This axe attack went down in the United Kingdom, where Her Majesty’s Government forbids subjects from using firearms for defense of property or self. No word on whether the Land of Hope and Glory will now move to ban axes. At the moment, there’s “common sense” axe control . . .
Martyn at bushcraftuk.com:
Axes, by their nature are more powerful and intimidating when used as a weapon, than a knife. It’s understandable that in some circumstances, carrying an axe might cause eyebrows to raise before carrying a knife would. If you are sensitive to that and moderate your behaviour accordingly, and you have a reasonable reason for having one about you in the first place, you should have no problems carrying an axe of any size – in fact in some circumstances a really big axe might be more acceptable than an itty-bitty one. There are other things that affect perception as well as context and behaviour, such as appearance, age, police history etc.
And carrying on a motorcycle, presumably.