planning for next halloween: legality of chainsaws

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General Geoff

General Geoff

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So next halloween I think I'm gonna dress up as a chainsaw-weilding psychopath. For authenticity's sake, I'd like to use a real, functioning gas-powered chainsaw, as I'll be walking the streets, handing out candy to kids in good costumes.

Seeing as this is the legal forum, I figured I'd post and ask if I should expect any trouble from the law, if I occasionally start the chainsaw up and rev it to be "menacing."

Also, for safety's sake, do you think I should remove the actual chain, or would I be fine leaving it intact, and just exercising discretion so people don't get cut/pricked by brushing up against the chain? Thanks for any help. :)
 
Ummm, damn dude carry a toy not a real saw. At the VERY least remove the chain.

The proper way to carry a saw is backwards, so the bar extends away from you pointing directly behind you. That's usually the safest, because if you trip and fall you don't land on the chain/bar.

Any one who walks in public 'swinging and acting menacing' with a real saw is a moron imho.

A good chain is VERY sharp. If you bump a kid you can cut him even if the saw is off. If its on you don't even want the bar close to a person, even 'pretending.' Think of it like the gun safety rules, don't point the saw at something you don't want to cut.

As the saying goes "you'll poke an eye out with that thing" especially since you'll be around a bunch of hyper active, waist high, wiggly, sugar amped kids in the dark.
 
That 'authentic sound' is a 2-stroke making about 100-110 decibels, significantly louder than something like a lawnmower.

Hearing damage can occur within one to 5 minutes if no protection is worn.
http://www.dangerousdecibels.org/hearingloss.cfm

http://www.howstuffworks.com/framed...://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/hearing/ruler.asp

Most new saws have automatic oilers and you might spurt oil even if the chain is off depending on the design of the saw.

Plus the smoke stinks: which means the soccer moms walking around with their kids will really like you.

There will also be a hot exhaust pipe that someone might accidently come into contact with.

You would probably be legal, but you might violate a noise ordinance. A cop might also just hassel you for any number of reasons, endagering public welfare, nusiance, intimidation, etc. The fact it was halloween would not matter to an annoyed cop, he'd just let the judge sort it out.

You're call, but I'd suggest thinking twice about it.
 
Sounds perfect. Upon further reading, I'm definitely going to remove the chain. But the noise and smoke, etc.. is all desired. I'm not going to go around with it on the whole time; I'll just start it up and rev it if any of the kids want me to (similar to the Semi Truck Horn Effect).
 
universal studios uses em for halloween horror nights... just take the chain off youll be fine... though a overzealous neighbor/cop might cause problems if they get really freaked out
 
I should expect any trouble from the law, if I occasionally start the chainsaw up and rev it to be "menacing."
Click to expand...

If you do it towards an officer, or anyone armed, then yes you can expect trouble. If someone comes after me with a REAL chainsaw, haloween or no, I'm going to assume they're off their nut and plan to kill me. Frankly the idea is beyond crazy. Remeber that idiot from Japan who got killed while dressed up some years back? He didn't even have a weapon.

Look, I know perfectly well that a chainsaw isn't the uber weapon it appears to be in Sillywood films or video games. It's clumsey and has a limited arc. But I also know nutcases who've seen too many movies have been known to actually try to attack people with them. And I don't expect trick-or-treaters to have real smoking chainsaws anymore than I expect them to have real firearms.

Plus, the comment about noise is well taken. These are serious tools and should be treated as such. I always wear hearing protection and a face mask when I use one and I don't regret looking dorky.
 
I dont know how it would go over walking down a city street with a chain saw. But we did it one year down here. Rural country area on private property.
My sister was/is big on Halloween festivities, aka scaring the crap outa little kids.
She did a college project on our festivites one year, did a video and everything. We decorated the front yard, fake ppl from the trees, sis as a witch stiring a bubbling green pot, Dad as the Grim Reaper escorting the kids from the car to the candy. Unfortunately they were on their own from the front door back to the car. Where I would conviently slip out from behind a tree out of the light, wearing a hockey mask, and holding a Poulan 445(no chain). It didnt have much effect until Id snatch the rope and rev it a few times, continuing to move closer to the walkway. That usually made them move faster, sometimes running past the cars they were supposed to get in.
My dads a logger as well as many other ppl around our community. So some of the kids werent bothered by it that much and knew that no one would actually harm them. But most all of em get in a hurry. That was a fun nite.
Most ppl enjoyed it, and asked what was happening next year, didnt hear anyone complaining.
We didnt use the saw when the real young kids would come up, dont want to ruin the Halloween experience for them.
Matt
 
If you're on a public street scaring people you don't know with a chainsaw, you're pretty much fair game to get shot by cops or concerned parents.

Assault with a deadly weapon is not a joke.
 
I think this ranks pretty high on the list of stupid things that might get you shot. Just use a fake chainsaw, and get over the fact that you won't have sound.

If you came on my property with a chainsaw running I am calling the police, and you can explain that its just a joke to them.
 
My old boss runs a haunted house attraction, and uses a lot of chainsaws. I didn't deal with them too much, but I'll relay all the information I can.

First of all, obviously, remove the chain. There is no safe way to be around people with a working chain saw. People are scared of chainsaws, and most won't realize that it doesn't actually have a chain.

Use a small chain saw. Probably the smallest engine you can find. The small ones are plenty loud, and a big one will be way too loud.

Don't use the cheapest saw you can find. Use a decent saw. The part that scares people is when the saw suddenly starts roaring. It loses a lot when your saw doesn't start on the first pull. ;)

Electric chain saws work well and sound fine. You'll probably have to stay close to your house though...

Fake chainsaws sound fake. Only a chain saw sounds like a chain saw. If you're safe, and remove the chain, I don't think you'll have a problem, especially if you make it clear that it's a costume, meant to be fun, and respect anyone that tells you to get away from them or asks you to put down the saw.

Be careful and stay safe.
 
I've had to deal with people with chainsaws twice as a police officer. The first time was at a domestic disturbance. The shift started and two families in a certain neighborhood who liked to fight got into it. The SGT went down there because he know both parties well and quieted it down.

About 8pm they got drunk enough to start again and when the call came out the SGt said, "I quieted them down before, I'll take the call." He got out down there and another car headed to the area to back him up. Before backup got there, he got on the radio with; "I need backup now!"

Everyone else on the shift (5 officers working that night), headed that way. I got there right behind the original backup unit and found the SGT standing in the street pointing his gun at a subject who was advancing towards him pulling the rope on a chainsaw. Within a few seconds the subject was looking down the barrels of 5 .357 magnums. No one had to tell him to put the chain saw down, he sat it down in the back of a pickup and put his hands up. The saw never started, which was a good thing, because the subject certainly would have died that night.

The second time was on halloween night and a man showed up at the station in his costume and asked if he could use his chainsaw to scare the kids when they came into his yard. We told him no.

I can almost guarantee you that if you used a real chainsaw, even with the chain removed and walked around among the trick or treaters, someone would call the police and you most likely would be looking down the barrel of police weapons and tasting the gravel on the pavement. At a minimum you'd probably face disorderly conduct charges.

Then there is the possibility that some good citizen would shoot the crazy running around with a chainsaw.

Real chainsaw in a haunted house display....good. Real chainsaw whle walking around halloween night, probably a bad idea.

Jeff
 
This is relatively common at haunted houses in my area.

The Coast Guard always puts on a "Haunted Ship" for the kids and they always have someone with a chain saw.

You don't have to open the throttle up for it to be scary to kids, just rev it a little and you'll still get smoke and noise. But not enough noise to incinerate all your cilia and whoever else's.

/Everyone always takes the chain off. With the chain on the saw the tool is extremely dangerous and you wouldn't want to swing it around like a lunatic at all. You'd likely severe one of your own appendages.
 
The fact that there's a lot of people here genuinely troubled by the notion of a guy walking around with a functioning chainsaw is great. That's exactly the response I'm looking for, seeing as how it'll be halloween and all. :)

As I stated before, I wouldn't be actually running towards people, revving the saw and such. I'd pretty much be walking around casually, holding the thing with it off. I don't intend to threaten people with it, or chase after people, or even approach people in a menacing fashion. I'm well aware of the fine line between a gag and a threat.
 
For additional realism, you can fabricate something that will create a little resistance for the motor making it sound right.

or

download chainsaw sounds off the net and play them through speakers. <--- safest way to do what you want

I have gone all the way though with a similar gag.

I used to annually have a huge special effects based haunted house type setup in the front yard. I'd always play a role in it. I've done everything from sit still looking like a piece of decor (wax sculpture or something) until people come up to me thinking I'm fake and I jump up scaring them - to being a corpose rising out of the ground (not advisable because ants get in your pants - no joke).

Well one year, a friend of mine participated in the whole thing and I played the role of mad-scientist/doctor and he was the victim. I wore a fake blood soaked lab-coat and he wore a patient's gown. We did a scaled down version of the buzz-saw illusion (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uY1htAUp-x0) using a large jigsaw and a wooden frame. Fake blood was rigged up with a squeeze pump that he controlled as I operated the jigsaw. Imagine this all with 1000 watts of strobe light in the back synced to sounds of thunder via a DMX512 controller system for a lightning effect, 3 fog machines filling the yard with fog, and green light and blacklight covering the whole place (also we had a 1500 watt sound system pumping out scary sounds and music). Needless to say this was for the teens and we didn't do it when little kids were there. And further needless to say it scared the pants off the teens. I still have the illusion in a box somewhere now that I think about it.

The beauty of the whole thing was that nobody was "threatened" and yet it was incredibly scary.
 
"The fact that there's a lot of people here genuinely troubled by the notion of a guy walking around with a functioning chainsaw is great."

Objections that bespeak an intelligent membership. Most guys here have their head screwed on right when it comes to common sense and safety issues.
 
My friend walked around madison wi a few years back during halloween with a chainsaw minus the chain and had no problems with all the police down there
 
Personally, I would go ape-squat if I saw someone walking around with a chain saw. Far too many people would be damn fool enough to leave the chain on. In the dark it would be virtually impossible to tell. Just think about some of the things that you have read on this very forum. People do some very stupid things at times.
 
It seems that this thread is starting to follow a common pattern.
Having a chain saw at an event on your own property where people will expect it (haunted house, scare party, fright night, etc.) is ok. Walking around the neighborhood is not ok. I have experience with this as there was one on a haunted hayride. It scared me pretty good and was harmless. I would not recommend doing this for anyone under the age of 10 as they just freak out and start crying.
 
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