It is now legal to openly carry swords in Texas because heck, why not. They’re handier for opening champagne bottles than a Glock, much more intimidating than a phallocarp, and advertises the cartoonish absurdity of the entire state legislature.
Texas: a great big state full of posturing macho rednecks.
Our children love swords. They are playing LARP all the time.
Was actually kind of surprised we haven’t yet seen this headline from the great state of Texas: “Texas Legislature decides, after disaster, that weather information is classified government information and bans public from seeing or reading weather reports.” It would be right in line with their prior idiocy of hiding corporate information on dangerous and explosive chemicals from the public, after one nearly leveled a town.
That said, I always found it bloody stupid that we see so many laws against swords and various sorts of knives, but gun laws are so lax its absurd. Then again, the NRA probably doesn’t want the competition (oh, so sorry, I mean the “gun makers”… lol), and there is no equivalent national knife association stuffing cash into the pockets of politicians and claiming, “Swords save lives!”, on a near daily basis.
It takes a good man with a sword to stop a bad man with a sword.
Or something.
No, wait, it was setsujin-to versus katsunin ken. Eh. “It’s been said before” is what I meant.
Next up, compound bows. I don’t see why Texans are expected to forgo their archers’ rights.
In the current situation, this is what got prioritized? :shakes head:
I love swords, knives of all kinds, I collect them. That doesn’t mean it’s a good idea for most people to be wandering about with them. Most people don’t have the slightest fucking idea to do with one, except conveniently slice bits of themselves off.
Kagehi:
Here in nDakota, all types of knives are legal. It is not legal to carry any one of them concealed, which means you can be arrested for having a penknife in your pocket.
I’d like the Texas Legistlature to address the issue of concealed carry of swords with blades more than 25 inches long.
How come swords can be banned? The 2nd amendment doesn’t say “firearms” just “arms”. A sword certainly falls under the definition of “arms”
Caine @ 5
Here in Finland, switchblades and knives camouflaged as other things are illegal and carrying a knife in a public place is banned unless one carries it for a legitimate purpose. Self-defence isn’t normally one, but a job (e.g. carpenter going to a building site), hobby (e.g. going fishing or camping) or doing other tasks for which a knife is needed are.
Ice Swimmer @ 8, I don’t think it’s a big deal if people are allowed a pocket knife. I’m never without one, and neither is Mister. You never know when you might need one, and no, I’m not talking self-defense, but there is that too. Of course, you have to live in a place where most people employ common sense, and aren’t hot-headed bigots, so that kinda rules Amerika out.
Get you a good zweihander and carry it on your shoulder down the street. I mean, everything’s bigger in Texas. And if we’re gonna allow swords, how about pikes and halberds?
I think Texas should bring back sword-duelling. If they do, I’ll pack up my katana and head down that way and start challenging law-makers. Oh, right, they’re chickenshits.
I still think we should give Texas back to Mexico, with a handwritten letter of apology in Crayon (no more than 140 characters) from Donald Trump.
Paul Durrant@#7:
How come swords can be banned? The 2nd amendment doesn’t say “firearms” just “arms”. A sword certainly falls under the definition of “arms”
Because the National Rifle Association doesn’t lobby for swords.
Although, that makes me realize there’s some really good trolling to be had, if someone started up a fake lobbying organization for swords’ rights, and collected a ton of donations and a great big mailing list, then spent it all on cocaine and champagne and switchblades and a big house and a nice car, etc. Wow, that’d be almost as scammy as religion!
I’m kind of surprised that carrying a sword was illegal in the first place. Up here in Canada it’s always been perfectly legal to carry most bladed weapons, so long as they are not concealed.
@Ice Swimmer #6
Sword canes are a thing. While they typically have blades shorter than that, I’ve seen some with ~30″ blades.
Caine @ 9
Agreed.
I’m not sure how cops here would take it if one were to just say that I’m a DIY person, I’d guess that would depend on the context and who says it.
@ 13 Chakat Firepaw
I’m too lazy to check it out but, IIRC, there was a provision in the Criminal Code prohibiting carrying anything with blade over 4 inches in length which was repealed twenty or so years ago.
I tend to remember this because of a news report about a shame-faced police force releasing someone arrested for the offence when it was pointed out that the Code had been amended. They had not been informed.
Absent a pretty complete ban on guns I really don’t see the problem in people also being allowed to carry obsolete weapons that are vastly less capable of killing people – particularly because a lot of those laws involve starting racist panics against any weapon that crops up in martial arts and at least vaguely resembles a weapon from China or Japan.
17 comments in, and no one has mentioned the Society for Creative Anachronism?
Next: Texas Lege declares all future capital punishment in the state will be by guillotine.
Used to be you had to be worried in Texas if you were transporting a sword to be used in performances, like certain knife or sword dances.
….if you are white.
@ 19 robertbaden
in Texas if you were transporting a sword to be used in performances
Just think of a cook and his knives on the way to work:
“What’s that sir?”
“Oh, just my 12 inch French knife officer”
“And this?”
“Uh, my 18 inch slicer and that’s just a cleaver”.
And so on ….
Guillotine? Pah! New-fangled French nonsense, de-skilling the traditional headsman’s trade!
Unlike a gun, there is a defense against attack by sword. All you need to do is carry a shield. Contact your local SCA branch for help making a good one. (Me? I carry a Swiss Army knife, one that has the biggest main blade of any model of same, a very small (1.25″?) knife, and a Gerber multitool, which includes…a knife blade. They are all tools.)
Heh, here in France I carry — and have for years — a belt-holstered artisan-made folding knife with an c.10cm blade. And a corkscrew.
Not, I hasten to add, for self-defense: First, I wouldn’t have the foggiest idea how to use it in that sort of situation(whether or not the other individual was armed). Second, it is not a quick draw, it (deliberately) fits very tightly into the holster. (The holster also snaps shut.) And third, there is no pommel(? quillion? crossguard? whatever it’s called), meaning an attempt to stab with it would probably result in cutting your own fingers off. This is a cutting utility knife, not a stabbing knife.
The corkscrew hints at the main usage.
(There’s also the Swiss Army Knife in the pocket.)
Next up in macho armaments: open carry of live rattlesnakes. (Precedent)
Damn, and I was just recently in Texas visiting relatives. If the law had gone into effect a couple of months earlier I could have brought my katana.
@22 – Honestly, if we’re going to have capital punishment at all, the guillotine would probably be more humane than lethal injection or the electric chair. I suspect the main reason we don’t use it is that its too messy; its too much like actually, you know, killing a human being.
There can be only one… Texan.
jrkridrau @ 21
A chef visiting Britain got into similar trouble in the seventies book “Someone is Killing the great Chefs of Europe”.
Is that a concealed sword in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?
I think it may be so that they can carry the weaponry of their Confederate icons. The statues are going down, so they can now take the appearance of the Confederates with live weapons.
Replacing assault rifles with black-powder muzzle-loaded rifles could be an improvement.
If it is a concealed sword, then it’s either small and dull, or else yer wearing steel plate.
Open carry swords and any blade for that matter has never been illegal here in Oregon. Crazy to think that weapons laws are looser here in the people’s republic of Portland than in Texas. But that’s just how it is.
As a sword-loving Texan, who was aware this law was going in to effect (or rather, the the existing restrictions were being abolished) well prior to September, I’d like to say this: Despite humorous and sensationalist headlines, this was never about swords. “Legalizing” swords was just a side effect. The law had been that it was illegal to carry in public any blade longer than ~5 inches–kitchen knife, pocket knife, hunting knife, whatever, regardless of circumstances.
Well, in Texas, we’ve got this thing called a Bowie Knife — made famous by Jim Bowie of died-at-the-Alamo fame. It is a very popular style of knife in Texas for everything from collecting to basic utility knife for ranching, camping, hunting, etc. Most Bowies have a blade in excess of 5 inches, making Texas’s unofficial “official knife” technically illegal. Rather than make an exception for the restriction on blade length based on style or purpose which could just make things more confusing for everyone, our legislatures just decided to scrap the restriction altogether. Swords, being blades quite a bit longer than 5 inches, are just along for the ride.
Personally, I’m looking forward to being able to take my training blunts to a public place for practice such as a public park or my front yard (I dabble in historical European martial arts–longsword and sword&buckler–as well as SCA) and not have to worry.
@ 29 birgerjohansson
Someone is Killing the great Chefs of Europe
Ah yes, that great scene at Customs where she opens the knife roll on the counter while explaining that she is on her way to Buckingham Palace and eyes widen. A reasonably long slicer could be as long as a short version of a Roman sword (gladius) though nowhere as hefty.
That scene crossed my mind as I was writing the earlier post, combined with having actually seen knife rolls in a working kitchen. There can be a lot of very sharp steel in one of those rolls.
Wait, Texas has emerged from the Middle Ages enough to backslide into it? Will wonders never cease.
I guess I can now order that Bat’leth I’ve been wanting to get…
Expect to see a large up-tick in the number of Final Fantasy cos-players you get in Texas. (Have you seen some of the swords from that series?
It’s Texas. You’ll want a Bat’shit’leth. :)
“I don’t see why Texans are expected to forgo their archers’ rights.”
To say nothing of the natural follow-ons of RPG, Bazooka, and hand held missile launcher rights. Why is Texas so anti-freedom?
Well, rather swords than guns, at least.
#10 Möbius: Pikes and halberds are truly nasty weapons.
My son has been questioned by the police for carrying knives to cooking classes. Carrying a knife here in Victoria, Australia, is regarded as a serious offense.
@40 zetopan
While we’re at it, why not have atlatls? I mean, everyone should have a javelin thrower, shouldn’t they? If we outlaw atlatls only outlaws will have atlatls. (I saw a few years back where one state had passed a law allowing atlatls to be used in hunting.)
@29&36 I remember seeing a clip of the film they made of the book.
Someone suggests to Robert Morley recreating the menu from the last supper .
He replies “What Next The Menu From The Andes Plane Crash “.
Is the book worth reading why the way.?.
@29&36 I remember seeing a clip of the film they made of the book.
Someone suggests to Robert Morley recreating the menu from the last supper .
He replies “What Next The Menu From The Andes Plane Crash “.
Is the book worth reading by the way.?.
Really? One of my favorite youtubers in the HEMA movement, Skallagrim, regularly rants about the rather “interesting” and often nonsensical knife laws in Canada. Maybe it depends on the Canadian province? I don’t know.
Sorry, I came in late, and I’m more of a HEMA person myself.