Where Are All the Good Guys with Knives?

BY MARTIN KICH

These are the opening paragraphs of an article published by New York magazine:

“A 27-year-old man was slashed in the face early on Sunday morning after arguing with a woman he didn’t know in a Harlem subway station. The New York Post reports that the fight occurred around 3 a.m. on the southbound platform of the number 2 subway at West 110th Street and Lenox Avenue. The woman summoned a man she knew, and he slashed the victim with an unknown weapon. The attacker then bolted with the woman, and the victim was taken to Mount Sinai St. Luke’s Hospital. He is in stable condition and police have yet to make any arrests.

“The incident marks the sixth slashing or stabbing in the subway system this month, including three that occurred this week. On Monday, a 71-year-old woman was slashed in the face on the D train in Greenwich Village; on Tuesday, a 32-year-old man was cut on the 6 train in Harlem, and a 29-year-old woman was sliced on the hand while riding the 3 train in Brooklyn. There were three such incidents during the same period in 2015. . . .”

I cannot not help but wonder why I have not been hearing a deafening outcry about the need for each New York subway rider to be armed with a knife, not only for self-protection but also for the sake of others who are too timid or who have not had the foresight to arm themselves with knives.

There certainly are plenty of justifications for such an outcry.

First, I am certain that there are more American sportsmen who use knives than guns because fishermen as well as hunters depend on them.

Second, judging by the number of late-night infomercials that feature specialized and collectible knives, there are clearly more knife collectors in the U.S. than most of the rest of us would ever have guessed.

And, lastly, I am very certain that the armed militiamen of the late 18th century carried knives.

So why is there not a mass movement to protect knife rights?

Why are law-abiding Americans not resisting this long-standing effort to deny them their constitutionally guaranteed right to carry knives?

Why have we permitted the criminals to be the only ones armed with knives?

Why have our political leaders placed any restrictions on our right to carry knives anywhere we like and as openly as we like?

And why should any knives, including the long-stigmatized switchblade or even bayonets, be banned?

After all knives don’t kill people.

The complete article in New York, which is written by Margaret Hartmann, is available at: http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/01/6-have-been-slashed-in-the-subway-this-year.html.

 

 

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