Knifeman

[Randomness]

I had a friends who was in a store as it was robbed and he had his pocket knife on him but he wasn't sure how to engage the Robber...I was wandering where the best place to stab a person would be to kill them or to stop them

[Phi for All]

Just so we don't have to close this thread for violating our rules (Section 2.3aii), no one is going to tell you how to kill someone with a knife. Period. Please don't ask about that anymore.

 

That said, do you think killing someone for robbery is justice?

 

Did the robber have a gun? If so, a knife is a poor choice of weapons for an offensive strike. Also, a pocket knife is not a good weapon at all. It can be used for slashing if the blade is long enough (which usually makes it an illegal concealed weapon) but stabbing with it is likely to close the blade down on your own fingers. If it has a locking blade it could be used, but again it's a poor choice against a person with a gun in their hand.

[imatfaal]

In many countries (the UK included) a locking blade will probably render the knife as illegal to carry. I am not sure you would get away with it either - stabbing someone to stop a theft (ie no violence) would definitely be frowned upon (perhaps even in your own property), to stop a robbery (ie with threat or use of violence) might be viewed differently - but the courts would still apply tests to gauge whether it was a proportionate and reasonable response.

 

in general look to defuse situations rather than escalate them.

[John Cuthber]

Lock knives are perfectly legal in the UK (within reason).

Flick knives have been banned for decades.

The law on self defence is complicated enough. How the law deals with a third party joining in would be even more so. The simple answer is that the jury would decide if the action was acceptable in the circumstances.

[imatfaal]

Lock knives are perfectly legal in the UK (within reason).

Flick knives have been banned for decades.

The law on self defence is complicated enough. How the law deals with a third party joining in would be even more so. The simple answer is that the jury would decide if the action was acceptable in the circumstances.

 

From the CPS website. I have been lead to believe that R and Deegan means that Opinel forms of knife are illegal.

 

</h3>

<h3>Possession of Blades/Points

Section 139 of the Criminal Justice Act 1988 prohibits having with you, in a public place of any article which has a blade or is sharply pointed, (including a folding pocket knife if the cutting edge of its blade exceeds 7.62cm/3 inches) (Archbold 24-125).

 

Section 139A of the 1988 Act extends the geographical scope of both of the above offences to school premises.

 

For the purposes of sections 139 and 139A of the Act:

 

• a butterknife, with no cutting edge and no point is a bladed article; (Booker v DPP 169J.P. 368, DC);
• a screwdriver is not a bladed article; (R v Davis [1998] Crim L.R. 564 CA);
• a "lock knife" does not come into the category of "folding pocket knife" because it is not immediately foldable at all times; (R v Deegan [1998] 2 Cr. App. R. 121 CA).

[John Cuthber]

And it remains perfectly legal for me to purchase and own a lock knife for, for example, DIY.

 

However, other than as a museum piece, I'd struggle to justify a flick knife.

 

All of this is rather beside the point. We are not going to give the OP an answer to his question.

Also, since he needs to ask it it is fair to assume that he doesn't know a lot about knives.

In that case it would be gravely ill-advised for him (or his friend) to start a fight with someone who probably does.

[Phi for All]

In the US, many cities make the distinction between legal and illegal knives by their use. If you're carrying a knife with a blade under 3.5" in Denver, it's generally OK if you're found with it on you (barring spring-loaded and gravity mechanisms), but if you stabbed someone with a screwdriver it would be assumed you were carrying it for that purpose, and would be considered a concealed deadly weapon.

 

In general, I think it's best to avoid knife-fighting unless you're well-trained. A good knife-fighter could handle even someone with a gun if he's very close, since the gun-wielder will generally think only of bringing his gun to bear, while the knife-fighter uses hands and feet, arms and legs, knees and elbows as well as the blade. But a civilian shopper with a folding pocketknife against an armed robber of any kind is more likely to escalate the situation beyond control and could cause more danger to everyone in the store.

 

Props for thinking of the welfare of others. If the robber was threatening lives openly it would be a different matter, but in general it would be better to let the robber take the money and run.