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Throwing stars legalized for all Hoosiers under change to bill in House committee

Two throwing stars - curved blades attached to a center ring.
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Flickr
Under proposed legislation, throwing stars would be legalized in Indiana and classified as knife weapons.

Throwing stars would be legal for Hoosiers to own and carry under legislation headed to the House floor.

The bill, SB 77, was significantly expanded in committee.

Throwing stars have been illegal in Indiana since the mid-1980s. Legislation approved by the Senate this year legalized them only for certain businesses – the ax-throwing venues that have become popular wanted to offer throwing stars.

But a House committee went much further, proposing full legalization.

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Joel Wieneke, Indiana Public Defender Council senior staff attorney, said that’s a better solution.

“We would think that it would just be an easier practice to delete the prohibition for throwing stars,” Wieneke said.

The bill now classifies throwing stars as knife weapons – meaning they’d be banned from schools and school buses.

Brandon is our Statehouse bureau chief. Contact him at bsmith@ipbs.org or follow him on Twitter at @brandonjsmith5.

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Brandon Smith has covered the Statehouse for Indiana Public Broadcasting for more than a decade, spanning three governors and a dozen legislative sessions. He's also the host of Indiana Week in Review, a weekly political and policy discussion program seen and heard across the state. He previously worked at KBIA in Columbia, Missouri and WSPY in Plano, Illinois. His first job in radio was in another state capitol - Jefferson City, Missouri - as a reporter for three stations around the Show-Me State.