I work at a security company.

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky

If you own a gun purely for sport shooting and you regularly take it to the range, that’s “everyday use”. You might have a separate gun for hunting, for example, which would be something far less commonly used.

If a lockpicking enthusiast practices their skills regularly with a pair of practice picks, that’s “everyday use”. They might also have a separate pick for antique or otherwise unusual lock designs, which would be something far less commonly used.

http://toool.us/laws.html

This oversimplifies things; I would look up the specific law in your jurisdiction, but you get the basic idea.

Also, lockpick possession laws have been researched by TOOOL and more info is at  http://toool.us/laws.html

And as a symbolic gift, it’s a nice gesture… independent of quality and of whether Cory ever learns their use. Meets the guidelines set out by Emerson’s essay on gifts.

Certainly anything can be a hobby, if you’re willing to take it seriously. But not everything is a wise choice to embark upon without knowing what you’re getting yourself into. Cooking up explosives may also be a hobby (I once had a chem teacher who had a taste for this), but for most folks even if they *do* have the knowledge to do so safely it’s somewhere between unwise and socially unacceptable.

And lock _picking_, in isolation, is a pretty boring hobby in my opinion… not inherently much more interesting than doing other kinds of puzzles.

Comment on the pickset itself mostly withheld. It was a nice gesture as a gift. Further, deponent saith not.

Remember, however, that using them inappropriately, even if legally, can further increase your risk. Apply the zeroth commandment: Don’t Be Stupid.

Also remember that the excuse of carrying picks in case you lock yourself out doesn’t wash; there’s no good answer to “so why didn’t you just carry or cache a spare key, which is the better tool for that situation.

Finally: lockpicking is showy and is a fun puzzle but is one of the less interesting areas of the craft… and learning _only_ lockpicking limits even your lockpicking skills tremendously. If you’re interested enough to want to learn to do this well, rather than just having James Bond fantasies, I strongly recommend learning the trade rather than just this one corner of it.

(I carry a $15,000 performance bond, and I spent a few hundred dollars on classes to establish a paper trail for my skills even though I’d already picked up most of the basics… both because I judged it wise to be On Record, and because that got me entry into opportunities to learn more and access to further educational resources. If you want to be taken seriously, being able to function at or beyond a pro level — even if you’re very much a part-timer — should be your goal, just as with any other hobby.)

Seriously though, I’ve heard it’s a fun and rewarding skill to learn.

greetings from http://www.lockpickers.nl

I’ve found that I can pick the locks to my parent’s house, my apartment, and the locks at the office with very little difficulty. If I bothered to practice I’d do it much faster I expect.

As for the professional life of a writer, there isn’t any practical usage for lockpicks, but considering the sorts of works Mr. Doctorow writes I imagine it’s something of a symbolic gesture toward hacker culture.

But even putting that aside, couldn’t he simply have a hobby? If target shooting doesn’t raise eyebrows, I don’t see why lockpicking should.