Banning martial arts weapons

[GeneChing]

...soon to be a free for all in North Dakota?

“Dangerous weapons” bill would exclude nunchaku, swords from state regulation in some settings
LOCAL NEWS
by: Maddie Biertempfel

Posted: Mar 31, 2021 / 05:37 PM CDT / Updated: Mar 31, 2021 / 05:37 PM CDT

Two words in a proposed bill are taking heat from state law enforcement leaders, who say they put police in greater danger on the job. The words “dangerous weapons” were added to a bill alongside firearms to describe what the government cannot restrict during an emergency — but what exactly are they?

State law says dangerous weapons include throwing stars, nunchaku, swords, daggers, bludgeons and several other weapons. They would be added to the list of what the state could not regulate, along with guns, when not at a public gathering, which is defined as a sporting event, school, church or public building.

Fargo’s police chief testified that the bill puts police at risk during other gatherings, like protests or marches, where any number of weapons could be legally carried.

“Some individuals are not committed to peaceful protest, but to riotous criminal behavior with utter disregard for the safety of others. They often use peaceful protest as camouflage for their true intentions. There is no need to further arm these individuals by allowing them to carry a variety of dangerous weapons,” Fargo Chief of Police David Zibolski said.

The bill initially passed the House 83-11, and the Senate Judiciary Committee has not yet voted on it.

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http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/...l-arts-weapons
Nunchaku-legalized!

[YinOrYan]

Its not only bad for your business but also for the Ojibwe and Chippewa Indians (who have spear forms too).

[GeneChing]

Opinion: 308 — The 1974 House Bill That Saved Maryland From Everybody Kung Fu Fighting
By Guest Commentary -October 19, 2021

Wikipedia Commons photo.
By Roberto E. Alejandro

The writer has a Ph.D. in religion and theology and practices law in Maryland, but this is what happens when he also has free time.

In 1974, the Maryland General Assembly passed House Bill 308, which banned the concealed or open carrying of nunchakus (colloquially known as “nunchucks”). House Bill 308 initiated Maryland’s successful war against martial arts-based violence and remains an important lesson in the ways policy can effectively curb threats to public safety.

Just the year prior, in 1973, Warner Bros. had irresponsibly released the film “Enter the Dragon,” which introduced dangerous new ideas into the American criminal landscape. The movie stars Bruce Lee and finds him entering a secretive martial arts tournament in order to investigate the tournament’s organizer for drug ties.

With its generally too real depictions of martial arts combat, “Enter the Dragon” taught American audiences dangerous new combat and weapons techniques that would soon debut on urban battlegrounds across the country. Of particular concern, the film taught audiences across the country how nunchakus could be used safely and effectively in the commission of violence.

By 1974, everybody was kung fu fighting. See Carl Douglas’ “Kung Fu Fighting” (1974). Mastery had come quickly, with lightning-fast kicks and expert timing being used by criminals to frighten a defenseless citizenry. See id. No town was spared. Maryland was in crisis.

But as the 1974 legislative session of the Maryland General Assembly drew near, Maryland lawmakers’ hands were to some extent tied. Maryland law treated the question of expertly timed kicks as assaults. See Apple v. State, 190 Md. 661 at 664-65. The Maryland Constitution’s Declaration of Rights guarantees to citizens the English Common Law of 1776, and the common law treated assaults as misdemeanors. See Md. Const. Decl. of Rights at Art. 5; and also Hobbs v. Warden, Md. Penitentiary, 223 Md. 651 at 653 (1960).

As Maryland’s highest court, the Court of Appeals, long ago explained, “The common law declares that no arrest can lawfully be made for any misdemeanor [including assault] unless it is committed in the presence of the arresting officer or until a warrant has been issued by a magistrate.” See Brown v. State, 207 Md. 282 at 285–86 (1955). This meant that law enforcement officers responding to reports of martial arts-based violence could not make arrests in most instances, no matter how many witness accounts or corroborating signs of nunchaku use.

The Maryland Declaration of Rights was having the unintended consequences of insulating martial arts-wielding assailants from prosecution. But with everybody kung fu fighting, inaction simply was not an option. Enter House Bill 308, which represents the first appearance of the term “nunchaku” in Maryland law.

The nunchaku was clearly at the forefront of legislators’ concerns since, according to the Session Laws of 1974, available from the Archives of Maryland Online, House Bill 308 was introduced, “For the purpose of Baking it unlawful to wear or carry, concealed or openly, a nunchaku, defining the term, providing penalties, and relettering subsections.” Emphasis in the original. Usually, legislatures are content to restrict themselves to simply making laws. When they venture to bake a law, they really mean business.

With the bake underway, the Maryland General Assembly carefully defined the object of its concern, legislating that:

THE TERM “NUNCHAKU” MEANS ANY DEVICE OR PRODUCT CONSISTING OF TWO 12 TO 15 INCH LONG HARD OAK STICKS JOINED BY A CHAIN OR LEATHER STRAP, USED AS A DEFENSIVE WEAPON IN THE ORIENTAL MARTIAL ARTS AND CAPABLE OF INFLICTING DEATH WHEN PROPERLY USED, OR ANY SIMILAR OR SIMULATED DEVICE OF WHATEVER MATERIAL CONSTRUCTED.

House Bill 308 (1974) (emphasis in original). House Bill 308 then added nunchakus to the list of traditional, old-timey gangster movie weapons that the Maryland General Assembly had already seen fit to protect the public from:

Every person who shall wear or carry any dirk knife, bowie knife, switchblade knife, sandclub, metal knuckles, razor, NUNCHAKU or any other dangerous or deadly weapon of any kind, whatsoever (penknives without switchblade and handguns, excepted) concealed upon or about his person, and every person who shall wear or carry any such weapon openly with the intent or purpose of injuring any person in any unlawful manner, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.

Id. (emphasis in original). Law enforcement finally had the public safety tool it needed to effectively end the crush of “Enter the Dragon”-inspired street violence oppressing Maryland; and the text of the law, clearly demonstrates the General Assembly’s preoccupation with the detrimental effects of Bruce Lee-based media.

While there remains some debate among scholars, “oriental martial arts” is generally considered a legislative term of art for “that Bruce Lee movie that came out last year.” House Bill 308’s description of a nunchaku is clearly a legislative aide’s best guess as to what Bruce Lee is holding in the scene from “Enter the Dragon” where he aces everyone with a nunchaku (“it was about a foot long, maybe oak …”). Lastly, the General Assembly’s specific focus on the potential harm nunchakus can cause “when properly used” aptly demonstrates that, but for Bruce Lee’s expert demonstration of how a weapon that is clearly most dangerous to the user can be used to harm others, House Bill 308 would never have been necessary.

House Bill 308’s effect on martial arts street violence was not immediate, however. The threat of martial arts-based violence continued, and the law would eventually be updated.

In 1985, the same year that would see the release of the film “American Ninja,” House Bill 89 added the star knife (colloquially known as a “ninja star”) to the list of banned weapons Marylanders could no longer carry.

House Bill 89 defined a star knife as, “A DEVICE USED AS A THROWING WEAPON, CONSISTING OF SEVERAL SHARP OR POINTED BLADES ARRAYED AS RADIALLY DISPOSED ARMS ABOUT A CENTRAL DISK.” Emphasis in original. It is highly likely that the General Assembly’s quick action on the threat of ninja weapons such as star knives in 1985, which it managed to pass and implement prior to the release of American Ninja in August of that year, prevented a martial arts arms race that would have seen Maryland’s streets flooded with nunchakus, throwing stars, psais, katana swords, bo staffs and anything else the Ninja Turtles use to fight the Foot Clan.

Since 1985, Maryland has seen a stark reduction in martial arts-based violence.

Today, it is exceedingly rare for a Maryland citizen to find themselves staring down the barrel of a hard oak stick or on the receiving end of a star knife. Today’s crime and court reports document a dearth of ninja activity or other martial arts-based street violence.

While some advocates argue that House Bill 308 and its progeny have had a disproportionate effect on Maryland’s ninja population, anecdotal evidence suggests strongly that Maryland residents remain among the most satisfied Americans with the level of ninja and other martial arts-based violence in their communities, with the issue rarely arising in political campaigns or legislative debates.

As such, House Bill 308 serves as an important reminder that law can yet be marshaled to improve the lives of regular folk.

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Banning-martial-arts-weapons
Nunchaku-legalized!

[GeneChing]

Throwing stars are now legal in Indiana, delighting mall ninjas everywhere
DAVID PESCOVITZ 4:06 PM MON FEB 6, 2023

image: Zysko Sergii/Shutterstock
Axe throwing bars has become quite popular! After all, what's not love about crowds of people throwing heavy sharp objects while drinking alcohol? For those who prefer a more "exotic" variation on the theme, apparently some of the axe throwing pubs are also offering throwing stars! An elegant weapon for a more civilized age, Japanese throwing stars, aka shuriken, are actually illegal in many part of the US, including California, New York, and, for the moment, Indiana. However, if the Hoosier State's Senate Bill 77 passes, throwing stars will become legal for recreational use there.

Senate Bill 77 "actually came from a constituent who owns a putt-putt golf course called Ninja Golf," says [State Sen. Linda] Rogers. "Nearly everyone that I spoke with said, 'Hey, look, if we can throw axes, we can certainly throw throwing stars.'" […]

The bill already passed the Indiana Senate by a 48 to 1 margin. Next it goes to the State House.

From WGN9:

"It's a double-edged sword," said Richard Deschain, co-owner of Ragnarok Axe Throwing LLC in Indianapolis. He said throwing star blades can get bent and hooked over, increasing someone's odds of getting cut.

"I would say the easiest way for that to have any kind of solution is to require a layered Kevlar glove to be worn when they're throwing any other object like a throwing star," he said.

Banning-martial-arts-weapons
Throwing-Stars

[GeneChing]

Through a Chinese American Lens

A sample of weaponry seized in New York Chinatown during the conflict between Hip Sing and On Leong Tongs, c. 1922. Photographer unknown (from the collection of the NYPD).
Disarming Chinese America: The Exclusionary Politics of Gun Control

“The gun is mythic in the American imagination… . The gun in America is unique because it has defined, and will continue to define, membership and belonging in the polity.” – Prof. Pratheepan Gulaesekaram
The widespread use of guns in Chinese Americans communities has been lost to historical memory, and almost a half-century has passed since San Francisco Chinatown’s last mass shooting. However, in the wake of a flood of news stories about the victimization by Chinese in California and elsewhere in the US – whether by hate or criminal predators – Chinese Americans have begun asking why relatively few in their communities bear arms for the protection of persons and property. Although the acquisition of personal firearms by Asian Americans has increased, particularly in this decade of Asian hate and criminal victimization, popular consciousness generally does not associate Chinese American communities with heavy firearms usage.
Ironically, the lack of firearms in California’s Chinese communities can be traced to century-old legislation aimed at directly suppressing the Chinese community’s ownership of guns and, in a larger sense, the deepening the notion of exclusion and, specifically, Chinese exclusion, from the right to bear firearms in America.
California’s Gun Law of 1923 contained two major provisions: (1) the requirement of a permit to carry a concealed handgun anywhere in California (and that statute is the direct ancestor of California’s current concealed weapon permit law); and (2) the prohibition of non-citizens from possessing concealable firearms. The handgun ban by non-citizens was upheld by the California Supreme Court in the case In re Ramirez (1924) 193 C. 633.
A July 15, 1923, a San Francisco Chronicle article supported the racial dimension of the legislative intent, and at whom the legislation was directed:

As the Chronicle reported, then-Governor Richardson had approved of the Gun Law largely on the recommendation of R. T. McKissick, president of the Sacramento Rifle and Revolver Club. Although McKissick acknowledged that banning resident aliens from owning handguns might pose a constitutional problem, McKissick indicated that ”it would have a ‘salutary effect in checking tong wars among the Chinese and vendettas among our people who are of Latin descent.’”
By invoking the specter of tong violence, the proponents of the law had invoked seven decades’ worth of fears by the white population of armed Chinese in California and throughout the American West.
The field of historical archaeology may lead to the revision of the stereotypical view of early Chinese communities as meek and victims, usually of white racist violence. The stereotype, however, has always been undermined by contemporary accounts of violent gunplay by Chinese in the gold fields and other frontier towns. Continuing excavations of old Chinese settlements by the Southern Oregon University have uncovered firearms and related accoutrements and provided evidence of Chinese use of guns to defend themselves.
However, the relatively small, legal firearms culture in the Chinese community can be attributed to the ascendancy and use by the “hatchet boys” or 斧頭仔 (canto: “fu tau jai”) of pistols, among other concealable weaponry, for advancing tong interests and conflict resolution.


“Highbinders’ Retreat” undated photo taken in San Francisco. Photographer unknown (from the Cooper Chow collection at the Chinese Historical Society of America).
The early gun control laws in California reflected the white community’s desire for safety from, and control over, the use of lethal force by nonwhites in their midst on the urban frontier. San Francisco enacted a gun control measure as early as 1847 to reduce violence. Coincident with the rise of anti-Chinese sentiment, the city singled out the Chinese as a focal point of violence for the balance of the 19th century and the first two decades of the 20th century, particularly Chinatown’s fighting tongs.
In 1879, California first enacted legislation to prohibit non-citizens from bearing arms. The law was fueled in major part by white perceptions of the Chinese as violent and unassimilable and thousands of lurid newspaper reports about tong violence.

“The Highbinders’ Favorite Weapons,” Harper’s Weekly of February 13, 1886 (Vo. XXX, No. 1521) from the collection of the Bancroft Library.
For example, the Daily Alta California published on January 18, 1887, an article titled: “A Bold Highbinder,” which detailed the removal of a girl from a “Chinese den” and her attempted recapture. One of the Chinese men attempting to take the child “slipped and fell on the pavement, at the same time drawing a revolver.” The man, Wong Bing Lin, was arrested and charged with carrying a concealed weapon. When searched, the police found a knife. “He also wore a coat of mail made out of compressed paper pulp, which could turn a bullet.”

Coat of chainmail used by highbinders. Photographer unknown (from the collection of the Bancroft Library)
Increased gun violence by tong soldiers induced the city of San Francisco to enact local legislation to ban concealed weapons in 1890. As reported by the Daily Alta on February 5, 1890, Chief of Police Patrick Crowley recommended that shooting galleries be removed, “in the Chinese quarter, where nearly every Chinaman is the owner of a pistol and is handy in its use.”

San Francisco police photo of weapons seized from Chinese “highbinders” c. 1900. Photographer unknown.
Violence by Chinese began to slacken, particularly in the aftermath of the federal Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, its extension by the Geary Act of 1892, and the disruption of the 1906 earthquake and fire. Chinese rarely committed homicides against non-Chinese, as the violence usually occurred between Chinese by competing organized criminal organizations.

continued next post

[GeneChing]

“The Yellow Terror In All His Glory” (1899) depicted an anti-colonial Qing Dynasty Chinese man standing over a fallen white woman, who represents the Western world. The cartoon made explicit the white community’s fears of innocent white women killed by gunplay in the Chinese community.
With the decreased perceived threat from Chinatown, the discourse shifted to include firearms themselves and the ease in which they could be acquired. However, in 1912, San Francisco saw a string a murders of young white women, killed by young men with easy access to firearms.

“Peace Meeting in Chinatown, San Francisco, Feb. 1921, bet. the Hip Sings and Ping Koongs”. Photographer unknown (from the Jesse B. Cook collection of the Bancroft Library). The photo shows police officials mediating treaty talks between the warring Hip Sing (協勝堂) and Bing Kung (秉公堂) tongs.
Although San Francisco police and merchant associations repeatedly mediated “peace treaties,” between fighting tongs, the ceasefires inevitably broke down.


The San Francisco Call, March 13, 1913, reports on gunplay as part of a statewide conflict between the Suey Sing (萃勝堂) and Bing Kung tongs. The Suey Sing Tong traced its establishment to San Francisco in 1867 when merchants formed a fighting arm to protect their property interests.
Homicide rates in the Chinese community began to spike in the second decade of the 20th century.

Chinese and white homicide rates compared (1860-1930). Chart by historian and Deputy Chief Kevin Mullen (ret.).
“Race continued to play a role in the discourse of gun control in California, as judicious men worked to disarm non-whites they viewed as threatening,” according to Josselyn Green (a.k.a. Huerta) in her monograph “ Control of Violence, Control of Fear: The Progression of Gun Control in San Francisco, 1847-1923″ (Spring 2015 Master’s thesis). “In 1923, the California State Legislature passed a second gun control bill … Most notably the new statutes stated, ‘no unnaturalized foreign born person … shall own or have in his possession or under his custody or control any pistol, firearm capable of being concealed on the person.’ Because the Chinese Exclusion Act had been extended permanently in 1902, thus denying Chinese Americans citizenship. California’s 1923 gun control law effectively disarmed the entire Chinese community.“
The denial of the Chinese community’s access to concealable firearms would remain in effect for a half-century until it was declared unconstitutional by a California Court of Appeals in People v. Rappard (1972).
As for the wider conflict between the criminal tongs, conditions began to change during the 1920′s. Crime historian Paul Drexler wrote as follows:
“The overthrow of the Manchu dynasty reduced the flow of tong members from China. As a result, Chinatown was becoming a more middle-class area. Community leaders realized they could make more money from legitimate commerce than from vice and became more supportive of The City’s government. Additionally, the Chinatown Squad, under the leadership of Sgt. Jack Manion, changed tactics and used community policing to win the trust of the Chinatown population.”
If the way of the gun represents a badge of a community’s membership, and even its rights, in American society, then the denial of the Chinese American community’s access to firearms a century ago was emblematic of its exclusion. Law professor Pratheepan Gulaesekaram has written about the gun as a badge of membership in the American polity as follows:
“Access to, and use of, firearms has helped define ideas of membership in America. The gun played a vital role in the genesis tales of the Republic itself. It was a bullet fired into a British officer by a militia man in Lexington, Massachusetts on April 19, 1775, that is credited with igniting the war for independence; it was the gun that helped tame the wilderness and battle American Indians in stories of the expanding nineteenth-century frontier; and firearms were credited with shoring up the struggle for political and racial equality during Reconstruction after the Civil War. In all of these manifestations—as a tool of resistance to tyranny, an instrument of imperialism, a method of survival and self-protection, and a pathway to political inclusion—the gun facilitated formation of, and inclusion in, the American polity.
“Concomitantly, however, the gun has also demarcated the borders of exclusion as well. …”
(Gulaesekaram, P., “Guns and Membership in the American Polity,” William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal, vol. 21 (December 2012).
San Francisco Chinatown would not see a return to pervasive gunplay by any segment of its community until the 1970’s, but that is a story for another day.

Thought I'd share it here.

[mickey]

Greetings,

This "THING" about gun violence on S.F. Chinatown is nothing more than an attempt to throw the Chinese American community up against the wall during the gentrifying process. First was the neutralization of Shrimp Boy and now this. The eagles circling in the sky looking to swoop down upon the Tongs has nothing to do with making things safer, it has much more to do with the real estate they have. The tongs should take it upon themselves to unite against those who are using anything to take their possessions from them. And this will continue to happen wherever Tongs have real estate holdings that are considered attractive to developers. NYC Chinatown is not called "Chinatown" by the new generation (by those who know). They call it "Koreatown".

Open your eyes, brothers. You are getting screwed, straight up and raw.


mickey

[mickey]

More,

I remember posting, at KFM forums, the need to get away from the word "weapon" when it comes to what we use. The term "training tools", or "apparatus work" or "training equipment" is much better. I am open to other suggestions. But to call what we train with "weapons" is inviting trouble from a cultural preservation perspective. If we do not take the initiative to define what we use, it will be defined for us, and at great cultural cost. The question is: WHEN WILL YOU ALL LISTEN AND BE RESPONSIBLE??

I can see it now: an Asian man walks into a mall and shoots up 145 people with an automatic weapon that was made in the USA. The response: Ban all Asian martial arts "weapons".

My blood still runs hot.

mickey

[GeneChing]

I hear what you're saying but you must have totalitarian control (like PRC) to change language.

Or it can be business driven. Because 'weapon' is a forbidden word the the worldwide SEO (it'll even get you banned at some vendor sites like Amazon), MartialArtSmart changed the term to 'Martial Arms'.

[YinOrYan]

I hear what you're saying but you must have totalitarian control (like PRC) to change language.

Or it can be business driven. Because 'weapon' is a forbidden word the the worldwide SEO (it'll even get you banned at some vendor sites like Amazon), changed the term to 'Martial Arms'.

Yeah, 'weapons' are also forbidden in the Universities. Wushu is never going to get in curriculum unless more benign weapons become prevalent. There is too massive oversupply of personal injury lawyers in America. Their adds have even taken over the display on my radio that used to tell me what songs were playing! The Nerf company has been missing a great opportunity to make their brandname become generic like Kleenex. Nerf-sword, Nerf-saber, Nerf-spear, Nerf-daggers and so forth...

[mickey]

Greetings,

"more benign weapons"??? This is the problem. What we have would fall into the category of benign. We do not have weapons. If this keeps up, we will be doing sword forms with branches and wire hangers.


mickey

[YinOrYan]

Greetings,

"more benign weapons"??? This is the problem. What we have would fall into the category of benign. We do not have weapons. If this keeps up, we will be doing sword forms with branches and wire hangers.


mickey

Hey Mickey, they don't even allow wooden weapons on campus. They must have heard of that Samurai master that could defeat anyone with his wooden sword!

BTW There's a remix of that song about you that's gone viral with all the kpoppers on TikTok, haha