Leave the Limbs You've Lost

Occasionally, editing news allows you access to a certain bit of trivia that you just know will come in handy one day. I've written about it before and I'm always happy to be reminded of it. Last night, for a news story, I had to look into whether carrying a ninja throwing star could constitute possession of a concealed weapon and, therefore, a felony charge. It can, apparently, depending on the circumstances. However, in looking into the California Penal Code on the subject, I was introduced to a whole list of what I can only interpret as miscellaneous weapons included alongside throwing stars — or shurikens, as the code correctly identifies them — which are surely listed in the code because some lunatic, somewhere, was at some point involved in an incident that involved one of these bizarre utensils for hurting somebody else.

The list, condensed to bullet points-form:

• any cane gun or wallet gun
• any ammunition which contains or consists of any flechette dart
• ballistic knife (which I'd never heard of before but sounds utterly useless)
• any multiburst trigger activator
• any nunchaku
• any short-barreled shotgun or short-barreled rifle
• any metal knuckles
• any belt buckle knife (Read more at belt-buckle-knife.com!
• any leaded cane
• any zip gun
• any shuriken
• any unconventional pistol (which seems like a tragic catch-all that could have developed into a wonderfully detailed list of obscure handguns)
• any lipstick case knife (!)
• any cane sword
• any shobi-zue (a staff or rod concealing a knife and which is apparently different from the aforementioned cane sword)
• any air gauge knife (not a knife employing some kind of air pressure mechanism to kill, but just a knife disguised as an air gauge… because such a thing apparently exists)
• any writing pen knife
• any metal military practice hand grenade or metal replica hand grenade
• or any instrument or weapon of the kind commonly known as a blackjack, slungshot, billy, sandclub, sap, or sandbag. (or, as it's known to me, a whack-bonk)

Highlights: the slungshot, of course and the lipstick case knife, because the incident inspiring that note in the penal code must have been amazing.

A minus: nothing about boomerangs. (Or is that a plus, given my upcoming heist schemes?)