On The Cutting Edge

As I was writing this, authorities in Sydney, Australia, were still investigating a pair of bloody mid-April stabbings, including one which left six people — five women and one man — dead and another in which one of the victims was a church bishop.

Only days before, I'd had a conversation with Doug Ritter, founder and top man at Knife Rights, Inc., an activist outfit created to protect the right of the people to keep and bear &hellip: blades. After all, when the Second Amendment was adopted back in 1791, the carrying of knives was as common as the carrying of rifles, muskets or even pistols, openly or concealed.

Knives in Colonial America and subsequently in the 13 states were everyday tools. Yet today, in many states, they may be regulated by blade length, design and so forth. Certain types of knives, such as switchblades, are outlawed in many jurisdictions. Still, they are "arms" in every sense of the word, and Ritter's position is that knives are protected by the Second Amendment, and he gets no argument from me.

Ritter reminded me that more people are killed by slashing or stabbing than are killed with rifles or shotguns of any type. In 2022, according to FBI data (the most recent year for which it is available), 1,216 people were murdered with knives or cutting instruments. That same year, 489 people were murdered with rifles (of any kind), and 161 died from shotgun blasts. .....