Nonsense. I like Wouter’s blog, but that statement is parochial. Unless the United States (Spyderco’s home!) doesn’t count as “developed” for some silly reason, then there is virtually no chance of his prediction coming to pass. I visibly carry a Spyderco (a real one, with a lock) to university, in church, in the doctor’s office, in cafes, and on the streets without a problem, and I certainly expect to be doing so a decade from now.

Just two years ago, popular outcry led the U.S. Congress to override a proposed U.S. Customs ruling that would have prohibited the importation of locking knives with a spring-assisted opening mechanism. The statute safeguarding the importation of these knives passed in Congress by a large majority, was signed into law by a liberal President, and is in force today.

Meanwhile, in recent years, American states like Arizona and New Hampshire have abolished essentially all of their laws that formerly restricted the carrying of modern knives, including even fully automatic knives (“switchblades”). While there are authoritarian, anti-knife trends in some coastal cities such as NYC and Boston, they remain decidedly in the minority.

I expect that Americans, by the millions, will still be buying and carrying modern pocket knives (which means a lock and a one-hand opening) not only in 2021, but in 2071.