When looking at the insane, do not be amazed when you find a lack of sanity.
In Maryland, Police Officers have been pocketing Balisongs for years, or arresting people for them. You can tell where your Balisong is going by how the Officer deals with the situation.
[I know the following to be a fact.]
#1 He confiscates your Balisong. He does you a "favor" in his words. Well, that's interesting. He has your knife now. It's his personal property. How? Continue reading.
#2 He arrests you. According to procedure that cannot be violated or he does NOT have a case in the State of Maryland [and alot of other places, if not all...] there is no chain of evidence.
In Maryland, prohibited weapons that are confiscated are "Marked for Destruction." It's as simple as that. If he let you go by taking your knife. He has it, he wanted it. Period. If he charged you, he charged you, just or unjust as that might be.
I have a friend on a Local Department, and I can tell you for a fact that he has had two situations, one of which we argued about;
A call was made to the Baltimore County P.D., a Widow wanted an Officer to come and pick up her deceased Husband's Gun Collection.
The Officer I know offered her cash money on the spot for the whole thing [still legal, she could change her mind, he violated no law]. She said, "No, I don't like them, I never have and I never will. I would not like you owning them either." He then made one more offer to purchase a couple/few of the more rare pieces, she declined once again.
He checked them in and they were, "Marked for Destruction." That's it.
Now, what we had a disagreement on was, he busted someone for possession of Drug Paraphernalia who was walking down the road. The guy did not look "right" to him, suspicious [A whole other debate, isn't it? I don't agree with this either...].
The guy had a pipe and a Butterfly Knife in his back pocket.
We had a huge argument over one question, "Would you have charged him with the weapon violation had he not had the 'Drug Paraphernalia?'"
He said, "Yes."
What if he did not look like a dirtbag?
He said, "Yes."
So, at the time, it may have changed now, but in Maryland Law, the Balisong or Butterfly Knife was not listed. I don't particularly care about what is listed because the simple fact of the matter is, they can bust you for damned near anything they want to anymore.
In Maryland, there is an exception for, "Common penknife without switchblade."
You see, to me, the Balisong is in fact "common." There have been millions, if not tens of millions, of these knives sold in this country. Dare I say that there are at least 250,000 of these knives in the small State I live in?
At what number of knives sold does a knife reach the status of, "common?"
Even the Buck 110 is considered a, "Common penknife without switchblade."
Oregon is looking better and better. I'm surely not staying here for the rest of my days.
Don't look for specific knives to be a No-No, look for specific exemptions, that's the only thing written in stone. If someone creates some neat, new knife tomorrow, and it is not covered by the law, they will hit you with a Generic, "Deadly or Dangerous Weapons" charge anyway...
And so it goes...
