Video: Plastic Knuckledusters vs. Fruit and Vegetables
Lexan knuckledusters—brass knuckles made not of brass but of plastic—are the latest fodder for a hilarious local television news report, wherein a pasty take-no-guff reporter punches cabbages then stares down the viewer growling, "Cole slaw."
Watch as local officials recoil in horror at the thought that they might be perceived to be soft on violence! Shout as not a single adult finds themselves capable of shrugging their shoulders at the potential crimes of imagined hoodlums! Gasp in legitimate grief for a schoolteacher who was punched in the head! Resist the urge to punch the reporter in his sanctimonious flap face with a pair of lexan knuckles easily made at home!
[via Crime Scene KC]
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Oh man, that was great! The best part was when he was tapping the sheriff's bald head with the knuckles.
"How's that feel right there?" *tap tap tap tap*
And they were doing the world a favor when they punched that Miller Lite into oblivion.
The thing is, we can scoff at the absurdity of banning chunks of plastic, but they'll do it.
In Britain, under the 1996 Offensive weapons act, is is illegal to have something with a sharp point in public, with an exception for leatherman/swiss-army style pocket knives no longer than 3".
Plastic combs have to have rounded tines.
They imply that this is as dangerous as brass knuckles. The metal version's extra mass can make a painful punch into a lethal one. This is a pretty scary item, though. It allows a much harder and more damaging punch to be delivered with no danger to the hand. The utility of it is pretty much limited to a one-shot use against an undefended opponent, but I sure wouldn't want to get hit with it.
The product is already banned and the site that use to sell them is now down: http://www.lexanknuckles.com/
That was fast. Now I need to make myself a bullet proof glass knife.
Great, now the TSA will ban all plastic on planes. We'll be forced to undress, put on paper jumpsuits, and board the plane dressed like that.
Ryan, as long as they only let hot people on the plane, that sounds like fun!
They should just gas everyone on the plane and keep them sedated until the flight is over.
How irresponsible! They aren't alerting the Dairy producers, Cabbage growers, and Breweries on possible attacks!
Too bad the TSA didn't taser her ass. They were smart..they used a white chick.
I wonder if those high school officials know that the players on their baseball teams carry around bludgeons (baseball bats) and are quite skilled in using them to hit round things, like baseballs or skulls. Ban baseball.
And if someone broke a lens on a pair of glasses, they'd have a weapon capable of severing an artery. Ban glasses.
Water. Comprised of an explosive agent and an accelerant, both easily found in nature. Found in the lungs of drowning victims. Can corrode many metals. Toxic in sufficient quantity. Ban water.
It is amazing how sanctimonious you liberals are! These are dangerous items that most children couldn't make at home. Not banning them is like inviting youngsters to brutalize their teachers and playmates. SHAME ON YOU. Ban these before they catch on. I'm certain the marijuana dealers have already purchased a stockpile of these deadly deceivers. Maybe the metal detectors can be re-configured to detect lexan as well as metals.
But we can't stop with these glass knuckles either. There are, at this very moment, so-called legitimate wilderness suppliers selling lexan knives. These dealers are so brazen as to tout that their knives are "virtually unbreakable" and "tougher than steel" (http://www.wildernessdining.com/gs70x55.html).
Sounds like a recipe for disaster to me!
Plastic knucks have been around for at least a decade, maybe a lot longer. Have we fallen during this time? Has the world ended? Chicken Little societies running around, creating fears, stirring up the whole barnyard.
All this segment did is advertise for the product, or at least the idea of non-metallic knucks. A few people probably got the idea to make their own and sell them from this.
Paul
*knocks out Metafactory with wooden knucks made with a jigsaw and a piece of oak*
What know? Ban wood?
Metafactory, I think that's the first time I've seen someone called a liberal for not wanting a weapon banned. Are you okay? Maybe you should have your temperature checked. You might have a fever.
Z'OH. MAH. GAWD. LAWL.
P.S. - WTF does liberalism (presumably vs conservativism) have to do with not being scared senseless of every little bit of potential danger out there? When exactly did irrational fear become a defining characteristic of conservativism?
#9 I completely agree, water has to go
#10 I am totally against these being in school, but "banning" plastic knuckles won't do any good. As far as i know we don't have "plastic detectors" and i am pretty sure searching everyone as they enter public places would violate a person's right to privacy. I doubt banning the sell of these would do anything because they don't exactly look very difficult to make. And as so many people have already pointed out, you can make a weapon out of almost anything (just look at prisons).
Finally, i wanted to say this was hilarious. To summarize the report:
1. Reporter asks random person what they think about plastic knuckledusters.
2. Random person is shocked and appalled.
3. Repeat until time slot is filled.
@10:
Every time we ban a weapon, someone finds a workaround, as evidenced by this video. And, btw, the Lexan knives have as much killing power as a well-aimed Bic ballpoint.
These things are used for violent assault and have absolutely no legitimate purpose, unlike baseball bats, water, eyeglasses and rifles. The facts that they are easy to make and difficult to detect are irrelevant. Those characteristics apply to lock-picking tools as well, and in many places it's illegal to have them because they're used for crime. I have no problem with schools or communities banning these brass knuckle devices made of whatever material. I'm pretty Libertarian about issues like this, but this is clearly an offensive weapon with no other purpose.
The news piece is pretty ludicrous, but that doesn't mean they're wrong in their conclusion.
Rossindetroit
Lockpicks are legal to own in a some places, as they do have a legitimate use: opening locks to which you have lost the key. It's all about context. If someone is found trespassing with a skimask, and a set of lockpicks, they may be charged for carrying burglary tools. The same would be true if they were carrying a crowbar. In the course of banning offensive weapons, you are also likely to ban items used in martial arts.
Incidentally, I'd be willing to bet that if these were marketed and sold as self defense keychains with images of a lone woman in a parking lot at night, the public reaction would be much different. There are much more insidious defense tools sold that way. One example is a self defense key chain that's a bar with one sharpened end and two spikes that are designed to come out between the fingers. I have yet to see an outcry over those, despite the fact that the last place I saw them was the 99 cent bin at my local ACO.
I think as a society, we need to calm down. Banning all weapons is ultimately about as sensible as tilting at windmills. In high security prisons where all objects accessible to the inmates are vetted by officials and every person is under near-constant scrutiny, and every one is subject to regular searches, lethal weapons routinely appear and are used. An attempt to do something similar in the real world is laughable.
Jesus Christ this is the stupidest report I have ever seen. People in prison already know how to make deadly implements from plastic bags or plastic wrap. Take a couple plastic bags and heat them up and mold it into a hard shank for stabbing. You can file the end of a toothbrush and now you have a shank. So now what? Ban toothbrushes and plastic bags? You can save your $35 and instead of buying that knuckleduster, you can goto any Walmart or kitchen supply store and buy a plastic cutting board and with a knife and hacksaw, make the same damn thing. You can even make a knuckle duster out of wood, which Polynesians have done for centuries. They made them in a "D" shape and made them deadlier with shark teeth embedded in the wood. That cannot be detected by metal detectors either. It is utterly ridiculous to legislate a law that criminals will not even abide by. Criminals already know these dirty tricks. It's not rocket science. Ban this and they can easily improvise. You think a terrorist who receives training on how to make a high tech radio controlled IED will all of a sudden be dumbfounded as to how to make plastic knuckels from a cutting board? Please.
Scuba;
If the board of your kid's school banned this particular Lexan device, would you bother to show up and argue that it should be permitted? If so, how?
Ross, his point isn't that this particular item needs defending - it's that the whole concept of seeking to ban every item that's harmful is fundamentally flawed. I can definitely see his point, and don't see how banning this would really help anything.
It's not going to make the mean people nice and it's not going to make everyone "just get along." It's like taking an aspirin for a broken arm. It's not going to help fix the root problem.
True, the concept of seeking to ban every harmful item is fundamentally flawed, or it would be if such a concept existed. If you're aware of an effort underway to find and ban all dangerous things, then you have information that we do not.
In practice, things get banned one at a time in response to real harm. I have a 40 year old hole in my leg from a Lawn Dart. They're banned now and that's a good thing because while they were a lot of fun, the risk outweighed the benefit.
People will always find ways to harm each other. That fact is irrelevant to the effort to restrict the existing easy ways to do it.
I'm not arguing for banning everything dangerous, or even this particular plastic knuckle thing. I only said I could understand and support authorities that decided it was inappropriate in a particular place and banned it.
While I disagree, I certainly understand the comments supporting a ban of these items.
Rather than argue the merits of such a ban with those readers, I'd rather suggest to them a different way of looking at security.
Bruce Schneier has any number of excellent blog posts and articles about security issues such as this and always presents a reasoned view with a "big picture" viewpoint.
Here is the just one of countless examples of the type of argument many of us are trying to make:
Focus on terrorists, not tactics
metafactory has a list of 57 known lexan knife manufacturers
The funny thing is, making this video and banning these things would probably make kids more likely to use them anyway. At the least the video would make kids who previously had no idea about these things aware of them.
Besides I doubt the people who are malicious enough to use these in the manner described in the video would actually pay money (apparently $35 which is idiotic for a hunk of plastic) for them. They'd be more likely to rig up or use something a lot cheaper (free).
The reason why anyone in this video is so appalled by these things is perception. Sure a pen can be used as a weapon, a bat could too.. but people don't perceive those items as such. Brass knuckles and the like are however, thus the negative reaction.
And yes, I wouldn't want to get hit with them either, but if someone wanted to hit me with them they'd find a way to do it. Banning them would probably make the punishment for getting caught with them more severe, which is good I guess, but it won't completely solve the problem.
All the posts made like "ban bats, water, pens" etc cmon seriously.. that's just dumb. Sure those things could be used to harm someone, but I doubt someone carrying a pair of these lexan knuckles in school is going to write a term paper or play a game of baseball with them. However, I'm sure the person could get out of a test or win a baseball game with them.
The school has a CEO? (2:52)
What is the result of punching a gallon of milk with a regular fist? I've dropped a gallon from about waist-height and the 'explosion' made quite a mess.
I prefer to use a knife to make cole slaw, though.
Solution to the mythical lexan detector: Make it out of ice!
Also, I *love* the multicolor LED effect they used to illuminate the item. I wonder if they made it themselves or if they got help from this mysterious 'area man' who sells them. It looks almost like a store display, and if they are that expensive, maybe they do need a fancy eye-catching display case.
Here is the fundamental problem with banning things. Bad guys (criminals) want an advantage over the good guys (honest citizens). They will take any advantage that they can get. Take the UK for example. Bad guys get guns, so guns are banned to make the people safer. Eventually is becomes hard to get a gun (and now only the super-rich can afford to go hunting). So, criminals use knives, which are then eventually banned. Next come cricket bats, banned. Apparently some criminals have even been using swords, so some localities tried to ban those. The ones that are hurt the most are the citizens who get caught in the cross-fire of all of this terrible legislation that is supposedly done to help them. People improvise weapons in prison! Unless we want to make our streets worse than prison, we need to accept the fact that bad guys will have weapons of some sort. Look up "Millwall Brick" on Wikipedia. The only obvious solution is to allow honest citizens to have weapons so that the criminals fear for their lives.
Are there laws against socks filled with pennies?
@Jack: There is now, Buster!
I get "Due to usage restrictions we are unable to provide this video", when I try to view this under Linux. Other videos on the site work perfectly fine though.
I have no clue if it works on Windows because I don't use it, but I imagine it should.
This is VERY uncool.
using firefox on win xp, i get the same message. copyright or bandwith?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVTW-zp41cw&eurl=
Okay, I've read through all this and I'm trying to wrap my mind around something. This is a debate about whether or not to ban plastic knuckles and there's no serious mention of banning other weapons like--oh, I don't know--guns? (Not lexan guns, just regular old-fashioned bullet-shooting people-killing guns.)
@32 I tested in Linux under both Konqueror and Firefox. Konqueror doesn't react to the play button at all (works perfectly fine on other videos though), Firefox reacts but then shows that message. Maybe it's not happy with a non-IE browser? I find it very strange that MSNBC would need to restrict bandwidth usage.
@34 IMO it's the usual freaking out. The video (seen it thanks to #33) seems to be basically "OMG! Plastic gets through metal detectors!!1!". Well, DUH.
On one hand, a knuckle duster is a nasty weapon, and definitely not something the sort of thing that should be brought to school, no argument about it.
On the other hand, there's nothing new here. If you really want to hurt somebody, a school has plenty usable weaponry inside it like chairs, blackboard erasers and walls to bash somebody's head against.
Then you can add basic school equipment. A plastic right angle ruler, or one of those semicircular ones for measuring angles (forget what are the things called) would probably be quite usable as an improvised knuckle duster. Or just hold your keys between your fingers.
@14
>When exactly did irrational fear become a defining characteristic of conservativism?
Oh! I know this one!
September 11, 2001
Scuba SM: Incidentally, I'd be willing to bet that if these were marketed and sold as self defense keychains with images of a lone woman in a parking lot at night, the public reaction would be much different.
You mean, like these?
http://www.selfdefenseproducts.com/Keychains/wildkat.php