Remember, laws basically mean that some behavior (or tool) is so dangerous that, "you should be imprisoned, killed or have your property taken if you violate this law". Just the behavior (or tools existance) is such a threat by its very existence that you should be locked away for the good of society.

Somewhere I have an old Butterfly Knife that I bought before the law really kicked in, and now for just owning it I'm guilty of some misdemeanor or felony. Of course good luck at finding it, it is stuffed in a box somewhere and I actually broke the tip off of it when I dropped it once. I managed to slice myself a few times -- but got the point where I could twirl it, flip it in the air and catch it (open or closed), snap it open a dozen different ways and master something. It was actually quite a skill to practice and learn and fun/hard to do well. We must stop that, who knows where that freedom might lead!

It was like in California where they passed "drive by shooting laws" -- I wanted to slap the legislators and point out that already loaded guns in city limits, loaded guns in cars, shooting in city limits, shooting out of a car, shooting at a person, pointing a weapon at a person, minors with a gun, the models of guns they used, attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon, reckless endangerment, reckless driving, and probably 50 other things being done at the time were already against the law! These laws do nothing or are counter productive.

Basically as a society we've said that the police should have the right to harass and arrest anyone for just about anything -- and we should just count on judges or our system to sort it out. This the state that passed 1,500 new laws last year alone. How did we ever get by without them? This is the same system (and judges) that lets murderers go free all the time because the guy confessed before his lawyer was there, or that puts people into prison for life for a small quantity of drugs or takes people's house/car/boat because they found a marijuana seed in it (under "Zero Tolerance") or steals people's cash if you carry too much of it and they think you MIGHT be using it for anything drug related. And these are cops that are so overworked trying to deal with the big issues, like someone going 5 mph over the speed limit, rolling a stop-sign, or someone owning a gravity knife, that they don't have enough resources to track down the murderers and rapists. I think we (as a society) need to get some perspective. Each new law dilutes the rest!

Once again, I am a felon. I had some shurikens. As a kid I made my own out of horseshoe nails and a welder, exacto-knife blades and a spot welder (along with some solder for weight), along with about a dozen other kids I knew. I bought a few out of state, and you can make them with a good grinder and some metal stock. I knew lots of kids that did this kind of stuff, and society says that they all belong in prison for being kids (and being stupid) and owning something that is sharp and pointy! Learning to throw stars was not an easy skill, and wasn't much easier than learning how to throw regular knives (as well as throwing knives). I have a thing for learning tricky skills, not because I would ever harm anyone with these things, but because it is so challenging. It took me many months of regular practice to make a knife stick where I wanted it at any range -- and realistically it gets pretty worthless beyond about 15 or 20 feet. Let me assure you, the most skilled people out there could probably not kill a sleeping person with a shuriken at 10 feet if their life depended on it. You can hit targets, but just not with enough penetration to kill. Thrown knives are more effective -- but not that much. You'd be far wiser to just stab someone than to throw them your weapon. So naturally we protect society from the tremendous dangers of throwing knives (like Shurikens), even though there was never a problem with crimes of this nature. It was another case of legislators watching too many spy movies. There is a joke in engineering that the most dangerous thing in your building is a manager with technical manual (because they think they have a clue) -- well apply that to legislators with a TV set or who frequent movies and you get the idea!

I stopped a robbery once outside my condo -- and when a kid started coming at me with a knife, I pulled my gun (and he decided the error of his ways, and ran). I asked someone to call the owner of the car that had been broken into (to assess damage and so on) but instead they called the police. They responded quickly, and showed up in 10 minutes -- of course if I hadn't have had a gun (or know martial arts) I might have been perforated before they ever arrived (which is the reason that law abiding citizens must have the right to own weapons in the first place). Since the cops were coming, and I didn't want to be wandering around with a gun, I put the gun away. Technically I was OK having the gun, but I didn't want to carry it and intimidate the neighbors, and I certainly didn't want to conceal it (a bigger offense). But I wanted to have something (just in case) -- so I stuffed an extendable baton in my wasteband. I figured if the kids came back (the kid with the knife), I could easily out range them and safely win that conflict. Of course they weren't likely to come back -- and if they did come back they probably would have brought a gun and I would have been screwed -- but it was still a placebo that I wanted to have.

When I was filing the report to the police, and asking him about the legality of the situation (with me and the gun on my property) he just chuckled and pointed out that the gun was fine, but even owning an "evil" extendable baton was a felony! That was a surprise to me -- but I told him that it was a good thing that I only had this extendable tire-tester thing and he laughed. Thank goodness the police (by and large) have more common sense than the legislators (most of the time). But it only takes one idiot cop (or cop in charge) to ruin it for the rest of them, and to annoy the masses and waste money. And if someone was clubbing someone with one, then of course the cops would have already been able to arrest them without that stupid law!