I was stopped because of a plastic sword...?

[Vault boy Eddie]

When your life didn't pan out as you had hoped and you end up as a school bus driver, you probably look for any little thing that'll make you a hero, so you can go tell Captain Mittens, your bus driver cat, how awesome you are and how everyone else is super jelly of you.

 

[Echo136]

I would have told them that one of your presumably thick text books would be more of an offensive weapon than a plastic sword.

 

[Micalas]

*

I think I might've said something along the lines of

"You wanker. How about you stick to what you're good at - trucking kiddies to and from school - and leave the detective work to the professionals. Fucking window licker."

You might've had to walk home, but at least you would've had an offensive plastic sword to defend yourself with.

You sir, are a gentleman and a scholar, lol.

 

[Athol]

I was stopped by security heading into a football game (I was in the band) because I had a nerf gun in my bag.

SO REALISTIC RIGHT?!

Oh, sweet jesus Jim! You could mildly annoy like six people before somebody smacked you...the horror!!!

 

[Zay-el]

A few years ago, I was heading back from an animecon. I was cosplaying(first and last time) Maebara Keiichi from Higurashi, which basically meant I was wearing a white shirt, that I proceeded to paint as if it had blood splattered upon it, along with a black baseball bat. I was still wearing the thing while taking the train back home, with the bat sticking out of my bag as well.

No one gave a shit.
(well, okay, the ticket-inspector did look a bit funny, but that's just about all of it)

 

[Gladiateher]

I think this bus driver did the right thing here, seeing as how hes a bus driver he may not be very intelligent. So it probably was difficult for him to tell if the sword was real or not. For this reason I should think that it would be only his duty to give the situation an ocular pat-down and make sure you checked out.

 

[Trivun]

To be honest, I can see how silly that is, but then again, I'm surprised I wasn't stopped carrying a BB gun recently. See, I'm involved in the Theatre Group and the Film-making Society at my university (treasurer of film-making, in fact, until we elected next year's at our AGM yesterday). So I was filming a trailer last month for a friend's play, and since the play involves soldiers trapped on a mountain with a single gun and one bullet, he used a BB gun as a prop. The gun itself looks completely real, almost like an actual replica firearm. I was involved in producing another short film before Easter with some film-making cohorts too, and we needed a gun, so I borrowed the fake gun prop to use in this film. Thing is, I had to carry it with me around university while I was on campus before I left campus to go home, and again when I returned the gun to my friend, so I'm kind of surprised campus security didn't stop me or that no-one called the police thinking I'd be the British equivalent of the Virginia Tech guy .

On another, slightly more silly and funny note, I was in a play some years back, at high school, a version of Dracula. I played a gypsy who was meant to have a brief sword fight with Van Helsing, and wound him, before being killed myself. The prop room actually had big massive prop swords, blunt, but exceptionally rusty, and also very heavy, so we couldn't use those although we did try them for the first rehearsals. Then we decided to use plastic cutlasses like you can buy at Pound land. Then the teacher directing said they weren't 'realistic enough'. So what does he do? He makes us do a sword fight without swords. At all. instead, we had to wave our arms around like little kids play-fighting, and pretend we were fighting with swords. My stabbing motion that wounded Van Helsing was nothing but me poking his arm, and he basically poked my ribcage with his closed fist to pretend to 'kill' me. Not to mention that in each performance I landed funny, every time, and had to stay on stage for ten minutes in that scene in the most uncomfortable death position ever...

 

[FalloutJack]

These people are retarded.

I have swords. REAL SWORDS. Do you know what they look like? Swords! Made of shiny metal! And what do plastic swords look like? Plastic! Hunks of plastic!

Plastic swords do not gleam in the sunlight. They do not look like something that'll break if you swing faster than slow. They look...like swords. Plastic swords are so weak that if you tried to stab anyone or take a swing with 'em, they'll snap. Know so, 'cause I've done so!

And by the way, NO MORON LOOKING TO SNEAK IN WEAPONS WOULD HAVE IT STICKING OUT OF HIS BAG! They would do something that, you know, actually conceals it! Oy...

In any case, those people should be slapped.

 

[WorldCritic]

That's pretty awesome, and makes me say "what the hell?" Hey if it makes you feel any better, I got stopped at airport security one time because they thought I had a deadly weapon in my backpack, turns out it was just a marble. I don't know who was more embarrassed after that, me or the security guys.

 

[Syntax Error]

So, as that title was probably quite confusing, I'm going to give a little bit of background, so that this makes sense. Every year at my school, Year 11 celebrates the fact that we break up for study leave, by dressing up in a wide variety of fancy dress costumes and cosplay. Now, a friend of mine was panicking about her costume, as it wasnt quite complete yet. She wanted to go as a pirate - but was missing, amongst other things, a piratey - style sword. So, I offered to lend her my pirate sword, acquired from a previous fancy dress. I decided to bring it too her the next day, via the school bus, as per normal.

However, it almost didn't go to plan.

As I was getting off the bus, the bus driver got out, and said, "Yeah, that's him there. Stop him!". I was then told the wait, in full view of the other buses, and my bus's students, whilst he unloaded everyone. Then he turned to me and asked what it was sticking out of my bag. I answered, "A pirate sword, for a friend - its for fancy dress." He then demanded to see it, and after identifying it was indeed plastic, and not the instrument of death he thought I was wielding, I was sent on my way with a growled warning about how the "police could arrest you for that, it's an offensive weapon."

What does The Escapist think? Was he right to stop me over a plastic sword? Was it ridiculous of him to even care?

I personally think he's mad, but oh well.

TL;DR - I was stopped becuase of a plastic sword, sticking out of my schoolbag.

If all those Jackie Chan movies I watched is anything to go by, everyone should be arrested for holding something because everything could be a weapon.

If Enter the Dragon is anything to go by, everyone should be arrested for existing, because the human body is a lethal weapon.

 

[AnimatedAmbiguity]

A bit of an unnecessary overreaction on the drivers part. But who knows? Maybe he overindulged in his daily morning caffeine fix and was tense and paranoid of any "suspicious" looking baggage?

Regardless, it's high time the foam sword came back in style, anyway. Be sure not to skimp on the duct tape, now!

 

[Paksenarrion]

Step 1. Acquire real sword.
Step 2. Sheathe blade in plastic.
Step 3. ???
Step 4. Now you're thinking with portals.

 

[matrix guardian]

I was stopped by security heading into a football game (I was in the band) because I had a nerf gun in my bag.

SO REALISTIC RIGHT?!

Maybe they thought you were from the future?

 

[bluebomber138]

It seems amazing to me that something like the columbine could happen, but people get stopped for pieces of plastic that look more fake than.... most... other fake stuff... dont know where I was going with that, but you get my point.

 

[Throwitawaynow]

We weren't even allowed to have the blunted scissors that elementary schools use at my high school.

 

[Saelune]

Uh....ever watch a Jackie Chan movie? EVERYTHING is a weapon. While maybe dealing with it badly, I dont think they were wrong for what they did.

 

[Mr. Mortiss]

TL;DR - I was stopped becuase of a plastic sword, sticking out of my schoolbag.

Sounds almost as bad as the time I was stopped by a cop at school just for WALKING.

 

[Agayek]

I was stopped by security heading into a football game (I was in the band) because I had a nerf gun in my bag.

SO REALISTIC RIGHT?!

To be fair, if they were looking through an xray machine at it, it could quite possibly be a really big snub-nosed revolver. There's enough ambiguity with x-ray machines that I could believe that.

Now if they just saw it hanging out of your bag or something then they were just being douches.