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.

  • HellsBelle@sh.itjust.worksOP
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    2 days ago

    America is weird af. Ban brass knuckles but allow semi-automatic weapons that kill thousands every year.

    Weird. As. Fuck.

    • YiddishMcSquidish@lemmy.today
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      12 hours ago

      This is an honest reply. It really depends on the situation. Feral hog sounders are a very scary thing, and fairly common in areas that commonly vote against their own economic interests. That bit in the Hannibal the cannibal movie, about the pigs, holds its share of truth. But in a city things that are necessary outside of one should be appropriately regulated.

      That meme about European woodland being pleasant and the American woodland being a hellscape, is not very far from the truth.

      • wieson@feddit.org
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        3 hours ago

        I want to answer honestly as well. I looked up the numbers, and we have 2 million wild boars in Germany. Germany has roughly the size of Montana.

        High estimates say, there are 9 Mio in the US, 3 Mio in Texas (twice as large as Germany). So the numbers are rooouuughly comparable, a little more swine here in DE.

        I guess, the feral hogs are really back to being wild nowadays despite stemming from domesticated pigs. So I will classify them as scary as a wild boar. Which they are, they are scary.

        How do we manage this? Each year about 600 000 boars are shot by professional hunters. The general population doesn’t need weapons for that. And the hunting rifles are bolt action or single action, not automatics.

        The main damage they cause is not to live and limb, but to property, namely crop fields. Our solution is, that each hunter is assigned a district and a number he must shoot. If the farmland in his area is damaged more than x% that is also his responsibility.

      • captainlezbian@lemmy.world
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        3 hours ago

        Yeah Europe forgets it killed it’s scary megafauna. America has grizzlies and wolves and the boars are invasive with no natural predators

        • LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.world
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          3 hours ago

          Coyotes and Skunks are more a nuisance than Grizzles and Wolves where I live. Wish there was something we could feed the skunks so they didn’t stink up large areas. Then again they’d probably be killed by Coyotes if they didn’t stink so bad.

    • Yokozuna@lemmy.world
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      23 hours ago

      Yep, they sell them as belt buckles. I got one at a gun show because it was cheap, figured why not. I eventually looked up the legality and I would be better off legally if I carried a pistol. Actually crazy lol.

      • ChonkyOwlbear@lemmy.world
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        23 hours ago

        They have been doing this for years. They add a little bump and sell it as a belt buckle, or add a little notch and sell it as a bottle opener. Most insane is it is fine to put a knife blade on it and sell it as a knife.

      • lumony@lemmings.world
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        1 day ago

        I just did some looking into this.

        Apparently defense contractors get paid twice.

        1. They get paid by taxpayers when they get the contract.
        2. They get paid by foreign nations when the equipment is sold.

        It’s so fucked beyond belief, I hope this generation can do something about it.

        • Rekorse@sh.itjust.works
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          23 hours ago

          Theres a long long history of people using crises for personal gain, but I do share your hope that we can break the wheel to a degree.

      • Sir_Kevin@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        1 day ago

        Not anymore. Most states now have constitutional/permitless carry. Doesn’t apply if you’re a felon, have a history of drug abuse etc etc (varies by state).

      • freely1333@reddthat.com
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        2 days ago

        I thought it was to conceal carry? My state I don’t think you need a license for any type of carry though. Which seems pretty legit now, considering. I feel like open carrying is way more sketchy than concealed.

        • Ben Hur Horse Race@lemm.ee
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          1 day ago

          I was walking along the shore in North Myrtle Beach and some jackass had colt .45 in a cowboy holster around his waist. He was walking with another chubby dude who was pretty obviously his friend. Never before have I seen such a fuckin chode

    • WhyFlip@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      North America? South America? Michigan is only a state in part of North America. Just want to be clear.

    • danhab99@programming.dev
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      21 hours ago

      Afaik it’s because there’s absolutely no other applications for brass knuckles to work. You can only assault people with brass knuckles.

      Fire-arms can be used for “defence” and “hunting”.

      Edit: inb4 I don’t agree with laws around brass knuckles, or most laws about most weapons.

      • ProdigalFrog@slrpnk.net
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        1 day ago

        If someone attacks you first, and you slip on the brass knuckles before defending yourself, then surely that would be a defensive use?

        • danhab99@programming.dev
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          1 day ago

          Yeah this is that kind of rules-lawyering grey area that everybody’s too busy to deal with. It’s the same issue with the assault rifles and large mags… they’re very clearly weapons of war but they look like guns and all* guns can be used for hunting.

      • mira13@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        A brass knuckle can also be used for defence.

        If you CAN use a firearm for defence, you’re not properly storing your firearm…

        You don’t need large magazines or semi-automatic weapons for hunting…

        • Noxy@pawb.social
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          1 day ago

          If you CAN use a firearm for defence, you’re not properly storing your firearm…

          Can you explain what you mean by this?

          • Beastlygr@lemmy.world
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            24 hours ago

            I think what they are trying to say that if you can quickly grab your loaded firearm and be ready for defense, then you are not storing your firearms correctly. Firearms should be locked up and ammo kept separate.

            • Noxy@pawb.social
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              20 hours ago

              That’s insane. Sure when it’s being STORED it won’t be accessible quickly. But when it’s being carried, that’s just absurd.

          • danhab99@programming.dev
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            1 day ago

            He’s tryna be a macho man who lives life on the edge and drives a Hummer. Give their kind a down vote and scroll on friend :)

  • The_Caretaker@lemm.ee
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    2 days ago

    Michigan also forbids pepper spray and stun guns. They interpret the right to bear arms as the right to make gun manufacturers rich. By the way, a pistol also fits in one hand and can be used to inflict serious injury. Pistols also get used to ambush people. Ever heard of armed robbery?

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    They’re going to be surprised if it gets to the Supreme Court:

    https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/577/411/

    “the Second Amendment extends, prima facie, to all instruments that constitute bearable arms, even those that were not in existence at the time of the founding,”

    Woman bought a stun gun to protect herself from an abusive ex. State of MA charged her saying that stun guns didn’t exist back in the day, and were “dangerous and unusual” so the 2nd amendment doesn’t apply.

    • GraniteM@lemmy.world
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      “the Second Amendment extends, prima facie, to all instruments that constitute bearable arms, even those that were not in existence at the time of the founding,”

      That’s why I’m allowed to always carry a vial of the rage virus from 28 Days Later, in case I get mugged and need to end civilization.

    • HellsBelle@sh.itjust.worksOP
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      2 days ago

      Another weird af hypocrisy where MA didn’t want stun guns to count but assult rifles were A-OK.

      It truly is a wonder how America has lasted this long.

      • P00ptart@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        America lasted this long simply from momentum and good courtesy after WW2. That’s literally it.

      • DaveyRocket@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        We had a run. Considering how much of our founding was based on and sustained by slavery, it might be good to call it.

          • the_crotch@sh.itjust.works
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            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
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          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
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            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
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              18 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
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                12 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.

    • The_Caretaker@lemm.ee
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      2 days ago

      By the logic of Massachusetts, you only have a right to a muzzle loader and a sword then. What would they say if I were walking around in Boston with a katana or a British officer’s sabre?

        • The_Caretaker@lemm.ee
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          7 hours ago

          What American swords are there? Where would I find a blacksmith? Americans don’t know how to make anything anymore.

        • The_Caretaker@lemm.ee
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          7 hours ago

          Cannons might not be covered because they are not bearable by a human. I don’t know.

          • Soggy@lemmy.world
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            11 hours ago

            Black powder weapons typically aren’t subject to the same laws as cartridge-based firearms.

            • Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works
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              8 hours ago

              Because they are somehow classified as percussion instruments. As far as I know you can legally buy a cap and ball colt without paperwork.

              • The_Caretaker@lemm.ee
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                7 hours ago

                My uncle used to carry a cap and ball revolver. If you ever need to use a gun for something wrong, muzzle loaders, cap and ball revolvers and shotguns are the way to go. The lead can’t be connected back to the gun through ballistics. But at least they aren’t dangerous like brass knuckles or nunchaku.

                • Soggy@lemmy.world
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                  17 minutes ago

                  Nobody is using these for crimes and that’s why they’ve skated past regulation for so long. If brown people started carrying flintlock pistols for self-defense rhere would be legislation drafted within the week.

      • P00ptart@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        Those existed at the time. You’re also free to choose from axes, clubs and blades to giant semi-automatic crossbows. Sorry, sorry no giant crossbows, that tech was lost by then.

  • The_Caretaker@lemm.ee
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    2 days ago

    Sap gloves are easy to make and not obvious. A pair of gloves with powdered lead sewn into little pouches over the knuckles and along the knife edge of the hand. A slap or punch will quickly put someone on the floor. Lots of cops wear them. You can get them online.

    • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      composites tend to not react well to impacts. The reason brass is used, also, is because it’s heavy and adds significantly more force.

      I would suggest making a cestus, you can also buy “weighted gloves”… which a lot of cops just love, which are gloves with pockets over the knuckles weighted with lead.

      The advantage to the cestus is you could say it was for historical reenactment, and you’re just LARPing or something.

  • Hobbes_Dent@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    Of course bear arms don’t fit. They’re for fingers, and human ones at that though perhaps a cub could surprise a few.

    • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      I mean, I don’t know about you, but my trained attack bears have custom machined brass knuckles. only the best for my trained bears.