Hi,
With the recent knife carrying discussion (what would you carry if our culture allowed), I thought I should post a bit of a rant. I'll start by saying that politically I'm in favor of personal responsibility for such things as knives and guns, but this implies (obviously) that we can be trusted with them.
In my opinion, carrying a knife is allright. Carrying one for self defense is allright. But have a little more respect for 'culture'. Its there for a reason. And believe it or not, lots of people aren't stupid. What you carry is a tradeoff. You trade convinence for functionality. Therefore, an unusually large knife is an unusually large inconvinience, and people know this.
What are you trading? I can see three possible reasons:
1.) You cut brush for a living, or some other trade where you need a big knife. Ie, you need the thing constantly (or you sell them).
2.) You are carrying it around for non-utilitatian purposes, ie self defense or just in case you need it for some reason, and didn't get the news bulletic announcing the invention of firearms.
3.) You want to show everyone around you that you're carrying a big shiny knife.
Number one is obviously inarguable. If you aren't a Hutu rebel in Africa that can't afford an AK, then number two becomes a bit questionable. I respect anyones eccentricities, but pound for pound IMHO carrying a bowie as opposed to a Beratta Tomcat is not a practical decision. Guns are more discrete, and more effective for self defense. Anywhere you can't get in with a gun, you will most likely also be prohibited from bringing a Large Knife. As for the practical value in self defense, the tradeoff is also pretty slim. If you're going to haul around that kind of mass/volume, for gods sake pack a socket set and a ratchet. It'll come in a lot more handy. Why anyone would do this leads us to number three...
I know the average age around here in 37, so I'm going to predict that this isn't a big theme. But some kids in my university carry around knives like social plumage and I just think they're all big tools for it. The only reason they come out is to hand to other people and mention that its the same knife the SWAT team uses. Tools.
I look at anyone that carries around a large knife with cynicism, for these reasons. There are more practical alternatives for self defense in this day and age, and compared to the rest of the world we're all rich and safe anyway. For the amount of day to day danger we're in, we can afford discrete self defense. And (day to day, mind you, not in times of crisis like after Hurricane Andrew), IMHO the main reason people avoid discretion when its an option is to make some imbicillic social statement.
hvas
With the recent knife carrying discussion (what would you carry if our culture allowed), I thought I should post a bit of a rant. I'll start by saying that politically I'm in favor of personal responsibility for such things as knives and guns, but this implies (obviously) that we can be trusted with them.
In my opinion, carrying a knife is allright. Carrying one for self defense is allright. But have a little more respect for 'culture'. Its there for a reason. And believe it or not, lots of people aren't stupid. What you carry is a tradeoff. You trade convinence for functionality. Therefore, an unusually large knife is an unusually large inconvinience, and people know this.
What are you trading? I can see three possible reasons:
1.) You cut brush for a living, or some other trade where you need a big knife. Ie, you need the thing constantly (or you sell them).
2.) You are carrying it around for non-utilitatian purposes, ie self defense or just in case you need it for some reason, and didn't get the news bulletic announcing the invention of firearms.
3.) You want to show everyone around you that you're carrying a big shiny knife.
Number one is obviously inarguable. If you aren't a Hutu rebel in Africa that can't afford an AK, then number two becomes a bit questionable. I respect anyones eccentricities, but pound for pound IMHO carrying a bowie as opposed to a Beratta Tomcat is not a practical decision. Guns are more discrete, and more effective for self defense. Anywhere you can't get in with a gun, you will most likely also be prohibited from bringing a Large Knife. As for the practical value in self defense, the tradeoff is also pretty slim. If you're going to haul around that kind of mass/volume, for gods sake pack a socket set and a ratchet. It'll come in a lot more handy. Why anyone would do this leads us to number three...
I know the average age around here in 37, so I'm going to predict that this isn't a big theme. But some kids in my university carry around knives like social plumage and I just think they're all big tools for it. The only reason they come out is to hand to other people and mention that its the same knife the SWAT team uses. Tools.
I look at anyone that carries around a large knife with cynicism, for these reasons. There are more practical alternatives for self defense in this day and age, and compared to the rest of the world we're all rich and safe anyway. For the amount of day to day danger we're in, we can afford discrete self defense. And (day to day, mind you, not in times of crisis like after Hurricane Andrew), IMHO the main reason people avoid discretion when its an option is to make some imbicillic social statement.
hvas
