Advice needed, knife laws in VA related to convicted criminals

N

N8N

Joined
Mar 17, 2007
Messages
204
Hi all,

long shot and probably this needs to be run by legal counsel as to what is and isn't appropriate, but I don't happen to know any that specifically deal with knife law.

I have a friend who through a series of bad decisions has ended up with a felony conviction on her record (non violent.) She borrowed my BM Grip to sharpen some charcoal to sketch with and was admiring it; I mentioned that I had several other decent knives that I don't carry that much if she needed one. She responded that her understanding was that she couldn't carry a pocketknife of any kind due to the fact that she has a record and is currently on probation with the state. Now I know that handguns are Right Out, but I would think that a pocketknife small enough to be considered not to be a weapon would be OK.

Can anyone shed some light on this? The actual laws don't seem to address this, or I'm looking in the wrong section of the code. Is there any case law that establishes what she can and can't carry? I hate to see someone going around "naked" unnecessarily.
 
She can call her probation officer and ask. If it were me I'd avoid it just to be on the safe side unless she likes jail.
 
Her PO is actually a great guy (or at least appears to be) and very reasonable. He was totally on her side and willing to help when she had an issue with a roommate being evicted (long story, but there was a possibility of the police having to become involved, and obviously when you're on probation that needs to be handled delicately) a while back. However, much like police officers, I don't necessarily trust a PO to actually know the law, especially when it's so hard to determine what it actually is.
 
What it comes down to is carrying a knife for defensive purposes could get her in legal trouble. Knife laws are already open to interpretation by law enforcement, and that's without being on felony probation. Being in probation she also has zero 4th amendment constitutional protection. Have her wait nail probation is complete, then get her record expunged.
 
Per state law § 18.2-308 and like most other states, there is no statutory prohibition on people with felony convictions having knives that are otherwise legal for any normal citizen to possess.

However, if she is under parole or probation of any kind, she may have specific restrictions as conditions of that parole or probation, which are specific to her to and her alone and made by the judge. Therefore, to be certain she is compliant you will need to get her both PO and her defense attorney involved to make sure there are no conditions of that kind.
 
Just for the record, I wasn't going to suggest anything "tacticool" or even plausibly to be construed as a weapon, was thinking more like SAK, Opinel, stockman, something along those lines. She seems to think that she just can't carry a knife although I'm not aware of any of those conditions. To me being without a knife, a lighter, and a flashlight is unthinkable... if I have to go in a courthouse etc. I feel woefully unprepared for life on this planet...
 
Sorry, missed replies as life got busy. Her conviction was nonviolent, not weapon related, and was not in any way related to a school, post office, etc.

Her PO seems like a really good guy but she was just assigned him recently so I didn't want to have a conversation like this with him until they'd had a chance to build a solid relationship.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top