[trome]

Why should a toolkit be illegal, and why should you not carry your tools with you? Picking a lock is usually the slowest way in, if you are trying to increase security, paying a premium for a better lock while retaining windows and unreinforced walls is a poor decision.

[falcolas]

> unreinforced walls

It is highly amusing how many keycard readers amount to "close this circuit between two wires hidden behind drywall". Or when they expose USB ports, or screw heads, or are protecting a glass door.

One of my favorites in a NY office design was the keycard passes through a door in a wall that was only a foot higher than the door, with plenty of open space above that (about 5-6'). Security theater isn't just the provenance of the TSA.

[LanceH]

Key card entry. Motion detector to open the doors on the other side. Open to the air above the doorway. I could throw anything over the door and it would unlock for me.

[gambiting]

In the UK posession of a lockpicking kit in public is very much illegal, unless you have a professional reason to carry one. Same with a knife - unless you are literally bringing one back from the store to your home, you can be arrested for having one.

[trome]

Unsurprising, the UK is a mass surveillance, dystopian state. Every packet sent over the internet is captured, and the UK has the highest security camera density in the world. Assad would kill to be able to so conveniently collect even half the data that the GCHQ collects on a daily basis.

Nevermind the nanny state about porn, both viewing and creation, or drugs. Makes Washington State or Colorado look like lawless states in comparison, and yet they still have a ton of nanny state rules that help no one.

[jnicholasp]

> same with a knife

Any knife? You can't carry a pocket knife in the UK? That's ridiculous. Knives were nearly the first tool proto-man ever made, and they're still the most useful general purpose tool you can have.

[huxleypig]

Not true, you can carry lockpicks whenever you want. Buying, owning and possessing them is not a problem. It only becomes a problem if the cops find them on you and they had reasonable grounds to think you were going to use them. This is the same for a crowbar, a screwdriver or a brick. The lockpicks themselves are fine.

[colinramsay]

I don't think this is true.

https://www.withoutakey.co.uk/blog/is-it-legal-to-use-lock-p...

[WillyOnWheels]

Carrying a knife in NYC for any reason can lead to serious charges.

[peterwwillis]

In many US states, having a lockpick set without being a licensed locksmith is illegal, and you can be charged with a felony.

However, no police officer would ever identify a few bump keys on your keychain....

[pps43]

Yes, but why?

[ransom1538]

Lock picking sets should be legal. It was me NOT KNOWING.

[Godel_unicode]

Given all the FUD around picks in the US, I like to refer people to the toool page, they've done a great job of distilling down what's legal and where.

http://toool.us/laws.html

[WillyOnWheels]

People get charged with carrying burglary tools in USA all of the time.

[pmoriarty]

Doesn't intent to commit a crime have to be shown?

From what I've read, possession of lockpicking tools are legal virtually everywhere in the USA, as long as one is not intending to commit a crime with them.

If I am mistaken on this point, I would love to be corrected. IANAL.