“The right of martial artists, to keep and bear numchucks, shall not be infringed.”

Today is without a doubt one of the oddest in the history of Supreme Court nominations, or indeed Senate debate (and that’s setting the bar low indeed), in that we have heard repeated references, from Senators and the media, to “numchucks”.

In the spirit of the times, it behooves us all to learn these facts about nunchaku:

• Sonia Sotomayor is, to our knowledge, the most prominent federal judge to address the question of whether the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms includes the right to brandish nunchaku. Unfortunately, Judge Sotomayor dodged the important question of whether nunchaku are “arms” of the sort used by founding era militia.
• The most famous wielder of nunchaku was undoubtedly Bruce Lee, whose rout of Mr. Han’s private army in Enter the Dragon is rightly regarded as one of the greatest fight scenes in movie history.  Unfortunately, British film and dvd viewers could not watch this scene in its original glory, because the British Board of Film Classification banned the depiction of nunchaku in any form.

• Considering recent controversy regarding alleged misuse or overuse of the TASER by police, it’s comforting to know that  Orcutt Police Defensive Systems, Inc., of Denver Colorado, markets the Orcutt Police Nunchaku, or OPN-III, as a safe and non-lethal alternative for control of suspects.  According to the manufacturer, “over 200 law enforcement agencies across the United States have field tested and adopted the Orcutt Police Nunchaku as their primary control device.”
• In addition to its primary modern role as a safe and non-lethal tool for the police, nunchaku can be used to drive golf balls, open wine bottles, and to light up a cigar.

(Thanks to Twitter user Stwbrry_Blonde for the tip.)

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