Quote Originally Posted by Zardoz View Post
Amen to that brother!
I've read this entire thread with great interest and just a little dismay. I'm still trying to figure out when the folding knives that I, and about everyone I know, have carried since childhood made the transition from "handy cutting tool" to "weapons"?
I think a lot of it has to do with the level of convenience that a lot of people are used to. Many people never feel the need for a knife outside the kitchen. If a job requires a cutting implement or any other tool which is not immediately available, then someone else should handle it, there's probably something you can buy to get around it, or it's just not worth the effort so you should just give up and do something else.

And since people don't need them, they don't use them, and therefore don't understand them. Without a proper understanding of the utility of a knife, it's very easy to get caught up on the destructive possibilities.

There are many other factors as well, but I think it's a lack of familiarity that enables the notion that knives are all weapons and should be feared.