States Grapple With Sale and Possession of Box Cutters as a Tool for Violence

Associated Press ^ | Oct 5, 2001 | Seanna Adcox

[Terrorista Nada]

States Grapple With Sale and Possession of Box Cutters as a Tool for Violence

States Grapple With Sale and Possession of Box Cutters as a Tool for Violence

By Seanna Adcox Associated Press Writer
Published: Oct 5, 2001

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) - It's a simple and versatile tool for everyone from grocery clerks to hobbyists. But in the wrong hands, box cutters can be lethal.

New scrutiny has been leveled on the razor-type gadgets over the past month after allegations that the cheap and readily available tools were used to hijack four airliners and a moving bus.

"Anything like that, you can't control what purpose they're used for," said Rich White of Bridgeford Hardware in Albany, which normally sells a "handful" a week.

On Wednesday, a passenger on a Greyhound bus in Tennessee cut the driver's throat, causing a crash that killed six of the 40 people aboard. The driver told authorities the attacker used a box cutter.

That came a few weeks after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Passengers who placed cell phone calls from the jets said the hijackers also used box cutters.

Whether they confused box cutters with similar tools like utility or X-Acto knives may never be known. The terms are used interchangeably, even by those who sell them.

A typical box cutter holds the corner of a razor blade in a flat, rectangular metal sheath not much bigger than a stick of gum. The 4-inch device is lightweight, inexpensive and easily accessible.

X-Acto knives, favored by graphic artists, are roughly the size of a pen with a smaller razor-like blade fastened to the end. Utility knives have a bigger handle and replaceable blades stored in the handle.

Before Sept. 11, some of the gadgets could pass through airport metal detectors without raising an eyebrow. The FAA had allowed any knife 4 inches long or less on the plane.

States have long grappled with the use of such tools. Some such as New York, Alabama and Virginia, define them as a "dangerous instrument" or "deadly weapon" if someone uses them in a crime.

The New York City Council unanimously passed a law in 1995 prohibiting stores from selling them to children under 18 and banning them from school grounds.

"We had an abundance of kids using them to cut people in schools, in gang fights," said councilman Al Stabile, who sponsored the bill. "The numbers were staggering."

To give the law more muscle, the city in 1998 increased the age to 21, limited their sale to home improvement and hardware stores and banned them from all public places.

Chicago law prohibits the sale of utility knives to anyone under 18. Possession is limited, though minors can use utility knives at school, work or home under the supervision of an adult.

Police in California say box cutters are commonly used as weapons there, too, while Florida includes razor blades and box cutters in its list of weapons not allowed on school grounds.

So far, the recent attacks have not affected box cutter sales largely because the industry is so specialized, said Roger Stuart, president of Listo Corp. in Alameda, Calif., which exports box cutters to Norway and Sweden.

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AP-ES-10-05-01 0442EDT

[Terrorista Nada]

Are these regular box cutters, or assault box cutters?

[Glenn]

This is time they could be spending figuring out a way to pry another dime out of the pockets of their citizens.

[Cindy]

Boxcutters, razors, baseball bats, chains, knives, cars with road-rage drivers, and oh yes, guns...all MAY BE tools of violence when violent people use them as such. The majority of us are not violent people.

Cindy's saying: "Crime Control, Not Gun (Boxcutter) Control"

[Russell Scott]

As O'Rielly says "this is ridiculous".

[newzjunkey]

Bump from one SD freeper to another.

Really, though, as a fine-scale modeler (those plastic model kits) such knives are quite valuable as a tool. They're valuable for all manner of things, really.

Next thing you know they'll be manufacturing 'safety' knives just like those useless 'safety scissors' from grade school.

[ppaul]

Laws that forbid the carrying of arms...disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes. Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater...confidence than an armed man. - Thomas Jefferson

:

[Grut]

Are these regular box cutters, or assault box cutters?

If they have more than ten snap-off sections per blade, they're assault box cutters.

[ppaul]

When box-cutters are outlawed, only outlaws will have box-cutters.

[knarf]

New York, Floriduh, Californikatia ... How come I never heard of this 'wide spread use' of box-cutters as weapons?
Have they been too busy trying to take guns or is it once again a complicit media telling us about 13 kids a day yadda yadda?

[bubbafree]

And Monica's thong could be used as a sling-shot

"Careful, Bill, you'll put an eye out!"

[Tom_Busch]

LMAO

[Tom_Busch]

I keep a sawed-off box cutter under the bed.

[Tom_Busch]

I clicked on this thread because I thought it was gonna be a joke. What will they think of next.

[Terrorista Nada]

I think most of us will be relatively safe from fanatic Islamic fundementalist terrorism, if we will just stay out of those damn "gun-free victimization zones" that our government keeps creating.

Speak softly and carry a concealed .45.

Let's roll, lock and load.

[Lion's Cub]

Every time I think the government can't possibly descend any further into sheer lunacy, they prove me wrong...

[Terrorista Nada]

I understand that wooden gavels are still legal on airplanes. The kind a judge would use in a courtroom. Everything else in nix.

[dhuffman@awod.com]

In a word, YES! Exactly. Here in Charleston, SC the box-cutter is the weapon of choice downtown.

[NoCurrentFreeperByThatName]

LOL!

I hate those things. I always break off three or four blades instead of one.

Could that be consider a burst?