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| Ok, Rambo was for comic effect, but he is about the only person who really needs to carry a bowie knife, I'll let Crocodile Dundee off as well.
There is obviously no harm in a Scout when properly supervised (as I was when I was in it) learning how to use a knife for whittling etc, and obviously he has to get it there and home in his parents' car, so I think that should obvioiusly be permissable.
But from my personal viewpoint, we have to draw a line somewhere. Transporting a knife in a car between A and B (and the same with a gun to be fair) is fine, however, there has to be a distinction between that and tooling up for your trip to the local supermarket/bar/club.
The problem is, that when there is the potential for people to get overexcited (i.e. when they've had a drink), a lot of people make stupid decisions in the heat of the moment, and end up using that knife they have brought and that is ALWAYS going to lead to serious injury to themselves or someone else.
In the 'good old' days, people got a bit drunk, got chucked out of the club, and had a scrap, which got separated by bouncers / public when someone was hurt - the price you had to pay for shooting your mouth to the wrong person. Everything got settled in about 30 seconds to a minute and someone got a black eye and lost a bit of pride, not great, but not fatal.
Two relatively evenly matched (and somewhat drink impaired) adults can certainly hurt each other quite badly with their fists, but what %age of drunken fist fights end up in a death/serious injury? What %age of knife/gun fights end up in a death/serious injury?
The issue is two fellas fighting each other with their hands is likely to last a few minutes, during which time there is a high liklihood that someone breaks it up before things get too serious. With a gun/knife, a fight is over as soon as someone uses the weapon and the consequences are nearly always fatal.
Essentially, if you take a gun or knife with you anywhere in public, you are increasing both your own and other people's chance of being killed. I think that should be discouraged. | |
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maybe we could formalise and legalise 30 second brawling to settle disputes. could be good for society!