I joked about this happening for a long time....

[JeanryChandler]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4581871.stm

if I were in england, I'd think seriously about hiding my toenail clippers...

Jeanry

[Shane Smith]

This thread is borderline off-topic but I'll see where it goes...

[Zach Palfreyman]

Was there any kind of medieval laws on banned weapons?

[JeanryChandler]

Of course, there were. They even had sumptuary laws dictating what commoners could wear, what color fabrics they could own, how many plates and silverware they could put out at dinner time...

I gather thats how the "messer" evolved from a mere knife to a 4 foot long weapon, through a legal loophole. I always used to joke around about this scenario:

A German peasant is walking by some papal legate or Imperial official from a distant provincal capitol.

"Hey, you peasant, you aren't supposed to be carrying a sword!"

Peasant replies, with thick German accent dripping in irony...

"But this is only my messer, my little knife... I need it to to cut my bratworst and spread my butter..."

DB

P.S. I mentioned the banning of knives because it's an apparent development of the earlier banning of swords in England and parts of Australia. This trend appears to know no limits... maybe they will eventually ban fechtbuchs too as being threats to public safety!

[Zach Palfreyman]

I would pack around a sword-like knife too if that's the case. Do you have any links or such about the weapon laws, so I can read up on it more?

[Ian Woolley]

tha is so absurd.
A short bladed knife, pointed or un pointed is jsut as dangerous as a 10+ inch kitchn knife. You really only need less than an inch of pentration to kill.
This is why the Uk is great place to only visit, an for short periods of time.

And the "apalling" wound shown in the picture looks to be failry minor cuts. sure are mutiple stiches but they cant be that deep seeing how thin the skin and flesh is over most of the skull.

So the reason mesers evovled into being huge cleaver like swords is because of bans on peasants owning swords...interesting.