What in the name of EDC nonsense is a "defense ruler" ?
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@futurebird most of them I have seen are simply a 50cm ruler of thicker metal (about 3-5mm) with a tassel on the end.
I suppose you *could* use it as some kind of ninja weapon if you wanted, but I suspect the Chinese are having a good laugh at the expense of American bros - especially for those rulers which have had the extra bits added (which makes them less useful as the handle won't lie flat) and are sold at premium prices - you can get the basic ruler for £10 and to be fair that does seem a bit more practical as an actual ruler.
Maybe it will even encourage Americans to use metric more
@vfrmedia @futurebird I'm no lawyer but it certainly seems an invitation to a spirited interrogation of the Criminal Justice Act 1988.
I know from personal experience that metal rules _can_ be sharp, without any sharpening, and those ‘rulers’ picture sure seem to have a _point_, be longer than three inches, and not fold.
That they are sold as ‘defense’ rulers not something like ‘rugged’ would seem to undermine most ‘it's for work’ arguments, like the intent here is clearly to be a weapon?
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@vfrmedia @futurebird I'm no lawyer but it certainly seems an invitation to a spirited interrogation of the Criminal Justice Act 1988.
I know from personal experience that metal rules _can_ be sharp, without any sharpening, and those ‘rulers’ picture sure seem to have a _point_, be longer than three inches, and not fold.
That they are sold as ‘defense’ rulers not something like ‘rugged’ would seem to undermine most ‘it's for work’ arguments, like the intent here is clearly to be a weapon?
the two on the left would be problematic here in UK. The right hand two (which are also advertised just as normal ruler) would be less so, depending how they were carried - they do have legit uses such as where a thinner ruler would bend and make the measurements inaccurate by a few mm - although maybe more suitable for the workshop or in a toolbox in the back of your car than in the door card (what the old bill here are concerned about is someone getting in a road rage incident and picking up an easy to hand weapon on impulse)
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Well as an American I don't want a wimpy "defense ruler" I want an "attack ruler"
Extreme measures.
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@futurebird equal parts FOMO and disposable income
the EDC world isn't very subtle, it plays the 'real men are prepared for everything, you're a real man aren't you' card right alongside the 'cool guys have this' and 'it's made of the strongest best most prestigious materials, others will envy you'
and it's all performative is the thing, it's done to be seen. you get these boy-men tryna carry the contents of a Batman utility belt in their pockets, and after a while they mostly stop doing it except to take the pics
@futurebird (after seeing the edit picture)
oh, now i see. This is actually a different sort of pathetic insecurity that ends up being adjacent to self defense laws and weapons control restrictions.
Dunno how much of this you already know so if it gets splainey, please forgive it -
there's a whole class of things people carry because they're now afraid to go anywhere without some manner of self defense weapon. They feel naked and exposed unless they can strap up but some places won't let them. And of those weapons there are a subset that are designed to get around restrictions on carrying weapons around. most of those are designed to look like something with a peaceful purpose.
for example, if you are stopped by the cops and searched and they find a pocket knife, that could be bad. pbut if they find a pocket knife with an emergency glass breaker on the hilt, ah, you could have a peaceful reason to have pocketed it and taken it.
if you get in a road rage fight and you pull out a bowie knife from under a seat, there will be questions of premeditated violence. But with something like this doohickey there's room for doubt that you had it in the car for some other reason and just grabbed it when you thought you were in danger.
It's all this grey area thinking applied to the insecurity of young men... some of whom are worried about being hassled by cops, which is unfortunately a little easier to understand than when the college kids with disposable income buy the same thing 'just because'.
You will see things like 'emergency seatbelt cutters' marketed like this. If you look at them carefully, they're meant to be something you can clutch in your fist like brass knuckles or a kubotan. The intention is self defense in places where their preferred weapons would be prohibited. Of course some buy them without ever knowing.
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