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Comment by egdod | Hacker News Reader

You can already get arrested there for carrying a pocket knife or a screwdriver. Paranoia is the order of the day.

At least these do some actual good.

You could also get arrested for having work tools locked up in your van or even carrying a deadly potato peeler in public

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/3165489/Gardener-arr...

https://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/news/16209261.potato-peeler-l...

I won't defend the law itself, I think knives are useful tools, but I am disappointed that I can't find more detail about the potato peeler incident. Important context like what he was doing when police arrested him and why they stopped him to see what he was carrying in the first place are no where to be found. I did see that he was on bail for "another unspecified offense" at the time of his arrest, but I'm not even sure he was arrested for having the peeler. It's possible it was just something they tacked on after his arrest. As sensationalist as it sounds, my guess is that it was more reasonable than headlines and conservative websites would suggest.

There's an epidemic of knife crime in the UK at the moment. I'd say prohibiting carrying a knife without a good reason is a good thing.

Poe’s Law is in effect. I can’t tell if you’re actually serious. A pocket knife carried by the average Joe harms nobody, so prohibiting carrying it is absolutely beyond reason.

The 67 victim stabbed and dead only this year would have different opinion.

What does that have to do with an average Joe and his pocket knife?

Please walk me through your logic to believe that restrictions on knife carry are reasonable. I cannot see it, no matter how much I try.

Except that the law can't usefully distinguish between the "average Joe" and a teenager on their way to a gang fight.

The law allows anyone to carry a non-locking folding knife with a blade of up to 76mm in length, unless there is evidence that they intend to use it as a weapon. The law also allows anyone to carry any bladed article if they have a lawful reason to do so - a chef can carry their knife bag to work, a carpenter can carry a utility knife to a job site, but you can't just drive around with a knife in your car for no good reason.

I carry a pocket knife because it occasionally comes in handy. Opening a box, trimming a loose thread, picking a piece of spinach out of my teeth. Those are all good and lawful reasons, but I don’t think they’d be good enough for the Brits.

(I also carry a concealed handgun because someday it might come in extremely handy, but that’s a whole different kettle of fish.)

You can do all those things with a knife legal to carry in the UK.

And I’m sure their subjects are happy that they can still carry such knives, for now.

> Those are all good and lawful reasons, but I don’t think they’d be good enough for the Brits.

It's not just the Brits who would wonder why you need a blade longer than 3" for those uses.

The Brits would also require it to be a non-locking knife, for some reason. I prefer a knife that locks open, for safety reasons. But the UK government, in its infinite wisdom, says no.

What a stupid, counterproductive law. Non locking folding knives are a safety hazard to the user. If you're going to bother carrying a pocketknife at all then it should have a lock.

I have carried a pocket knife (with a lock) every single day of my life since I was 9 years old. I have opened countless boxes, letters, and used it trim hoses, as an impromptu pick, to clean my fingernails, to poke something, to dig, as an aid since I lack long nails to pop watch clasps, and all sorts of other manners as a good all-purpose tool. It has never been used as a weapon, because that is not what a pocket knife is for.

The law you just described is beyond asinine to the point it is unfathomable to me the type of person who would propose such depth of stupidity be enacted as legislation.

The law you just described is literally tyrannical. It is so deeply unreasonable on its face that any right-thinking person should oppose it, and the means to enforce it necessitate the use of the violence of the state. It is fundamentally oppressive.

A knife is a tool, and is an essential tool for all manner of use to enable a person to more effectively live their life and do their work. Restricting it in this manner is a restriction on livelihood and is evil.

I recently visited Ireland and was shocked to learn that in the 1920s was a rule forbidding men to put their hand in their pockets when walking outside. Anybody violating this could be shot by the police.

It can get worse.

I guess this is an American perspective, but I cannot see a scenario where someone wouldn't have a good reason to carry one. At least where I grew up, not carrying a pocket knife would be considered irresponsible.

Knives are tools more often than they are weapons, and humanity has a tool-based civilization. There are many tools that can also function as a weapon, and any attempt to make one less suitable as a weapon frequently makes it even less suitable for its tool purpose. But not always.

The knife I keep in my pocket would only be a weapon as a last resort. The blade steel is tuned to hold a sharper edge for longer, and that makes it relatively brittle. The blade does not lock, making stabbing and slashing dangerous for the wielder's fingers. None of the tools lock. Someone would be better off keeping the whole thing closed and punching with their fist wrapped around it.

But there the cops go, holding a ruler up to the longest cutting tool. As though the only thing that differentiates it from a military pig-poker is just centimeters.

The typical Opinel knife which is cheap, handy and reliable does sorta rely on "locking", but it's a manual process.

They can be opened with one hand, but it's slow and nothing you could do while using the same hand to fight.

They have to fit the wielder's hand, however... big hands tend to require too large knives...

I'll have to agree however that the blade is brittle. You can't stab something that moves with them, unless you want it to break off.

They should make it illegal to stab people then. Problem solved.

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