Re: It always pays to carry a Micro-Uzi in a shoulder holster
And how, exactly, can you tell what the intent of any random person carrying a pencil might be?
I am with you. Let's take, for example, my daughter. In her case, it may indeed be used to kill you - her pencils are sharpened at 1:5 ratio, not the traditional 1:2.5. They can be considered an offensive weapon (*)
However, first of all, that makes her one of the very few 1:10000 or more to have a true pencil offensive weapon. The rest do not. You simply cannot kill someone with a normal pencil. Screwdriver - yes(**). Normal pencil - no, unless you are as strong as Arnold and in that case you have plenty of less "awkward alternatives". Most importantly, they also have A NORMAL STANDARD USE. Same as screwdrivers by the way.
That is different from a gun. Any gun can kill. It has NO OTHER USES. NONE. NADA. ZILCH. This is something I have taught my kids from the age of 5. Weapons are not jokes and there is no such thing as a "weapon to scare someone". There is no such thing as "weapon for personal security". If you yield a weapon you do it only with an intent to kill whoever or whatever it is pointed at. If you do not have that intent, better do not yield it. I had to repeat this lesson as recently as September - it is something you have to do regularly so it sticks.
So back on the subject - the whole of USA has failed to learn this lesson. As individuals and as a nation. And it shows.
(*) I had her school moan about it by the way (UK health and safety, don't we all love it)
(*) One of the reasons screwdrivers with any level of sharpening were included in the old USSR offensive weapons list. It was as a result of it being carried by hardened criminals (what they call "thief in law") to circumvent the Stalin's era offensive weapons act.