We have at least one example in the article and, according to one person above, several other cases of women being in trouble with the law for the mere possession of either brass knuckles or Kubotans that meet the definition of the law.
So is this law still a good one if it is prosecuting innocent people who just had them on themselves? Is it having the intended effect?
So you don’t think a woman carrying pepper spray or a kubotan like I showed isn’t a reasonable precaution to take?
ETA - And my point about penises was - we don’t regulate them legally like every owner is a potential criminl. But we do with other things, were the mere possession cause the assumption that one must be wanting to use them for crime. Again - not just weapons. How about prescription drugs or lock picks? Two things I happen to have near me right now.
Reposting in case one missed it:
You don’t think she’s harshly judging guys if she does?
I don’t blame anyone who wants to take measures to protect themselves. That is a natural right.
And women attack other women. It’s a messy world out there.
So it’s okay for women to have concerns about people packing penises - but only if they express it by packing heat?
I visited Texas in 1967 at Lackland AFB. I subsequently went there decades later for work in Houston for a month. I drove across the state on I-10 years later. When you get out into the hinterlands a few miles from the Interstate, people are nuts.
The Texas gun laws are a great reason to never go back. Now the allowing of brass knuckles is just one more reason I’ll never go back. I can watch Austin City Limits on teevee at home!
Having concerns is different than legislating rights away.
~Around half of us have penises here. Are we supposed to feel like potential criminals walking around?
Hell with the new restrictive abortions bans, the other half are now all potential criminals to run afoul of those laws - do you feel like a potential criminal.
A lot of weed smokers around here - and some of them in states that haven’t legalized it. It is still a federal crime everywhere. You’re breaking federal laws every time you use it. Do you all feel like criminals? Should possession mean jail time?
All of us have access to computers - which are used to scam, black mail, hack, surf child porn, steal identities, order off the dark web, catfish, etc every day. Should we feel like potential criminals because we could do any of those things tomorrow if we wanted.
All of us own some kind of knife, from pocket, to something on a multi tool, to kitchen knives. What’s stopping us from stabbing someone in their sleep? Or drowning your kids in a bathtub? Or a whole host of ghastly crimes one can sit around and dream up.
So after these examples I will circle back to my original point:
I suppose it is too much to ask we quit treating people who own something that could be misused for a crime as if they are all potential criminals?
I guess that begs the question of who you’re afraid of that you need so many weapons and need to so publicity brandish them?
Why aren’t you treating them fairly?
Most of us tend to not sit around dreaming up those kind of scenarios, nor amassing armouries “just in case.”
I’m also one of those that feels safer when people around me aren’t armed, but whatever, I’m weird that way.
Who are you afraid of that you have to create a strawman? In this specific example we are talking about a woman with a brass knuckle like device on her person. Nowhere was it said she was brandishing it nor had “many” of anything.
No, it appears they are sitting around dreaming up ways that other people could hurt them certain items and want those items removed. Ironically it is often the same “what if” fears, only with 180 difference in responses.
Look - people wonder why there are so many people wanting a wall against the rapists and drug dealers “invading” the border, or they are perfectly fine with keeping Muslims out of the country. It is the exact same fear based reasoning. These people/things are dangerous. I don’t need these people/things. Therefore keep those people/things away from me.
Fear is the mind killer.
ETA - Serious question - do either of you - or anyone else - know someone who carries anything as a protective measure? If so, have you ever asked them why? If not, maybe you should and see what they say. I could give you some reasons besides the ones one may be thinking, but I think it coming from actual people you know will be more impactful (though this runs the risk of finding someone who will reaffirm your stereotype.)
Except that I didn’t say she was brandishing there 44.
If you want to argue that women - knowing that one of every three of their friends if not themselves has been sexually assaulted - are being more macho because they abuse the menfolk by changing their interactions with them - that’s certainly your prerogative.
I just feel sorry for the men who are so insecure after facing comparatively little threat feel they have to gussy themselves up with all that weaponly finery.
Sexual politics are a bitch.
You reaffirm every stereotype of weapon ownership and advocation every time you comment in the threads.
Please don’t tell me how I think.
Good day to you.
But you did. “you need so many weapons and need to so publicity brandish them?” So no one was talking about someone having a bunch of weapons and brandishing them. You made up this hypothetical person armed to the teeth and waving them around.
The average person carrying a weapons are not brandishing them. Brandishing is largely illegal in most if not all states and not something I condone.
I don’t think they are being more macho - nor is wanting to defend yourself some how more masculine. Those who go in the direction of self protection do so for a sense of agency, not to be macho.
At any rate, I am not going to tell a woman, or anyone, how they should navigate their lives. If they feel better carrying pepper spray or what ever, then that’s up to them IMO.
If it is so little of a threat, why do people want to legislate their ability to own and/or carry brass knuckles?
Per my ETA - I think one of the disconnects here is there is an image in one’s mind about who carries weapons. Mall Ninjas. Cop wanna-bes. Basement commandos. Oh they are out there. They are ridiculous.
But the average person who takes some precautions do so out of a sense of preparedness. It is possible that something did spark a fear in them at one point (And yes, you will find examples were all of it is fear based), but the people I know who carry pepper spray or a Kubotan or a knife or martial arts or even a firearm aren’t fearful people. They do it out of a sense of preparedness, and a sense to protect themselves and their kids.
Friendliest guy I know is from the Philippines, former Navy Corpsman, carries a med kit when he’s out, and teaches kung-fu and Filipino stick fighting. Not a paranoid nut, just a guy who likes to be prepared. He looks like a normal Asian dude with a day pack - because he is just a normal dude - who is also prepared if something goes sideways.
I encourage you to ask other people you may know, vs just creating an image of what these people are like.
If you met me, you’d never guess i was a weapon owner. A giant dork? Probably.
Pepper spray and this thing are NOT reasonable precautions because they’re crap weapons that don’t give much but a false sense of security. The Kubotan can be quite useful but only with a fair amount of training.
I’d like to see how concealed carry for swords works.
from a legal perspective if you can own firearms it would be weird if you can totally ban a less lethal weapon.
having been swarmed by frat bros because I replied “fuck you” when one “jokingly” yelled “sieg heil”, i’m pretty supportive of weapons that even the playing field against a mob without endangering bystanders like firing a gun would
Do you think a prosecutor would really carry forward a prosecution in a situation like this? (Especially considering her counsel will make it clear they’ll demand a jury trial, and it’s not going to hold up on appeal if they select an all male jury)
I often find myself in a weird place where my stance of weapons is contrary to a lot of BBers, but it comes from a place of feeling that at the end of the day it’s not reasonable to expect someone to endure certain crimes then report them to the police after the fact. The police in a free society can’t be everywhere, and we need to empower people to take reasonable measures to protect themselves.
I’d rather people carry things other than guns since guns can kill bystanders a lot more easily.
Most people would not know a knife roll from a california roll.
Do you feel like you’re treated as a potential criminal because you have a penis?
Snigs : If a guy assaults a woman, and she successfully defends herself without a gun, he’s much less likely to be dead. If there’s not strong witnesses, and he’s more injured than she is, she, correctly, may be accused of assaulting him.
I misspoke above, I didn’t mean that it was correct that she’d be accused of assault, I meant it was correct that she might be charged with an assault. Someone defending themselves is in the right.
Do you think a prosecutor would really carry forward a prosecution in a situation like this? (Especially considering her counsel will make it clear they’ll demand a jury trial, and it’s not going to hold up on appeal if they select an all male jury)
I don’t know that there’d be a very successful prosecution, but suing or accusing their victim of a crime is sometimes a defense tactic that assailants will use, as a negotiation tactic.
I often find myself in a weird place where my stance of weapons is contrary to a lot of BBers, but it comes from a place of feeling that at the end of the day it’s not reasonable to expect someone to endure certain crimes then report them to the police after the fact. The police in a free society can’t be everywhere, and we need to empower people to take reasonable measures to protect themselves.
I’d rather people carry things other than guns since guns can kill bystanders a lot more easily.
I also personally don’t have a problem with people, especially women, carrying relatively nonlethal weapons.
