OT Ask the police

[harryagain]

I wonder how a screwdriver would be? (As a waepon)

[Cursitor Doom]

Since I've been messing about with 'electric shock machines on and off for nearly 50 years (yikes, half a century!) I built my own taser. There's really not much to it once you look into it; certainly not if you have an electronics background, anyway. I wouldn't waste my time with screwdrivers. As you're no doubt aware, you're not allowed to defend yourself in this country, you have to rely on the police and when they're not around (which is whenever you need them) you're basically f***ed - unless you ignore the law and arm yourself suitably. ;-);-)

[F Murtz]

I would have thought that a taser device would be inviting trouble. A screw driver carried to undo screws may be less of a problem. there are various kitchen sprays (one extremely dangerous)that you could be carrying for whatever purpose they were intended. :) A solid nail file could be carried legitimately,same with substantial writing devices

[Nightjar]

Depends whether you have a legitimate reason to have it in your hand at the time and how you use it. I suspect that the most innocent thing to carry is a walking stick with a knob handle. Mine is similar to the Ash Root Knob, on this page:

[Tim Streater]

But surely one would have to be a doddering old fossil to justify carrying such a stick?

[Nightjar]

I bought mine because I had an injured knee. Having got used to it, I now carry it as a fashion accessory.

[Cursitor Doom]

How could that possibly be the case?

Hmm. Gives me an idea. Get a kid's water pistol and fill it up with that drain cleaner you can get from plumbers merchants that's 97% pure sulfuric acid. Could come in handy for bolshy traffic wardens. Aim the pistol for the eyes whilst applying the taser to the genital area. ;-)

[newshound]

Isn't blackthorn more effective?

An a lump o blackthorn that A held in ma fist Aroun his big bodie A made it tae twist An the blude fae his napper A quickly did draw An paid him stock-an-interest for Erin-go-Bragh

(Dick Gaughan)

[newshound]

NOT TRUE

[newshound]

Because they can only be legally used by the police

[David Lang]

The definition of an offensive weapon is any article made or adapted for use for causing injury to the person, or intended by the person having it with him for such use by him, or by some other person.

Intent would make it an offensive weapon.

[Cursitor Doom]

You're too kind! Friends tell me I don't look 62, though, so perhaps you're right.

[Brian-Gaff]

As I said in a previous message on this subject, I think they decide according to where you were found with it and the time and general situation. If you were doing electrical work and in a van with electrician written on it they would just say, that should be locked away in the back mate, but if you were running dressed in black in the middle of the might from a white van to a property witith expensive tvs inside, they might not be so charitable. as for whether you could stab someone with a screwdriver, that depends on how sharp it is I guess. I think there are quite a lot of people who have to visit hospital who accidentally get stabbed by common objects from scissors and screwdrivers, all the way up to modern art pieces they were trying to set up for display. Brian

[Brian-Gaff]

Yes did not a judge recently throw out a case of actual bodily harm where a lady who did mixed martial arts did some serious damage to a potential mugger, who then tried his luck for compensation? I know proportionate force is what you can use, but who decides what is proportionate? You use whatever you have one supposes, as there is no time to actually reason it out in a logical and cool manner Some years ago a drug crazed idiot came at me with a large wooden chair leg, I grabbed a large piece of pipe and hit him in the knee cap then ran while he was still swearing at me. Some people are just unpredictable, and bonkers. Brian

[Huge]

I use a stick during gout flares and although I'm poised on the brink of retirement, I'm certainly not a "doddering old fossil"!

[Simon263]

You are if you get the gout.

[Huge]

It's possible to get gout in one's teens. I was in my 40's when it started.

[Cursitor Doom]

Too much port. Or brandy. Do you have to be wheeled around in a bath chair with a colossal bandage round your foot?

[Huge]

Unlikely, since I drink very little of the former and none at all of the latter. Besides, it's not true anyway. It's a disorder of purine metabolism.

TBH, when I have a flare, I wouldn't mind. I have rented a wheelchair on one occasion.

Hell, no. If it's a bad one, I can't bear anything touching my toe.

[fred]

I misread that slightly and though you were saying "I'm poised on the drink of retirement"

You have my sympathy. a good fiend got it in his 40's and whilst he may have been fond of a drink he certainly was not a port drinker. It was agony to him.

Slouched in front of the television one night I drank a whole bottle of vintage (complete with white wash slash) port on my own..

I haven't touched a drop of port since.