What if a simple wirecutter in your back pocket could land you in trouble, or a skunk entering your state caused a legal stir? Here on Our American Stories, we’re diving deep into the fascinating world of weird U.S. laws with author Winter Persapio. She’s written a whole book, Weird U.S. Laws: Strange, Bizarre, Wacky, and Absurd, uncovering the hidden stories behind America’s most unusual statutes. Get ready to laugh and learn as we explore the quirky legal landscape that shaped our nation’s past.
These aren’t just silly rules; as Winter explains, every single one tells a story about human behavior, local disputes, and the colorful tapestry of American history. From a Texas law that made carrying fence cutters a crime to protect wandering cattle, to debates about shooting bunnies from trolley cars in old New York, these unusual laws offer a window into how communities tried to solve very specific problems. Join us as we uncover the surprising origins of these enduring statutes, reminding us that even the most absurd laws hold clues to the past and our shared national journey.
📖 Read the Episode Transcript
Speaker 1: This is Lee Habib, and this is Our American Stories, and we tell stories about everything here on the show, and we especially love stories about our own history. And today we have Winter Persapio, an author from Texas. Here she is talking about the time she wrote a book called Weird U.S. Laws: Strange, Bizarre, Wacky, and Absurd. Here’s Winter.
00:00:35
Speaker 2: Ten years ago, I took a sabbatical from working, and I decided I really wanted to pursue writing a little bit more seriously. So I started to look for opportunities to write in, because I like humor writing and it comes very easily to me. And a long time ago, I had also worked for something called Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse, so I had actually worked in tort reform, talking about how small businesses were getting killed by these little, frivolous lawsuits.
00:01:05
Speaker 3: I reached out to…
00:01:07
Speaker 2: …an editor who was looking for a writer to write about the Weird U.S. Laws. And they’re a Canadian company, so they find us incredibly amusing from that standpoint, and it was a lot of fun. I got to work with an illustrator and another writer, and we took on the book. I know a lot of the weird laws in Texas, some of which still exists, like you cannot carry a pair of fence cutters in your back pocket. And in…
00:01:33
Speaker 3: …all of these things. You know, whenever you come…
00:01:35
Speaker 2: …across a law like that, you’re like, “That is just dumb.” When you trace its history, that’s where I think it’s so interesting, because everything has a story, and that’s what makes it a lot of fun.
00:01:47
Speaker 3: There’s the story.
00:01:48
Speaker 2: Because someone used to cut the fences, and then when the cows would get out from these areas, they were considered anybody’s. And then they would take those cows, rebrand them as their own, and to say, “Well, you know, he was wandering loose,” so that it was all about stopping that kind…
00:02:08
Speaker 3: …of cattle theft.
00:02:11
Speaker 2: But the law is still on the books, and you know, it’s hard enough to get a lot of pass, let alone try to deal with all the messy laws that are in on the books. I don’t think anyone in modern times has been convicted from carrying, you know, one of those wirecutters in their back pocket. But I don’t take any chances. I don’t carry on in my back pocket, just in case somebody’s super serious about it. There were a lot of laws about spitting. You know, there are days where I feel like that law should be more followed against spitting on the sidewalk. This is back in the day when we had to deal with a lot of spittoons and all that kind of stuff, so that those were laws that were pretty common back at that time period.
00:02:55
Speaker 3: There were a lot of laws around the idea of what was allowed with…
00:03:02
Speaker 2: …women, you know, what women could do, what they could wear, all those kinds of things. It all reflects back on our long history as a country right through where work we’re all trying to adjust behavior. And that’s what happened throughout all of all of the U.S. is that you have all these laws that are all about, you know, managing behavior that one person found incredibly annoying, and one person happened to be in a position to pass a law. And so a lot of these laws are historical remnants.
00:03:37
Speaker 3: You know, they’re like your attic.
00:03:40
Speaker 2: You know, you put something in there, you thought it was worth saving. Then you move, somehow you don’t have time to unpack that box to see if you really want it.
00:03:48
Speaker 3: You move, you carry it with you. You still haven’t unpacked it.
00:03:51
Speaker 2: You know, it just becomes this thing that follows you from place to place. And that’s the way some of these weird U.S. laws are. And some of them speaks back when people were, when we were in a more rural kind of community, right? We had chickens everywhere, we had all kinds of different animals. So in Tennessee, they passed law, Tennessee Code Seven Zero Dash Forward Dash Two Eight, which made it illegal to import skunks unless they were headed to bona fide zoological parks and research institutions. We have a skunk that comes to our house and eats our cat food, and I feel like I don’t need to import any. So, at one time, there were bunnies in New York City. They it was a significant problem, and somebody thought that it was a good idea to shoot them from trolley cars.
00:04:42
Speaker 3: Just think about that.
00:04:44
Speaker 2: You’re out there, you’re waiting to catch a trolley car, and then all of a sudden, there’s some rabbit hunter around there who just spots a rabbit headed for the tracks, and they just decided to shoot it. So they decided to make that illegal—something I think of a law that should continue to exist, maybe. And then in Kansas, they made it illegal for hunters to shoot at rabbits from motorboats, and it is motorboats specifically, so if you’re in a kayak or a sailboat…
00:05:13
Speaker 3: …I guess it’s okay. That’s the kind of law. That’s the one where, for example, that makes me think:
00:05:20
Speaker 2: Somebody had a serious enough problem with people shooting rabbits from motorboats that they felt like they needed to come up with a law saying that that wasn’t okay.
00:05:33
Speaker 3: That’s when you’re thinking, “That’s a law about one person.”
00:05:37
Speaker 2: It’s Ted over there, who has the ten acres and these, you know, brings his boat out, and he’s just trying to pop…
00:05:44
Speaker 3: …off the rabbits on shore of Roger’s place.
00:05:47
Speaker 2: And then, unfortunately for Ted, Roger is a city councilperson.
00:05:53
Speaker 3: I think what it really says about us is that when we…
00:05:57
Speaker 2: …want to solve a problem, we want it solved forever. You know, we Canadians are notorious for their politeness, right? They’re notorious for their tolerance. We’re not notorious for our politeness. I think that this speaks to that whole thing, saying, “Not only am I going to tell you not to do that, but I’m going to pass the laws you never get to do it again.”
00:06:19
Speaker 3: Whatever, whatever that thing might be.
00:06:21
Speaker 2: It also speaks to, it’s illegal to have an elephant down in downtown Tulsa. So when you think about that, well, sure, of course it should be illegal to have an elephant trapesing around town. But it wasn’t enough to just say, “You can’t have an elephant here.” Apparently the person who had the elephant there just said, “No, I can’t. There’s the law against it.” So you just get into the slippery slope of, you know, “Surely that’s just a public disturbance,” or, you know, “Wild animals in general, non-domesticated pets, can’t be loosen downtown Tulsa.” But no, they have to be very specific about it.
00:07:02
Speaker 3: So what I think it…
00:07:03
Speaker 2: …says about us is that we want to say not just…
00:07:07
Speaker 3: …”No,” but, “Heck no, you can’t do that!”
00:07:11
Speaker 1: Thanks to Winter Persapio for giving us a little bit of humor—shooting bunnies from a motorboat, and so much more—stories about strange laws, funny laws, here on Our American Stories. Folks, if you love the stories we tell about this great country, and especially the stories of America’s rich past, know that all of our stories about American history—from war to innovation, culture, and faith—are brought to us by the great folks at Hillsdale College, a place where students study all the things that are beautiful in life and all the things that are good in life. And if you can’t get to Hillsdale, Hillsdale will come to you with their free and terrific online courses. Go to Hillsdale.edu to learn more.
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