You call THAT a knife? THIS is a knife.
Posted on 06/15/2012 6:21:58 AM PDT by marktwain
He has completed the community service, and he has paid the fine. Because of the way that Clayton Baltzer sees the world, he believes this must be part of God’s plan.
Still, the Grove City High School graduate now has a New York weapons charge on his record. Baltzer, 19, is a Bible-college student — a camping-ministry major — and took his pocketknife to New York City on a field trip. He did not know about New York’s strict knife laws. He now has some fame among knife-rights advocates because of what happened to him.
“I have never been in trouble before,” Baltzer said.
His fine-arts class at Baptist Bible College & Seminary in Clarks Summit, Pa., went to New York City on March 27. It was Baltzer’s first trip to the city. On the schedule: the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the World Trade Center site, Times Square and an opera at Lincoln Center.
Baltzer and his class were at the Times Square subway station when someone grabbed him by the arm and said, “ Don’t move.” It was a plainclothes New York City police officer.
Baltzer has carried a pocketknife almost everywhere since he was a 14-year-old camp counselor. He clips it on his pocket so that the clip is visible, but the knife isn’t. He always uses two hands to open it, the way most people would a regular pocketknife.
In New York state, it’s illegal to carry a “gravity knife” — a knife with a blade that is released from its handle by flicking a wrist and then locks into place. A switchblade, also illegal to carry in New York, isn’t a gravity knife because a spring opens the blade. A typical Swiss Army knife — legal, in theory — also isn’t a gravity knife because it can’t be opened just by flicking.
The officer had seen the clip on Baltzer’s pocket, which gave him cause to search him. He found the knife. In Baltzer’s telling, the officer tried to flick it open and couldn’t. He handed it to another officer, who did flick it open after several tries.
Baltzer was arrested and charged with the highest degree of misdemeanor under New York law. He had another knife in his backpack, a fixed-blade one he used to whittle for kids at a special-needs camp in Pennsylvania. He forgot he had it in his bag. Police confiscated that one, too.
Two months and two court hearings later, Baltzer was sentenced to two days of community service and fined $125. He paid the fine the day it was levied, and his volunteer camp work quickly took care of the community service.
A New York neighborhood-news website wrote about the case, and it came to the attention of an Arizona-based group called Knife Rights. Knife Rights had filed a federal lawsuit challenging New York’s knife laws even before Baltzer’s case.
“(Baltzer) is a poster child for the unreasonableness and ridiculousness of the prosecution of honest citizens carrying knives,” said Doug Ritter , Knife Rights’ chairman.
In 2010, the Manhattan district attorney announced an initiative to crack down on illegal knives. Since then, New York has treated many typical pocketknives as gravity knives, Ritter said.
Ohio’s laws “aren’t as screwed up as New York’s,” but they are vague, said Greg Ellifritz, who gives knife training to central Ohio officers and civilians. Ohio has outlawed the carrying of concealed “deadly weapons,” which might include knives, he said.
Ohio case law tends to show that a common pocketknife isn’t considered a deadly weapon, Ellifritz said. Some common pocketknives can be opened by flicking them with the proper technique, he said.
The arrest should drop off Baltzer’s record in a year. The experience has taught him a lesson, though.
“I don’t plan on visiting New York unless I have to,” he said.
jeb.phillips@dispatch.com
Screw driver, ball-pein hammer, roll of quarters in a sock, metal case ballpoint pen, Chop stick, 3/4” Sched 40 PVC cut at acute angle, 1/4” rebar, tent peg, Baseball bat, Cricket bat (”It’s for a cross-cultural show & tell at school, officer.”), icicle made with cloth, etc, etc, etc.
Repeat after me, Liberals/Progressives, “Objects don’t murder people, people murder people.”
Liberals are fond of quoting “The Pen is mightier than the Sword”, yet refuse to acknowledge that their regulations have harmed more people that pocketknives, etc.
I had a Case double-blade pocket knife in the first grade. We’d play “mumbly-peg” at recess. All the boys had either a Case or a Barlow.
You call THAT a knife? THIS is a knife.
Kid looks dangerous and suspicious to me. No wonder the cops spotted him. /s
F*
NY!
he's wearing a hoodie. obviously a gang member. good thing the police got this vicious criminal off the streets. /s
Uh, I wonder why baseball isn't illegal here.
That is one DANGEROUS-looking character! /s
Just exactly like in the movie “Escape From New York”, lol.
Sec. 46.01. DEFINITIONS. In this chapter:
(1) “Club” means an instrument that is specially designed, made, or adapted for the purpose of inflicting serious bodily injury or death by striking a person with the instrument, and includes but is not limited to the following:
(A) blackjack;
(B) nightstick;
(C) mace;
(D) tomahawk.
Thus a baseball bat is not a club. However case law has defined that an item used with the intent of bodily injury qualifies as a club even if not manufactured initially with that intent. So if you rob a store using a baseball bat as a threat, it would now qualify as a club and be against the law...similarly if you go over to your neighbor with your bat in the heat of an argument, you could be charged under unlawful carry of a weapon. That is assuming you are not arguing about a backyard game of baseball :)
Whoops I made a mistake above...It is ok to have them in your car etc..
See 46.02(a)(2) and (a-1) at http://www.statutes.legis.state.tx.us/docs/PE/htm/PE.46.htm
Sec. 46.02. UNLAWFUL CARRYING WEAPONS. (a) A person commits an offense if the person intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly carries on or about his or her person a handgun, illegal knife, or club if the person is not:
(1) on the person’s own premises or premises under the person’s control; or
(2) inside of or directly en route to a motor vehicle or watercraft that is owned by the person or under the person’s control.
(a-2) For purposes of this section, “premises” includes real property and a recreational vehicle that is being used as living quarters, regardless of whether that use is temporary or permanent. In this subsection, “recreational vehicle” means a motor vehicle primarily designed as temporary living quarters or a vehicle that contains temporary living quarters and is designed to be towed by a motor vehicle. The term includes a travel trailer, camping trailer, truck camper, motor home, and horse trailer with living quarters.
None the less, at least three states have moved to remove nearly all of their restrictions on knives from their law: New Hampshire, Arizona, and Utah, with several others considering the option.
The mayor should be in prison for these laws as well as any cops enforcing them.
The mayor should be in prison for these laws as well as any cops enforcing them.
"Ka-bar" means different things to different people. I seriously doubt that this Ka-Bar is "Street Legal" in NYC.
Kabar is a brand...that is why my post contained a link to the exact knife I was talking about.
Ignorance of the law is no excuse. I've been told that my whole life.
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