united-kingdom criminal-law
Is carrying a 24&quot; solid wood baseball bat on Halloween as a prop in public illegal in the UK?
<p>If I was with a group of friends, we weren't causing any trouble, not intoxicated,</p>

<p>but a police car happened to drive by and seen the bat, would I be in trouble?</p>

<p>It's a 24" bat which I believe is the shortened version of a regular bat, solid wood.</p>

<p>There is no law against baseball bats per se, but the <a href="http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/Eliz2/1-2/14/section/1" rel="nofollow">Prevention of Crime Act 1953</a> outlaws carrying an offensive weapon in public without lawful authority or excuse. An offensive weapon is defined as "any article made or adapted for use for causing injury to the person, or intended by the person having it with him for such use by him or by some other person". Baseball bats don't fall in the first category, and whether the second category could be invoked would depend on what else you were doing. It would be quite a stretch to say that driving with a bat is evidence of intent to cause injury (assuming this wasn't in the parking lot of a soccer stadium). <a href="http://www.cps.gov.uk/legal/l_to_o/offensive_weapons_knives_bladed_and_pointed_articles/" rel="nofollow">The Prosecutor</a> indicates that the court is not inclined to put many things on the <em>per se</em> weapons list, so any such charge would be based on threatening acts. "Excuse" means "have a legitimate reason", such as "for religious reasons" or "as part of a theatrical performance". </p>
