Off Topic "Mall Ninja" : Is just mere ownership of certain types of blade enough to earn the title ?

In the UK, merely owning a modern made Katana can get you into serious legal trouble.

Swords with curved blades are heavily regulated rhere.
 
King of the Cheese said:
Those who criticize the mall ninja draw the ire of our watchful guardians and protectors. You can catch this guy walking around at renaissance festivals and comic con. He does not like to be ridiculed for his hobbies.

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Is he using that sword as a walking stick?

Not that I ever had any illusions of greatness but I bought a cold steel O katana many years ago. Spent hours sharpening it to a nice shaving edge. I took down a 4" spruce tree that needed to go. Decided to put it away before I hurt myself and sold it a couple years later since it was so impractical. It was a silly purchase for someone without any sword training like myself but I can't recall sticking it in the ground and using it to hold myself up.
 
King of the Cheese said:
Those who criticize the mall ninja draw the ire of our watchful guardians and protectors. You can catch this guy walking around at renaissance festivals and comic con. He does not like to be ridiculed for his hobbies.

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Don't take this guy lightly. I accidentally offended his honor in the parking lot of a convention once. He rolled a critical and put me in the hurt locker.
 
King of the Cheese said:
Those who criticize the mall ninja draw the ire of our watchful guardians and protectors. You can catch this guy walking around at renaissance festivals and comic con. He does not like to be ridiculed for his hobbies.
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Hey take it easy on those of us that attend Ren Fests. I’d hate to have to challenge you to a sword fight.
 
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I think the term “mall ninja” is actually a dated term and doesn’t fit the modern tacticool movement. I guess because I came up as a teenager in the 80’s, we were born into a Post Vietnam/Pre War on Terror time in the final days of the Cold War. It was a time of peace but with the threat of war. Thanks to movies like Red Dawn we were convinced the commies were going to come parachuting out of the sky’s at any time and nukes would be flying. We grew up watching “Kung Fu Theater” on Sunday afternoons. Rambo, Chuck Norris, Bruce Lee, and Ninja movies were as mainstream as Superhero movies now. We were all convinced we needed to be prepared to take on the commies/bad guys at any moment, and ordered Ninja books and books on improvised weapons from Paladin press, were we learned just enough to endanger ourselves 😂 we bought ninja swords, nunchucks, throwing stars, big wicked looking knives, balisongs, etc. but didn’t have any of the real training and such to actually use them effectively. It was a time of fantasy, we were fascinated by it all and it made us feel really prepared and ready for whatever may come. But the only thing we ever really did was go circle the mall without meaning and ultimately end up dropping money on arcade games which is the closest thing to combat many of us would see. Now I am 52 years old and wish I had bought more Old Timers and Case knives instead of that stupid stuff.
Gone are the days of Kung Fu Theater and American Ninja, and enter the age of YouTube. So the modern equivalent in my mind is all the tacticool gear junkies and “Bushcraft Boys” who are only impressed by beating their knives through a whole tree.
Perhaps it is time to coin a new phrase for a new age? Central Park Tarzan? Amazon Commando? Walmart Warrior? YouTube hero? Coffee Shop Spetsnaz? Any other ideas? 😂
 
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