Assisted Opening, Axis

[LawyerSam]

Do you think a MIni Griptilian by Benchmade or a Kershaw Assisted Opening Knife, like a leek, qualifies under this definition?

7) “Switchblade knife” means any knife that has a blade which opens automatically by:

(A) Hand pressure applied to a button or other device in the handle; or
(B) Operation of gravity or inertia; and



From what I have held, I would not think so. THe assisted opening in the Kershaw is not hand pressure applied to a button or a device but requires manual opening, FIRST. The Mini Grip, I think is questionable as if I recall, that button that is the Axis lock may help with the gravity opening?

 

[MORIMOTOM]

posting the entire definition/section would be helpful.

 

[glistam]

I can tell you from piles of case law I have read over years that I have never once seen an axis lock knife or any other conventional folder (that is, a blade the turns on a single pivot and closes into it's handle and has no springs of any sort involved) being ruled a "switchblade."

The only anomaly I have ever seen is in New York, where the "gravity knife" definition has been applied to knives that are capable of locking open and have a pivot loose enough to be swung open fully when held by the handle or the blade and flipped hard enough. In a strange irony, this has been ruled to not apply to balisongs even though it would seem they might have been the original intended target (given the rarity of true gravity knives, which open if you just hold them upside down).

Likewise, the kershaw assisted opener is almost never ruled to be a switchblade either. The one time it was in Texas, it actually spurred the legislature to rewrite the state law so that there could be no mistake: AOs are not switchblades. Also, when Customs wanted to make a similarly foolish ruling, the US Code was also updated.