I'm quite proud of my RFF friends here. I thought this thread would go off the rails much sooner than it has.
The Swiss Army knife is my tool of choice for daily carry. Fits on my key ring and is always at the ready for opening packages, cutting a piece of fruit etc. Things must have changed in Europe, I still have a Swiss Army knife purchased in Germany in the eighties. Bought if for a picnic. Has two blades and a cork screw. Seemed like a normal thing to do on a nice day in the country. Didn't realize I was contributing to a violent knife culture.
Recently our state lifted the ban on self opening knives. It was at the bequest of the EMT's who found it difficult to open emergency knives, like the Gerber EZ out rescue knife while tending to an injured person. And what do you know, there was not a spike in the number of stabbings. In fact we didn't go around stabbing each other to begin with, so the ban seemed pretty silly. But I suppose if you live around a bunch of homicidal maniacs, having bans on certain objects might make someone feel safer.
Dear Steve,
Greetings to a fellow homicidal maniac who is bent on promoting a murderous knife culture!
As many others have aid, knives aren't really much of a weapon for offence or defence, and very few of us go around stabbing one another anyway, so focusing on that (and that alone) seems distinctly eccentric to me.
And, of course, like Sevo you are guilty of introducing mere facts to a rational discussion.
I've just remembered another use for my Leatherman. A few years ago I was in the Julian Alps and accidentally banged my M4-P against a rock (well, I'd hardly do it deliberately, would I?) I bent the stem of the rewind crank crank slightly, stopping it turning. Fortunately, with the Leatherman pliers I was able to straighten it enough to use it again. What should I have done? Stopped taking pictures; gone home; submitted an accident report in triplicate to my insurance company; then sent the camera to an Authorized Repairer? Nah, sorry. Some of us have lives to lead. And indeeed picnics to eat.
For that matter, I was once riding an Enfield Bullet in south India when I hit a patch of soft sand that had blown across the road. I slowed almost to a stop but then fell off. My right elbow found the only pebble in the sand; a strip of skin about 5-6cm long and 1 cm wide was hanging off. So I disinfected it with some Old Monk rum that I had in my water-bottle, cut off the strip of skin with the scissors on my Swiss Army Knife; dressed it with my first aid kit; and rode on to the first clinic I could find. Again, what would I have done without the Swiss Army knife? Bound the dirt into the wound?
Not carrying a knife may be practical if you never do anything or go anywhere, except perhaps a daily commute to your office, but if you've got a life, you need a knife (good slogan, what?).
Cheers,
R.
