Court Opinion

ID: 9724836
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 11:16:37.992857+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:25:06.903224
License: Public Domain

COMPTON, J., Concurring and Dissenting.
I concur in the affirmance of the judgment on the basis that the minor committed a robbery and theft of a vehicle. I must respectfully dissent from that portion of the majority opinion which holds that an ordinary unaltered ice pick, an *409item which can be purchased at any hardware or household section of a supermarket, is a “dirk or dagger” within the purview of Penal Code section 12020.
It may not be popular or even prudent at a point in our history where criminal violence has reached alarming proportions, to suggest that a person cannot be punished for carrying concealed on his person an instrument capable of inflicting severe injury or death.
On the other hand, if I am to be consistent in-my belief that the courts should not legislate in a field where the Legislature has elected not to do so, I am compelled to conclude that, however appealing, the result reached by the majority cannot be squared with the Legislature’s terminology or intent.
Penal Code section 12020 prohibits the carrying of a “dirk or dagger” concealed on the person. The crime thus has two elements, (1) a “dirk or dagger,” and (2) carrying it concealed on the person. It is bootstrapping to say that because an ice pick is carried concealed on the person, it is transformed into a “dirk or dagger.” One element of the crime is thus used to supply the other element. I find it inescapable that an ice pick is an ice pick.
The Legislature was extremely selective in identifying the various instrumentalities to be controlled by the deadly weapons control law. Furthermore, the Legislature has had no difficulty, where it so desired, in specifying and describing such exotic instruments as a “nunchaku,” a “wallet gun,” a “cane gun,” a “flechette dart,” or “any instrument without handles consisting of a metal'plate having three or more radiating points with one or more sharp edges and designed in the shape of a polygon, trefoil, cross, star, diamond or other geometric shape ... (Pen. Code, § 12020.)
In view of that evidence of the Legislature’s specificity, I find it hard to believe that the term “dirk or dagger” was intended as a catch all to cover ice picks, screw drivers, awls, metal punches, barbeque spits, or any other of a myriad of manufactured tools and household items which are capable of being used to stab someone.
As a result of my experience in the district attorney’s office, I am personally aware of a number of attempts in the past to enact legislation to deal with the problem of persons who carry such instruments as *410straightedge razors, ice picks, and the like. That those attempts were singularly unsuccessful1 leads me to believe that the Legislature did not intend the result which the majority reaches here. I also respectfully suggest that this court’s holding in People v. Villagren (1980) 106 Cal.App.3d 720 [165 Cal.Rptr. 470], was in error.
People v. Grubb (1965) 63 Cal.2d 614 [47 Cal.Rptr. 772, 408 P.2d 100], which is relied on by the majority, is clearly distinguishable. There the instrumentality started life as an ordinary baseball bat. By the time it was found in defendant’s possession, however, the handle had been partly broken off and the remaining portion of the handle had been taped. It was thus no longer a baseball bat but was in fact a “billy.”
Clearly the problem is one which should be addressed by the Legislature. The fact is, however, that as of this writing, the Legislature has not made it a crime for a person, under any circumstances, to carry concealed on his person those lawfully manufactured, and lawfully possessed, and otherwise useful instruments. It is not proper for this court, or any court, to attempt to plug the gap even though it feels strongly that the gap should be plugged.
Appellant’s petition for a hearing by the Supreme Court was denied January 14, 1981. Bird, C. J., was of the opinion that the petition should be granted.

 The one notable exception is Penal Code section 626.10 which prohibits anyone, except certain specified persons, from bringing a switchblade-knife or razor onto a public school grounds.