In the past I have habitually carried a large conventional Swiss Army Knife, lock blade ditto and a Leatherman. After long discussions with a Policeman friend I stopped carrying any of them. Chatting to another friend, who is a Magistrate, it was suggested that the Swiss Army Knife would be OK, so I now carry that. The Leatherman goes in a bag, if I am in a situation where I am likely to use it - like repairing computers in my wife's school!
Absolutely NO! Anything that COULD be used as an Ofeensive Weapon is, by defintion, an 'Offweap'. As I think was said elsewhere, it is up to you to prove that it isn't, an anomaly in English law. Recently there was a case of a countryman who went up to London. In his pocket, by habit, there was a £350 hand forged locknife - part of his everyday life. Things were OK until he tried to get on the London Eye, which has airport type scanners. The staff tried to confiscate the knife, he refused, the Police were called, they tried to conficate the knife, he refused. Only after being threatened with arreest did he hane over the knife! What a way to treat tourists?
Such would have been an anomaly in the past - under this government it's the norm.
Yes, I'll be buying a swiss army knife on Monday, I've been thinking about it for a while so might as well go for it, I don't use the pliers on the gerber much unless I'm working on a car, and even then they're not much good! I'll probably leave the gerber in the audi and the leatherman in the landy, the pinz has a decent toolkit in one of the side panniers.
The swiss army knives have variants that are particularly useful for that kind of thing these days, including built-in torx sets, not as good as the real thing of course but you're more likely to have them on you at all times.
Given the computer work I do, I can justify putting the new "tool" on the company account, so no expense spared for me ;-)
Well he is being, IMHO, a bit of arse. You get a reciept (well a cloakroom ticket), the number of which is recorded in a book along with items description, the counterfoil cloakroom ticket is stuck to the item and finally it is stored in a locked metal cabinat. How do I know? I was honest when boarding about my leatherman in the bottom of my bag...
Given a choice of being an sealed capsule with a mad knife man or a minor inconvience I know which I prefer.
ISTR that there is something funny in law about knifes with locking blades, like they come under the "knife ban" along with ones with blades over 4"(?) long. So a leatherman with a locking blade is "illegal" but the same knife with a non-locking blade isn't.
I think if you went to the football match or the pub with a hammer concealed inside your coat you would get done for it.
I usually carry a swiss army knife with me at most times, however if I am going somewhere, where it could be a problem, then I would leave it at home.
I wonder though how the law makes the distinction between a saw, such a pruning saw and a locking knife blade. If I was feeling malicios I am sure I could saw someones head off with a pruning saw :)
Not that I carry a pruning saw around with me, it stays in the landie.
The locking blade thing is a law that surely needs to be repealed, maybe one could get the support of ROSPA or whatever as locking blades surely cause fewer injuries to the user. It is odd that in this safety obsessed culture, a safety feature in a tool becomes illegal.
Some people carry knives to attack other people, and a safety feature like a locking blade allows them to stab without cutting their own fingers. Similarly a flick knife can be pulled out and opened to stab someone faster than a normal folding knife.
I'd have thought this is all obvious though...
In message , Ian Rawlings writes
That's OK then. It's all right to walk around with intent to stab someone as long as you might injure yourself in the process.....
Incredibly useful piece of kit in some circumstances though.
It's obvious to anyone that these 'laws' don't make a blind bit of difference. Unless you're a law abiding person, then your abidance impinges on your life every day. Meanwhile the non law abiding people carry on regardless.
Flick-knives have been illegal (in the UK) since the 60s though.
Locking pen-knives is a fairly recent addition to the banned list. - I'm with Larry on this, I now think twice before lending my Leatherman to anyone - seen too many people assume it's got a fixed/locked blade and suffer the (fortunately minor) consequences.
|| they allowed me on the plane with it (and || cautioned me to never mention the fact they had broken the rules for || me).
Except on Usenet, obviously.
Well, I was using language to communicate, not play games!
presumably one is not allowed to execute judgement upon the chavs with a machete then.
As I said, if someone is searched and are found with a knife on them that's illegal then they can be knicked for it before they carve someone up, I can't be arsed to type it 3 times.
Is the standard of my diction slipping old bean?
In message , Ian Rawlings writes
No need to get arsy :)
I get the feeling I'm not making my point very well. They are carving each other up regardless. Here one law they made (there are a few others):
Yes I know, but without the opportunity to knick them before they do it, they'd be doing it more! Nothing will stop them totally, that should be obvious.
There you go, I did type it a third time!
Yes, but that assumes that (a) the coppers will go searching, and (b) you think that stop and search is a "good thing". The fact is, banning stuff only ever stops law-abiding people going about their lawful business, it doesn't stop the criminals.
E.g.:
"People are shot with hand guns, so we will ban people from having a licence to own them. That'll stop the problem."
"What about the fact that most (if not all) handguns used in crime are already unlicensed?"
".... People are shot with hand guns, so we will ban people from having a licence to own them. That'll stop the problem."
So Britain has no nadgun shooting Olympic team (when it used to be one of the best), despite the fact that sports handguns only take one bullet at a time, are custom built to fit the shooter, and have never been involved in any kind of crime or injury. Yet handgun crime is rising. Go figure.
Stuart
My point:
The lower echelons of society get searched more often than we do, so it does help. I haven't at any point suggested that it stops all knife crime, and if anyone thinks that because it doesn't then it should be done, then I'd suggest you campaign for the repealing of all laws that don't have a 100% success rate.
I have said, THREE TIMES NOW, that this is not the idea.
And if you find someone with a handgun, you can lock them up. Otherwise you'd have to let them go. It won't stop people from shooting others with handguns, but it'll stop the one who's been locked up from doing it. THat is the idea, and that's the fourth time now that I've outlined it.
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