Self Defense Tip #34
Gun Crime Bad, Knife Crime Not Bad...

by Thomas Kurz, co-author of Basic Instincts of Self-Defense and author of Stretching Scientifically, Secrets of Stretching, and Science of Sports Training.

To read the previous installment click here.

Several firearms and crime bills in the current (108th) session of U.S. Congress are designed to promote use of bladed and blunt weapons (such as knives or clubs) in commission of crimes. Really. Here are examples:

H.R. 54 (Crenshaw, Mica, Putnam, Oxley, Forbes, Kennedy [MN]) would authorize up to $30,000,000 a year for various Project Exile-related expenditures, including sentencing enhancements involving firearms, while exempting similar crimes of violence committed with knives and similar implements.

H.R. 291 (Kelly) would double the prison sentences for carrying, brandishing, or using a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence (loosely defined) or a drug trafficking offense. Use of knives, axes, steel pipes, etc. in commission of crimes of violence or of drug offences is OK.

H.R. 124 (Holt) would require the establishment of a system for the registration of every handgun possessed in the United States. Any person possessing an unregistered handgun would be subject to a 15 year prison sentence.

Conclusion: If any of these bills passes, career criminals will increase use of weapons other than firearms.

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