How are the knife laws in your state

Joined
Jul 10, 2014
Messages
319
Just wondering how you all feel about the knife laws in your state.

In FL they aren't to bad if you have your Florida Concealed Weapons License but without that they are pretty bad. Even with the license they could be better because there is no preemption for knives like there is for firearms.
 
Arizona is pretty much the "Disneyland " of knife ownership.
You can walk the mall with a silenced 1911 on your hip, a machete
slung on your chest and an Severtechs in both pockets. I wouldn't,
but I'm not a 1911 guy.
 
Maryland's just "ok" in my opinion. We can own all knives, and carry anything unconcealed. We can only conceal non-auto folders, but on the plus side there is no length limit by ruling of the highest court. So sometimes I carry a CS Rajah I (a 7" folding kukri) just because I can. Our guns laws are bloody awful though. We're one of barely a handful of states that aren't shall-issue with carry permits.
 
While we are not yet a "carry what you want" state, like AZ or NH, from a PRACTICAL stand point, Texas is pretty good, especially now that we have a pre-emption law in effect. Any legal knife can be carried, either concealed or open carry, without the need for any permits or licenses.

A legal knife is defined as being single edged and a 5-1/2" blade as measured in a straight line, from tip to guard (or where a guard would logically be, if there is no defined guard).

The down side is that if it doesn't meet the criteria, one could be charged with carrying an illegal knife and thereby have a close encounter of the expensive kind with our Texas legal system. On the good side, again, MOST Texas LEOs don't really worry about knife law much. They are only going smack someone with an illegal knife charge as a "tack-on" charge if they have already have a reason to be looking at them because they were being an idiot or caught doing something else wrong. Texas LEOs don't walk around with tape measures in their pockets, but I've had several tell me that they use a dollar bill as a gauge. A dollar is longer than 5-1/2" and as long as the blade isn't longer than a dollar, no harm, no foul.

Hopefully, this next legislative session, the term "illegal knife", as well as the archaic ban on daggers, dirks, poniards and Bowies, will be removed from the Texas Penal code, and it will boil down to "what did the idiot actually do with the knife". Knife Rights almost got a bill through last session, but a last minute pissing contest over another bill resulted in the knife language bill being pulled from the Senate calendar.
 
CA is great in my opinion. No blade length restrictions for anything that isn't auto/bali. I don't mind that fixed blades MUST be openly carried. People have grown to expect to see a 5-6" knife on my hip.
 
You may want to do a little more research on FL knife laws, particularly on the definition of a "pocketknife" which is exempted from being considered a weapon. In my opinion (and everyone has one) our laws are not bad but pretty reasonable and in most parts of the state except for the highly urbanized areas no one pays attention to knives anyway unless you are really showing your butt.
Not sure what you mean by "preemption" applying to firearms not knives but I will look through FS Ch. 790 again.
When I consider places like NY City, I am very glad to be here. Knife laws are pretty silly anyway as most people have a drawer full of 6 to 10 inch blades in their kitchen.
Tom
 
You may want to do a little more research on FL knife laws, particularly on the definition of a "pocketknife" which is exempted from being considered a weapon. In my opinion (and everyone has one) our laws are not bad but pretty reasonable and in most parts of the state except for the highly urbanized areas no one pays attention to knives anyway unless you are really showing your butt.
Not sure what you mean by "preemption" applying to firearms not knives but I will look through FS Ch. 790 again.
When I consider places like NY City, I am very glad to be here. Knife laws are pretty silly anyway as most people have a drawer full of 6 to 10 inch blades in their kitchen.
Tom

Our laws are very vague in FL, but that being said, I normally carry fixed blades or generally whatever I want. But then again, I'm a law abiding citizen, who uses all my knives for work, and I remember they're being something about work knives being exempt from like "open carry" etc.
 
What CM said. Cali knife laws aren't bad, all else considered. Should the mood strike, I could carry a BK9 on a baldric, although FSM help me if I have a CRKT Minimalist in my pocket ;-)

Fortunately, I usually carry manual folders, which have no length limit when carried concealed, unless it's an auto or bali song, in which case it's 2 inches.
 
You may want to do a little more research on FL knife laws, particularly on the definition of a "pocketknife" which is exempted from being considered a weapon. In my opinion (and everyone has one) our laws are not bad but pretty reasonable and in most parts of the state except for the highly urbanized areas no one pays attention to knives anyway unless you are really showing your butt.
Not sure what you mean by "preemption" applying to firearms not knives but I will look through FS Ch. 790 again.
When I consider places like NY City, I am very glad to be here. Knife laws are pretty silly anyway as most people have a drawer full of 6 to 10 inch blades in their kitchen.
Tom

What he means is that Florida has a pre-emption law that prohibits counties/cities from establishing firearms law more strict than state law, but they don't have a similar law preventing restrictive knife laws from being implemented.
 
CA is great in my opinion. No blade length restrictions for anything that isn't auto/bali. I don't mind that fixed blades MUST be openly carried. People have grown to expect to see a 5-6" knife on my hip.

I agree. CA is great for knives. It varies city to city but for the most part you can carry any size folder concealed and any size fixed open carry. LA is a main one where the laws change. Not sure about SF. You can carry a sword on your back if you want, but it's definitely going to draw attention. Just wish I could carry a Bali/Auto. Even though most cops don't care about the auto they can pop you for it. The Bali is a definite no go. For some reason people are stuck in the Warriors movie and associate Bali's with gangs.
 
You may want to do a little more research on FL knife laws, particularly on the definition of a "pocketknife" which is exempted from being considered a weapon. In my opinion (and everyone has one) our laws are not bad but pretty reasonable and in most parts of the state except for the highly urbanized areas no one pays attention to knives anyway unless you are really showing your butt.
Not sure what you mean by "preemption" applying to firearms not knives but I will look through FS Ch. 790 again.
When I consider places like NY City, I am very glad to be here. Knife laws are pretty silly anyway as most people have a drawer full of 6 to 10 inch blades in their kitchen.
Tom

As preemption has already been explained I'll just talk about a "common pocket knife", you are partially correct, however what exactly a "common pocket knife" is not really defined in the law. There is some case law that talks about a 4" blade length but even that is not well defined. There have also been some issue with "so called tactical" features on a pocket knife that has caused some issues.
As has been mentioned knife law in FL is very vague and that is what causes the problems. I like the SC approach, you can pretty much carry any knife open or concealed, at least in most places, as SC also has no preemption on knives. A knife only becomes an issue if you actually commit a crime with one, at that point the knife becomes an element of the crime.
Knife law in FL is not terrible just extremely vague hence the issues around knives. Knife preemption has been on Florida Carry's to do list for some time, just hasn't made it to the top of the list yet.
 
As best I can tell, the only things not allowed in the state of KS are hira shurikens, and trench knives with metal knuckle guards.
 
Ohio laws are ridiculous. They leave a lot open to interpretation, and city ordinance trumps state. It's basically up to the local police and prosecutor. Many cities around me limit blade length to 2 1/2". I generally get around this by carrying a "tool", I'm a contractor by trade.
 
I don't mind the laws around Cambridge Ohio, I should talk to one of the cops I know about the city laws around here. The only real Ohio laws are that you can't carry ballistic knives, and no concealment of deadly weapons. I think that the definition of deadly weapon is stupid though, it is "any object that can be used to kill someone". By that logic, i can't hide my hands.
 
WA knife laws are alright. Appears to have a little more explanation in the revised code than other states I've seen. Far from states like AZ, however. No autos, not sure about balis. 3.5" is what most counties, including mine, permit. Luckily I'm on the central/east side. Would be a lot more cautious what I carry around Seattle.
 
While we are not yet a "carry what you want" state, like AZ or NH...

Or TN. Carry anything here now. Only prohibitions regard school property. And don't use a switchblade in a crime, knock over that 7-11 with a Bowie instead. ;)

- OS
 
The People's Republic of Illinois limits blade length to 3" unless you're in the Windy City -- then it's only 2.5".

Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk
 
Alabama knife laws are great . Carry what you want except a "Bowie knife " on your belt that can't be over 13 inch blade IIRC.

Regardless of the laws I've never seen or heard of any trouble with knives here. Other than a few cops not knowing what was legal and what wasn't
 
The People's Republic of Illinois limits blade length to 3" unless you're in the Windy City -- then it's only 2.5".

Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk
I thought Chicago was a 2" max, that's why Spyderco created the Chicago model @ 2" blade.


Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk
 
Back
Top