Posted on 05/02/2016 4:25:39 AM PDT by marktwain
You are winning the culture war when the other side accepts your premises. In the 1950’s, legislatures across the country succumbed to the latest trendy weapons ban. Switchblade knives. The trend went so far as to pass a federal ban on the importation and interstate sale of of switchblades, because, at the time, it was widely understood the Constitution forbade the federal government from actually regulating the sale of an item inside of state boundaries. Seven states, including Arizona, did not enact a switchblade ban.
The ban never had any facts or logic to back it up. It was entirely emotion and media driven legislation, based on fear of the “other”, in this case, street gangs armed with switchblade knives. It was a precursor to the the “assault weapon” ban, another fear and emotion based ban with no data to back it up. The icon of the switchblade ban was “Westside Story”, of the “Assault Weapons” ban “Miami Vice”. Both bans were driven by politicians making a name for themselves and a “progressive” media revelling in emotion driven nonsense. It took the rise of the Internet and 60 years, but Conservatives, Libertarians, and Constitutionalists are winning the culture war on switchblades and weapons in general.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has deep “progressive” roots. Milwaukee, Wisconsin, has always been a center of “progressive” thought. A few months ago, Wisconsin passed a repeal of the state ban on switchblades and other knives. The repeal also placed knives in the state preemption law, so that the laws are uniform throughout the state.
The repeal of a weapons ban is reliably heralded by “progressive” media with a flurry of articles about how there will be “blood in the streets”.
(Excerpt) Read more at ammoland.com ...
Psycho Fonzie types back in the 50’s were the reason for the switchblade ban.Everybody forgets about those vicious punks.
I think part of the original fear was based on “Puerto Rican street gangs”.
I guess we have no equuivalent concern today.
Yo!
“Psycho Fonze”...........
Meet ‘lil ‘ol S & W .357 snubbie.
Made up by the media to push the ban.
Some reading for you
http://gunwatch.blogspot.com/2015/02/how-switchblades-were-banned.html
re: The icon of the switchblade ban was “Westside Story”, of the “Assault Weapons” ban “Miami Vice”.
One of the very few times, I must disagree with Mr. Weingarten. I would have said “Blackboard Jungle” instead of “Westside Story”. As a movie, “Blackboard Jungle” preceded “Westside Story” by several years. With no singing and dancing.
But this is really just quibbling.
Nobody forgets them.
They are just rational enough to acknowledge the fact that a thug can use one weapon as easily as another, and that banning a weapon bans it for the defender as well as the aggressor, and aggressors run in packs.
When a switchblade is opened in the movies, there is always a dramatic pause for everyone to be shocked and/or scared.
Which ironically would be enough time to slowly open an ordinary lock blade knife, which (when you think about it) could be made just as scary with the right music! I always cracked up about that.
” those those vicious punks. punks.”
What do you have against Happy Days?
You think that Mr and Mrs Cunningham were vicious punks?
Mrs Cunningham was a wonderful woman. Always baking cookies and just being a nice mom.
West Side Story, if anything, romanticized the gangs, turning them into ballerinos (yes, that is the term for a male ballet dancer :> ).
P.S. WSS was Leonard Bernstein's magnum opus, and like "Citizen Kane" with Orson Welles, it haunted him the rest of his life, because he kept trying to duplicate the success, and never could.
A good argument for both switchblades and gravity knives has been that they are needed for those who only have the use of one hand, and even that one hand might be compromised, such as by arthritis.
But knife makers seem to be missing a market segment by not specifically designing switchblades and gravity knives to be of particular utility to the handicapped. Instead their focus is on fixed blade “adaptive knives”, mostly for kitchen use.
http://products.disabled-world.com/product_list.php?category=659
Yet knives remain a primary tool no matter where you are. To date the handicapped are limited to switchblades and gravity knives that are more stylish than practical. Many use lower quality steel and have fairly dull blades.
Fonzie and Happy Days......meet Charles Bronson and Death Wish.
I would have said “Blackboard Jungle” instead of “Westside Story”.
**********************
Agree. It was around 1955 and I saw it on my 13th birthday. I already had an ivory handled spring-loaded switchblade with gold-colored metal adornments that I bought at a downtown pawn shop a year before. ...I’ve still not seen Westside Story.
Do you want to see some bizarre knife laws? Look at Maryland.
Bowie knives are illegal. Can you define a “Bowie” knife? Me neither, but apparently they know one when they see it.
A youth cannot carry a knife past dusk, unless they are part of an organized youth outdoor adventure group.
Switchblades cannot be carried with the intent to do harm. Huh? I’ve got a great Gerber automatic that I’m afraid to ever carry. Can they determine my intent?
When it comes to switchblade knives I have an interesting observation.
The Federal Government authorized a very large class of people to carry switchblade knives as part of their duty uniform.
As a flyer I was required, and authorized, to carry an orange survival knife. On one end was a hooked blade used to cut malfunctioning parachute risers in an emergency. On the other end was a switchblade knife. The blade was small - maybe 4 inches. But you can still do a lot of damage with it.
I was issued and carried that knife on every flight from September 1970 through April 1990. In fact, my instructors and flight examiners checked my possession of it on a regular basis.
Just an interesting observation.
Except why do Bench Made knives have to be so darned expensive?
Actually, it was the 50’s Kefauver commission report that sank switchblades. It also drove the ‘Comic Book Authority’ and hounded ‘Mad Magazine.’ Teen violence in East coast cities was rising (but nothing like now or the 60’s) and it was the beginning of American cultural fracturing. As usual, gub’mint freaked out and kneejerked for the vocal minority. Comics were destroying young minds and the next thing ya’ know, they’ll be stabbing your kids in school. Well, they did in the knives and saved America from itself by putting a good housekeeping seal on Mad and comics. Good thing, too, because the 60’s were coming and we all remember how serene they were.
Deal with crime but stay the heck out of freedoms, choice and liberty.
Suppressors are the next item to de-regulated. Hell, you can buy them at hardware stores in Europe. A knee-jerk ban, similar to switchblades.
I want to go to America,
Funny song from,
WEST SIDE STORY
There are many assisted opening knives legal in the United States.
Here is a great example: Kershaw Scallion Folding Knife with SpeedSafe
It is not a switchblade - a switchblade’s blade loads a spring and is kept in place with a latch.
These knives have a torsion bar which keeps the blade in the closed position and also helps it open and lock - no latching mechanism whatsoever.
Excellent knives and extremely easy to open (automatically) and close with one hand.
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