30 December 2010

On The Cutting Edge Of The Nanny State.

Student gets suspended for the rest of the school year for accidentally... yes, accidentally, bringing a paring knife to school.

This is a perfect example of why joining an organization like Knife Rights is so important these days.

UPDATE: More on the incident here, and here, with some interesting updates.

UPDATE 01JAN2011: Tina left a great comment below, which she expanded upon over at at her blog, Pecan Corner. It's well worth the read, so head on over. She beings up the core point missed by the new Puritans of the Ruling Class: "A knife is not a weapon: a person intent on injury is a weapon."

2 comments:

Tina said...

I still have - and carry - the little pocketknife my grandfather gave me when I was 7 or 8. In the 1960s, a pocketknife was an essential tool and every pocket and pocketbook had one, children as well as adults. This was is a small 2" two-blade knife with a yellow marbleized handle.

The main thing my pocketknife was used for was removing splinters and stickers and bee stingers. Over the years, it also trimmed loose threads, sharpened pencils, cut fruit, trimmed hangnails, opened letters, cut patches for bicycle inner tubes, scraped gum off the soles of shoes, uncorked a wine bottle, dug an arrowhead out of the ground, loosened tightened screws...

My boys each got their own little pocketknife around the same age. It was a ritual that every boy's grandfather or father gave them their first good pocketknife - the all-purpose tool they would carry with them and treasure for the rest of their lives.

A modern pocket knife is the exact same tool that a worked bit of flint is. It is a fundamental human belonging, as essential as shelter and pre-dating clothing.

We should not have to join PACs in order to preserve our ancient and uninterrupted human right to make and own the tools that fundamentally define not only human cultures, but humanity itself.

Tina said...

I've posted this to my blog with a link to you. I've also added your blog to my sidebar. :-)

Of Pocket Knives and Paring Knives: Peeling our own Apples