I have a pocket knife, it's a scary knife.
It is a folding style with one blade, and when open, the knife looks like a dagger with its pointed blade, thin profile and thumb grips. The blade itself is a little more than 3 inches long and the whole knife is around 8" long total when open. The blade also has a serrated section at the lower part which looks like teeth. The knife is black, blade and all, and after sliding the lock forward, a light push with your thumb and it will open by itself yielding a metallic shwoosh fit for a theatrical sword fight soundtrack.
Point being... this is a very scary looking knife. It was designed to be a scary knife. It was designed to look and perform like a switch blade without breaking the existing knife laws that ban knifes that open in a fully automatic fashion. Switch Blades are banned. Gerber Coverts are not.
It was designed to perform like a fighting knife, having an ambidextrous grip, thin profile and dual cutting edge blade. It's a scary knife to person that knows knives also. Being a pocket knife, it is not easily seen, either that you have it, or that it is in your hand.
I use it for daily, general purpose knife stuff. It lives inserted and clipped onto my back pant pocket. I do enough each day that throughout a week I'll use my pocket knife 3 or 4 times. I also play with it for a minute or two each time I take it out of my pocket at night and before I put it in my pocket in the morning. It's semi-automatic opening, and produces a cool sound as it does, it's fun to play around with.
I also have this knife for protection. This one is designed to fit the bill nicely while still having daily utility.
So, how does the average American view my knife? If I were in a group of folks and someone playing with rope asked to borrow a knife to cut the rope, would my knife evoke fear? Interest? Nothing?
My knife is just as capable as a gun in killing, with two exceptions. It must be used at close distance and you have to feel the results as you physically deliver them. In my mind, a much more intimate and scary proposition than shooting someone with a gun.
Also like a gun, my knife has another ancillary use, threat. It is scary to look at, and when opened, the sound is similar to that of racking a shotguns action in that it lets the threatened hear what is coming.
So why is it that this knife of mine stirs up no national controversy?
It's probably because in America, 40 thousand people a year aren't killed with a knife.
Thats just a guess...
Let's look that up.... nope, the internet website Statista.com displays the FBI's 2018 numbers and these numbers say that in 2018:
1515 people were murdered with a knife or cutting instrument
10,265 people were murdered with a handgun.
Let's clarify that I was only looking at the numbers for handgun and knife murder.
The reason is actually because a knife of any kind, even a sword, it not good enough. A knife's power only extends a few inches past your arm length, or maybe 10 feet if you can affectively throw one. A gun's power extends along your line of sight. A person holding a gun can put holes in anything they can see. No need to be close up, no need to feel the blade slice, no need to get blood on yourself.
A gun gives the holder the power to be in control of all of the lives within sight.
"They can all be killed, or I can let them all live. MY choice. I hold the power in this crowd. I may not have two pennies to rub together, I may have a sniveling family and I may hate my job but I have this gun that gives me power over even the richest person, I can kill them too. It depends on the state of my mania that day. That and the depth of my personal drama and mental state.
I'll know soon after I come down off this high."
Let's think about guns from different angles.
Live Love
Mac/
