Kansas knife laws and the legality of balisong/butterfly knives.

I

ian_j

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Kansas knife law states the following:
(a) Selling, manufacturing, purchasing, possessing or carrying any bludgeon, sandclub, metal knuckles or throwing star, or any knife, commonly referred to as a switch-blade, which, having the appearance of a pocket knife, also has a blade that opens automatically by hand pressure applied to a button, spring or other device in the handle of the knife, or by other mechanical contrivance, or any knife having a blade that opens or falls or is ejected into position by the force of gravity or by an outward, downward or centrifugal thrust or movement;

(b) Carrying concealed on one's person, or possessing with intent to use the same unlawfully against another, a dagger, dirk, billy, blackjack, slingshot, nightstick, nun-chucks, sap gloves, tomahawk, dangerous knife, straight-edged razor, stiletto or any other dangerous or deadly instrument of like character, except that an ordinary pocket knife with no blade more than four inches in length shall not be construed to be a dangerous knife or a dangerous or deadly weapon or instrument
Click to expand...

Ok, time for the big question. Are butterfly knives considered a gravity knife or a dangerous knife? Sheesh, the way this law is written they could say any knife is illegal except for the little slipjoints you can get at wal-mart. If anyone has any insight I would greatly appreciate it.

Thanks for your time,
Ian
 
IMHO, i think you should just carry it. If anyone dares to question the legality of your knife, than refer to the lethal striking areas in Jeff Imadas balisong book and go for his or her jugular vein. Ask them while they are losing conciousness if it was really that important of a question. Thats how we do it here in Washington State. :D :D :rolleyes:

PS just kidding! of course.
 
I'm not from Kansas, nor am I a lawyer or LEO, but I would be definitely surprised if balisongs were not classified as a type of gravity/centrifugal knife. I believe they are officially considered as such in a number of states as well as in Canada.
 
I am not a lawyer, and this represents my opinion only, so take this with a big grain of salt.

The blade on a balisong does fall or is ejected by gravity, or a centrifugal thrust, but not into position. In order to bring the blade into position you must manually catch the handle and latch the bali open, otherwise it is simply a freely swinging blade that is not "into position" or ready for use.

A "dangerous knife" is exceptionally vague IMO. By what standards does one determine whether a knife is dangerous? In my mind a balisong is much less dangerous than an ordinary kitchen knife because it can be locked closed keeping the blade from being exposed. A fixed blade knife must reside in a sheath which is an object entirely separate from the knife itself so I don't think can be considered when determining the "dangerousness" of a knife.

Further, what is an "ordinary" pocket knife? Do all folding blades less than four inches fall into that category, or just Swiss army knives? Certainly someone might consider a balisong to be extraordinary, but then I consider knives with built-in torx/flatblade/philips screwdrivers (which several models of swiss army knives have) to be a little more than "an ordinary pocket knife."

Also, part (b) of that law pertains only to concealed weapons or weapons that you are intending to use unlawfully against someone else. If you carry a balisong openly (so that anyone can see it clearly with a cursory inspection) then that part of the law does not apply.

So in conclusion, the second part of the law only affects you if you carry a knife concealed (but I think carrying a BM31 concealed in your pocket would not be construed as illegal in light of my above remarks) and the first part does not pertain to balisongs.

If you are called on for a demonstration of such, just grab the safe handle and let the bite handle fall away. Gravity certainly doesn't move the blade into position. Then you can do a windmill, but don't move you hand out of the way of the handle for the catch. It just ricochets off the back of the hand - centrifugal force hardly moves the blade into position.
 
hell yea

its the same here in the 206
the cops have more respect than that...usually...
 
arrg.

I sure would love to carry a benchmade 31, but in reality it is easier to just carry a "regular" lockback. I've never been approached by an LEO in my 19 years of life(granted that isn't very long:)), but if I was it would probably be better for me not to have a butterfly knife on my person:barf:

Thanks for the responses everyone.
 
Most likely if you have to ask the answer is, don't carry it if there is even a remote chance of losing it via a search. They cost to much to have some LEO take it away and destroy it.

I personally carry ordinary tac folders, if I had my way I'd only carry my BM42.
 
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