I’m a martial artist.. even if you’re not you may already have seen instances of the “Will not ship to Canada, NY, CA…etc” phrase that often appears in martial arts catalogs that sell weapons and other catalogs where similar items are sold. I never really thought about it much and just kind of took for granted that here in Illinois I can get just about any martial arts related weapon I want.

Well I was reading some stuff the other day.. I recently became interested in law as it relates to self-defense. One article I found really caught my attention and as a martial artist and a libertarian I think one could easily understand my anger and frustration after reading this:

In New York and California it is legal to have a shotgun, rifle or sword in your home, but if you have two pieces of wood connected with a rope or chain, possession is a crime.

…Although most of the U.S. states that regulate possession of nunchaku make no attempt to ban the simple possession of the instrument in the privacy of one’s home for peaceful martial-arts practice, the laws of New York and California both make such possession a crime carrying up to one year’s imprisonment for anyone convicted.

…In California earlier this year, police legally entered the San Jose residence of Harold Vaughn, a long-time martial artist and past Virginia director of the U.S. National Karate Association. Upon noticing a pair of nunchaku hanging on display on the wall along with Vaughn’s martial arts certificates, the police asked if he had any others. He did, and they subsequently seized a total of six pairs, following which Vaughn was charged with six counts of violation of California Penal Code § 12020, a misdemeanor, for his possession of the nunchaku in his home. There was no allegation that he had used them, or threatened to use them, to harm anyone, but, unfortunately, under the statute, no such allegation would be needed for a conviction. On July 19, 2004, Vaughn, threatened with prosecution for six misdemeanor counts with consecutive sentencing that would lead to six years of incarceration if he were convicted, pled “no contest” to a single misdemeanor count. A few years earlier he had moved from Virginia to California to study law, and had just completed his law degree. He is now spending weekends doing jail time by means of a part-time incarceration program. Ironically, he was ineligible for a community-service option because a “weapon” was involved.

Make sure you read the rest of the article too.. it tells the rest of the story. I thought this excerpt would piss you off enough to click to read more.

Anyway.. So whether or not you read the rest - The guy who wrote the article is from NY and was prosecuted for posession of nunchaku (those are nunchucks for those of you who are unfamiliar with the other term) and is a lawyer and challeneged the law as being unconstitutional. I’m really unsure of what happened, but I really felt complled to share that story with all of you.

If I find out anymore I’ll let you know.