with it. One night I did have a run in with the police and the cop saw the clip of my knife and pulled it out of my pocket without any kind restrain. I'm not going into what happened the rest of that night or why I had the run in originally but at the end of the night the officer gave me back my Gayle Bradley in an envelope and said it was a really cool knife and would like to purchase one of his own. He asked me a few other knife related questions and I pointed him to this site. I won't be giving out any names or details but he should be a member of this site now.
 
I live in an area (NE OH) where almost all of the municipalities have 2.5" limits. This is fine for the suburbs, but if we go downtown for dinner at night there are often some unavoidable parking and walking situations that can place a situationally-aware person on edge. Therefore I want to carry something larger (4"blade ) more for the extended handle size than the blade size, when I am downtown with my wife in a deserted parking garage, dark alley, parked next to a windowless "kidnap" van, etc.... I don't expect to be stopped while walking but driving has too many random factors in play.

Is it reasonable for driving purposes to keep a larger knife, either a Mora Companion or Griptillian, in a small first aid/rescue kit on the floor under the passenger-side seat in case the car gets searched? Also, is having a bright knife handle (i.e. blue) make the situation less questionable?
 
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A couple months ago I went with my mother to visit someone at a state prison. When we approached the parking lot, there was an officer there who had us stand in front of the car while he searched the vehicle. He found the knife I had in the center console and the emergency kit that I had in my glove compartment. The kit had a Kershaw fixed blade skyline attached to it. He was alarmed and called backup. Two more officers came and they were friendly. One saw the kit had trauma shears and asked if I was a first responder. I said "Um... yeah I work in a hospital." (I'm Security and on the Decon team so it was technically the truth). They just threw all the knives and stuff in my trunk and said I can visit as long as I don't access my trunk while I'm on the premises.

And because I'm Security, I've been on the other side too. We don't allow patients to have knives in the hospital for reasons that are obvious, but most people don't understand. I do return the knives when they are discharged. They're usually smaller Buck knives and folding box cutters. The reason we take them is because we've seen so many people flip out without warning and attack nurses, doctors, security, and other staff.

We had a woman who threatened to take out her knife and stab us if we got closer while she was clutching her backpack and going through the pockets. Another night a man wanted to go in the hospital to visit his wife. He was drunk and I saw a blade in his back pocket (that was about twice as long as the legal limit in that town). I didn't let him in of course. Turned out the patient wasn't his wife or girlfriend.
 
T. Erdelyi said:
Try that post 9/11...
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You can't. I had my military ID on me going thru the metal detectors, and the knife was in my bag going through the x-ray. They made me take it out and wouldn't let me enter the facility with it; I had to leave it with security until I returned. Makes sense... I'm sure tons of crimes are being committed with a $400 folding knife, that has less than a 3" blade. What do they think I'm going to do, whip out my sebenza, and rob the gift shop? That'd go over well... Good thing we have these geniuses here to protect us...:rolleyes:
 
Sr Tyler said:
Conceal all your edc knives real good. Dont whip them out all over the place in public. And dont talk to the militarized thugs in blue costumes, or do anything that would result in you having to talk to them.
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I agree with this. I'll only whip out my knife to cut something if it is truly necessary. I also agree about avoiding the police at all costs. Most LEO's in this country are nothing but a bunch of abusive, thieving, trigger happy criminals, here to inflict fear upon society.

MOST, not all though. I actually have met a couple of very kind, good hearted, and respectable officers in my lifetime who are worthy of wearing the badge.
 
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