Own nunchaku, go to prison - Felony in California

[Bill Mattocks]

And you can thank...Ronald Reagan? Yep, apparently the law was passed while he was Governor of California, and has never been repealed. It's legal to own them ONLY inside a dojo, nowhere else. Private possession or carrying them is a felony in California.

http://blogs.laweekly.com/arts/2012/11/nunchucks_martial_arts_karate.php

Nunchucks Are Banned in California...Except in Martial Arts Schools, Where They're All the Rage
By L.J. Williamson Thu., Nov. 15 2012 at 1:37 PM
...
In California, possession of an AR-15 -- the same gun that James Holmes used to shoot up a Batman premiere in Aurora, Colo. -- is legal, provided it was bought and registered prior to 2000. Possession of nunchaku, or nunchucks, however, is a felony -- no matter when they were purchased.

The nunchucks ban was added to the California penal code in 1974, at a moment when the United States was in the kung-fu grip of a martial arts craze. Sparked by the 1973 release of Bruce Lee's Enter The Dragon and spurred by such pop phenomena as the TV series Kung Fu and the song "Kung Fu Fighting," martial arts fever was spiking, along with a faddish interest in martial arts weapons.

Menaced by the trend, Newsweek published a sensational article on nunchucks, called "Killing Sticks." The article's alarm bells prompted lawmakers around the country to contemplate bans, but only New York, Massachusetts, Arizona and California followed through, with then-Gov. Ronald Reagan signing California's bill into law.

In California, desperate martial arts instructors made a successful plea to the state assembly the following year to amend the bill. It now allows possession of nunchucks -- but only on the premises of a martial arts school.

 

[Aiki Lee]

Can you own a gun in california? How are nunchaku worse? Someplaces have outlawed shuriken too. Idiots.

 

[Flying Crane]

funny thing is, you can walk into any number of little shops in San Francisco's Chinatown and buy nunchaku (the wooden ones, not just the foam covered plastic ones), as well as real throwing stars, which I believe are also banned in CA. They are openly sold, not hidden away, no special passwords that you need to know to get access.

 

[Flying Crane]

Can you own a gun in california? How are nunchaku worse? Someplaces have outlawed shuriken too. Idiots.

you can own a gun in CA, tho the ability to get a concealed carry permit varies. In San Francisco, it's impossible. As you get away from SF, I believe the more rural counties allow it. I Don't know how Southern CA handles it, LA and San Diego.

But rifles and shotguns and handguns, sure you can own them and hunt with them and stuff.

 

[Bill Mattocks]

Can you own a gun in california? How are nunchaku worse? Someplaces have outlawed shuriken too. Idiots.

Yes, you can own a gun, depending on type, in California. How are nunchaku worse? I don't think they are. But then, I didn't make the law and don't live in California. And yes, they're idiots.

 

[Bill Mattocks]

funny thing is, you can walk into any number of little shops in San Francisco's Chinatown and buy nunchaku (the wooden ones, not just the foam covered plastic ones), as well as real throwing stars, which I believe are also banned in CA. They are openly sold, not hidden away, no special passwords that you need to know to get access.

All it takes is a change in public tolerance or police attitude; the law is already there to prosecute the owners of such merchandise for a felony. Felonies are not good things; unlike misdemeanors. Perhaps it would be worthwhile for the citizens of California to pursue changing the law, rather than ignoring laws on the books when they're no longer fashionable.

 

[Blindside]

funny thing is, you can walk into any number of little shops in San Francisco's Chinatown and buy nunchaku (the wooden ones, not just the foam covered plastic ones), as well as real throwing stars, which I believe are also banned in CA. They are openly sold, not hidden away, no special passwords that you need to know to get access.

Probably because the law doesn't outlaw the sale of the items, just regulates the possesion, it is up to the owner to probably adhere to the law.

 

[Bill Mattocks]

Probably because the law doesn't outlaw the sale of the items, just regulates the possesion, it is up to the owner to probably adhere to the law.

Uh, no. If the store is selling them, they are in 'possession' of them.

 

[Flying Crane]

Uh, no. If the store is selling them, they are in 'possession' of them.

yeah that's what I was thinking.

 

[Bill Mattocks]

yeah that's what I was thinking.

I did a little checking also. The law in California says manufacture, transfer, sale, possession, etc. 22010 Pc -- Man/sale/poss/etc Nunchaku. All felonies.

People are also being arrested for it in California. Google searches turn up a number of hits.

It appears from my searches that the nunchaku charge is used as an add-on and then people who are charged with greater offenses are allowed to plead down to nunchaku possession.

Example:

http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/20...uks-possession-avoids-machete-assault-charge/

There was a story I linked to in a previous thread about these things where a guy going though an airport in California was caught with them in his luggage; he was on his way to a tournament, but the law is the law, he got busted. Can't find it now.

 

[Dirty Dog]

Uh, no. If the store is selling them, they are in 'possession' of them.

"I teach here, on an invitation only basis, officer. This is a dojo, so it's legal to have them here."

Doesn't make the law any less idiotic, of course. Same with laws against automatic knives, or the TSA confiscating tweezers. There's plenty of stupidity out there.

 

[Flying Crane]

what's interesting is, how do you get them to the dojo in the first place? You've got to purchase, possess, and transport them to the dojo, all felonies. Once it's there, I guess you are home-free. Just don't talk about how you did it. They appeared by magic.

 

[Blindside]

Uh, no. If the store is selling them, they are in 'possession' of them.

Looking at the CA Penal Code

(a)Any person in this state who does any of the following is punishable by imprisonment in a county jail not exceeding one year or in the state prison:
(1)Manufactures or causes to be manufactured, imports into the state, keeps for sale, or offers or exposes for sale, or who gives, lends, or possesses any cane gun or wallet gun, any undetectable firearm, any firearm which is not immediately recognizable as a firearm, any camouflaging firearm container, any ammunition which contains or consists of any fléchette dart, any bullet containing or carrying an explosive agent, any ballistic knife, any multiburst trigger activator, any nunchaku, any short-barreled shotgun, any short-barreled rifle, any metal knuckles, any belt buckle knife, any leaded cane, any zip gun, any shuriken, any unconventional pistol, any lipstick case knife, any cane sword, any shobi-zue, any air gauge knife, any writing pen knife, any metal military practice handgrenade or metal replica handgrenade, or any instrument or weapon of the kind commonly known as a blackjack, slungshot, billy, sandclub, sap, or sandbag.
(b)Subdivision (a) does not apply to any of the following:
.....

(3)The possession of a nunchaku on the premises of a school which holds a regulatory or business license and teaches the arts of self-defense.
(4)The manufacture of a nunchaku for sale to, or the sale of a nunchaku to, a school which holds a regulatory or business license and teaches the arts of self-defense.

 

[Flying Crane]

and does a dojo only count if you have a business license? So if you teach a couple guys in your garage or back yard, but you do it for free and there's no business license, then does that not count?

a lot of weirdness and uncertainty with this.

 

[Aiki Lee]

This doesn't seem like the kind of thing law enforcement would care about unless they were looking for an excuse to arrest you. They suspect you of seeling drugs but can't prove it? Bam! I see you got "numb-chucks" you are under arrest. I doubt the law will ever change unless someone is arrested for breaking this stupid law and only this law and they have the means to bring it to the state supreme court.

 

[Flying Crane]

and does a dojo only count if you have a business license? So if you teach a couple guys in your garage or back yard, but you do it for free and there's no business license, then does that not count?

a lot of weirdness and uncertainty with this.

Looks like Blindside beat me to this: business license.

 

[jks9199]

By definition, neither felonies nor misdemeanors are "good things." You might make an argument about some status offenses... I suspect that Bill's point is more that felonies have much more significant effects on your life, since it typically takes away your rights to vote or own firearms, among other consequences.

This law is almost certainly like a lot of them -- a knee jerk response to something that was poorly understood. "Numchucks" were seen in Bruce Lee and other movies as being massively deadly weapons, and plenty of martial artists played up to that image, too. The legislators get panicked calls from constituents, and they pass a law. They don't do any actual research, just pass a law. Many years ago, 60 Minutes (or perhaps a similar show) did a piece about deadly martial arts weapons. Their criteria for deadliness? Watermelon. Would the item in question pierce a watermelon. Well... of course throwing stars and the like did a dandy job of penetrating a watermelon. I'm sure, if they tested them, nunchaku made a right mess out of a watermelon! The folks at Black Belt magazine took a bit of exception to this insightful journalism... In an editorial, they discovered that quite a number of everyday items were freakily deadly, as they too pierced a watermelon's rind. Pens? No brainer. Sunglasses? Yep. Credit cards? Not a problem. Silverware? Of course. I forget what else they stuck some poor defenseless watermelon with; you can probably figure it was everything they could find around the office.

What's my point in this? Push your legislators to make good laws, not silly knee-jerk responses.

By the way -- cops are generally kind of sensible about this sort of thing. Carrying nunchaku concealed in Virginia is illegal -- though only a misdemeanor on a first offense. A pair of nunchaku in a training bag with other martial arts gear? Probably just fine. But hidden down your pants as you go into a convenience store at oh-dark-thirty? Yeah, probably going to have issues.

 

[Aiki Lee]

If a martial art school can have them, can they be sold to the students? Do the students have to leave them in the dojo?

 

[Touch Of Death]

funny thing is, you can walk into any number of little shops in San Francisco's Chinatown and buy nunchaku (the wooden ones, not just the foam covered plastic ones), as well as real throwing stars, which I believe are also banned in CA. They are openly sold, not hidden away, no special passwords that you need to know to get access.

I have to pull the race card here and say that this law hits the inner city harder than in the suburbs.

 

[Bill Mattocks]

what's interesting is, how do you get them to the dojo in the first place? You've got to purchase, possess, and transport them to the dojo, all felonies. Once it's there, I guess you are home-free. Just don't talk about how you did it. They appeared by magic.

Yeah, I wonder about that too. Same thing for some marijuana legalization laws, which leave transport, commercial sale, growing, etc, illegal, but let people possess it without penalty. Huh? It didn't magic it's way into their pipes.

Denver used to (perhaps still does) have a great law on firearms, same kind of thing. Legal to own in the city. Illegal to transport in or out of the city under any circumstances, period. So you could own a weapon if it magically appeared to you, but not if you bought it outside the city and brought it in with you. Huh, Denver. Used to call it home, before all the Californians moved in and ruined it.