SpyderEdgeForever wrote:That helps explain and clarify this a lot, SpyderScout, thank you.
Regarding France, yeah, infact, a Frenchman who is into knives (loves both their traditionals like Opinels and also Spyderco) told me that in France and Spain and even to a large extent in Italy, in those regions, a lot of local people have knives ingrained as part of their cultural identity, and so the knife will remain a part of them as long as they continue to exist as people, and, in a sense that makes their knife rights protected.
I also agree with you that what should be punished is the bad use or abuse of a knife against people and property, such as a murderer or a vandal, and just owning and carrying a particular knife should not be what is legislated against. Go against the abuse and misuse of the item, the ACTION of the person, NOT the item itself.
here in Spain there's lots of knife nuts (just look at the thousands of members of Spanish knife, axe, and edged tool forums, hunting forums, etc.

) but due to our draconian and absurd laws most of us limit the carry, use and show of the blades to personal spaces, outdoor activities...
and due to the current, super strict legislation (especially in cities) we only expose, share and talk about knives to other people who are into it

, and mostly on forums/facebook/the Internet...
sad but true,
Europe is getting pussied in too many ways and way too fast
regarding the second bolded part, it's the logical thing to do.
We don't ban people carrying guns with their CCW permits, we don't punish people using and "carrying" their cars and vehicles around and we don't disturb carpenters in the street who are repairing roofs with their hammers,
we only apply the law and restriction when these people shoot at others, when they run over pedestrians or hit somebody else in the head with such hammer,
why not the same with knives??!
