From an article article in the St. Petersburg Times, about a girl being charged with a third-degree felony for having a butter knife in her backpack at school:
And a butter knife, Black said, according to the criminal definition of a weapon and the wording of the law, ” “is a weapon.”
How is the statute worded such that a butter knife is a weapon? Is it simply because it is called a knife, rather than for any functional characteristic? If the common name for it was “butter spreader” instead of “butter knife”, would the law still consider it a weapon? If someone were to sell some other device under a name including the word “knife” (e.g., a hole punch as a “hole knife”), would that be banned as well?
Are scissors banned as well? Even rounded-tip dull scissors are more useful as a weapon than a butter knife.
The only thing I have zero tolerance for is zero tolerance.
Zero tolerance
From an article article in the St. Petersburg Times, about a girl being charged with a third-degree felony for having a butter knife in her backpack at school:
How is the statute worded such that a butter knife is a weapon? Is it simply because it is called a knife, rather than for any functional characteristic? If the common name for it was “butter spreader” instead of “butter knife”, would the law still consider it a weapon? If someone were to sell some other device under a name including the word “knife” (e.g., a hole punch as a “hole knife”), would that be banned as well?
Are scissors banned as well? Even rounded-tip dull scissors are more useful as a weapon than a butter knife.
The only thing I have zero tolerance for is zero tolerance.