Self-defense in this nation is a narrative that is hidden beneath the pressure of the cultural revolution. I can explain this pretty simply by giving you some simple statistics.
According to a study by the National Firearms Sports Foundation, which surveyed manufacturers and dealers in the industry, showed nearly a 60% increase in firearms sales from minorities and women.
“The highest overall firearm sales increase comes from black men and women who show a 58.2 percent increase in purchases during the first six months of 2020 versus the same period last year.”
Despite the media’s line that America is ready for a defunding of police and a microscopic look at criminality and imprisonment, it seems the common man and woman understand there are serious downstream effects to this train of thought. Not only that, but they’re also taking action to prepare for it.
Of course, American citizens have to be careful about their self-defense weaponry. There is a maze of laws for the average citizen to navigate when it comes to weapons ownership and where you live. These are rules and laws that the criminals, who wish to do us harm, are oblivious to.
Stun Guns
Stun guns are very effective weapons that have been improved upon. I personally like the stun guns that are disguised as everyday items.
The element of surprise can go a long way in a high adrenaline situation.
Stun guns are outlawed in the following states:
- HAWAII
- ILLINOIS
- MASSACHUSETTS
- MICHIGAN
- NEW JERSEY
- NEW YORK
- RHODE ISLAND
- WISCONSIN
Related: Best & Worst States for Gun Owners
If state level law were all we needed to worry about that would be one thing, but stun guns are also outlawed in the following cities:
- ANNAPOLIS, MD
- BALTIMORE, MD
- BALTIMORE COUNTY, MD
- DENSION / CRAWFORD COUNTY, IA (*According to Sheriff Tom Hogan*)
- DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
- PHILADELPHIA
Stun Gun Laws and Restrictions by State | Department Of Self Defense
Extendable Batons
These metal weapons can do serious damage if you know how to use them.
They can be just the right weapon to disable your attacker and give you time to get to safety.
There is no federal law that makes extendable batons and they legal in most places.
Here is the short list of states where extendable batons are illegal:
- NEW YORK
- WASHINGTON, DC
- CALIFORNIA
- MASSACHUSETTES
Mace
Mace is a well-known less than lethal. It is also one of the most affordable and probably most widely weapons used. What most people don’t know is that mace and pepper spray are 100% legal in all states.
This is the only item on this list that does not come with some sort of restriction.
Related: How To Make Pepper Spray
Knives
Knives are devastating weapons that can kill a person in a matter of minutes. It is astounding that knives are not carried by more people and also not as regulated as other deadly weapons.
Your body is full of arteries. Some are in your arms, legs and of course in your neck. If you know where to cut a person, they can bleed out fast.
For this reason, certain types of knives heavily regulated.
Knives are legal to purchase in every state. However, certain types of knives cannot be carried in a number of states. The most popular knives that are restricted in states are the following.
Check your state laws if you own and carry these types:
- DIRKS
- BOWIE KNIVES
- SWITCHBLADES
- BALLISTIC KNIVES
- MACHETES
- RAZORS
- THROWING STARS
- ORIENTAL DARTS
Knife Laws by State 2021 (worldpopulationreview.com)
Air Guns
Air guns suffer from looking and behaving similarly to a real firearm. This means the laws are all jumbled by lawmakers at the state level. The air gun would not be my first choice as a self-defense weapon because it looks and acts like a gun and could provoke a real gun to be pulled and used by an attacker.
Without the stopping power of a real firearm, you will be outgunned.
Most of the laws having to do with air guns are age restrictive. In some of the more liberal states, you will see air gun laws that look just like firearms laws. In many Midwestern states, there are no laws restricting the use of air guns.
Here is a great resource to seek out the laws in your state.
Firearms
The cynic in me wants to say that no matter what kind of firearm you own you need to double-check and make sure it is not on the hit list. Our 2nd Amendment is under attack like never before so every law that you assume you know should be checked upon regularly.
Your local legislature should be checked upon, too!
Each state has their own unique set of gun laws. The states’ voting record tends to line up pretty well with its gun laws. Blue states have the most restrictive gun laws while red states are less restrictive.
With firearms, you not only need to worry about the guns themselves but also the modifications and accessories you add to those guns. In short, you better check up on your state laws every time you purchase a weapon. You might also want to pay close attention to who represents and governs your state and what their plans are.
The landscape of gun ownership in America is only going to get harder and harder to traverse. Ignorance is no defense of the law.
Final Words
Unfortunately, the instinctual push towards self-defense has proven to be a wise decision as we saw a massive spike in crime and record homicides in 2020 in many major US cities. Worse yet is the fact that in 2021 the rise is not letting up.
Chicago has seen a homicide rise of 55% in 2021 alone.
Let me be frank, criminals know that the police are under attack. They are emboldened. People are wearing masks all the time and anonymity plays a role.
Now, is the time to be situationally aware and prepared to defend yourself and the people you love.
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Stun guns are in fact legal in New York. Last year the prohibition on owning them was lifted.
Stun guns aren’t outlawed in IL – City of Chicago only – the State has restrictions & laws pertaining to criminal use and some restrictions that consider it a CCW carried in schools & bars ….
I live in NY. I was a Vermont CO and and proficient in the PR-24 FIXED handle baton. Is the PR-24 baton illegal in NY? It is not extendable. Rick.
Rick: I never take legal advice from a non-lawyer. I would suggest to you that you check New York laws yourself or consult a lawyer familiar with the criminal code. If you are referring to NYC, I would suggest that you check the municipal codes regarding verboten weapons. Or pay a lawyer to advise you. Make sure that his practice includes a large number of criminal defense cases. That particular baton is illegal in California which has absolutely no bearing on your question, but I thought I would throw that in so that you can see in some states batons are illegal to possess. That means you can’t even have them in your home. That is the status of batons in California. It is a felony to possess them anywhere for non-law enforcement folks meaning all the citizens of the state except any folks who happen to be in a law enforcement status, ie., food safety inspectors, fire marshal inspectors, judges, probation officers, CPS workers the list of governmental folk who are exempt from verboten weapons is truly amazing.
BEWARE Chuck! I would never take legal advice from a lawyer either! It’s just too dangerous in this day & age!
There is no such thing as an Honorable, Trustworthy lawyer, judges included! That creature no longer exists on this planet!
Check with a desk Sargent, especially a booking Sargent
Cops don’t have any legal requirement to give you correct advice. A cop will always go on the safe side and tell you the item is illegal even if he or she isn’t positive about the answer. That is the safe answer, “It’s illegal.”
In addition to weapons laws, the cops are supposed to know the criminal code, the civil code, traffic laws, mental health laws and they are supposed to commit all that to memory so that they can call it up at a second’s notice. So the safe answer is that it is illegal.
Bite the bullet. Hire a lawyer if you want a valid opinion. I’m not shilling for lawyers — that’s a crime too. But if you want solid legal advice, that’s the only way. Urban legend doesn’t hold water in a criminal trial for illegal possession of weapons.
That’s a little harsh, Tal. The only general rule is that there is no general rule. Lawyers are hired guns. You hire them to win your case or get you off. I had a relative who was a public defender and let me tell you, sometimes it was a real struggle but he gritted his teeth and did his job. He finally got transferred out of defending criminals to representing folks in danger of being committed for being crazy.
He had gotten an incredibly light sentence for a criminal who was facing 30 to life. The guy was chewing on him for not getting an acquittal — yeah, in your dreams.
He finally shut the guy up with, “You’re lucky, If I were the judge you would have gotten the 30 to life.”
The convict complained to the Public Defender and that’s when my relative got transferred.
He interviewed for a job and they said to him that they sometimes represented unpopular causes or clients. He replied, “I’ve represented child molesters, rapists, murderers and other assorted criminals. All of those activities are pretty unpopular. What are you guys planning that’s more unpopular than murder or rape?” Didn’t get the job. It was another public body, by the way. He was happy — no sense of humor.
Sure there are rotten lawyers that steal from their clients and hide evidence. Sure there are judges that have an informal probation program that involves sexual relations with attractive females — and in the PDRK, attractive males too.
But to say all lawyers and judges are crooked or drunks or sexual predators like every general rule is erroneous. Don’t take your impression of the legal field from Allie McBeal or LA Law. That’s Hollywood, the land of 25 shot revolvers and 2 inch snubbies that can outshoot a guy with a MAC10.
All of the trials wherein I was the plaintiff were small claims with the exception of one case that exceeded the small claims limit. By the way I won all of them too. The one case I had against a lawyer in municipal court, I retained a lawyer. I didn’t like the guy. I thought he was an obnoxious a.h. but I was looking for the fastest gun in the west, not a marriage partner for my daughter. Boy, was he obnoxious in court but we won that case too. He didn’t charge a fee. He said he hated the attorney we were suing and he would take the case just for the pure pleasure of sticking it to the other attorney. I didn’t care. That’s what I wanted to do. The sucker stiffed my firm on work we did for him and I wanted it stuck to him too.
If you want the straight scoop on what the law says, you need to research various sections of the voluminous volumes of laws that various legislatures and city councils have passed. You can do that yourself, but unless you know how to research legal tomes, you are going to miss the important one, the you get wind up getting charged with.
For instance, ever hear of a shobi-zoe? I thought I was pretty familiar with Japanese weaponry. I made one years and years ago to probe for moles and gophers. If you fasten a sharp blade to a wooden pole under some circumstances that is a felony to possess. We also call those “spears” but apparently the ninja in Japan used to make ad hoc spears by fastening a small blade to a wooden pole which was better for sticking their opponents than just the small blade itself. The leggeslators in Schezomento are deathly afraid of any ninja weapon. They consider it in the same category as a 105mm howitzer. They are a felony to possess unless now watch this — you have it for agricultural purposes. If you possess a shobi-zoe for probing for moles and gophers, the California Supremes said that just fine and dandy but if you have it for anything other than agricultural purposes, it is a felony for simple possession.
Now I found that out by research on my own, but it was tedious and took me hours. If I were to hire an attorney — and you want to pay him for his advice. Free advice is worth less than you paid for it. I would ask for a list of all the verboten items in the state and city where I lived together with the pertinent penal code or municipal code of whatever applicable code made it illegal. I would also ask for a list of pertinent state supreme court cases that dealt with that particular litem And I wouldn’t bitch about the bill, having agreed to it up front and getting an estimate of how many hours he thought he might be billing me for. You might be able to sell copies of it because it was work produced for you so no copyright violations, make that part of the agreement that you own the information once paid for, and sell copies at gun shows for, perhaps, a couple of bucks a copy. Depending upon how much it cost you and how extensive it is.
There is a lawyer doing that in the PDRK only the book is a couple of hundred pages and it costs $30 but is $30 well spent. And he has it copyrighted. Anyway it would cost more than $30 to reproduce it.
Hope that helps in your interface with lawyers. How to find honest, decent lawyers? That, I can’t help you with.
Me and most of my high school friends had a few run ins with the law. Back then if you had a blackjack or some such weapon they’d confiscate it and charge you with disorderly conduct. There were many categories of DOC, all of them with a 32.50 fine, A traffic ticket level misdemeanor. It taught most of to stay out of trouble withot having to get in trouble. I was sitting in the booking area once when they brought in an older kid who had a bag of pot, at that time in Texas a felony punishable by life in prison, after he was in a cell they took a legal 3″ knife they’d found on him, taped it to a modified ruler that showed it to be an illegal 8″ knife and photographed it into evidence to add dangerous weapon to his problems.
You always say, don’t talk to the police without a lawyer, that is the truest thing a man could say. Wish, long ago, I also never talked to my ex w/o a lawyer present.
Yeah, you get a thumbs down for writing yet another long winded, boring and pointless dissertation Chuckie Pooh.
Illegal or not, the extendable baton can be purchased and delivered in CA. And, in a case where it is protect yourself vs. concern about doing so with an “illegal” device, self protection takes priority.
NYC laws are different then the rest of NY gun laws. Even an NYPD officer cannot own a personal hand gun if they live in NYC. They have to obtain a separate special permit. With that being said the rest of NY is open carry. When we were visiting family on Long Island from Upstate NY and crossed one of the bridges we “technically ” should have met an NYPD car at the Westchester boarder, gave them the pistol , and get it back after leaving Queens county into Nassau county. Now one ever does that.
I have also heard horror stories of people traveling with a hand gun from another state to NYC and they get arrested since they do not have a specific NY city carry permit even if NY accepts their permit NYC will not.
I have three daggers (i.e. double edged blades) which are legal to own in Massachusetts but not to carry for some absolutely silly reason. So they never leave home.
Any laws infringing on the 2nd Amendment in ANY WAY are unConstitutional and are not to be obeyed by REAL American Patriots!
If these traitors try to enforce these unConstitutional laws upon you, you are legally authorized and obligated, by the Constitution, to immediately exercise your 2nd Amendment Rights upon these traitors!
That Is The Law Folks, and it’s high time We REAL Americans started using it as it was intended to be used by Our Founding Fathers!
Liberty or Death!
When these traitors try to take Our Liberty, THEY DIE!
It’s just that simple and legal!
Another good self defence category is archery. Specifically a crossbow is a good SDW.
Check your state’s laws re: crossbows, also. When I lived in NJ, (left there in 2001), crossbows were unlawful to possess EXCEPT for historical reenactment.
Sabel: Yes, most states outlawed them. But it’s easy enough to make one. Remove the barrel from a rifle and put on a bow. You would need a strong stick to help cock it. Pistol types shoot darts. You can also make a spear gun/zip gun easily enough. niio
Red, there is actually a little more to it than that. Most crossbows use steel limbs rather than wood, probably because of the much higher draw weights. Additionally, the limbs are much shorter than a typical recurve bow’s limbs and the string has more plys.. And yes, you definitely need an assist to re-cock it but the simplest method is to have a stirrup mounted at the front end of the stock that you can insert your foot into. Then, preferably, while simply sitting on the ground, you push the stock with your foot and pull the string with your fingers. Also, the bolts are a bit different from a traditional arrow. Shorter, no nock on the back end and only 2 vanes or fletches. The learning curve is much faster for aiming and firing a crossbow vs. a traditional bow but the reloading rate is much slower.
Sabel: For depth and range, yes, always use steel. A leaf spring works. But, I saw one from Vietnam that was made of monkeywood (I think!), others made in the US of Osage orange wood, and the best is manzanita like they make in Mexico. I like crossbows, but like the idea of DIY in as much as I can. Leaf springs make very good knives. This is Indian Country, and post-SHTF they’ll disappear fast.
I think we missed something here, so I’ll take a change and hope I’m not insulting you but explaining that a zipgun is a narrow tube with a heavy rubber band; cock it by stretching the rubber band thru the tube back to the end, then place a dart in the tube, aim, fire. They were very popular in gang wars when I was a kid.
niio
Grow up! Our wonderful Constitution does not guarantee a citizens right to carry any type of weapon they may wish any way or any where they may like! Read it. Have faith in our founding fathers judgment and in the institutions they put in place when they drafted the Constitution. Like the Supreme Court. TAL talk doesn’t cut it!
“The right to keep and bear arms . . .” Seems pretty clear to me. Doesn’t say “keep and bear flintlocks” Doesn’t say “only on the way to church and sunday school” or any other limitations, just plain “keep and bear arms” with no restrictions as to time, place type of arms. That includes all of the items listed in this article.
Please point out the limiting words in this Amendment.
“shall not be infringed” is also part of the Bill of Rights. There is no “unless…” added to that phrase. The 2nd Amendment is quite simple, clear, and concise.
That’s a great philosophy, Tal. Let me know when you get busted. I want to watch you argue that in court.
I 100% agree with that sentiment. I have always felt that the 2nd Amendment meant that I could own and carry any weapon I wanted and could afford up to and including intercontinental missiles. The Constitution still provides for letters of marque which means I could outfit a private war vessel and prey on enemy shipping and shore installations if I wanted to get into the pirate business. Now a days that means I would at least have to have surface to surface missiles if I were to take on Chinese warships or if I wanted to halt a huge Chinese container ship it would take at a minimum a 5 inch gun or two and a couple of 30 or 40 mm cannons.
That said, there is real life. Unless I am prepared to make a martyr of myself, I have to act with restraint. Even assuming that the federal Supremes were to rule in favor of my theory of the 2nd Amendment, whoever the martyr is should plan on spending a considerable amount of time in a federal pen meeting lots of interesting new people until the Supremes got around to hearing the case if they ever did. That’s real life as distinguished from the way I wish it were.
Just an FYI – the proper name of the organization that represents manufacturers and retailers of firearms is the NSSF, the National Shooting Sports Foundation.
I have never heard of the “National Firearms Sports Foundation” and when I put it into the search bar on my browser, the NSSF came up.
Most of this article applies ONLY to U.S.citizens USC Title 8, sec 1101 sub (a) 22. It does not apply to Lawful and Legal Americans (a) 21…. Enlighten yourself….check it out…..biggest scam in “America”…Bet all of you did not KNOW there is a difference.
Sort of a half hearted attempt at what could have been a really enlightening article. For instance, someone didn’t do their homework about stun guns in so,e states, especially Illinois. Neither did they take the time to research telescoping batons vs Billy Clubs and night sticks. Also, they easily could have broken down states and cities that do not allow automatic knives, pocket knives over 3″, etc. They could have even reverse engineered the knife section and stated “these states DO allow automatic knives” … that might have been easier. Wanna know the way around some of the ridiculous baton/Billy club/black jack/baseball bat laws when it comes to your vehicle? AMSWER: Tire Thumper. You can find them in any truck stop. Wanna know how to beat the automatic knife laws in most states? Easy opening auto assist. Some states even outlaw gravity knives. Additionally you could have mentioned some of the air rifle laws that are in the pipe or already in the books in some states. This article could have been so much more.
Claude: What is with the formatting in some of the replies?
Looks like Akismet is not doing well in the formatting department. Still using grey typeface and name and e-mai address not showing up in posting replies.
Hi,
Thank you so much for your feedback, Left Coast Chuck!
Every such suggestion from our readers is valuable to us, as the website is still being implemented and more changes will follow. We are working hard to shape it into its final version that will be faster, more intuitive and more practical than the older one.
With your continued help that goal will be reached faster, so that you may enjoy the wealth of survival knowledge it brings and learn something new every day.
God Bless,
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Stun guns and tasers are legal to possess and carry in MA as long as you have an LTC issued by the state.
I live in Florida and have a Concealed WEAPONS permit. I concealed carry a pistol, a sheath knife, and a lock-blade knife (not counting the little blade on my Leatherman tool). I also have a small can of pepper spray. One can carry an unconcealed sheath knife in Florida, but open carry of firearms is a no-no.
As a retired cop, retired military, and former paramedic, I am well aware of the effectiveness of knives in a fight.
Don’t know how old this piece is, but there are very few restrictions on knives in Texas any more.
God bless! Same in Arizona. niio
Or were there any on air guns? I only have been in Texas since 1958, so I may have missed that and it was not mentioned in the CCL classes.
Do you sell those servival meals? And how much ate they?
I see what you did there.
In Texas you can buy air guns at Walmart. I have 2 and have purchased the Remington that shoots a pellet faster than a 22 LR for my children to protect their garden and chickens.
Nothing is illegal (for self defense) here in South Cackalacki if you have a CCW (other than full automatic weapons of course) … we have brass knucks, automatic knives, bear spray, baseball bats and tire thumpers, butcher knives, crossbows, angry women that’ll scratch your eyes out, Airforce airguns, whatever. We don’t care what type of ammo you use, where you choot’em or how many times. You’d just better be in the right … it better be a righteous shooting. So whomever put that airgun symbol over SC … he/she/they got it wrong.
I do not have or know how or where to get any illegal weapons. 🤣
and if you believe that I know a guy named Dale who will sell you the deed to the “Charlie Foxtrot” X-spurt homestead for a cash only swap to be performed behind the Elohim cult meeting house.
dz; i saw that. Tatum made a film detailing what happened. The doors were locked in Uvalde, as well, and that was one thing that stopped the cops. Who is lying? I’d rather trust cops than the news media, but, it’s still up in the air.
The Officer Tatum
red, a single-story building, with windows. I could have parked my truck in a “line-of-site” location and taken a firing position on the top of my truck, so why didn’t the local police do the same with long guns and decent optics, and shoot to kill?
Because the LIBTARD Chief of Police told them not to, to stand fast. I’m just glad those evil Federal Employee Border Patrol agents showed up, took swift and decisive action, and killed the bastard.
dz: Why the arguments? Calm down, I’m not your enemy. You need to look at this from Tatum’s POV. Do you know the school? who has the key to get in when all doors–steel–are locked? How many cops were shot when someone did show up with a means to get in without setting the nut off again? ANY sign of forced entry, any noise, and that would have sent him killing far more. Uvalde cops respect ICE because ICE is first in the line of fire both on the border and with the feds. niio
Dz. I said the same thing. I still use a 300 Savage and shoot hand loads. From 300 yards I could have put his light out with 1 shot.
yup, my dad had a 300 Savage, excellent rifle, with open “iron sites”, and the first .30 cal I learned to shoot. When I was old enough to be a legal hunter, he got one for me with a 4x Bushnell scope, the first scope I ever used, and I could easily and consistently do head shots on little Coast Range 100LB blacktails at 100+ yards. That rifle is still in the family “archives”, well cleaned and oiled, ready to use at any time if needed.
Red, I bet the glass in the windows was not bullet proof. One 30 cal deer rifle anywhere from 100 to 300 yards would have stopped his rampage very quickly. I know the argument that the shot might have hurt or killed someone else. Horse hocky, was it better to let him go on killing children because an accident MIGHT happen?
gray: and hit how many kids? Remember, one of the cops had a son in there. niio
red, why do you persist in trying to defend what is indefensible?
one shot, one kill – our “students” guys can do it, so can a lot of LE if they properly train for it.
CQC breaching and reflex shooting would have quickly killed the perp, which is routine training for our “students”, including “shoot”, “no-shoot” targets so they become accustomed to instantly accessing a situation and focusing on the correct targets and exterminating them.
dz: I’m not defending anything, but believe in truth and know the sky isn’t falling or that my truck is causing global warming/cooling/total destruction/or raven the faker. You want to believe what those who condemn for fun and profit, do so. I’ll wait. niio
RED, had my son or daughter been in there and I could see the perp I would have taken the shot. “Well it could of” is a well known liberal answer to close out the discussion because they have no real argument against what ever they oppose. A good hunter knows what that bullet is going to hit, how it will travel after leaving the target, and the best angle to try to shoot to protect others. If 1 child was hit would that have not been better than letting him kill many?
grey: You would, I likely would, but they couldn’t. there are rules of engagement and the press is anti-cop. Neither of us were there, and I refuse to take the word of lamestream news media. You can argue till you’re blue in the face. I’m patient and only then do I dare judge.
red, there is no argument, Tatum is wrong.
dz: nope. The press is for talking like this. niio