Montreal City Weblog

Kate 07:56 on 2019-02-11 Permalink Reply  

• Steve Q 10:07 on 2019-02-11 Permalink

  What kind of people goes to a cinema with knives in their pocket ?

• Michael Black 10:33 on 2019-02-11 Permalink

  People who routinely carry knives around.

  I got my first Swiss Army Knife about 1972, and from 1976 onward carried it around constantly. Then I got up after a movie, and realized the knife was not there, it had worn a hole in the pocket, and fallen out.

  It was an excuse to get the top of the line Champion, which I carried around for years. I could never get into wearing it in a sheath on my belt. I eventually I switched to a small multitool.

  I wouldn’t trust these knives for a stabbing, not particularly sharp, and I suspect the tip is wrong , but also, they close up too easily. My locking Shrade that I got in 1980 to get the bark off trees to make tipi poles, that’s a better knife. But I’d never carry that around routinely.

  But after having lost the knife after it wore the hole in my jacket, the knives are generally not handy, take a knapsack off to get it out.

  Most important, I’d not only never think of stabbing someone, but I wouldn’t know how. So even if someone attacked me, I wouldn’t even think “I could stab him”.

  A good knife is a handy tool. Maybe some day I’ll find the perfect pocket knife.

  Michael

• Kate 10:33 on 2019-02-11 Permalink

  SteveQ, both Ian and I have explained how many people often carry knives. It’s not like guns, they have many functional uses and it’s not like “let’s get tooled up and go to the movies” it’s more like “fuck I’m mad, what have I got to make this statement more emphatic?”

• Blork 11:29 on 2019-02-11 Permalink

  I used to carry a 3″ folding Opinel around in my satchel. Up until 9/11 I even took it on airplanes in my carry-on bag (it’s actually a hair less than 3″ so it was legal). Now I keep it in my desk at the office and I use it to section oranges etc. Sometimes I wonder, as I’m cutting up fruit with what was once considered a small pocket tool and is now seen as an apocalyptic weapon of mass destruction, if I might get a visit from HR and security.

• Ian 15:13 on 2019-02-11 Permalink

  Worth noting the story says “sharp object”, not “knife”. You can stab somebody with a pen, fork, or any random pointy thing people might happen to casually have with them.

• Steve Q 01:20 on 2019-02-12 Permalink

  I think it’s time to ban knives. It’s a question of safety, especially for the young generation. Knives cause more damage than guns. The same in London (UK), more people killed or wounded by knives than by guns. So if we are really serious about safety and security, we should start thinking about banning knives in public….and anything that ressembles a knife.

• Kate 07:36 on 2019-02-12 Permalink

  Steve Q, how do you do this? Metal detectors everywhere? Constant searches?

  The level of crime here in no way justifies this kind of paranoia. Lots of law-abiding citizens carry knives. Mayhem can be carried out, as Ian points out, with anything pointy.

  You’re just asking for more security theatre, and less convenience for law-abiding folks like Michael and Ian and me, who have a knife with us because it’s useful.

• Kevin 08:29 on 2019-02-12 Permalink

  I’m with Kate. We have so few people injured or killed that it’s not worth it.

  In fact, it’s *because* we have so little violent crime that you hear about non-deadly stabbings.