In the Netherlands you're not even allowed to have a large maglite within reach in your car...
Wait, what?
It is not allowed here (in NL) because it can be used as a bat/baton...
Same goes for pretty much every kind of knife with a blade larger then the palm of (an avarage) hand.
Are pieces of steel pipe illegal too? What about large chrome plated dildos??? After all, that's a heavy cylindrical device, could hurt somebody!
That's seriously the definition of ludicrous.
Fuck that noise; everyone has the right to personal protection. I'd walk around with a stinger missile slung over my shoulder if I thought it could potentially keep me safer.
Sent from my Smartphone
I think a maglite or similar would not raise eyebrows here (Finland). But it could if the police had a reason to suspect any plans for inappropriate use. However, if the police discover a piece of steel pipe on you while you are in the late saturday night street kitchen queue, you will need a _real_ good explanation for it. It will definitely be confiscated same as any edged tools or weapons such as proper knives and there are likely to be consequences. A gun will land you in a world of trouble and only an idiot would entertain such an idea. Well, the steel pipe would already say a lot about how smart you are...
The rationale is that ours is supposed to be a civilized society, not a pioneering frontier. Thus it is the business of proper authority to apply any force necessary and indeed to determine when force is necessary in the first place. With that principle i agree wholeheartedly - bozos with stingers on their shoulder would not instill confidence in the control of their faculties or judgement in general.
Such a principle seems to work better than one would think based on the obvious fact that police can't be everywhere at all times. The reason why this is, seems to be that when the arms race is strictly a no-no, all fights are at most bare knuckle boxing matches, usually. And usually all parties walk home from the match, or at least can be walked to the nearest patch-up station. Also everyone knows that the one resorting to any significant weaponry will in all likelihood face the music afterwards because the police take that kind of thing dead seriously.
I'm sure our rugged friends from the "free" societies consider this the way for wimpy homos who don't have the guts to defend themselves (sorry and commies as well, of course). But let me ask this from our "free" friends: how free are you to walk through _any_ neighborhood in _any_ city of your home country at _any_ time of the day and fully expect to emerge intact at the other side? I can do it and i know many other places where it works. All of those tend to have the common thing that the citizens are not supposed to declare war on each other and the police enforces that policy.
Just let me note that private ownership of firearms is by no means prohibited in Finland (or Nordics in general)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_politics_in_Finland. Even i happen to own numerous rifles, shotguns and handguns up to .44mag. It just wouldn't occur to me to pack one when going out for a night in town...