Violence Week continues

A long, long time ago
I can still remember…

Waaaaay back in high school, Mandy went to Italy and was kind enough to bring me home a souvenir… a switchblade knife of my very own. It looked just like one of those “Oh my it’s a switchblade oh ha ha it’s really just a comb” gags, except that it really was a switchblade. It wasn’t very big, it wasn’t particularly sharp even, but it was mine and I loved it.

Recently, a pal was regaling me with a tale of humorous switchblade antics, and I thought to myself, “Hey! I have a switchblade! Um, where is it?” I’ve looked in my jewelry box, and in the other, littler jewelry box, in the drawer where I keep the patches that Mandy also brought back from Italy, in the Blackened VooDoo box that I’ve been toting around for years and I don’t even REMEMBER what’s in it… and I can’t find that thing anywhere.

Now, a switchblade isn’t the kind of thing you throw away. Nor is it the type of item that you’d sell at a garage sale. It is the kind of thing I’d give to a friend who would appreciate it more than I do, but… I don’t think I have any friends who fall into that category. So I do have hope that it will turn up. But…

I did a little research online tonight. Turns out that in the state of Colorado, it is illegal to carry OR POSSESS a switchblade. And for my posse in California, it’s legal to possess a switchblade, but you can only legally carry it if the blade is UNDER TWO INCHES (misdemeanor crime otherwise). However… in California… if your knife contains a “detent or similar mechanism that provides some resistance to opening the knife,” then your knife is no longer considered a switchblade and there is no length limit unless you’re on school property. However (again), that is STATE law. Individual cities may have their own ordinances.

Yeah, so, there’s your public service announcement for the day. It’s a jungle out there.