Is it ok to bring a machete aboard?

[hellosailor]

Nic-
"This is what we fought against 200 years ago."
What's that, the French Revolution? Here in the Colonies we committed treason and took up arms 238 years ago.(G)

I guess I can never enter Australia then. Under New York's archaic and oppressive Sullivan Law, I'm registered as a deadly weapon. As is every boxer or other person formally trained in anything resembling fisticuffs or martial arts. (Although I'm told they've been lax on enforcing that in recent years.)

So many politicians are so incredibly naïve. All they need to do is visit the trophy case in any prison, where all the creative "weapons" that have been confiscated are kept. Credit cards, toothbrushes, soda cans...and then there was one of the original World Trade Center bombers, from the truck bomb, who squirted a packet of hot sauce at his guard and then plunged the handle of a plastic fork into the guard's eye.

I suppose functionally that makes me the equal of a packet of hot sauce and a fork, huh?

Coming back to nautical matters....have to take the boom off the boat. Anchor and chain, too. You know, someone could easily be killed by all that stuff. No excuse to allow it on a boat, is there?

[Jim Cate]

I've habitually carried a pocket knife since age about 6 or so. That's 70 years BTW... and I've never even been tempted to stick one of them into a fellow human. As a sailor, I would feel naked without my trusty blade. I guess that I am at risk for jail time if I venture into Victoria (and perhaps in other Oz states, I dunno). But I somehow doubt that the bobbies there are spending much time shaking down old fart sailors... they are too busy arresting folks who "glass" each other in saloons every weekend. (For the non-Aussies reading this, "glassing" is mayhem using a broken beer bottle or other glass shard. ) I haven't heard that the authorities are considering banning use of glass bottles, even though they are thus commonly used as offensive weapons. Too much tax revenue from beer sales, I guess.

Really, these laws are so damn silly... the common argument that folks who would be likely to use a knife offensively are not likely to heed a rule banning them from use and carriage seems applicable. I despair...

Jim

[El Pinguino]

Jim, I think the law in Victoria is only used on young people at night near licenced premises... so I think we are both safe on at least two counts... I rarely go out at night.....
El Ping

[lesterbutch]

Boracay; perhaps people with knives may present a risk but when you live here in cowboy land you'll find a lot more people carry guns than knives. I am licensed to carry a concealed weapon though, I only rarely carry. For some reason I can't remember i was talking with two grandmotherly ladies about gun regulations and both of them took 9mm automatics out of their purses! I was stunned! Only in America.

[hellosailor]

Jim-
In the States, it was long illegal to take a glass beverage bottle into public venues, before they just decided to ban all beverages from being brought in. (A cynic might suspect that's got more to do with selling beer at $8 a cup than security.)

Cowboys said "Never bring a knife to a gun fight."
Special Forces say "Knives never run out of bullets."

The logical end run to this is to require nudism at all times, isn't it?

Naked Irishmen, pub crawling, armed with just shelaighlees....oh, it could be a terrifying sight.(G)

[goboatingnow]

Originally Posted by CruisingKitty

The Guards (police) are not going to search you on the street for no reason but if you bring out a pocket knife in public you could be fined/arrested. Keep in mind that the Guards do not carry any weapons.

Having lived in Ireland , let's not descend into nonsense. You can quite happily carry your penknife around and use it in public ( the law allows you to have a reasonable excuse )

Brandish it about in a menacing way and you " could " be prosecuted. Knife attacks because such a nuisance the Guards had to be issued with stab vests.

The law is similar to many European countries

Dave

[goboatingnow]

Originally Posted by Nicholson58

I thought our British coworkers were pulling our collective legs when they said they could only own steak knives & kitchen knives by registration with the police.

They are pulling your leg. I haven't seen a police knife registration desk in marks and Spencer's for a long time

[goboatingnow]

Originally Posted by colemj

There's coconuts in Ireland: Palm Trees on Mullaghmore Head

Mark

Lots of Palm trees in Ireland I had them growing in my back garden , never had any coconuts.

Dave

[goboatingnow]

Originally Posted by Canibul

It's the difference between being citizens with leaders, or subjects with rulers.

If you don't want to make the important choices about your own freedom, someone else is always around to make those choices for you. but there's a difference.

Thread drift.

What's important is that you the citizen recognise that real freedom is not being palmed off with trivial freedoms while key ones are eroded away. It snot freedom , that you can have a small non automatic side arm when your " rulers " owns apache attack Helicopters or whose police increasingly look like para militarises or whose civil rights laws have been utterly eroded ( patriot act )

Opium was once tolerated as it was seen as an evil that quelled descent , small arms could be seen in the same vein.

Personally I have lived in the US , UK, France , Ireland . I certainly prefer a strict firearms and knife policy and as a result a largely unarmed police force. That's my kind of freedom, a policeman thAt can only stop me with " words "

In particular I would make a comment that the US is one of the most policed and controlled societies I've ever lived in. You get ticketed for everything, the place abounds with rules and regs , and there hordes of police to enforce them. I left less free there then a lot of other places

Freedom is not about the ability to carry a side arm in your purse. Its laughable that so many in the US can't see beyond that simple fact.

( see conflict in Syria as an example of a population armed with zillions of small arms up against a government with tanks and jets, a conflict where more have died then in the Second World War by the way )

Dave

[colemj]

Originally Posted by goboatingnow

Lots of Palm trees in Ireland I had them growing in my back garden , never had any coconuts.

Dave

Well, maybe some will float in on the current - those trees got there somehow…

Mark

[goboatingnow]

Originally Posted by colemj

Well, maybe some will float in on the current - those trees got there somehow…

Mark

Most of the palms in ireland and in certain parts of the UK and known as Cordyline Australis ( Cabbage Palm or Torbay Palm) . There are a breed of palm tree but they are not the coconut palm as would be found in warmer climes. The species seems to have originated in China.

They were mostly planted and then the winter storms re distribute bits of palm around the island. Thats how mines got started in the garden, it blew in and I planted it, when I sold the house it was 15 feet tall.

dave

[colemj]

Come on Dave, I'm trying to give the guy an excuse for having a machete in Ireland…

Mark

[Group9]

Originally Posted by Boracay

Ok, so I enjoy the freedom of not having to worry if any one of the thousands of people I am near each day (in Australia) is carrying a knife.

I believe that freedom from fear is a right too.

Each of us has a different idea of freedom.

You and Ben Franklin sure had some different ideas on the subject. But, you are Australian. There is a reason Australia became a independent country 120 years after the US did. We are different people, with a slightly similar language.

“Those who surrender freedom for security will not have, nor do they deserve, either one.”


― Benjamin Franklin

[lesterbutch]

Goboatingnow: i dont know were you were when you noted all this represive law inforcement, but in my 74 years of being an outspoken big mouth who is vehimently opposed to many laws, and verbally so! I have been givin one ticket, (and i deserved it), i have never been arrested for not agreeing with the powers that be or for carrying a Bible or the Koran or many other things that might have put me in a political prison in many other contries. I think you need to study the system a bit more! And we won't arrest you if you condem it verbally!

[avb3]

We are now well off topic of anything to do with cruising or sailing.

Thread closed.