Assisted openers a felony in Connecticut!

love4steel

love4steel

Joined
Jul 29, 2003
Messages
666
Just had dinner with a cop buddy of mine and we got on the discussion of knives as I was showing him my new emerson.. and he told me something I didnt know.. Which was any "assisted" opening knife (i.e. kershaw's) are a FELONY here in Connecticut. :eek: I'll have to double check his info but Im assuming he's right. Guess I better not carry my nitro anymore!
 
Was he talking about policy that the entire department is enforcing abou AO knives in specifics? I've seen and heard about lot of officers who did not make the distinction between auto knives and AO.
 
KJlost said:
Was he talking about policy that the entire department is enforcing abou AO knives in specifics? I've seen and heard about lot of officers who did not make the distinction between auto knives and AO.
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No he specifically mentioned the knives which you start opening manually and then a mechanism takes over.
 
sec 53-201..it is a class d felony. but im uncertain on length im seeing four inches but it is very grey. it also says spring type knife released by the handle . in my opinion a self assister is not released from the handle it must open 30 degrees before the spring takes over. however i did see a law defining auto knives at 1 and 1half inches in length. this is not legal advise it is my opinion that i personally would carry it in my pocket. and take my chances. its basically how you represent your self to the contacting agency. i would put it in my pocket a be quiet.

fried
 
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love4steel said:
No he specifically mentioned the knives which you start opening manually and then a mechanism takes over.
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it might be a question for the court. some leo,s simply dont know the laws. they think they do but some really do not. thats why they are not judges.
 
friedporkchop said:
it might be a question for the court. some leo,s simply dont know the laws. they think they do but some really do not. thats why they are not judges.
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This is what I was thinking as well. I was under the impression that AOs were 50 state friendly
 
Resist said:
This is what I was thinking as well. I was under the impression that AOs were 50 state friendly
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Yeah, you can still buy them in NJ, so you can probably have them anywhere, except NYC, you can't have anything there. Go to your local chain sporting goods store, if they're selling them, they're not illegal. That's the way I sees it.
 
love4steel said:
...any "assisted" opening knife (i.e. kershaw's) are a FELONY here in Connecticut...
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That is actually an opinion, not a fact.

The Connecticut General Statutes prohibit "...any switch knife, or any knife having an automatic spring release device by which a blade is released from the handle, having a blade of over one and one-half inches in length..."

The statutes make no mention of assisted opening knives. However, they do not define a "switch knife". The wording following the comma after switch knife would seem to be a definition of a switch knife, but the comma indicates that the legislature considered them to be separate entities.

See this post in the Knife Laws sub forum for additional information.

One of the guys who works for me recently confiscated an assisted opening knife but did not arrest the person who was carrying it. He later showed the knife to me. I explained that it was an assisted opening knife, and found out that he had never heard of one. I explained the difference between a switch blade and an assisted opener, and told him that I did not consider the knives to be illegal. He respectfully disagreed. Since the statutes involved are admittedly ambiguous, I am trying to obtain an opinion from the States' Attorney for our area. (Despite the fact that they seldom want to commit to any firm opinions.) If I am able to get a ruling, I will post it in the Knife Laws forum.

Checking the AKTI website last night, I discovered that they were able to get an amendment to the Federal Switchblade Act that explicitly exempts assisted opening knives from the laws prohibitions (see below). I will provide this information to the States' Attorney when I try to get his opinion.

The change to the act includes language stating that knives fitting the following description are not switchblades;
a knife that contains a spring, detent, or other mechanism designed to create a bias toward closure of the blade and that requires exertion applied to the blade by hand, wrist or arm to overcome the bias toward closure to assist in opening the knife.*​
 (I noticed that the definition is followed by an asterisk, but I was not able to determine what it referred to. There don't seem to be any corresponding asterisks on that page.)
 
Haven't heard that from the guys I talk to, most of them know the difference, but
I wouldn't put it past them to try and get someone for it if they were causing trouble. Will be interesting to hear what the state's attorney says if anything.
 
so many of our laws are grey and confusing..
we had a guy here in connecticut recently get arrested because his t shirt was not covering his firearm and a woman called it in.. he was arrested for breach of peace even tho he had a license to carry:confused: He ended up going to court and suing the town and police force who took his firearm and won the case! the court had to admit that nowhere in the laws for the state of CT does it say your weapon must be concealed. however, if i were to not conceal and walk down the street i would have trouble by the police because they are not properly informed of the laws!
 
GWashington1732 said:
Yeah, you can still buy them in NJ, so you can probably have them anywhere, except NYC, you can't have anything there. Go to your local chain sporting goods store, if they're selling them, they're not illegal. That's the way I sees it.
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Hey that's a pretty good point
 
GWashington1732 said:
Yeah, you can still buy them in NJ, so you can probably have them anywhere, except NYC, you can't have anything there. Go to your local chain sporting goods store, if they're selling them, they're not illegal. That's the way I sees it.
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If you're at all concerned with the laws I wouldn't use the theory if it is sold in that state then it must be legal.
 
Chris Meyer said:
That is actually an opinion, not a fact.

The Connecticut General Statutes prohibit "...any switch knife, or any knife having an automatic spring release device by which a blade is released from the handle, having a blade of over one and one-half inches in length..."

The statutes make no mention of assisted opening knives. However, they do not define a "switch knife". The wording following the comma after switch knife would seem to be a definition of a switch knife, but the comma indicates that the legislature considered them to be separate entities.

See this post in the Knife Laws sub forum for additional information.

One of the guys who works for me recently confiscated an assisted opening knife but did not arrest the person who was carrying it. He later showed the knife to me. I explained that it was an assisted opening knife, and found out that he had never heard of one. I explained the difference between a switch blade and an assisted opener, and told him that I did not consider the knives to be illegal. He respectfully disagreed. Since the statutes involved are admittedly ambiguous, I am trying to obtain an opinion from the States' Attorney for our area. (Despite the fact that they seldom want to commit to any firm opinions.) If I am able to get a ruling, I will post it in the Knife Laws forum.

Checking the AKTI website last night, I discovered that they were able to get an amendment to the Federal Switchblade Act that explicitly exempts assisted opening knives from the laws prohibitions (see below). I will provide this information to the States' Attorney when I try to get his opinion.

The change to the act includes language stating that knives fitting the following description are not switchblades;
a knife that contains a spring, detent, or other mechanism designed to create a bias toward closure of the blade and that requires exertion applied to the blade by hand, wrist or arm to overcome the bias toward closure to assist in opening the knife.*​
 (I noticed that the definition is followed by an asterisk, but I was not able to determine what it referred to. There don't seem to be any corresponding asterisks on that page.)
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That's just great. Your buddy took someone's knife away because he has his own interpretation of the law. The guy who owned it probably paid good money for it and now where is it? Your buddy's pocket?
 
Brennanscott said:
That's just great. Your buddy took someone's knife away because he has his own interpretation of the law. The guy who owned it probably paid good money for it and now where is it? Your buddy's pocket?
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Confiscation without documentation is just plain theft.:thumbdn:
 
First gentleman Chris is a knife collector like us, and he is telling you how some officers act. Do shoot the messenger. Secondly, no where in their did he say the officer illegaly took the knife. He said it was conficated and the subject was not arrested. Chris is a ranking officer, and being a former one myself I don't think an officer would tell one of his bosses " look what I stole". The officer reads the law differently than one of his bosses, that is all Chris is trying to tell you. I often don't answer questions in this section when you know you are trying to give a quality true answer to a question, and the comments against you start flying. Please remember that if someone is a member here, he has an interest in knives that goes far beyond the normal guy on the street. If some one gives you the benefit of their experience and knowledge in response to a question asked of them, you need not attack them when you don't like the truth they are telling you.
 
tom19176 said:
First gentleman Chris is a knife collector like us, and he is telling you how some officers act. Do shoot the messenger. Secondly, no where in their did he say the officer illegaly took the knife. He said it was conficated and the subject was not arrested. Chris is a ranking officer, and being a former one myself I don't think an officer would tell one of his bosses " look what I stole". The officer reads the law differently than one of his bosses, that is all Chris is trying to tell you. I often don't answer questions in this section when you know you are trying to give a quality true answer to a question, and the comments against you start flying. Please remember that if someone is a member here, he has an interest in knives that goes far beyond the normal guy on the street. If some one gives you the benefit of their experience and knowledge in response to a question asked of them, you need not attack them when you don't like the truth they are telling you.
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Who's attacking him? I'm talking about Officer Favre walking around with someone's knife in his pocket because he wanted it.
 
When someone calls a guy "my buddy" twice, I can only assume you include me. Your qoute:

"That's just great. Your buddy took someone's knife away because he has his own interpretation of the law. The guy who owned it probably paid good money for it and now where is it? Your buddy's pocket?"

I consider that an attack on the guy writing. You did not say "an officer" you made it his "buddy" , and Chris clearly stated he differed from that officer's view. My guess is that perhaps as a supervisor, Chris may have become aware of the knife while signing off on a properly filled out property voucher for the knife, and not while seeing the nice new knife in his "buddy's" pocket....
 
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