Okay, I'm a very cautious person. I've read Indiana's knife laws over and over again, and basically anything that's not a throwing star, ballistic and isn't being carried to a school is legal. I've read online that dirks, daggers, military knives, switchblades, are all legal to carry.
Still, I get paranoid that I'm still going to get in trouble with police about some Law that I didn't know. I've tried to search my town's laws on carrying knives and couldn't find anything.
So question, will I get in trouble with police if for whatever reason, they find my knives and I tell 'em it's for self-defense? If so, then why does Indiana allow carry of military knives?
I'm asking because I've read many self-defense sources, including Marc MacYoung's "No Nonsense Self-Defense". From what he says, yes, I will get in trouble if "self-defense" is my sole purpose for carrying a combat knife. In general, self-defense with knives seem to be frowned upon.
Remember, I'm asking because of my anti-gun family (I still live with 'em unfortunately), and I need something for the mean time that I don't have guns. I'm not asking because I myself am anti-gun, because I'm not, I'm very pro-gun.
In any self defense situation, you've got to ask yourself is the threat imminent and unavoidable? Was your response reasonable and justifiable? Once the threat was eliminated, did you stop? I'm no lawyer, but if you can honestly say yes to all of those questions, possibly even having to prove it to a jury of your peers, then you should be fine. The bottom line is its your life, and your safety on the line. As the old saying goes, it's better to be judged by twelve than carried by six.
Something else to consider is to look into some form of modern martial arts, and learn how to effectively fight. If your interested in martial blade work, there are places that teach FMA all over the place. And quite likely, your liberal leaning family will be OK with it. A guy looks pretty innocent twirling around and swinging rattan sticks into a tire in the backyard, when in reality your actually honing in on a pretty deadly skill set that might save your bacon in a messy situation.
+1 Escrima is a singularly deadly art
I've heard of Eskrima - unfortunately, FMA is only designed to defend yourself - from an attacker in the Philippines. Meaning that if you tried to apply it to protect yourself from an attacker here in America, or in Brazil, it wouldn't work. Not pulling the race card here, but if you're familiar with Marc MacYoung, self-defense expert and co-founder of the site "No Nonsense Self-Defense", he tested many of the Filipino martial arts experts, and ended up getting them all with his offensives.
While I don't agree with everything Marc says, he does expose many of the "martial arts gurus" and common myths about self-defense.
So question, will I get in trouble with police if for whatever reason, they find my knives and I tell 'em it's for self-defense? If so, then why does Indiana allow carry of military knives?
I think it's a question of if rather than when.I . . . just . . . don't . . .
Ok, let's sort this out: first, why do you want to tell the police anything? Why are the police interacting with you?
When it comes to self defense. If I feel my life is in danger, I'd beat someone to death with a 16 inch double dong.
Don't care whether or not if some arbritary law says otherwise. I'd rather deal with that after the fact, than during.
I'm asking because I've read many self-defense sources, including Marc MacYoung's "No Nonsense Self-Defense". From what he says, yes, I will get in trouble if "self-defense" is my sole purpose for carrying a combat knife. In general, self-defense with knives seem to be frowned upon.