Free Republic

What has happened to common sense? According to WGY and Fox News, an Honor Student at upstate New York's Lansingburgh High School, Matthew Whalen, has been suspended for twenty days for having a two-inch pocket knife in a locked kit in his car. Accoding to Fox: Lansingburgh High has a zero-tolerance policy, and when school officials discovered that Whalen kept his knife locked in his car, he says, they suspended him for five days -- and then tacked on an additional 15 after a hearing.

A Sudanese man used a knife from the in-flight meal to threaten crew members after the plane left Turkish airspace and demanded that the flight be diverted to Jerusalem, the official said.

Soldier suspended from school Posted: Oct 8, 2009 05:26 PM A NEWS10 EXCLUSIVE By MARK O'BRIEN LANSINGBURGH -- High school senior Matthew Whalen is the kind of student any parent would want. He's an Eagle Scout, on the honor roll, taking Advanced Placement classes, and never been in trouble with the law. He's received commendations from the City of Troy and the Boy Scouts of America for saving a woman's life, and this past summer, he completed Army basic training. All of it was accomplished before the age of 17. "I'm just trying to do what I can while I...

Note: Photos included. SNIPPET - QUOTE: Name: www.furqon.com Address: 94.75.240.140 Host: IHS Telekom Inc. Istanbul, Turkey Network access provider: LeaseWeb, Amsterdam, Netherlands This site is distributing a new video from the IMU, featuring the "German" jihadi Abu Askar and his Great Big Knife™ which I assume makes up for some sort of anatomical deficit: Finally, I note that among the sites featured in their list of links is the following: The Network of Ethiopian Muslims in Europe

New advice published in Scouting, the official in-house magazine, says neither Scouts nor their parents should bring penknives to camp except in "specific" situations. Scouts have traditionally been taught how to use knives correctly, using them on camping trips to cut firewood or carve tools. At one point Scouts were allowed to carry a sheath knife on their belt as part of their uniform although this is no longer the case. In recent years the Scout Association guidance has been that parents should carry knives to camps or meetings. Dave Budd, a knife-maker who runs courses training Scouts about the...

Beijing halts knife sales, attack fears: retailers Mon Sep 21, 3:39 am ET BEIJING (AFP) – China has temporarily banned knife sales after two stabbing incidents in Beijing, major retailers said here Monday, in the latest sign of official security fears ahead of National Day on October 1. Staff at foreign and domestic retailers including Wal-Mart and Carrefour said the ban was issued over the weekend. It comes as Beijing clamps down to prevent disruption to festivities marking communist China's 60th birthday. Police have said a Chinese man stabbed two people to death and wounded 14 others on Thursday in...

AP story link only.

Along with a box of matches and a piece of string, they've always been an essential part of a Scout's kit. But now penknives are going to be restricted on scouting trips as a seemingly innocent tradition succumbs to concerns over the nation's blade culture. The Scout Association is advising boys and their parents that they should not bring such knives to camp - despite it being legal for anyone to carry a foldable, nonlocking blade in a public place as long as it is shorter than 3ins. Scouts have been taught to carry knives and have used them to...

No charges have been filed against a 21-year-old man who police say was trying to protect his mother when he fatally stabbed the woman's boyfriend during a fight. Houston police said the woman's son stabbed Bruce Simmons, 49, about 9:20 p.m. on Friday in the 6300 block of Skyline Drive. Simmons was taken to Memorial Hermann Southwest Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. The case will be referred to a Harris County Grand Jury without charges. The woman's son, whose name has not been released because no charges have been filed against him, was trying to defend his mother while...

A 17-year-old boy stabbed his mother, uncle and younger brother with a butcher knife Friday night in their Hartford home, then barricaded himself in a bedroom until a police officer talked him into sliding the knife under the door and surrendering, police said. All of the victims survived the attacks at their home, a two-family house at 47 Yale St., off Fairfield Avenue in the city's South End, police said. The 13-year-old brother's lungs were pierced by two stab wounds to the back, and he was in stable condition later at Hartford Hospital, police Sgt. Sean Spell said Saturday. The...

WICHITA, Kansas - Two people were arrested following a stabbing in south Wichita Saturday night. It happened just after 9:00 P.M. in the 5100 block of south Hydraulic. Police say a 30-year-old man kicked in his 70-year-old neighbor's door, and that the elderly man stabbed the 30 year old in self-defense. A nephew of the 70 year old then hit the attacker with an edging tool. The 30 year old who broke into the house was taken to the hospital with critical injuries. The 30 year old and the nephew were arrested. The 70 year old's actions were ruled self-defense.

In the past, I’ve written articles about the importance of self defense, and how it is the most basic human right. I’ve also mentioned the problem with second guessing those who defend themselves, and advocated for individuals who rightfully acted in self defense. Today I write about the opposite situation, where a citizen has acted in a manner that cannot remotely be called self defense. Hopefully, this will clear up any lingering confusion surrounding the huge difference between self defense and vigilantism. Briefly stated, self defense is the use of force against a criminal, in order to stop the criminal...

FERNDALE, Wash. -- A stabbing in Ferndale sent a man to the hospital, but the teen with the knife remains free. A 25-year-old and 16-year-old got into a fight in the Ace Hardware parking lot Tuesday afternoon, said Ferndale Police Lieutenant Bill Hatchett. Police initially arrested the teen, but then released him. “All the witnesses have told us that the adult male was physically assaulting the 16-year-old male, at which time the 16-year-old male pulled out a pocketknife that he carries in his pocket, and used it against the adult male,” said Hatchett. “After questioning him, getting his story and...

In Switzerland, there is a saying that every good Swiss citizen has one in his or her pocket. It is an object that is recognised all over the world, and it is globally popular. But the Swiss army knife had humble beginnings, and, at the start, it wasn't even red. In the late 19th Century, the Swiss army issued its soldiers with a gun which required a special screwdriver to dismantle and clean it...

We now know the name of the man shot and killed Sunday morning in rural Clark County. We also know the name of the man who shot him. Kentucky State Police tell us the victim was 45-year-old Rodney Mann of Lexington. The shooter is Charles Steppe. Police say Steppe saw Mann slashing the tires of his vehicle when he confronted him. The two men then fought over a handgun. Steppe got the gun, and says Mann came at him with a knife. That’s when Steppe says he shot Mann in self-defense. No charges have been filed, but KSP says their...

I was walking home a few weeks ago when two young men, one with a knife in his hand, blocked the sidewalk and demanded my wallet and camera. I’m accustomed to having a means of defense other than my fist and an umbrella at hand. I’ve been in Washington, D.C. for three months and had almost gotten used to not having a weapon handy. At home in Arizona, I regularly, and legally, carry a concealed pistol and reluctantly left my guns at home and trusted on instincts and awareness to stay out of trouble. The hoodlum who tried to rob...

...[A] pair of Congressmen have decided to apply the nuclear option - restrictive amendments to their budgets, to let the Department of Homeland Security know they don't like the proposed Customs and Border Patrol measure designed to change the definition of a switchblade knife. The new CBP definition, if adopted, would basically cut the modern knife industry to the quick as approximately eighty percent of knives currently in production would fall into the definition of switchblade because of their assisted-opening feature. Representatives Bob Latta (R-Ohio) and Walt Minnick (D-Idaho) have co-sponsored an amendment to the Department of Homeland Security appropriations...

A man was treated for a gunshot wound to his leg then taken to the Wichita County Jail on assault charges in connection with an incident Monday, said Officer Harold McClure, public information officer with the Wichita Falls Police Department. Perrion Lavell Warrior, 46, was charged with three counts of aggravated assault family violence in connection with the incident. His bond was set at $60,000 and he was being held Tuesday in the Wichita County Jail. According to reports: Police were called to the 500 block of Marconi to check on reports of shots fired about 10 p.m. Officers talked...

Saudi Arabian Muslim Student Raed Al-Saif at Univ. of Tampa Tries To Get On Plane With 7 inch Butcher Knife in His Carry On Bag, the last name "Al-Saif" is linked to Al-Qaeda. Fifteen of the nineteen on 9/11 hijackers were from Saudi Arabia they used box cutters and small knives to take over control of the 4 airplanes on 9/11. The United States government determined that al-Qaeda, headed by Osama bin Laden, bore responsibility for the attacks, with the FBI stating "evidence linking al-Qaeda and bin Laden to the attacks of September 11 is clear and irrefutable". The Government...

ROSWELL, Ga. — A Georgia liquor store clerk credits his police officer son with giving him two life-saving gifts — a cell phone and a gun. Joseph Wescott says the phone he slipped into his shirt pocket stopped a knife to his chest when a robbery suspect attacked him at the store in a northern Atlanta suburb. He then reached under the counter for the .40-caliber handgun and shot the man. "The knife that he had looked like it was about 10-foot long," the 67-year-old Wescott exclaimed. When the suspect lunged at Wescott, he fell back and the knife struck...

The first "anti-stab" knife is set to hit store shelves in the U.K., designed to work as normal in the kitchen but ineffective as a weapon. The knife has a rounded edge instead of a point and will snag on clothing and skin to make it more difficult to stab someone. It was invented by industrial designer John Cornock, who was inspired by a documentary in which doctors advocated banning traditional knives.

A claim of self-defense held up under the light of official scrutiny as manslaughter charges against a Grifton man were dropped in connection with the May 26 shooting death of another man, the Pitt County District Attorney said. Clark Everett filed a dismissal last Thursday of voluntary manslaughter charges against Ronald Jerome Brown, 34, when an investigation by Grifton police supported Brown's claim that he shot Marquis Graham, 25, also of Grifton, only after his efforts to escape Graham's knife attack failed, Everett said. Brown still faces charges of possession of a firearm by a felon. The police investigation showed...

The U.S. Government Is Trying To Take Away Your Pocket Knives! SAF and CCRKBA Joins with Knife Rights The Second Amendment Foundation and the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms have joined with Knife Rights to help fight this unwarranted knife grab by Customs. Alan Gottlieb CCRKBA Chairman noted, "we stand with Knife Rights in their support of Americans' right to own and carry the knives of their choice." And, just a reminder, the Second Amendment doesn't say "Firearms," it says "Arms," and knives are clearly covered. The U.S. Government is after your Pocket Knives! In...

The U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agency is proposing a new definition that could be used to eliminate 8 of 10 legal pocketknives in the United States right now, according to activists who are gearing up to fight the plan. The federal bureaucracy is accepting comments – written only – that must be received by June 21 before its planned changes could become final, but Doug Ritter of KnifeRights.org, said the implications of the decision would be far-reaching, since many state and federal agencies depend on the agency's definitions to determine what is legal in the United States. For a...

One puzzling characteristic of citizen disarmament advocates is their bizarre apparent belief that "gun violence" is somehow "worse" than other forms of violence. One would think that being stabbed, beaten, bludgeoned, strangled, etc. to death would be just as bad as being shot to death, but apparently that's not a universally held belief. I was reminded of this peculiar attitude yesterday when reading "New York's Gun Battle," an article in the Gotham Gazette about current attempts to make gun laws in New York state even more restrictive than they are now (the Brady Campaign ranks New York the 6th most...

A psychotherapist in an Upper East Side office. A young woman working in a grocery store. A city bus driver behind the wheel in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, on a lunchtime route.

OKLAHOMA CITY -- A Metro man takes on a man with a knife and wins. Maurice Johnson was catching up on some sleep Thursday afternoon when his burglar alarm sounds. He awakes to a man in his house in the 4300 block of North Blackwelder. "I see a guy in a big black jacket holding a knife about that size and he tells me basically turn the alarm off and give me money." Johnson, keeping his wits about him, tells the man to follow him to the back bedroom where there may be some cash. The suspect keeps the knife...

MOUNT HELIX — A man armed with a large knife was shot by El Cajon police at a busy intersection Friday afternoon after numerous non-lethal attempts by officers to stop him failed. The man, whose name has not yet been released, led police on a mile-long uphill chase on Avocado Boulevard, running all the way, said police Lt. Steven Shakowski. Police said they received a call about 11:50 a.m. about a man carrying a knife similar to a hunting knife near Chase Avenue and Avocado Boulevard in El Cajon. The man was running with the knife and waving it around,...

A shooting during a morning church service outside St. Louis has left one person dead -- the church's pastor -- and several others wounded, officials said. The Rev. Fred Winters was at the pulpit at the First Baptist Church in Maryville, Ill., at 8:15 a.m. local time today when a man wearing dark clothing approached the pulpit and fired four shots, the first of which hit the pastor's Bible, Illinois State Police Director Larry Trent said at a news conference late today. One of the shots from the gunman's .45 caliber pistol hit Winters in the chest, killing him, before...

A Waterloo man and his dog made a harrowing escape from the clutches of a vicious black bear Thursday while portaging near Wawa, Ont. Tom Tilley, 55, killed the nearly 200-pound bear by jumping on its back and stabbing the aggressive animal with a six-inch hunting knife after his dog alerted him and distracted the bear. "Love is a very powerful emotion and my thought right away was, 'You're not going to kill my dog,' " Tilley said yesterday. "I really consider my dog a hero. Without that first warning I would have had the bear clamping down on my...

OAKLAND -- A 23-year-old visitor from the East Coast had just gotten money from an ATM when he told his friend on a cell phone that he had a bad feeling about two men approaching him at the Fruitvale BART Station in Oakland. His worst fears were realized when one suspect, Victor Veliz, 18, held a folding knife with a 5-inch blade to his neck and the other, Christopher Gonzalez, 18, threatened to shoot him Thursday night, authorities said.

Hundreds of weapons have been taken off the streets of Glasgow six months after police started using the web to crack down on gang violence. Young trainee officers at Strathclyde Police search social networking sites for pictures of people posing with weapons, mainly knives. Constable Holly McGee and Cadet Fraser Reed, both 18, carry out the work. "We're looking for anyone who is brandishing offensive weapons or blades," Holly told Newsbeat.

BLACKSBURG -- Virginia Tech police on Thursday released gruesome details of a killing in a campus cafe, as students wondered why a campus that went two decades without a murder before the April 16, 2007, shootings has become the site of so much tragedy. When police arrived Wednesday night at Au Bon Pain inside the Virginia Tech Graduate Life Center, they found a decapitated female victim who had arrived on campus just two weeks ago and a young man they have now charged with killing her. The events have shocked a campus still coping with the 2007 shootings of 32...

DENDERMONDE, Belgium: An attacker with a knife brought horror to this quiet Belgian town on Friday, killing two children under the age of three and one of their caregivers after tricking his way into a day-care center - then escaping on a bicycle. In a frenzied attack for which a motive has yet to be established, the man, aged from 20 to 25 and wearing a bullet-proof vest, stabbed his victims after telling staff at the day-care center that he had a question for them, said Paul Putteman, chief of police in the village of Dendermonde. Belgium has been traumatized...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s plan to cut deep into education funding includes shortening the K-12 school year by a week – the first time in the history of the state, experts say, that the school year has been sharply reduced, rather than lengthened. But that measure, among others, is being offered because the current economic crisis “is probably the most challenging budget situation the state has ever faced,” the administration says. “Most other industrialized countries are in excess of 200 days a year, and today we go 180 days. This proposal would whack that to 175 days,” said state schools Superintendent...

Would like a recommendation on a "large" survival knife for my kit. I already have a couple of smaller folding survival knives, rescue tools, etc. To round out my "go bag" I'd like to replace a relatively cheap-o knife that was given to me years ago with something a little more substantial. I've been looking at the Ka Bar Becker Combat Bowie (9" blade). I like the size/shape, the steel hardness looks about right, full-tang design... Just about everything I'm looking for. Anyone have personal experience with this knife? What about a recommendation on something similar? Note, I can get...

A lovers' quarrel almost ended in tragedy in the Chinese city of Kunming today, caught by a passing photographer in this dramatic sequence of shots. An unidentified man held a woman said to be his girlfriend out of a third floor window for more than two hours as police tried to talk him down. He finally agreed to leave the building, but took the woman with him as a hostage, holding a knife to her throat as crowds gathered in the street around the building in the Yunnan provincial capital. In the end specialist hostage negotiators persuaded the man to...

A Burson man was arrested by Calaveras County sheriff's deputies after he attempted to rob a homeowner at a residence located in the 5800 block of De Los Angeles Road in Burson earlier this month. At approximately 11:30 p.m. on Nov. 10, Mike Nicholson III, 24, knocked on the door of William Six's residence on De Los Angeles Road. Six answered the door and found Nicholson standing there with a 10-inch knife. Nicholson told Six to give him the keys to his best truck and reportedly said, "I'm robbing you," according to a release from the Calaveras County Sheriff's Office....

Inaugural No-Nos: Strollers, Coolers, Backpacks and More... The Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies has posted on its Web site a number of tips to keep in mind for those planning on attending the Jan. 20 swearing-in ceremony and parade. Among the list of items banned from the festivities are baby strollers, coolers, backpacks, thermoses, umbrellas and signs. Go here for the full list and other tips about what to wear and what to expect.

<p>Two 17-year-old reputed gang members approached a bicycle rider near the painted water tank by the Wal-Mart in Las Cruces Sunday afternoon and allegedly brandished a knife and demanded money, the Las Cruces Sun-News reported.</p> <p>The would-be victim, however, was an off-duty Dona Ana County sheriff's deputy, who happened to be armed -- as many off-duty officers are, and produced his handgun, the Sun-News said.</p>

A 23-year-old Longview man was stabbed seven times Friday night in what police believe was an act of self-defense in the Abernathy Creek area, about 15 miles west of Longview. According to several witnesses, Samuel Bradley, 25, was attempting to leave a party when a group of 12 to 20 people surrounded his vehicle, broke windows and attempted to attack him, said Charlie Rosenzweig, chief criminal deputy for the Cowlitz County Sheriff’s Office. During the melee, Bradley stabbed Longview resident Dennis Childers, 23, seven times in the neck and upper body, Rosenzweig said. "(Bradley) had a knife, and he tried...

Man arrested in connection with week-old assault 5:46 p.m. October 21, 2008 CARLSBAD – A man wanted in connection with an assault last week was arrested Tuesday afternoon, police said. The man is suspected of threatening a 62-year-old man Thursday night who was walking on Carlsbad Boulevard near Cypress Avenue with a blade similar to a hunting knife, police said. Officials said the assailant got within two to three feet of the victim and held the knife in a threatening way. The assault ended when the victim told the armed man that he was going to take the knife and...

A passenger traveling on a bus across Canada's vast Western plains stabbed, gutted and decapitated a man seated next to him in an unexplained attack, a witness told media Thursday. The victim had been sleeping before he was repeatedly stabbed in the chest by a man with a large knife, witness Garnet Caton told public broadcaster CBC. The other 35 passengers and driver were jolted by "blood-curdling screams" and fled. "He must have stabbed him 50 times or 60 times," said Caton. When Caton and two others returned to check on the victim, he said they saw the attacker "cutting...

A SICK game on Facebook has been removed from the website after The Sun revealed how kids were able to STAB each other. Members of the internet social network could "SHANK" - street slang for knifing - other users by clicking on a blade icon in the popular SuperPoke! application. The revelation comes at a time when the UK is gripped by a knife-crime epidemic with 21 teenagers dying violently in London alone this year. But responding to calls from The Sun to remove it, US makers Slide admitted the icon was in bad taste and have taken it off....

Britain on alert for deadly new knife with exploding tip that freezes victims' organs Senior police officers have been warned to look out for a new knife which can inject a ball of compressed gas into its victim that instantly freezes internal organs. The 'wasp knife', which can deliver a ball of compressed gas capable of killing its victim at the press of a button, may be heading for Britain, the Metropolitan Police fear. A needle in the tip of the blade shoots out the frozen ball of gas which instantly balloons to the size of a basketball, freezing organs....

Man claims Subway baked knife into sandwich Thu Jul 17, 1:08 PM ET A New York man claimed in a lawsuit filed on Wednesday that he found a knife with a 7-inch (18-cm) blade baked into the bread of his foot-long "Cold Cut Trio" Subway sandwich. John Agnesini, 26, a magazine designer, said he had already taken a few bites from the sandwich in late June when he spotted the knife jutting out from the bread's crust. The lawsuit, filed in Manhattan state court, seeks $1 million. "If I didn't look at it, I don't know what would have happened,"...

<p>SALINAS, Calif. — A disoriented woman holed up in a minivan and repeatedly stabbing herself in the neck was shot to death by local police officers who thought the distraught woman was lunging at them with a knife or pick ax.</p>

The scourge of knife crime gripping Britain has reached new depths with six murders across the country in less than 24 hours. Four of the killings were in London in an appalling day of bloodshed. Meanwhile, another teenager is in hospital in serious condition tonight after being stabbed outside a branch of Blockbuster Video in Bolton. The outburst of violence has prompted Gordon Brown to pledge he would introduce new measures to tackle the epidemic. Describing the 'terrible stabbings' in the past week as 'shocking and tragic', the Prime Minister promised new enforcement tactics and 'tough' parenting programmes. Scotland Yard...

The Government will announce further measures to tackle knife crime on Monday following several knife-related deaths this week. Speaking in a Downing Street statement, the PM said that he had been in contact with Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair and asked to be kept up to date on investigations. Mr Brown said the stabbings are "shocking and tragic" and offered his condolences to the friends and families of those hurt. He then revealed that the Government will be publishing the first ever cross-government youth crime plan later next week. The plan will contain new enforcement measures, improvements to sentencing,...

Gordon Brown said the attacks were "shocking and tragic" as he also promised the first ever "cross-government youth crime plan" would be published later next week. A teenager was among four victims of separate fatal stabbings which took place in London over the past day, as a fifth man fights for life.