Knives, Legal Carry

Caveat: This article is mine and mine alone. I the author of this article assure you, the reader, that any of the opinions expressed here are my own and are a result of the way in which my meandering mind interprets a particular situation and/or concept. The views expressed here are solely those of the author in his private capacity and do not in any way represent the views of other martial arts and/or conflict/violence professionals or authors of source materials. It should be quite obvious that the sources I used herein have not approved, endorsed, embraced, friended, liked, tweeted or authorized this article. (Everything I think and write is true, within the limits of my knowledge and understanding.)

There was a FB Wall post displaying the drawings for a particular knife and in that post someone made the comment that knives are “Legal to carry in .” This prompted me to consider what may or might happen if you carried a knife, then this particular knife, then had to defend against an attacker. 

It is to be noted that this is an exercise in thinking about such things before one has to enter into the self-defense square so that if such questions arise the person can be prepared, etc. 

Any knife experts who read this, I would appreciate your point of view in the spirit of learning and better understanding.

First, I do like knives. I have found, like this one, many that are just wonderfully artistic creations of bladed tools. Second, the statement that I wanted to comment on was, "Legal to carry in "

What I wanted to say is this, just because a state says it is legal to carry a weapon or type of tool like a knife that does not mean they will tolerate it as a self-defense weapon if used. Then add it all the perceptions of knives as weapons of a lethal level with levels of force necessary in self-defense then maybe carrying it is not such a good idea.

In some places, even if you never draw the knife from the scabbard, just having it on your person brings up your ability to use that level of lethal force and it presents the possibility that the other person in the self-defense situation now through visual detection can reasonably believe that their life is in mortal danger regardless.

Say, it goes to court, the person carrying the knife even if not used still has to, in many cases, justify that carry in the self-defense situation. There is so much more that can and does occur in such cases so I recommend, my personal view, that when you decide to carry in a legal fashion you consider why you are carrying and if you are confronted in a situation that may end up as self-defense understand the repercussions of that carry should you be successful.

You can be well within the self-defense square by using appropriate levels of force, etc. but the fact you have the knife my be perceived as a higher perceived threat, etc.

Complicated stuff, the point here is know the full ramifications to carrying a knife be it a hunter knife, a working tool or simply an expression of your legal right to carry such a device because in self-defense you never know how the first responder is going to react, how the prosecution will handle it even if it is a legal act of self-defense and how the other guy will see it as it regards their case and possible civil case against you if you were successful in self-defense.

The possibilities are not always conducive to good reasoning carrying a knife, etc. Especially if the configuration seems aggressive, combative or dangerous and so on.

Just Sayin …

Beautiful workmanship, not to insinuate that one should not own such a blade but do consider possible repercussions if you have to enter into the self-defense square/arena. Truthfully, if I had the funds I wouldn't mind owning one myself (if my wife would let it into the house and that brings up another comment. 

My wife, bless her, would go ballistic if I brought this into the house. Even if just as a collectors item because she sees it as something unnecessary, inappropriate and would wonder as to why I would want such a “dangerous and deadly” knife. If my wife would perceive this that way, how would many other possible folks in a juror pool feel about it especially when the prosecutor states to use inflammatory descriptions of how this made me the aggressor who upon wearing it meant was looking to provoke, etc. Hmmm, think about it.