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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Bill who wrote (189448)	10/5/2001 9:07:09 AM
From: DMaA	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 769670

Evidence the country is going insane - X-acto knives as terror tools. What are we supposed to do? Turn in all our forks and knives too? Eat our gruel with rubber spoons so we can be safe? States Grapple With Sale and Possession of Box Cutters as a Tool for Violence By Seanna Adcox Associated Press Writer Published: Oct 5, 2001 ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) - It's a simple and versatile tool for everyone from grocery clerks to hobbyists. But in the wrong hands, box cutters can be lethal. New scrutiny has been leveled on the razor-type gadgets over the past month after allegations that the cheap and readily available tools were used to hijack four airliners and a moving bus. "Anything like that, you can't control what purpose they're used for," said Rich White of Bridgeford Hardware in Albany, which normally sells a "handful" a week. On Wednesday, a passenger on a Greyhound bus in Tennessee cut the driver's throat, causing a crash that killed six of the 40 people aboard. The driver told authorities the attacker used a box cutter. That came a few weeks after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Passengers who placed cell phone calls from the jets said the hijackers also used box cutters. Whether they confused box cutters with similar tools like utility or X-Acto knives may never be known. The terms are used interchangeably, even by those who sell them. A typical box cutter holds the corner of a razor blade in a flat, rectangular metal sheath not much bigger than a stick of gum. The 4-inch device is lightweight, inexpensive and easily accessible. X-Acto knives, favored by graphic artists, are roughly the size of a pen with a smaller razor-like blade fastened to the end. Utility knives have a bigger handle and replaceable blades stored in the handle. Before Sept. 11, some of the gadgets could pass through airport metal detectors without raising an eyebrow. The FAA had allowed any knife 4 inches long or less on the plane. States have long grappled with the use of such tools. Some such as New York, Alabama and Virginia, define them as a "dangerous instrument" or "deadly weapon" if someone uses them in a crime. The New York City Council unanimously passed a law in 1995 prohibiting stores from selling them to children under 18 and banning them from school grounds. "We had an abundance of kids using them to cut people in schools, in gang fights," said councilman Al Stabile, who sponsored the bill. "The numbers were staggering." To give the law more muscle, the city in 1998 increased the age to 21, limited their sale to home improvement and hardware stores and banned them from all public places. Chicago law prohibits the sale of utility knives to anyone under 18. Possession is limited, though minors can use utility knives at school, work or home under the supervision of an adult. Police in California say box cutters are commonly used as weapons there, too, while Florida includes razor blades and box cutters in its list of weapons not allowed on school grounds. So far, the recent attacks have not affected box cutter sales largely because the industry is so specialized, said Roger Stuart, president of Listo Corp. in Alameda, Calif., which exports box cutters to Norway and Sweden. ap.tbo.com