At all times? Even when just going to post a letter?
Fairly common to want to do anything you want in theory, but object to being told to do anything. Regardless of the pro and con arguments.
You want to carry a knife at all times regardless of whether it will be needed or not. But don't want that extended to some 15 year old black, I assume? Which makes it very difficult for the police etc to decide what the purpose of that knife is.
I'm trying to remember the last time I'd wished I was carrying a multi-tool on my person, when not at work.
Likewise, which is exactly what my Leatherman is to me, just as my hands or feet are 'tools' and aren't (under my daily use) used as weapons, although they could be?
Maybe it depends what sort of person you are and what you could typically be doing at nearly any time of the day. Like, it's a Bank Holiday Monday and just gone noon and I've already used my Leatherman
3 or 4 times, just 'pottering about'.
The last was to use the blade as a 'poker' to check the drain hole of a boat I'm moving for a friend and before that, the pliers to release a tie-down catch.
The boat is across the road and so I have to regularly walk to and fro whilst I'm doing stuff and with my Leatherman in it's pouch on me belt.
A couple of days ago I was walking along the pavement with a container of sulphuric acid ... it came (in the box) with the dry-charged motorcycle battery I'd just bought for the bike.
I fully understand the idea of things that shouldn't be in the 'wrong hands' but surely we can't all be considered guilty before we prove ourselves innocent (when there is no negative history, justification or intent) by just doing what we do, when it's technically within the laws of the land?
I carried a wheel brace over the road yesterday, that could easily be used to club someone to death, was I walking on a legal tightrope?
I could do with one as I still only have a paper driving licence and don't have a passport or bus pass and sometimes I need a 'Photo ID'.
As you say, not sure I want to be forced to carry one but I can't see why I wouldn't (not that I believe they would serve any real purpose re identity security).
Would you take your mobile phone with you when posting a letter ... or a torch if it might get dark whilst you were out or there might be some hazards along the way?
There could be a big difference between 'a knife' or a knife that wasn't on the banned list and part of a multitool because you were a practical sort of guy and typically used it at least once every day (or loaned it to other to use), and not always when you were in your home or in your car?
I can remember many many times when I hadn't put it back in it's pouch and had moved away from where I last used it (or worse, gone out) and then found I couldn't do what I wanted / needed to.
Both wife and daughter know to 'look out' for my Leatherman and they give it back to me if I've left it somewhere by mistake.
They like me to carry it because they both often borrow it (or get me to use it on their behalf [1]). ;-)
Maybe it's one of those things that if you were inclined to carry one all the time, you might then realise how often you could make use of it, even over having to go and get / find 'house / garage tools' to do the job with instead?
Cheers, T i m
[1] The other day, whist we were out and about my 88 year old Mum showed me a nasty tear she had got on the back of her hand from some metal trim that was on a new handbag she had bought. She asked if there was anything I could do about it for her and I asked her if she wanted to keep the trim. She said no, it can go so I used my Leatherman to undo a couple of small Pozi screws and then the pliers to bend up some tabs up and get it off for her. Could it have waited till we got home to where the 'tools' are stored? Yes, but why should we have to and what if had caught her again before we got home?
Ok, I was only in the Scouts for a few months (got bored as I was doing more myself at the time) but what happened to 'Be prepared?
Huh! One determining factor seems to be a recognition of their inability to map read well enough to follow a footpath. The multi-tool provides a way forward without significant loss of face.
And in a recent high profile killing, the weapon was a screwdriver.
You've been pottering about the streets looking for things to fix? Don't think many would object to you carrying any tools you wish around the house - or on the way to a job where they'll be needed.
I don't take my phone if only going out for a few minutes. And round here the dark doesn't comes as a surprise. And we also have that unusual thing called street lighting.
But the duration you are out could be (again, or can be for many).
So do we, but many don't or it goes off at midnight.
The point being that people often carry tools, even though they aren't regularly used to makes even more sense when they are.
You may not have the need to 'daily carry' say a Multitool or a pocket knife but others do.
Daughter and I were walking along the towpath recently when we came across a lady who was pumping up her rear tyre. I asked if she was ok and initially she said she was but then conceded she'd got a puncture. I asked if she had a puncture repair outfit and she said they she knew she should but she didn't. Long short, we offered to put her bike in the car and run her the few miles home and she accepted.
In contrast to your question about why anyone would want to carry say a multi tool, I question why anyone out on a bicycle *wouldn't* carry the means to at least repair (or deal with, eg a spare tube) a puncture?
Now, if she didn't know *how* to fix a puncture then that might explain why she didn't carry the means to do so herself, but someone else could use them for her, or she could help someone else (even if only supplying the means).
Many-a-time I have been able to help myself, my family, friends or even complete strangers *because* I carry my multitool with me always.
It's just like carrying a smart phone means I don't typically need to also carry a camera (/magnifier), torch or PC and I probably use it more for the first two than I do as a phone. ;-)
Quite, and why you really need to know what you are doing before you pull a weapon on someone. ;-(
Nope, but I often potter along the streets and find things at places along them where I can make use of such tools?
Ah, so you only carry a spare when you are planning on getting a puncture. How about you consider that I actually am just carrying my Leatherman between jobs and those jobs are unpredictable in the main?
I rarely carry my phone because I know I am going to call someone, I carry my phone (most times) because someone might need to call *me*.
I don't go out with the intention of taking a photograph of something but often find myself doing so because something catches my eye or I need a reference (like in a shop etc).
I rarely put my Leatherman PST II on my belt because I *know* I'm going to use it for anything specific that day ... but I generally find I do (and so carry it all the time because I like to be able to).
I had a craft knife confiscated as I went into see Genesis at Earls Court because I forgot it was in the pocket of my only jacket that I also wore when radio modeling. They didn't confiscate the other 'tools' I had in the same pocket, like the tape or glue (for some reason) and it had never crossed my mind to use any of them on anyone.
Maybe it's because I'm a 60 year old d-i-yer known for fixing stuff for people and not a 'yout' who couldn't even fit a plug that it all seems very reasonable to me and everyone who knows me?
The folding stanley blade knife lidl sold last year had a locking blade (well the two halves that folded locked when unfolded}. You had to press the bit between the two shells to get it to fold rather than a "button".
Don't know if it is legal and don't care as I don't carry it about.
I've frequently been doing some DIY or some modelmaking, nipped out to the shops (often the supermarket) and only when I have put my hand in my pocket have I discovered that I still have a Stanley knife in my pocket.
On dozens of such occassions I have discovered that I have an unguarded scalpel there! Amazingly, I've never cut myself when finding the scalpel.
After all, Mother State will look after you at all times, right? And indeed, once everything is owned and controlled by the State, you won't need any tools, because everything will be perfect.
I've been carrying a Leatherman for nearly 30 years. I can map-read perfectly well.
No-one ever mentioned being prepared for every eventuality. But being trivially easily prepared for some common situations seems sensible enough. It's no longer legal though. Huge does have a point this time.
I have been carrying a pocket knife for over 60 years including to school, I used to carve ducks from balsa with a razor blade under the desk at school, I have never killed anyone.
Certainly to those of us with many many years experience of relying (in many cases) on such. eg, a 'number of times' the fact that I had
*MY* multitool on *ME* has saved the day. From replacing the clutch cable on the Sierra Estate at the side of the road to removing some swarf from the float valve on my Bedford CF campervan. I had a reasonable set of tools on the van, including a socket set and a range of ring and open ended spanners but not the right size open ender to undo the fuel pipe union or a screwdriver short enough to undo the float bowl screws themselves (tight under the bulkhead). The Leatherman coped with both and 10 minutes later we were on our way. Yes I could have called the AA but this was before I had a mobile phone, we were on a hard shoulder of a dual carriageway and I had the means and ability to sort it out myself. Leatherman Multitools aren't cheap so am I expected to keep one in / on every vehicle I own and every one I travel in? Similar situation with every house I visit where they don't have tools but something needs fixing?
It isn't? Even if it's a 'permitted' daily carry?
That's the thing. Pistols were banned from private ownership in spite of few legally held guns ever being involved in crime. Even though they are illegal it doesn't seem to stop people using them to shoot other people in our cities (often in broad daylight), just as driving without all the proper paperwork or dealing drugs is pretty common. ;-(
As long as people want to hurt / rob other people the criminals will find a way and it will be completely irrelevant what 'laws' they put in place to try to prevent that. I'm not saying we shouldn't do anything, it's just what we do shouldn't also impact the everyday law abiding citizen.
Start arresting every reasonable and law abiding person for carrying a 'permitted' pocket knife or multitool just because a minority use 'knives' (and rarely pocket knives or Multitools) for crime against the person and there simply wouldn't be enough prison places available.
The only way to prevent such crime is to have metal detectors and security on every house door and in the middle of every street, and forcing everyone though them (and searching every car) as mentioned, as a Nanny State.
Would even 'life' or the death penalty stop many do you think (before they are caught I mean). ;-)
What we are actually talking about here isn't knives or even guns it's the people holding them and their reason / justification so to do.
So it's basically down (IMHO and to some degree) down to one being a 'Warm and fuzzy' (who wouldn't typically hurt anyone, possibly only in self defence) or a 'Cold and prickly' would wouldn't care if they hurt someone (even if they didn't have to) as long as they got what they wanted.
Isn't that why soldiers have their 'Warm and fuzzy' drilled out of them but many still suffer later with the likes of PCSD? Isn't a reason many (young especially) knife carriers give is that it's 'kill or be killed' (as an innocent victim)?
I think a lot of is down to respect ... the lost of respect for those they should be respecting (their parents, the Police, fellow citizens) and an ill founded sense of respect for things that are bogus (like their postcode or their 'right' to supply drugs in that area etc).
As with a number of laws which were flawed when written and never amended. I wonder why the powers that be seem happy to write new laws but often seem unwilling to correct old one.
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