Knife Sales As A Minor

M

MHoshiko1

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Aug 21, 2012
Messages
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I live in California and am just beginning to make knives. I am wondering whether or not there are any laws stating if it is legal/illegal for a minor to sell knives. I've been searching but all I've been able to find were laws of sales TO minors and not sales from minors. Thanks
-Matt
 
Laws such as this basically don't exist (I say that as a knife law book-worm of 20 years). The only time it's an issue is if you are restricted from possessing a knife. That and broad matters of business law concerning minors and their ability to obtain business licenses or Tax IDs (which falls outside my expertise).

Actually I would go one step further since you are in California: Are you sure there is a law on sale TO minors? I know of no such law, at least at the state level. Could you tell me the statute number? If you only heard this from a knife seller when you tried to buy, odds are extremely high they were either BSing you to keep from having to argue, or they themselves heard it second or third hand.
 
As far as I know, it's illegal to sell knives to anyone under 18 in every state. Generally speaking minors are not allowed to operate a "business" either.
 
In my state i dunno if its illegal to sell knives to minors but i know that i have bought knives at wal-mart and other sporting goods stores before I turned 18 with no questions asked. That was also more than 10 years ago so the laws may have changed now, I dunno
 
JSMcustoms said:
As far as I know, it's illegal to sell knives to anyone under 18 in every state. Generally speaking minors are not allowed to operate a "business" either.
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Absolutely untrue. Most states do not have actual laws on this. Rather, it is simply a very common policy of stores to do this because they don't want to get sued. Such policies are common and clearly the majority, that's for sure. But there's no actual law in most states.
 
Here is a link to the California penal codes. http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/calaw.html

Click on the box on the left column next to "Penal code", then type "knife" into the search box at the bottom. It will provide you with every STATE law in California that pertains to knives. I don't believe that there are any age restrictions in California state law when it comes to the purchasing, manufacture, or sale of knives. But of course, you should never just take a persons word for it on the internet, you should read the law for yourself. I know that as a kid growing up here in Ca, I bought plenty of knives in stores and saw plenty of other kids doing the same.

Man, if kids aren't allowed to operate a business, I imagine the cops must be working overtime to bust all those lemonade stand outlaws ;).

Good luck with your knife making enterprise MHoshiko1.
 
JSMcustoms said:
As far as I know, it's illegal to sell knives to anyone under 18 in every state. ....
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Nah. There may be some that ban all knife sales to minors, but I'd have to see the statutes to believe it.

In your very own state, the only knife prohibition for transference to minors is "bowie knife or dirk" which is more restrictive than most, as far as I know. :)

- OS
 
killgar said:
Here is a link to the California penal codes. http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/calaw.html

Man, if kids aren't allowed to operate a business, I imagine the cops must be working overtime to bust all those lemonade stand outlaws ;).

Good luck with your knife making enterprise MHoshiko1.
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Likewise MHoshiko!

killgar, have a look here. I know you were kidding, but truth is stranger than fiction!

In general minors are prevented from operating a business because they cannot legally sign contracts. If the enterprise does not require a contract (custom knifemaking may apply) then the kid could almost definitely operate under his own name as a sole proprietor.
 
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