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10 States with the Most Lenient Knife Laws

December 5, 2017 / Tim / 14 Comments

This post was published in December 2015, so it might not be completely up to date.

Do you want to carry your knife without fear of arrest? Find a place with knife-friendly laws.

But if you’re having a hard time determining which places have the most lenient knife laws, you’re not alone. Keeping track of knife laws is difficult these days. Not only does each state have its own knife regulations but in some states, each city has its own rules.

Resources Used in Rankings

How am I a judge on knife laws? Here are a few of the resources I used:

1) Doug Ritter, founder and chairman of Knife Rights. Ritter, who we interviewed in 2011, is part of the team that has helped get many of the laws passed in the states that appear on this list, so I thought his advice would be the best. He gave me his thoughts and recommendations about the subject. His rankings ultimately differed from mine, but I like to think I have some reasons.

2) Knife Rights resources. The Knife Rights website has a lot of great resources on the topic. If you aren’t a member or haven’t donated to the knife rights organization, I highly recommend doing so now.

3) American Knife & Tool Institute website. AKTI is another public advocacy group for all aspects of the knife industry. It has a pretty thorough list of knife laws throughout the United States.

4) “Knife Laws of the U.S.: Loopholes, Pitfalls & Secrets” by Evan F. Nappen. Nappen is “one of the most respected legal authorities in the nation on the topic of knife law” and his book is a great resource on knife law. The book was published in 2015, so some information was a little outdated. Knife News did a ranking in 2015 based on the book.

How States Were Ranked

The truth is nearly all of these states are nearly equal in terms of knife-friendly laws. They all have statewide preemption clauses that prevent individual municipalities from issuing their own knife laws and they all have very little restrictions.

New York Governor Vetoes Knife Reform Bill… Again

October 25, 2017 / Tim / 4 Comments

Unfortunately, it’s not just déjà vu. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo vetoed a bill that would have reformed the gravity knife laws in the state for a second year in a row.

The illegality of gravity knives in New York City has been a controversial issue the last few years after it was revealed that police were using the vague law to claim nearly any folding knife illegal by using the wrist-flick test. Police reform advocates and the folks over at Knife Rights wanted to clarify the law to prevent law-abiding citizens from being treated like criminals.

Advocates for the reform were cautiously optimistic that the bill would be signed by Cuomo after satisfying his complaints from the previous year’s iteration of the bill but were disappointed to learn of the veto.

Watch Hilarious PSA from Lawyer on New Texas Knife Laws

September 1, 2017 / Tim / 1 Comment

With Texas still experiencing extreme flooding from the devastating Hurricane Harvey, we continue sending our thoughts and prayers to those affected by the storm. I have personally sent donations to relief organizations and encourage you to do the same.

The ensuing devastation has led Knife Rights to rightfully cancel its BOYB (Bring Your Own Bowie) event at The Alamo on Sept. 2 — an event to celebrate the passage of the new knife laws that will allow Texans to carry blades longer than 5.5 inches almost anywhere.

However, Texans can still celebrate Texas Sword Day, a new holiday deemed by the Texas Law Hawk aka Bryan Wilson, on Sept. 1. Take a look at his PSA for Texans.

Wilson is a lawyer who’s also the proprietor of some very entertaining videos that look like something Tim and Eric would have cooked up had they gone to law school.

Flippy Knife App Makes a Game Out of Knife Throwing

August 8, 2017 / Tim / 0 Comments

Too few knife apps exist.

There’s the must-have blade steel reference app from zknives descriptively called Knife Steel Composition Chart App. There’s the always useful but clunky LegalBlade App from Knife Rights. For a brief but wondrous period, there was the curious KA-BAR app that let you generate your knife name.

Now, there’s a new knife game all you blade fanatics might enjoy: Flippy Knife.

Flippy Knife (Apple/Android) is a physics-based knife game that simulates throwing a knife. There are four different modes: an arcade mode, a throwing knife mode, a vertical ascent mode, and a standard flipping mode.

App reviewers have been comparing the game to the new water bottle flipping fad, but all of us knife enthusiasts know that this is more based on mumblety-peg — the very old knife flipping game dating back hundreds of years.

What’s so special about this game is that the maker contacted several knifemakers and brands to bring actual knives to the game, including the G&G Hawk Deadlock, Brian Tighe Fighter, and BucknBear Velociraptor.

I downloaded the app and played for a bit. It is insanely addictive but equally frustrating.

The modes offer enough variation to not get too tired after a few minutes. I found it extremely difficult to get the technique just right and I noticed the knife did not stick when it was supposed to a few times. I’ve probably just lost my video game touch.

CRKT RSK Mk 5 – Badass Knife of the Week

July 31, 2017 / Tim / 0 Comments

These days, Doug Ritter is best known for founding Knife Rights and fighting for the rights of knife enthusiasts around the country. But, as our latest Badass Knife of the Week reminds us, Ritter isn’t just some guy in a suit; he’s a survival expert that knows a thing or two about what to look for in a good knife.

When you think of the typical survival knife, you probably envision a massive fixed blade with sawback serrations and a hollow handle to conceal a few basic things. The CRKT RSK Mk 5 skips all the fads of modern survival knives and fits everything you need in a compact design that weighs less than an ounce.

Standing for the Ritter Survival Knife, the RSK Mk 5 has an overall length of 3.81 inches with a 1.75-inch blade and skeletonized handle made from stonewashed 2Cr13 steel.

If you think a knife this small can’t help in a survival situation, think again.

Texas Knife Law Reform ‘Bowie Bill’ Signed Into Law

June 21, 2017 / Tim / 3 Comments

In an ironic twist, old knife laws in Texas prohibited the carry of one of the state’s (and country’s) most iconic knife designs: the Bowie knife.

But on Thursday, Texas Gov. Greg Abbot signed HB 1935 into law, which allows for daggers, dirks, stilettos, poniards, swords, spears and Bowie knives to be carried nearly anywhere in the state. The law takes effect Sept. 1.

The bill was set for a vote in the state’s House of Representative just days before the fatal stabbing at the University of Texas in May. The maniac apparently used a hunting knife described as a Bowie knife.

Montana and Georgia Knife Law Reform Bills Become Law

May 9, 2017 / Tim / 2 Comments

Do you live in Montana or Georgia? Well, the knife laws in your states just got a little bit friendlier.

Knife law reform bills spearheaded by Knife Rights have become law in the states of Montana and Georgia. Let’s go into further detail.

Montana Knife Law Reform HB 251

Last month, the Montana bill HB 251 became law without the signature of Gov. Steve Bullock. He essentially allowed the law to pass without putting his name on it. The bill passed by large margins in the state’s House and Senate.

According to Knife Rights, the new bill removes the prohibition against concealed carry without a CCW of “a knife with blade 4 or more inches in length.” It also removes dirks, daggers, sword canes, brass knuckles, razors, and more from the list of items prohibited from concealed carry.

New York Governor Vetoes Bill to Reform Unjust Knife Law

January 3, 2017 / Tim / 3 Comments

In a huge blow to the knife community and civil rights in general, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo vetoed a bill that would have reformed an antiquated knife law that has resulted in thousands of capricious arrests.

We’ve been following this story closely ever since a Village Voice investigation found that as many as 60,000 people were arrested for illegal gravity knives between 2003 and 2013, with more than 80 percent being black or Hispanic.

The current gravity knife laws are poorly written and open to interpretation from individual officers. People who buy knives legally at stores in the New York area have been arrested for carrying a supposedly illegal knife. With some effort, New York police officers can argue nearly any folder is a gravity knife.

Is a Knife Clipped to Your Pocket Considered Concealed Carry?

January 26, 2016 / Tim / 71 Comments

Say you’re walking down the street and you’re carrying a Spyderco Tenacious clipped to your pocket. It may look a little something like this:

If a police officer were to see the knife clip attached to your pocket, would it be considered concealed carry or open carry?

In short, it could be considered either. One of the problems with knife laws is the fact that much of it is left up to interpretation. One police officer may only see the clip and say that the actual knife is concealed in the pocket. Another may say that it’s clearly a part of the knife and it’s showing so the knife is being openly carried.

It matters because in some places, a knife with a blade length more than a certain amount of inches cannot be carried openly. In other places, that same knife must be carried openly.

Wherever you live (and wherever you go), it’s absolutely essential to thoroughly look at your knife laws because they are often littered with phrases and definitions that are general or open to interpretation.

For example, in New York City, knives must be carried concealed. Since the Big Apple is well known for interpreting knife laws very broadly, Knife Rights recommends that knives are never carried clipped to your pocket or you may be arrested, even those with a deep-pocket-carry clip that doesn’t actually show the knife’s body.

Washington State’s Top Court Rules No Constitutional Right to Carry a Knife

January 5, 2016 / Tim / 9 Comments

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In a setback for knife rights advocates, Washington State’s high court upheld a ban on knives in Seattle, ruling that there is no constitutional right to carry a knife.

Wait, what?

Let’s go back to the beginning. In February 2010, Wayne Anthony Evans was pulled over for speeding in Seattle. Evans told the officer he had a sheathed kitchen knife in his pocket when the officer asked. As a result, prosecutors from Seattle charged Evans with unlawful possession of a “dangerous” knife under the city’s ordinance.

After being charged with a misdemeanor, Evans appealed the conviction claiming his constitutional rights were violated.

In 2014, the state court of appeals in Washington upheld the conviction because it concluded that kitchen knives shouldn’t be considered “arms” and therefore were not protected by the Second Amendment.

A paring knife, which may have been similar to the one Evans was carrying when he was pulled over.

A paring knife, which may have been similar to the one Evans was carrying when he was charged.

Then, a week ago, the Supreme Court of Washington State confirmed the earlier ruling that the Seattle law prohibiting the carrying of small fixed blades does not conflict with the Second Amendment.