awalker@topaz.ARPA (*Hobbit*) (01/11/85)
In light of the recent item about the gun-toting guy on the subway, I have due cause to be royally pissed off: He was ''attacked'' -- no one is sure what really happened -- by four known criminals carrying ''sharpened screwdrivers''. He shot them and belted. I have been carrying a screwdriver around in my belt for over a year now, and although some people might get the wrong idea, it is a *screwdriver* as far as I'm concerned, and not a weapon. If I tried to use it as such it would probably do me more harm than good, especially in the eyes of the law. However there is no law currently on the books *against* carrying it around, especially since it isn't concealed and all that. I find it immeasurably useful for all kinds of things. I'm a technical person, after all, and I'm very often in a position where I need to take something apart to get the job done. Out comes the Stanley, and the job gets done. Furthermore, it isn't sharpened, although just about any screwdriver with the factory blade shape could penetrate a body pretty easily if driven with sufficient force. So with all this publicity about thugs with screwdrivers, everyone is going to be paranoid about screwdrivers in general. Do you seriously expect me to cease carrying it around and have to do extra legwork when I want to get something open to work on it? Hell no, I refuse to bend to stupid media hype just because some clown with a handgun has placed my particular idiosyncracy in a bad light. The whole deal reeks of the same slime that the press has hung the word ''hacker'' to mean someone who destructively breaks into computers. I am further annoyed by knowing that I will have to explain to every idiot who asks me why I carry it that I have been doing so since long before this subway situation broke. This prime example of mob hysteria really has my dander up, but what can one man do against the great unwashed? _H*
greenber@acf4.UUCP (ross m. greenberg) (01/11/85)
<>
Of course, to keep this from becoming a very big problem in your life,
you really should see the local authorities and register your screwdrivers.
It is probably difficult to get a carry permit!
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Ross M. Greenberg @ NYU ----> { allegra,ihnp4 }!cmcl2!acf4!greenber <----jlh@loral.UUCP (Aiken Drum) (01/13/85)
> In light of the recent item about the gun-toting guy on the subway, I have > due cause to be royally pissed off: > > He was ''attacked'' -- no one is sure what really happened -- by four > known criminals carrying ''sharpened screwdrivers''. He shot them and > belted. > > I have been carrying a screwdriver around in my belt for over a year now, > and although some people might get the wrong idea, it is a *screwdriver* > as far as I'm concerned, and not a weapon. If I tried to use it as such > it would probably do me more harm than good, especially in the eyes of the > law. However there is no law currently on the books *against* carrying it > around, especially since it isn't concealed and all that. I find it > immeasurably useful for all kinds of things. I'm a technical person, after > all, and I'm very often in a position where I need to take something apart > to get the job done. Out comes the Stanley, and the job gets done. > Furthermore, it isn't sharpened, although just about any screwdriver with the > factory blade shape could penetrate a body pretty easily if driven with > sufficient force. > Gee, ya know I somehow don't think I'd be as scaired of a telephone lineman type with a factory sharpened screwdriver in his pocket as I would be of 4 hoodlum types with non-factory sharpened screwdrivers in their belts. If a lineman type asked me for 5 bucks, I wouldn't think he was robbing me, I'd think he was just robbed himself and needed cash to get home.
gino@voder.UUCP (Gino Bloch) (01/14/85)
<> And, when screwdrivers are outlawed, only outlaws will ... (Does the ":-)" have to be explicit?) -- Gene E. Bloch (...!nsc!voder!gino) Extend USENET to omicron Ceti.