cross-posted from: https://quokk.au/post/6390494
The Victorian government will ban the sale of machetes from Wednesday after a gang brawl at a shopping centre.
Two males were arrested and another was taken to hospital in a serious but stable condition after the incident at Northlands shopping centre.
Nothing like a good moral panic to make people throw reason out the window. Carrying a machete without a reasonable cause is already illegal and clearly didn’t stop these people, banning them altogether will just make things hard for those who would use them legally.
It’s the same level of thinking as some pelican near me who was calling for a 40km/h zone due to a recent accident. The existing laws against taking illegal drugs, stealing cars, staying on the road, and not speeding over the current limit didn’t stop the guy who caused it, but he sure would have listened to a 40km/h sign…
I kept waiting for the punchline, I thought this is sarcastically mimicking the American arguments against gun regulations.
You can make one with an angle grinder and about half an hour. This is dumb.
Absolutely carrying them around town should be illegal, but they are super useful in rural settings.
If you ban the tool, people who legitimately use the tool are harmed, and the people who abuse the tool will just find something else.
I legitimately don’t know the specific use case of a machete, what is it?
Rural NSW bushland - heaps of people around here have machetes and cane knives. Useful for cutting through vines, small saplings, lantana, etc. My cane knife is probably my 3rd most used tool when doing outdoor work on my property.
Yeah fair enough. You will still be able to use and keep the one you’ve got though. It’s a sales ban not an ownership ban
And what happens when it breaks and you need a new one?
I suppose it’s time to move on then. It is just a sharp stick. I’m sure you can use something else
You have no idea what you are talking about.
Maybe not. But guess what , t’s happening so it’s probably gonna have to go down like I just said
