New York State Senator Tony Avella introduced legislation that would make the mere possession of a machete in his state a crime punishable with up to a year in prison. His reasoning? According to the text of the bill Webster’s Dictionary defines “Machete” as “a large heavy knife used for cutting sugarcane and underbrush and as a weapon,” and, because of that last part, the tool used by millions should be classified as a “deadly weapon.” Avella introduced the legislation because two people in New York were attacked by assailants swinging the tool, but this does not warrant treating the blades like brass knuckles or ballistic knives. They are at home in the hands of workers, from plantain farmers in Nicaragua to elephant mahouts in Nepal to outdoorsmen in New York’s Adirondack Mountains. More…