A "now-it-can-be-told" longecdote.Tommy Gunn pointed out:
There are things called "field expedient weapons." Usually this is more a military track of thought, but a lot of things which have innocent purposes when used as a manufacturer intended are not weapons in that capacity. Like the pen in question. A brick might also be used as a f.e.w. to clobber someone with. As to its legality, that depends upon context. You can't just clobber someone who asks you not to smoke. IT would also have been illegal for that guy to punch the woman with his fist .... but having a hand at the end of one's arm is not illegal. Neither is having a pen.
Some things, such as knives and guns, are more obviously purposefully constructed as weapons it would be difficult to consider them as something other than weapons ..... even by politicians who make laws and are usually quite adept at twisting semantics into a knot.
For a time I was interested in finding out about using ordinary items as self-defense weapons in an emergency, such as you describe as "field-expedient" weapons. Now in my case you gotta understand that I worked in a tightly-controlled "no weapons" environment --xrays, magnetometers, armed guards, and all like that there.
One of the frequently mentioned field expedient weapons --or more correctly, "office-expedient" --were pens (and pencils and letter openers, and high-heeled shoes, and key rings) and in my research, several suggestions were made as to the best pens to use as weapons --apparently some pens look like they were almost
designed to be effective as weapons.
So anyhow, to make a long story longer, the outfit I worked for had regular general staff meetings where, among the other items on the agenda, was the distribution of little "presents" to all the staff. One time it was a high-quality umbrella, another time it was one of those picture boxes where you could install you own pix and have it "slide show" through your pictures while it was sitting on your desk... goodies like that.
One day they distributed high quality pens in fine, high-quality presentation boxes. When I got mine, I opened it up to see that this here, now, "pen," duplicated all the characteristics of the "pens" I had seen previously discussed as potential weapons.
This pen weighed almost two ounces, was over a half inch in diameter, had a non-retractible very fine point, and when you took off the cap and put it on the back, it made a really fine stabbing implement. The top of the cap was perfectly suited for your thumb to take up the thrust of a stab.
So I was sitting next to a fellow gunny and I held the pen up a little and looked at him with a mock-shock look and made subtle stabbing motions with it, and he looked back at me and nodded, grinning knowingly.
After the meeting we talked about it a little, and his comment was something like "it beats carrying a big rock around."
I thought about it some more, and besides having that "pen" around all the time, I started a rock collection for my office, all set up for display on one of my shelves.
One of those rocks weighed about a pound and a half and had a smoothly-rounded pointy end on it.
So now I'm retired and I can finally tell you about The Pen and The Rock.
Terry, 230RN
