It could be argued that lock knives were always intended to be banned , why would you ban a screwdriver but not a knife.
My understanding is that the authors of the law just did not live in the modern day and felt people needed penknives to cut up their apples and whittle sticks.
Screwdrivers donāt come under the same offence. They arenāt bladed articles, but they could be offensive weapons in the right circumstances. They are not bladed articles, put simply, because they donāt have blades.
https://www.cps.gov.uk/legal-guidance/offensive-weapons-knives-bladed-and-pointed-articles
This issue was debated when the legislation was originally drafted, a chap appealed in 1998 on the basis that the debates made clear that locking knives under 3 inches had not been intended to have been caught by the ban. However, the Court of Appeal held that the debate wasnāt clear enough for it to change their earlier definition:
Anyway, back to the OP. We should stay well away from any policy on the issue. The Law is bad enough already!
The Davis case confirmed that a screwdriver is not a blade, it does not mean that it cannot he a pointed article and therefore fall foul of the legislation. (I believe it was already agreed at the original trial that the screwdriver in question was not sharply pointed). It become a point to prove for the prosecution in any trial that the screwdriver in question is sharply pointed, if they canāt do that then their is No Reasonable Prospect of Comviction and therefore it all gets binned. I can tell you from personal experience that people can and do get charged & convicted for Points & Blades where the article is a Screwdriver.
But meandering in the direction of the original question, no we donāt have a corps policy but as an OC I would definitely have something tos at If cadets started turning up with Multi-Tools. If a cadet needs a tool the Squadron will provide it.
I have literally no idea how to moderate this topic.
I think that most points have been covered. Thereās some sharp responses here with cutting-edge advice that it would be good for everyone to take away with them instead of cork-screwing around it.
My only question would be:
If itās illegal for a person to have a screwdriver in their possession, what about a person driving a car that has screws in his\her possession?..
Or, alternately, why did kamikaze pilots wear helmets?..
Official policy is that there isnāt one (that any of us geniuses can think of).
Case closed - NEXT!
Were any of them folding ones on multi-tool though?
Screwdriver no, corkscrew yes.
But I canāt remember ever coming accross a multi-tool with a non-locking blade. So if someone were to be dealt with for that then the knife would be the issue.
Surely the radio earpieces were in the helmet? They would need to coordinate their attacks until the end otherwise they might all crash into the same aircraft carrier.
Or, if they just looked for a plume of smoke, piles of wreckage and lots of very, very angry American sailors shaking their fists at them, that would have told them that their mate had already done what he set out to do, and the pilot should go find another ship that didnāt have a plume of smoke, piles of wreckage and very, very angry sailors shaking fists.
Therefore, no need for radio earpieces or co-ordinated attacks!
So why DID they wear helmets?
And locked