of Shuriken and throwing stars

[mross]

Originally Posted by Rich

I believe the terminology is incorrect. A shuriken is a straight, small knife.
A throwing star is properly termed a "shaken" I think. We went thru this
terminology thing here (Virginia) a couple years ago when our astute
legislators decided to outlaw carry and possesion of "Ninja weapons" as
being a dangerous public safety issue. Of course there are NO recorded
cases in the police records of anyone being assaulted by shaken, shuriken,
numchuks, etc. There are known cases of idiots hitting themselves in the
head causing serious injury with numchuks :-)

Rich

I have learned this terminlogy as correct for the descriptions also. You probaly don't see much of them as they were throw-away weapons. Sort of like kids throwing sand in someones face then pounding on the target, course this was a little more serious. If you look at a shaken it's not designed to kill, points are short and the central part precludes it going very deep to hit vital spots. The shuriken from the books I have read was not usually thrown but used from a point of concealment in the hand to rake the eyes and hit other vital targets; throat, ear, groin etc. Either way both were used to distract so the user could finish the job.