ANYTHING can be a weapon????

P

para.2

New member
:rolleyes: :eek: Check this out. . Article about MACHETE attacks in Boston. I especially like the last statement.

Some say they are dismayed that the machete is increasing being seen a weapon.

"What about baseball bats? They are also used in gang-related attacks. Even a shoe can be considered a weapon if someone uses it to hit someone else," Morales said.
 
A toothpick could be a weapon! Things are only weapons if used as such otherwise they are not. (that applies to everything)
 
There are at least two distinctions inolved with "weapons."

1. Whether a weapon is a per se weapon, and can therefore be used to secure an aggravated assault charge regardless of whether it's used. (Or whether a weapon can result in a charge of illegal carrying/possession.)
2. Whether something can be a weapon at all. This is more interesting than it sounds, although it only applies when the item is involved in a violent crime. For instance, a while back I ran across a case (I've forgotten the state) where someone had beaten a victim's head against a cement parking lot and had been convicted for aggravated robbery or assault (It was argued that the cement was a weapon). The conviction was upheld on appeal, but the dissenting judge(s) were rather upset about that.
 
Some Hispanic community leaders say the use of machetes in crime has tarnished the image of a useful tool used to cut sugarcane or clear underbrush
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I lived in Boston for four years; there's no sugarcane there. The carrying of a machete in Boston, or really any American city should be a criminal offense. I don't carry my hand ax in the streets of NY, as its function as a "useful tool" is only applicable while chopping firewood.
 
For people in El Salvador, the machete is not looked at as a weapon
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This is a joke, right? Every time there is a war in Central & South America and Africa people end up getting hacked apart by machettes. Natural enough, since it is a bladed tool made to chop.
Chinese throwing stars and a Japanese metal chain whip
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They mixed up country of origin here. They should hope some idiot uses a throwing star instead of an effective weapon. Not that people don't get hurt with a throwing star, but a simple knife is much more effective.
 
Machetes and other big sharp objects became quite popular in the U.K. amongst gangs and individual thugs in the 1980s - and still are.

The media coined a buzzphrase, "steaming"; wherein the West Indies folks would storm a shop (in number) with such items, rob and ransack the place, loadup and leave. I remember reading one story in the local paper where a store clerk (Think it was in Manchester) had their scalp cleaved.

I can not agree with making such items "illegal" anywhere (as they have done in Britain) anymore than I can agree with "gun control" or "ballpoint pen control". All for the same reasons.
 
It's Boston... have a two or more digit I.Q. in that town and you are considered to be "heavily armed". :rolleyes:

Pathetic losers. :barf:


Thank you God for delivering my unworthy butt from the pestilent hellhole known as the People's Demonratic Communewealth of MA. Amen!
 
I can just see it now:

A man and his family is walking along a Boston street when they are accosted by a machete-wielding thug. Man uses his .45 to incapacitate the thug and defend his family's life. Man receives prison time for illegally carrying a firearm in Boston. Man loses house and possessions because thug sues for "civil rights" violations. Thug is represented in court by ACLU thug who presents a defense that thug's use of a machete is "cultural", as he is used to possessing the tool for the purposes of cutting sugarcane.

The simplest solution? Carrying a machete in any major city should be a crime punishable by deportation to a country that grows sugarcane.
 
The simplest solution? Carrying a machete in any major city should be a crime punishable by deportation to a country that grows sugarcane.
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Rather than criminalizing something else, why not decriminalize the toting of a firearm for defense? Just a thought...



Oh, and Dave85 is 100% right on the money.
 
No, I think the fall of the Republic began with the notion that the general populace should receive the right to vote merely because they reached their 18th birthday.
 
How about, ". . . with the idea that anyone can vote what's good for me?"

Oh . . . you were talking about "the Republic," not Liberty. Sorry.
 
The carrying of a machete in Boston, or really any American city should be a criminal offense. I don't carry my hand ax in the streets of NY, as its function as a "useful tool" is only applicable while chopping firewood.
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“...the right to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.” - Constitution Hugger
 
Constitutionally, Psychosword, "arms" specifcally refers to "weapons". A machete is not inherently a weapon, it is a tool, as "Hispanic community leaders" point out. Using a tool that was designed to cut sugarcane to instead win in gangfights should be just as illegal as carrying a chainsaw to fend off attackers.

It becomes a question of intent. The intent of the thugs in carrying the machete is to do harm, not to cut sugarcane, and as such, they have violated the essence of the tool. The intent of a law-abiding citizen to carry a gun is quite different than the intent of, say, a hitman from carrying the same weapon. Any tool used in the commission of a crime becomes an agent of the crime. You can be indicted for armed robbery if all you have is a sharpened pencil, if the victim hands over their money because they fear you using the pencil in a harmful way.

Since thugs in Boston will never intend to cut sugarcane with their machetes, then there is no logical reason to carry one except to use the tool for an unintended purpose, in this case, gang activity. LEO's should be given the power to arrest any and all individuals carrying machetes who are not directly engaged in an activity reflecting the machete's original intended purpose.

I'm not saying to criminalize a tool -- just to criminalize the unlawful possession and usage of such a tool to a greater degree.
 
LEO's should be given the power to arrest any and all individuals carrying machetes who are not directly engaged in an activity reflecting the machete's original intended purpose.

I'm not saying to criminalize a tool -- just to criminalize the unlawful possession and usage of such a tool to a greater degree.
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ja das gut!
 
Yeah, because if machetes are criminalized, of course real criminals won't resort to compact, easily hidden handguns. :rolleyes: They'll just give up their evil ways and become saints. :rolleyes:
 
Tyme, the reason that these thugs are carrying machetes is simply because they can't get firearms. That and because if caught, they know they won't receive the same punishment as if they had a gun because some bleeding heart liberal lawyer will plead some sort of "cultiral" defense for them.

All I'm saying is that carrying an illegal machete should amount to the same punishment as carrying an illegal firearm. If a cop saw a Boston thug with a Glock, he'd be arrested on the spot. The same should go for the machete.
 
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