machete Archives -

Does Senator Avella Think New Yorkers Are Going To Go All Hutu Or Something?

I read the most ridiculous story in the New York Daily News yesterday. New York State Sen. Tony Avella (D-Queens) wants to ban the sale and possession of machetes in New York. The move is in response to a murder in July in which a machete was used as the murder weapon.

The sale of machetes should be outlawed after several recent attacks, a Queens pol said Wednesday.

State Sen. Tony Avella plans to introduce a bill to ban the possession of the scary blades in New York.

“The fact that anyone can easily purchase this potentially lethal tool is just crazy,” he said.

Smaller knives such as switchblades and gravity knives are already banned and listed as deadly weapons under state law, but machetes are considered the same as butcher knives.

Avella’s bill, Senate Bill 3199-2015, would add machetes to the list of deadly weapons. This puts them in the same category as firearms, switchblades, gravity knives, brass knuckles, and the “pilum ballistic knife”. He claims in the justification that it will allow those who use a machete as a weapon will be charged appropriately. Does it really make that much difference if a person uses a “deadly weapon” as opposed to a “dangerous weapon” when they commit a crime?

According to the Daily News this legislation would mean mere possession of a machete could land you in prison for a year.

It is obvious that Sen. Avella is a nanny stater playing to the media with this proposal. Given New York State’s ethnic diversity I’m a bit surprised that he didn’t make reference to Rwanda and the desire to avoid a genocide as machetes were the weapon of choice of the Hutu against the Tutsi. Or, better yet, to give this a New York context, the Sharks versus the Jets a’la West Side Story. Just substitute machete for switchblade.

Machetes are a tool. I have many of them in various forms, shapes, and sizes. My favorite is one that I inherited from my dad. It is a bolo style machete that I think he picked up in the Caribbean during WWII when he served in the Caribbean Defense Command. The sheath is nicely tooled leather with a pistol belt hook attachment.

This bill is a joke just like its sponsor. Both should be consigned to the dustbin of history. Whether that happens or not only time and public disgust will tell.

SAF Comments On The Robbery Of Justice Breyer At Machete-Point

Justice Stephen Breyer and his family were recently the victims of an armed robbery at his vacation home on the Caribbean island of Nevis. The robber was armed with a machete. The Second Amendment Foundation has released a statement regarding this incident.

BREYER’S ROBBERY ILLUSTRATES WHY RKBA SO IMPORTANT EVERYWHERE

For Immediate Release: 2/14/2012

BELLEVUE, WA – The recent robbery of Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer at a vacation home in the West Indies should hopefully cause the learned jurist to re-examine his core beliefs about the individual right to keep and bear arms at places other than their primary residence, the Second Amendment Foundation said today.

Breyer has voted with the minority twice in recent years against recognizing that the Second Amendment protects an individual civil right to keep and bear arms, in both the Heller and McDonald cases. He was robbed last week, along with his wife and some guests, by an intruder wielding a machete, according to published reports. Justice Breyer was not harmed, but the robber got away with about $1,000 in cash.

“We’re delighted that Justice Breyer was not hurt during this incident,” said SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb, “and hopefully this case will give him a new perspective on the right to bear arms for personal safety. Police cannot always be around when you need them, even if you’re a Supreme Court justice. One does not leave his right of self-defense at the doorstep of his home when he travels.

“If this demonstrates anything to Justice Breyer,” he continued, “it is that crime does not happen just at someone’s primary residence, and criminals do not make appointments, giving someone time to unlock and assemble and load a firearm. You must be able to protect yourself, even on vacation outside of your home state, at a moment’s notice. That’s not just a civil right, but a basic human right.

“When Justice Breyer dissented in the Heller case,” Gottlieb recalled, “he expressed concerns about keeping loaded firearms in the home for personal protection. Faced with a machete in the hands of a criminal, one wonders whether Breyer might have quietly wished he had a gun with which he could have defended himself, his wife and their guests. We hope this incident gives him new insight with which to temper his views.”

I’m not sure if “machete-point” is a word or not but if I had been threatened by a robber who was wielding one, I’d definitely consider it a word. I’m sure Justice Breyer might agree.

As to the lethality of a machete, it was the weapon of choice in the Rwandan genocide. According to Wikipedia, “Even after the 1993 peace agreement signed in Arusha, businessmen close to General Habyarimana imported 581,000 machetes for Hutu use in killing Tutsi, because machetes were cheaper than guns.” These machetes were used to kill somewhere between 500,000 and a million Tutsi in an approximately three month period of time.