A Michigan court says there's no constitutional right to possess brass knuckles in the state. It is a weapon typically associated with violent ambushes in dark alleys and banned in nearly two dozen states.

The Michigan Court of Appeals, in an 18-page opinion, declined to interfere with a 1931 law that carries a five-year prison term for simply having brass knuckles, also known as metallic knuckles.

A “ban on the possession of metallic knuckles falls within the historical tradition of prohibiting the concealed carry of metallic knuckles as a dangerous and unusual weapon,” Judge Christopher Murray wrote in a 3-0 opinion Tuesday.

Brass knuckles are usually a single set of rings that fits on someone’s hand. A punch can inflict serious injuries.

      • the_crotch@sh.itjust.works
        72·
        24 hours ago

        Assault rifle != Assault weapon. An assault rifle is a fully automatic or burst fire weapon. They’ve been illegal since 1986 and remain so to this day. And assault weapon is a made up term, based on superficial accessories like bayonet mounts or a pistol grips. Clintons AWB was essentially a “scary looking gun ban”. Guns that were functionally identical to banned guns were still readily available and perfectly legal.

        Clinton conflated “assault weapon” and “assault rifle” intentionally to cause this sort of confusion and get credit for passing a bad bill that didn’t really address the problem.

    • uuldika@lemmy.ml
      31·
      1 day ago

      you can buy an AR-15 in any gun store. they even make a “JR-15,” for kids. no, I’m not kidding.

      • the_crotch@sh.itjust.works
        62·
        1 day ago

        AR-15 isn’t an assault rifle. The A stands for Armalite. The assault rifle version of the AR-15 is called the M16 and it’s illegal.

        • uuldika@lemmy.ml
          5·
          17 hours ago

          you’re right, apparently. from Wikipedia:

          The U.S. Army defines assault rifles as “short, compact, selective-fire weapons that fire a cartridge intermediate in power between submachine gun and rifle cartridges.”

          AR-15 is semi-auto rather than selective fire, so it’s not an assault rifle. I had mistakenly conflated assault rifles with “assault weapons,” which is a separate (and more vague and contested) term.

          you can still buy an M-16 or AK-47, but it has to be transferrable (grandfathered in before FOPA) and you need extra paperwork.

          • the_crotch@sh.itjust.works
            4·
            11 hours ago

            Lots of people make the same mistake. Clinton did this on purpose, so people would believe the 1994 assault weapon ban actually did anything of value.