peacefuljeffrey

Yayy, the costs of your carelessness are now to be borne by all of your insurance carrier's customers. Just kidding, I know it's not intentional and everyone makes mistakes. Just this past Sunday, my friend Rebecca and I carpooled to Sebastian to skydive. She got some stuff out of her car to put into mine, and we were off. When we got back to her house, she realized she had lost her keys somewhere, and with a flashlight I spotted them through her car window, on the floor. Unable to find her spare in the house (her housemate was there to let us in), we proceeded to try to break into her '96 Honda. Let me tell you, those windows are sealed up tight. But... I'm the MAN. I used a wire coat hanger in conjunction with my Power Tool (the skydive packing tool) to pry the weatherstripping a bit (causing no damage!) and operate the power lock to open the door! It was breathtaking! -Jeffrey -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

Would you brits please get your fucking story straight?! Didn't someone else in this thread just say that it's LEGAL to carry non-locking,

I do have a Leatherman Wave in my knapsack. While it has more functions than a single-bladed Spyderco knife, it weighs easily thrice what my typical Spyderco weighs, and is therefore less convenient and comfortable to carry on a daily, long-term basis. Your second point about the government being unwilling to admit it can't protect the people is NO DEFENSE for YOU agreeing that the people should be voluntarily defenseless on a personal level despite the government's failure. Why do you offer that fact up, anyway? It just proves MY point. In this discussion, I am not asking the government for a defense of its laws, I'm debating you about them. If you acknowledge that the government prohibits weapons only to avoid admitting that it cannot protect its citizens on a personal level -- there is no shame in that, by the way, so the government should stop refusing to do it -- then you must be for the citizens having weapons. Either that, or at the same time as you acknowledge the government's inability, you want the people to be unable or disallowed from handling the job for themselves. That would be psychotic, wouldn't it? "We can't help you; but you must remain defenseless on your own." -Jeffrey -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

So I'll be alright -- I just have to pattern my life after yours. Is that it? I am not even gonna start on why your one-step-off-knitting hobby is a problem Likewise if my hobby was role-play should I be allowed to walk the streets with an axe? Maybe when I go for a night on the town? Say YES to that and it says it all. Your example is really quite asinine. Knot-tying as a craft and hobby is a far cry from walking the... Oh, why the fuck am I bothering. You are clearly not going to get it. And comparing (after deriding) knot-tying as a hobby to carrying an axe in a role play is such a rampant success! It takes me but a moment's thought to realize that this dream of yours would leave the sick, the weak, the small at the mercy of the large and the strong. How long will it take you? It's a sick world you're wishing for; really no better than the one we're suffering with now. I guess it's okay with you if those born weak or small are cursed with being forever tormented and lorded-over by those lucky enough to have been born to be strong. Please link me to a thread in which I espoused the public having and using grenades. And it's "Uzi." Are you proud to not know how to spell the name of perhaps the most famous gun in the world? Is it a badge of honor to prove your detachment from those "detestable guns"? -Jeffrey -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

The knife I carry daily has a blade 3.75" long and locks open. Please explain to me (us), in as great a detail as you can, exactly why this knife, particularly because it has a locking blade, is bad and should be banned, whereas a 3" blade that does not lock should not be. I think that the notion of prohibiting a SAFETY MECHANISM, which is all a lockblade is, is INSANITY. -Jeffrey -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

Then why do you keep trying? -Jeffrey -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

Okay, then I proclaim that since my Spyderco Military, or my Benchmade Mini-Griptilian, are excellent general purpose knives fully apart from having potential self-defense utility, I should not be confronted by the police for carrying them on a daily basis (like I did just this very day). And from where do you claim to derive the authority to declare flat out that knives do not need to be carried on the street for defense? If you already admit that it's for DEFENSE, i.e. "a person is being attacked and is justified, morally and legally, to retaliate with force," why should a KNIFE for that purpose be off-limits? There is every bit of potential that I could run into a guy, or guys, who confront me with knives of their own (illegally carried, of course, for OFFENSE), or even just a few bricks, or pool cues, baseba...sorry, cricket bats... And your attitude is that even for DEFENSE, it would be wrong for me to keep a knife for that purpose on my person. Yeah, especially since there are no BOTTLES and POOL CUES with which a person could kill another person at these pubs. See, I'm just glad we now have you on record making very clear that you think non-violent people, who are not doing anyone any harm, who simply are carrying an edged tool, deserve to rot in jail, simply for carrying said tool. I think that is a sick, demented line of thinking. You might as well criminalize the nonviolent possession of gasoline and matches, for all the sense that your position on knives makes. Lock up a guy just for carrying a knife to a pub, indeed. Doesn't matter one whit to you that the guy is not there to cause harm to anyone, or that the only reason he'd take out the knife is for benign utility, or if his life were at stake. As far as mixing drunken people with deadly items, why not compare for us the death potential from pool cues and broken liquor bottles to a 3 inch pocketknife. Those are found in abundance in pubs, yet I have not heard you say that pub managers should be thrown into prison. They needed them for a thousand other things, like cutting meat, and skins to wear... And so I keep my knife on me for the myriad daily tasks that can necessitate its use. AND I have it available if I should need it for self defense --although I'm probably more likely to use my GUN for that, since it's easier to escape harm if I don't have to be in arms' reach of my attacker. So differentiate for me, please, the carrying of my Benchmade Mini-Griptilian for non-violent purposes of cutting food and opening packages and cutting cord and rope, and the warding off of physical attack. How can I carry my knife for the former purposes, while not having it be available to me for the latter (even though we are at odds about whether I should be allowed to have it available for the latter). Or is it your position that I should have to give up this nifty little (LOCKblade!) knife for all the domestic utility purposes just because of the potential it has to be used for *gasp* DEFENSE!! No, seriously, dude, this really IS an idiotic point. Why on earth should I grant validity to your assertion that I might never come to need a knife for non-defense, utility purposes anywhere but in my home? I can't need it in the car? At work? In the park? I make knot-craft as a hobby, and I do it all over, wherever I happen to be. Should I have the option of making neat cuts with a razor sharp pocketknife only at home, and on the town I should have to cut 550 Paracord with my teeth? Really, if you are trying to make any sense with your arguments here, you are failing miserably. -Jeffrey -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

and then what did Robocop do??? The reason I didn't go any further with that analogy is that it's exactly where the similarities end. -Jeffrey -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

Do you remember the scene in Robocop, in which he breaks into the drug lab and announces, "Come quietly, or there will be... trouble. And then there's a pause, after which one guy cocks his shotgun and says, "Fuuuuck YOU!" and they all start firing? That's what comes to mind with the idea of BRITS telling AMERICANS that they plan to revoke ANYTHING that's ours. -Jeffrey -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

Hmmm... Let it go, Jeffrey. The amount of energy you expend on this is shocking. It's spare energy. Trust me, this is not taxing for me. I remember a news story about a NAKED, SWORD-WIELDING MAN who ran amok in a CHURCH in England just a couple of years ago. He was eventually stopped, after injuring several people, by an off-duty cop who had to pry a CHURCH ORGAN PIPE off the organ to flail at the swordsman! Tell me... why didn't your anti-blade-carrying laws stop this guy from carrying a sword into a church and starting to swing it? After you answer that question, tell us why a further law prohibiting all but kitchen knives would accomplish anything more. I don't know about loin cloths, but I suspect that you stab your mates with broken beer bottles in pub brawls and soccer riots. Oh, wait, is that the kind of mate you meant? You wish this were about me being scared. Me, I'm just cautiously prepared. It's your whole country that acts scared. -Jeffrey -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

It is much harder to stab someone with a non-locking blade... it has a tendency to rotate and cut your fingers when you try to plunge it through someone else’s flesh. So you'd rather they have only KITCHEN KNIVES, which (all but one single model I've ever seen) are all FIXED BLADES, stronger even than locking folding blades?! Okay, I call "stupid" about that one. That is really a stupid, misguided policy. Ban locking folders because they're sturdy and stay open when stabbing a person in a criminal attack, and ban even non-locking folders, ban everything but those fixed-blade kitchen knives. You surely must see where this is going... I'm almost ready to pay you to shut up about the law in your country! So... You support the banning of all but kitchen knives, because who needs anything but kitchen knives... And you probably think of me as one of those "Yank gun/knife nuts," even though all I have are practical folders and two or three modest fixed blades... If this knife ban happens, how would it protect the public from YOU, if you should decide to one day take out a few of these massive collectible knives and run nuts through a shopping mall with them? Would you accept the government coming in to strip you of all but your kitchen knives? After all, if you found yourself of a mind to go kill people by stabbing them, you're not likely to heed the law that says you can't carry knives around... Will you lay it on the line and agree that if a knife ban will make your country safer, it has to get rid of the currently-owned "excessively dangerous" knives, including those you own yourself? After all, even if you got some sort of "collector's licence" (I spelled it that way as a courtesy to you), that's no guarantee, just the same way Hamilton's gun licence didn't prevent him from killing all those kids and teachers at Dunblane... Obviously, even your licenced upstanding citizens cannot be trusted with the implements they own, so they must be confiscated for the public good. That's funny. Because they're saying (here and abroad) that even though 3 million more people voted for Bush than for Kerry, it doesn't prove that that's what America "wants." Surely they wanted Kerry, but someone stole 3,000,000 votes to give the job to Bush. -Jeffrey -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

That is where the point is - Lawful self defense. In the UK you are allowed to use REASONABLE force to defend yourself. Plunging a serated edge 9" blade just isnt reasonable at all. It should make no difference. If you have arrived at a point where lethal retaliatory force is lawfully justified, does it matter whether you kill someone with a 3.75" knife or a 9" knife?? That's preposterous! If the size of the knife is more a factor than whether deadly force was justified for defense, you got problems with discerning what is important. I would put myself in a category that has evolved since that time... would you do the same? You put yourself in a category of mankind that no longer has any use for edged tools? What the fuck are you talking about? However veiled this insult is, it is a perfect example of why you would get hate mail from your family. A little too strong and not adding to your debate. Actually, no, it's not. It's not a veiled insult, either. I am straightforward serious. I think it is moronic that people get squicked by me carrying a knife, since they know I do so in the context of also knowing I am a non-violent, upstanding, honest-citizen-type person. I don't look at the smokers I know all cockeyed and ask them what they plan to set ablaze with their cigarette lighters... but knife carriers are constantly asked stupid, stupid, insulting questions like, "Who you gonna kill with that?!" And you say I'm being insulting? Imagine being confronted with someone with whom you are on friendly terms, and being treated as though at the drop of a hat you might become a psychotic slasher, just because you take out a 3.75 inch pocketknife to cut open a package! Suddenly they act as if "they don't know you, or what you're capable of." They lose all sense and reason because of a tool that has been commonplace for millennia. Are you saying that we are arriving at a GOOD place in human history and evolution when we decide to try to make knives scarce in society, even despite their being regarded as simple tools for thousands of years? I find that attitude toward tools bizarre! Suddenly, ours is the generation out of all those hundreds of generations, that can't be trusted with knives. You have to realize how freakish that sounds. -Jeffrey -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

Your "reason" may not apply at the time of the given day that the cop stops you for it -- and your government is becoming more and more open to people being stopped on the street with no probable cause. Not getting into trouble is less and less a protection against being found with a "prohibited" knife. Now, I already know that Spyderco makes the "Pride" models to satisfy the laws you and other countries have against locking blades... Which is ASININE. What the fuck is wrong with locking blades?! They are a SAFETY DEVICE FOR THE USER OF THE KNIFE. WHY THE FUCK ARE THEY PROHIBITED AS THOUGH THEY MAKE A KNIFE LESS "DANGEROUS" IN THE CRIMINAL SENSE?! If you don't want your laws criticized as being mindlessly stupid, just don't have mindlessly stupid laws. This would be like making a law against having power steering because you feel that it makes it easier for getaway drivers to get away after a bank robbery. You lose all credibility when you presume to speak for your entire country and withdraw "welcomes" from others. You really think that everyone in your country thinks like you and despises the idea of a person carrying a bowie knife if he so chooses? Even those in your country who may own bowie knives? -Jeffrey -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

Source: http://barbrastreisand.com/statements.html#wemusthavepatience The irony in her use of this quote is that Jefferson was a Republican, and he was complaining about politicians from New England - the John Kerry blue states. Hah! She also neglects to acknowledge that he is also the mind who said things like, "No free man shall be debarred the use of arms," and all that stuff about how it is the goal that the people be armed at all times to guard against tyranny... I have to admit that your choice of thread title had me shiver a bit in disgust at the mental image it provoked... -Jeffrey -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

Knife crime in your country is up 350%... Obviously someone is feeling the need. Just because you think you're sheltered, doesn't mean you're necessarily truly safe. -Jeffrey -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

I carry a knife principally for the utility it offers as a tool, and have never had to use it in self defense. It is there if I need it, though. I carry a knife because long ago, cavemen figured out how to use edged tools, and they became one of the most useful things mankind has ever devised. It is STUPID not to avail oneself of useful tools simply because some people put them to nefarious uses. I'll never get over how moronic people are when it comes to me carrying a knife: "What do you need that?!" "Ewww, that's scary!" What, it's just a fucking TOOL. Scary is as scary does. Who are the first people coming to me to borrow a knife when they need something cut, then? The idiots who think there's something "wrong" with being prepared by carrying one as a matter of course. They act weirded-out by knowing that I have a knife on me all the time, but then concede it's useful when it's needed. Well, WTF would they have done if ME, the ONE GUY in the office with a knife, hadn't had one? That alone should tell them, "Carry your own fucking knife. What if you need one on Jeff's night off?!" -Jeffrey -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

No, it's pretty clear that you think treating everyone as though they are someone who would knife someone criminally, as opposed to in lawful self defense, is right. Giving thanks for wasting the manpower and resources of your police and courts. That's wonderful. If the guy driving around in the $80,000 Porsche Cayenne SUV suddenly found them banned, would he refuse to drive the Hyundai Accent if he needed to get to work and the store? You make it seem like just because something basic would do the trick, that all anyone is ever justified in wanting is something basic. That's a fallacy. I carry a Spyderco instead of a plain kitchen knife because it's far more convenient to have a folding knife, and because they are generally of far better quality than the typical kitchen knife, and designed with different purposes in mind. Form follows function, with knives. Some knives are cut out for specific types of tasks, and some are general purpose (I favor general purpose knives). It's hardly reasonable for you to argue that I should accept a ban on all knives but kitchen knives, just because I could use kitchen knives to do the things I use my folders for. I might just argue that people should be forced to drive nothing finer than that Hyundai Accent. What will end up being saved, though, if all knives except kitchen knives get banned, if those who would have used other knives to stab people end up using kitchen knives? -Jeffrey -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

There are a lot of ways in which people can get FALSE "peace and joy" in life. People buy a house in a gated community and believe crime will never touch them. People think cops will always swoop in and rescue them if a violent criminal ever confronts them. People think that their airbag will save them in a car crash -- even to the point that they forgo wearing their seatbelts! Just because they believe the airbag will save them, and take comfort from that, does not lend any truth to the idea of it. -Jeffrey -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

The problem I have with that disclaimer is that we know exactly why the religious fundamentalists want it in there: it's to plant the suggestion that we really ought to be considering creationism as an alternative explanation for life on earth. Why is THIS theory singled out, from all others taught in schools, for a disclaimer that "it's only a theory"? It's because this is a CAMPAIGN, not information. A CAMPAIGN by religious fundamentalists to work up support for creationism and to erode belief in evolutionary theory. If this wasn't so clearly about working an agenda, there would be less to object to about this disclaimer. -Jeffrey -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

How did I end up going to a school that did not have any significant problems with: -violence -drugs -pregnancy -dropouts -controversial curricula ??? I remember we were taught evolution as the prevailing explanation for the state of the world's species, and creationism was, it was taught to us, another view that is held by religious people but is not viewed by academia as being likely to be true, given the evidence. No one ever had cause, it seemed, to freak out about the tenor of how this stuff was presented to students. -Jeffrey -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

Nacmac, you're evil and sneaky. That can be attractive in a guy Wendy W. That's what a lot of girls say when they pass over the average, "nice" guys. And then when the evil sneaky guy fucks them over, treats them like shit, cheats on them, suddenly they call him an asshole and lump all guys with him. -Jeffrey -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

They tell people to ignore anything that looks like it's older than 6,000 years. Personally, I think creationism is absurd. -Jeffrey -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

I generally carry a Spyderco Military combo-edged knife for the same reasons you stated. I also rotate that with other Spydercos and Benchmades. Trust me, if enough people got beaten and/or killed by those with knowledge of martial arts in the U.K., you can bet your ass they would be proposing a prohibition on teaching/learning the martial arts. -Jeffrey -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

This is a Scottish newspaper and laws made in Scotland are not law in England. Scotland has it's own legal system (along with education system etc) which differ from England. Okay, then it's Scotland that's being moronic. And it just so happens that this isn't one of those laws. What do you think this type of thing could possibly accomplish? Do you just accept these things at face value, and think, "Well, they're making this law to affect knife violence; of course it's going to do exactly that"? Why not think just a tiny bit into this issue and discern for yourself WHY anyone would believe banning non-kitchen knives would keep people from being able to stab each other? And if they don't stab each other, does that mean they won't turn to other means of killing each other? No. What we're wondering is WHY on earth you would actually believe that laws that ban carrying these things are actually going to stop violent people from doing it. Your society has a deeper problem than the availability of guns and knives: it's called "the willingness people have to USE them on each other." You can ban every motherfucking thing you decide to, and if you don't tackle that problem you will be conducting an exercise in futility. Ah, here we see a major chunk of the problem: you believe that it's tools "causing" the injuries, instead of people USING tools to cause injuries. The tools themselves are benign and cannot hurt anybody without the complicity of a human being involved. And no, your country did not ban "offensive" weapons, it banned "weapons," because there is no difference between an "offensive" pocket knife and a "defensive" one. Is there an "offensive" Kubotan and a "defensive" Kubotan? Is there an "offensive" can of Mace and a "defensive" can of Mace? You're not allowed to carry that, either. Why? Because ANYTHING that is useful for defense is also useful for offense. It is a staggering thing, that you don't see the illogic of these positions you hold. -Jeffrey -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

Your attitude -- "Why should I care about them overcontrolling the people and banning something that I have no interest in owning?" -- sickens me. I think it's funny that you don't care about restrictions against owning a kind of TOOL, but you're all absorbed in the hours that pubs can stay open. Yeah, alcohol is a real essential to life. -Jeffrey -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"