Knives in D.C.

Maverick299

Maverick299

Joined
Apr 12, 2014
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I will be visiting D.C. here in the coming months and have never been there before. I know they have some pretty draconian laws when it comes to having the ability to protect yourself. Can anyone help me with the knife laws there, please?

Thanks!
 
I live in the D.C. area and will not bring any of my nice knives into the city if I plan on visiting tourist establishments. D.C. has a "Conceal Carry Dangerous Weapons" restriction and you will get into big trouble if you carry a knife that seems "tactical" or designed to be a weapon. Any museum that sees a knife on you will confiscate it for any number of bogus reasons. Most museums hand-check bags - bring a light jacket, place the knife inside a jacket pocket and stash the jacket inside a backpack. I will carry a CRKT M16 or Spyderco Tenacious in this fashion. If you visit the Air and Space museum, do not bring one. They use a metal detector in conjunction with a conveyor x-ray machine and will find any knife inside of a bag. If you bring an inexpensive knife you can easily place it in a bush outside the building while you're in there visiting.

I've heard that the blade length limit is 3". The Air and Space has a ruler taped to the side of each x-ray machine with a red line drawn at 2.5". I just carry whatever I feel like carrying knowing that there is the possibility I may not come home with it.

-B
 
I did the tourist thing last August in DC. Most places, including Air & Space, were just ushering people right in with no bag check and no x-rays or magnetometer. One Smithsonian museum - Native American - did have some goofball at the door who eyeballed people, and he yelled at me to stop when he saw the top of my Streamlight ProTac 2AAA sticking out of my pocket, but when I showed him what it was he went back to being a door stop. The Holocaust Museum is serious about their [bleep], so don't try anything wacky there. I was denied admission to the Capital because of the Vic Classic SD in my pocket, so I hid it outside and retrieved it after I left. I knew it was off limits, but I tried it anyway. The Senate building was fine with my Schrade "tactical" pen, but they have real security there too.

A word to the wise - don't wear a Wilderness Instructors belt like I did. The dang buckle is metal, so you have to take it off to go through magnetometers like at the Capitol. So wear a belt with plastic buckle. Were I to go back to DC, I would put all of my goodies, especially my metal goodies and phone, in a backpack so you don't have to stand there like a goofball at a checkpoint and find your phone, your keys, your tactical pen, your whatever. Its all in the backpack and you just hand it to the guard.

So I guess it really depends on whether the Smithsonian museums are doing actual security checks, or just herding people right in the front door with no checks in order to keep the line moving like I experienced. Only bad people are allowed to have knives and guns in DC, so forget about defending yourself. Rock on.
 
What a crock of *&%$!!!!!!

So I guess a Emerson Karambit is a no go :D



Could I carry the karambit in the city if I were not going to museums?
 
Not sure about the city restrictions. I nearly lost my CS medium Voyager there years ago when an officer saw the clip. It has about a 3.75 inch blade and the officer said that he could take it and arrest me. He was busy with someone else, so he told me to get out of there, and I did. DC is not knife friendly in any way. Use extreme caution!
 
I'm a local and travel to DC all the time.

The city-based restrictions prohibition carry of any knife with a blade longer than 3" with intent to use unlawfully against another. However, DC cops are notoriously thick and often simply presume unlawful intent based on size alone in combination with whatever you did to piss them off enough to search you in the first place.

The law can be found here: http://dccode.org/simple/sections/22-4514.html

As others have stated though, knife carry in DC often becomes impractical for other reasons. Not only museums, but any federal building is likely to have security checkpoints and often metal detectors.

Here's some interesting tricks though for museums. The vast majority, unless their fed-guarded, just do bag checks. This means you have to unzip all the pockets and they poke them with a stick. Some even force you to check your bag at coat-check, like one of the art galleries. But the loophole is these guards are not allowed you check your physical body or any garment you are wearing (unless they see an item in plain site or you are already being arrested). So I wear a photographer's vest loaded with pockets. It is hilarious when my wife gets her little pink purse rooted through and they just wave me in my vest past. I don't actually carry any weapons in; it's just the principle of the thing; I dislike having my privacy invaded and the search are moronic, unnecessary and ineffectual. Plus I don't have to wait in line. I do carry a walking stick though as my self-defense item. It's legal, cannot be questioned due to disability law, and I know how to use it.
 
i have lived in dc since 2003 and have carried diff knives throughout that time. Basically for tourist locales everything up above is fairly accurate, the museums do bag checks and some have metal detectors but the security for the most part is just reactionary , very rarely are they being proactive enough to even look at your pocket. So if i was going to the national mall and museums i prob would not carry, the rest of the city is 3" but basically if your not doing anything illegal and are respectful to police they are not gonna bother , they have plenty of shit to worry about. That being said I'm sure there are some hard asses , but i ve carried a 3" tactical folder on the train and in the city for years and have never had to pull it out for a cop.So if its your bench made or sebenza hinderer what have you go for it outside of museums and fed building but if you have 2000 custom fischer or southard maybe leave that at home just to be safe. enjoy your visit and be safe.

luke
 
oh also , if your military or vet and or paramedic fd from somewhere you'll most likely be ok with whatever as long as its not 4'' or auto. imo
 
I have had decent luck with a carbon fiber penetrator. Not sure if a magnetometer would pic it up or not. If a place has balls to the wall security, I carry a wooden cane and limp really convincingly on my right leg.
 
sc_bane said:
I have had decent luck with a carbon fiber penetrator. Not sure if a magnetometer would pic it up or not. If a place has balls to the wall security, I carry a wooden cane and limp really convincingly on my right leg.
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please tell me there is a sword in that cane :)
 
No sword. Sigh. Has an iron ferrule on both tips though. When i go through a metal detector, it always gets passed through after a check to make sure it isnt hollow.
 
Navitimer said:
large city (read: liberal).
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This is not a political forum. But I would advise you to research how knife laws came to be and why. It has very little to do with our "two-party" system.
I point this out because we gain nothing by needless political name-calling. You have to understand why the laws exist in the first place to get them changed.
 
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