Then maybe you just answered your own point.
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As you note, it’s easy to find examples of non-criminal uses for encryption and penises.
I’m simply asking if anyone can provide examples—any examples at all—of people using brass knuckles for similarly non-criminal purposes.
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I used a pair of garden shears to open up a bottle this weekend, but if they started selling them at the liquor store, I’d be worried.
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Well, you already discounted it giving people a sense of security. Someone suggested they are paper weights. They probably are a decent replacement for a meat tenderizer. They have been issued to soldiers, who can often legally inflict bodily harm. They have been used as props in movies. And by countless teenage boys who buy them at flea markets and wear them alone in their bedroom pretending to be badasses.
But, as others have said, the problems are with the laws, not with the persecution of brass knuckles themselves.
Seems to me that it’s a false sense of security unless there’s a reasonable chance they are actually used to successfully defend oneself.
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Still, it isn’t criminal. You were only asking for examples," — any examples at all — " of using brass knuckles for non-criminal purposes.
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I don’t think it’s unreasonable to weigh the pros and cons here.
CON: Brass knuckles are weapons that are occasionally used by criminals to commit brutal attacks against innocent people.
PRO: In theory, brass knuckles could be used by an innocent person to fend off such an attack.
I’m not putting these things at the same danger level as handguns or assault rifles but nor am I convinced there’s a compelling reason to let people buy them.
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“Sir, put down that nun. It is a felony to use her as a projectile.”
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I don’t know. Taking some social precautions with how one interacts with penis wielders seems much less extreme than hoarding weapons as precautions against everyone in the world.
In the first case the worst that can happen is that no one gets hurt and maybe a sensitive soul feels slightly resentful.
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I’m sure there are some out there somewhere, just like there are examples of people using firearms for defense.
But like both above examples, there are many, many, many more examples of people just having them and doing nothing with them. So what if 99.99% of brass knuckles being carried in purse or pocket for defense or what ever are never actually used for defense?
I guess I have to concede that other than being something cool to have, there isn’t much USE for brass knuckles aside from defense, and maybe tenderizing meat.
Also, what the women was probably arrested for in the article was one of those Kubotans, which come in a variety of flavors and much more common. When they tell people to hold your keys between your knuckles in self defense, that is an impromptu Kubotan.
These cat ones aren’t brass knuckles, but looks to me like they would run afoul of the law.
More traditional
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As long as the majority of actual use cases for brass knuckles lean toward “violent criminal attack” then I’m not going to lose much sleep over people being denied access to a weapon they weren’t going to use anyway.
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A friend of mine a long time ago carved a really nice one out of Corian, just for the hell of it. Seemed like an ideal material for that.
That’s not really a great way to weigh the issue though. That thought process applied to everything could lead to all sorts of bans. And ultimately “i like it” is a justifiable reason to own a lot of things.
Instead you want to weigh the broad risks and damages introduced and think about whether a ban will materially impact them. Brass knuckles are no more dangerous, and no more concealable than a rock. They do no more damage than any other blunt object. I’m not sure you could even find a statistic on it as it doesn’t seem to be something we’ve ever bothered to check. But I’m willing to be bet that serious bludgeoning injuries and deaths from brass knuckles pale in comparison to bare fists, improvised weapons, and whatever you find at the hardware store. You can not bludgeon dozens to death in short order, nor is there anyone hoarding brass knuckles. And a brass knuckle hoard isn’t all that dangerous of a thing to run across. More over crime is at an all time low in this country, and there really aren’t roving bands of home invading thugs looking to schwack you in the head. Practically it is not a risk that most people need to consider, or an eventuality anyone can expect to deal with. Which undermines the self defense excuse, but also undermines the supposed danger they pose. There’s very little gained by banning these things, there will be little impact on day to day safety. Or number of bludgeonings.
Weighed against the impacts of the bans we already have. Where again these bans are chiefly used to pile on oppressed communities and the vagueness of what actually constitutes brass knuckles meaning they can be applied to all sorts of things. For example the meat claws I have for pulling pork and handling hot roasts? Brass knuckles.
Its most likely the sort of thing that’s not worth banning.
From what I understand the biggest risk these pose, and the largest number of injuries they cause. Is down to most of the ones on the market being too cheaply made to be safely used. So people who buy them to be super cool. Hurt themselves attempting to bad ass their way through a board or punching bag or something. There were a lot of safety warnings about that, and not the danger of their criminal use, from NY State in the 90’s.
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But the vast majority of the time when people use rocks it’s not to bash someone else over the head.
It’s possible to misuse almost anything, sure. But when a person uses brass knuckles to pound another person’s face into a bloody pulp that’s not an example of “misuse,” it’s an example of using a weapon exactly as intended.
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Fortunately we grew out of that around 11,000 years ago. Problem is we made pointier, sharper, harder and better ranged versions, possibly because some of us are still scared of sabre-toothed paper tigers.
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Even in the stone ages a person was more likely to use a rock as a legitimate tool then to use it is a deadly weapon.
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