The Michigan Court of Appeals, in an 18-page opinion, declined to interfere with a 1931 law that carries a five-year prison term for simply having brass knuckles, also known as metallic knuckles.

A “ban on the possession of metallic knuckles falls within the historical tradition of prohibiting the concealed carry of metallic knuckles as a dangerous and unusual weapon,” Judge Christopher Murray wrote in a 3-0 opinion Tuesday.

Brass knuckles are usually a single set of rings that fits on someone’s hand. A punch can inflict serious injuries.

  • HellsBelle@sh.itjust.worksOP
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    154
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    18 days ago

    America is weird af. Ban brass knuckles but allow semi-automatic weapons that kill thousands every year.

    Weird. As. Fuck.

    • Yokozuna@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      8
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      17 days ago

      Yep, they sell them as belt buckles. I got one at a gun show because it was cheap, figured why not. I eventually looked up the legality and I would be better off legally if I carried a pistol. Actually crazy lol.

    • danhab99@programming.dev
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      5
      arrow-down
      8
      ·
      edit-2
      17 days ago

      Afaik it’s because there’s absolutely no other applications for brass knuckles to work. You can only assault people with brass knuckles.

      Fire-arms can be used for “defence” and “hunting”.

      Edit: inb4 I don’t agree with laws around brass knuckles, or most laws about most weapons.

    • WhyFlip@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      arrow-down
      7
      ·
      17 days ago

      North America? South America? Michigan is only a state in part of North America. Just want to be clear.

  • jordanlund@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    26
    ·
    edit-2
    18 days ago

    They’re going to be surprised if it gets to the Supreme Court:

    https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/577/411/

    “the Second Amendment extends, prima facie, to all instruments that constitute bearable arms, even those that were not in existence at the time of the founding,”

    Woman bought a stun gun to protect herself from an abusive ex. State of MA charged her saying that stun guns didn’t exist back in the day, and were “dangerous and unusual” so the 2nd amendment doesn’t apply.

    • HellsBelle@sh.itjust.worksOP
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      18
      arrow-down
      3
      ·
      18 days ago

      Another weird af hypocrisy where MA didn’t want stun guns to count but assult rifles were A-OK.

      It truly is a wonder how America has lasted this long.

      • P00ptart@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        10
        arrow-down
        3
        ·
        17 days ago

        America lasted this long simply from momentum and good courtesy after WW2. That’s literally it.

      • DaveyRocket@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        9
        arrow-down
        2
        ·
        18 days ago

        We had a run. Considering how much of our founding was based on and sustained by slavery, it might be good to call it.

          • the_crotch@sh.itjust.works
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            7
            arrow-down
            2
            ·
            edit-2
            17 days ago

            Assault rifle != Assault weapon. An assault rifle is a fully automatic or burst fire weapon. They’ve been illegal since 1986 and remain so to this day. And assault weapon is a made up term, based on superficial accessories like bayonet mounts or a pistol grips. Clintons AWB was essentially a “scary looking gun ban”. Guns that were functionally identical to banned guns were still readily available and perfectly legal.

            Clinton conflated “assault weapon” and “assault rifle” intentionally to cause this sort of confusion and get credit for passing a bad bill that didn’t really address the problem.

    • GraniteM@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      edit-2
      16 days ago

      “the Second Amendment extends, prima facie, to all instruments that constitute bearable arms, even those that were not in existence at the time of the founding,”

      That’s why I’m allowed to always carry a vial of the rage virus from 28 Days Later, in case I get mugged and need to end civilization.

  • Hobbes_Dent@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    10
    ·
    18 days ago

    Of course bear arms don’t fit. They’re for fingers, and human ones at that though perhaps a cub could surprise a few.

    • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      6
      ·
      17 days ago

      I mean, I don’t know about you, but my trained attack bears have custom machined brass knuckles. only the best for my trained bears.

  • Cattail@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    4
    ·
    16 days ago

    i never got that. arms shouldn’t be limited to firearms, clearly the founding fathers fought with swords and bayonets so that would have been on their mind