Odd
Teen with a rifle that has a bayonet arrested. Kinda weird how much focus is on the bayonet. I guess drive by bayonettings are a problem?
Update: question answered by Daniel in comments:
They have to make a big deal out of the bayonet, since that is the only thing illegal there. Fixed blades over a certain length (I can’t remember what that length is off the top of my head) are illegal. Walking around with a rifle on the other hand is not.
February 17th, 2010 at 12:06 pm
I think a 19 year old can possess a rifle in Texas. They may decide it’s an illegal knife so they can make a charge. Fixed-blade knives can’t be carried in public.
Weasely, as always.
February 17th, 2010 at 12:07 pm
This would never happen in Texas!
In Texas we can just walk around with guns and shoot people who are stealing our hubcaps at night!
Yeeeeeeeeee . . . haaaaawwwww!
February 17th, 2010 at 12:38 pm
I note the story says the firearm in question is an “AK assault rifle with a 7.5inch bayonet” no doubt fully automatic, shooting tank-piercing rounds from its 30000 round magazine….
I once heard a gunshow salesman talking about the AK bayonet – and how crappy they are in bayonet terms. Aren’t they designed to be hooked together to make wire cutters? I’ll stick with my legal pocketknife that has the tweezers, the toothpick, AND the wine bottle corkscrew.
In Texas, it is indeed illegal to carry a long blade. Sec 46.01 Texas Penal Code defines an “Illegal knife” to carry on one’s person as, among other things, a “knife with a blade over five and one-half inches” in length. Sorry, Mr. Bowie, the knife should stay at home if you are just going out to dinner.
It is a defense to prosecution if the individual is on his own premises (big knives at home are OK by Texas), or traveling (self defense is still legal in Texas), or directly on his way to a legal venue for use of the weapon (a shooting range). But wandering around the parking lot of an apartment complex with your bayonet mounted on an AK clone (mopery with intent?) is very unlikely to be accepted by a jury. Especially if it turns out you can’t show that the rifle is yours, or you are planning on shooting someone with it.
February 17th, 2010 at 12:45 pm
They have to make a big deal out of the bayonet, since that is the only thing illegal there. Fixed blades over a certain length (I can’t remember what that length is off the top of my head) are illegal. Walking around with a rifle on the other hand is not.
February 17th, 2010 at 1:23 pm
5.5″
But you can do whatever you want ’cause you’re in Texas!
Yeeeeeehaaaawwww!
February 17th, 2010 at 2:27 pm
A knife and a bayonet are not the same thing and the legal definitions may have to be hashed out but the knife law will not fit. Also, the fact that it is attatched to a rifle makes it immpossable to conceal. This is a stupid case and when it is over someone needs to get sued. also, other than perhaps local ordinances, I dont think byonets on guns is ilegal. They were during the idiot ban, but that has expired. I think in hte end this will be an overzealous cop and the case will discretely go AWAY. BUY MORE AMMO
February 17th, 2010 at 2:31 pm
I have addressed this in regards to a knife of legal length issue and my question to the officer is usually along the lines of “I have a carry permit and Im wearing a 45, do you REALLY care about a stupid KNIFE” and the answer is usually no, not really.
February 17th, 2010 at 3:14 pm
Guess they haven’t heard of Bowie knives….
February 17th, 2010 at 3:42 pm
Texas has had strange knife laws since Reconstruction when we wrote the new state constitution (we amend it serially every couple of years.
If you want to find out just how screwed up the knife regs are here, go ask Law Dog. He has plenty to say about them.
Regards,
Rabbit.
February 21st, 2010 at 11:02 am
I guess walking around my neighborhood with my Scottish broadsword is out. I’ll stick to carrying my concealed sidearm with permit. 😉