I had to read the header at the top of the article twice just to make sure I wasn’t imagining things, because it’s that hard to believe the New York Times has written a two page article on the Knife Rights movement without getting completely hysterical. Talks about the success so far in Arizona and New Hampshire of getting knives deregulated and preempted.
If gun control is ridiculous, knife control is ten times so, because most people have more dangerous knives in their kitchen drawer than knives that are typically banned or restricted. Plus, I agree the Second Amendment protects the right to have bladed instruments just as much as it protects the right to have a firearm. It says to keep and bear arms, after all, not keep and bear guns.
There is a MINIMUM 90 day jail term in Philly, for carrying any knife, even if you have a LTCF. The law defines the offense so broadly that even a Swiss Army knife could get you into trouble.
It so happens I was reading the VA knife laws last night. First offense for concealed carry of anything other than, apparently, a kitchen knife, is a misdemeanor, 2nd is a class 6 felony. The statute also includes a long list of categories of current and former law enforcement agents who can safely ignore it.
I did learn some cool terms, like “dirk”, a short dagger, and “blackjack”, which is the only non-edged weapon on the list.
Philadelphia’s law is so broad that even a multitool could get you into trouble. It is ridiculous, even English law permits a non-locking knife under 3″ for general utility.
Even if knives find the same level of acceptance that they enjoyed for most of the 20th century, I don’t think we’ll see anyone allowed to carry a sword on their hip because (s)he prefers that to a handgun.
It’s scary to think that in Philly, I could go to jail for three months, lose my job, have my house foreclosed, and forever lose my carry permit, just for having the misfortune of getting pulled over by an asshole cop while carrying a small EDC pocket knife.
I bet there are plenty of cops out there who would just love to arrest a CCWer for his pocket knife, simply because they resent that they can’t make an arrest for a legally carried firearm.
Some might say that it never gets applied that way in practice, but this does not comfort me. Police should never have the power to decide for themselves which pocket knives “could be used as a weapon”. If we can’t get preemption, we should at least push for a less vaguely written law.
Now that we have the Heller and McDonald decisions, somebody needs to start filing 2nd amendment challenge lawsuits against all of these cities and states which have these outrageous laws that can turn people into felons just for possessing things like multitools and Swiss Army knives in public. The money for the legal fees ought to be coming from the knife industry and knife retailers themselves, along with some help from the NRA, since the knife rights organizations apparently are not all that prominent yet.