Don't Take Your Knife to Town, Son

At least don't take 'em to New York City:  A Bible-college student was charged with violating knife laws during a visit to NYC.

There is not a full description of the knife that Clayton Baltzer was carrying and which caused him so much trouble.  (As an aside, I am shocked to learn that one can major in "Camping Ministry".  Whatever.)  Since we are not told the dimensions or details of the knife, other than Baltzer usually uses both hands to open it, we can assume that NYC uses the same standards in their knife bans as in their soda cup bans:  Anything bigger than a Bloomberg is illegal.   

I think knife laws are in some ways worse than gun laws.  I have carried a pocketknife as long as I have had pockets.  I have a visible scar on the second joint of my left index finger where I lopped off a significant piece of hide with my very first pocketknife sometime before I started first grade.  I did not die -- I don't think I even cried, but I did learn to be careful with edged tools.  And that is what a knife is -- a tool.  It can function as a weapon, as my late father would attest, a knife having saved him from a beating by multiple opponents on at least one occasion.  I knew all the participants in that one.  Other incidents were less clear, but the demand of an adversary prior to a fistfight that Dad let someone else hold his knife implied that he might be inclined to use a blade.  He ended up pounding the other boy's head with a rock instead, when the fight went to the ground.  Caveman Kung Fu.

I think swords, daggers and axes should be part of formal dress, especially for weddings and funerals.  In fact, when I die, I want to be painted bright blue and buried in my kangaroo-hide boots with a sawed-off shotgun, a double-bit ax, and a khukuri.  I'm guessing the survivors won't go for that, but it won't hurt to ask.

Having talked to my state representative a couple of times, I can say that he is a fairly reasonable person.  I'm going to see if I can encourage him to sponsor a bill to eliminate all state restrictions on carrying edged tools/weapons.  There is no sense in it, and a knife can be an "arm" -- and thus constitutionally protected -- as much as a musket.