Opinions on when you find a knife?

I've been reading the knife threads and was impressed by the discussion of the Hawaii incident. So as a psychologist, I was interested in the weapons priming literature that weapons can prime negative attitudes. I found that with the EBR paper and others have also. Even progun folks had negative attitudes about some weapons types.

It was found in a informal study that some officers had negative attitudes towards folks in traffic stops who had EBRs in the vehicle as compared to a nice gun.

How about knives? I see folks carrying big, black, curved, tanto, sawtooth, etc. honkers about of a middle ages knights convention.

If you stop a person for something, it could be minor or major, and you come across various knife types:

Utilitarian, tactical but not Excalibur or Stormbringer - something like a Delica, or some fearsome knife - does it influence you as to the carrier. I know that some influences are subconscious and not open to overt realization of the process.

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Originally Posted by Glenn E. Meyer

I've been reading the knife threads and was impressed by the discussion of the Hawaii incident. So as a psychologist, I was interested in the weapons priming literature that weapons can prime negative attitudes. I found that with the EBR paper and others have also. Even progun folks had negative attitudes about some weapons types.

It was found in a informal study that some officers had negative attitudes towards folks in traffic stops who had EBRs in the vehicle as compared to a nice gun.

How about knives? I see folks carrying big, black, curved, tanto, sawtooth, etc. honkers about of a middle ages knights convention.

If you stop a person for something, it could be minor or major, and you come across various knife types:

Utilitarian, tactical but not Excalibur or Stormbringer - something like a Delica, or some fearsome knife - does it influence you as to the carrier. I know that some influences are subconscious and not open to overt realization of the process.

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The is obviously a single anecdote, but I did a self-defense with knife case for trial advocacy in law school where the type of knife definitely affected some of the jurors' decision-making. The jury hung (as is essentially always the case in trial ad. since there is only about 30 minutes of deliberation time), but we did get to talk to the jurors afterwards about how they formed their opinion. The two jurors who refused to acquit based on the self-defense claim did not think that anyone who wasn't looking for trouble would walk around with "that type of knife." The knife in the case was a butterfly knife, which was perfectly legal to carry under the laws of the jurisdiction.

The self-defense claim was actually pretty straight-forward considering the person who was stabbed was standing over the defendant and about to swing a baseball bat at the defendant at the moment he was stabbed.

I stop guys all the time with blades, the only time I care is when I know for a fact that the guy is a criminal (by either having past experiences or run his priors and there is a list, including violent felonies) then that blade better be exactly what the law allows or he gets locked up. I have zero tolerance for criminals doing or having instruments of a crime. With that said, state policy is extremely general and wide regarding carrying of blades. The only time I have ever arrested people for blade carrying is when they have a dagger (double-sided blade) which is usually longer than 6 inches (fixed, blade length).

The average person does not even blip the radar if they are carrying a blade, if they are a law abiding person and have no history of criminal acts I will do nothing to them in anyway regarding that blade.

It has been my experience that the average person is very naive and misunderstands the reasons for blade carry. If someone has a pocket knife, that is a utility knife. Since humans are often times unable to cut through things with our bare hands we often require assistance, just like possession of a flashlight, neither one should be considered wrong or having any ill intent. On the other hand if someone is walking around with a sword (stopped a guy once, turned out to be a cosplay katana but looked real) and they do not believe they are doing anything wrong then they are out of touch with reality.

Our campus department once got excited when a student was carrying a prop sword across campus for a Shakespearean rehearsal in the theater.

Interesting issue to me. Thanks.