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- Oct 3, 1998
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- 3,264
In the 10/2000 issue of Blade, Judge Lowell Bray discusses the Nevada case of Bradvica v. State 760 P.2d 139 (Nev. 1988). Mr. Bradvica was busted during a traffic stop for a little switchblade with a blade that measured 2 5/8" from tip to handle and less than 2" along the cutting edge. The case is interesting on three counts at least.
We now have at least two cases archived, the other being the California case of In re. Rosalio S., wherein an appellate court has ruled that where the legislature doesn't define the concept of blade length, a criminal statute must be construed to measure the blade in the manner most favorable to the defendant. Therefore a blade is measured along the sharpened cutting edge and not to maximum stabbing depth. The California case concerned a Leatherman tool, and whether it was or was not a knife over 2 1/2" for purposes of carrying in a public school, and the court there said to measure it along the edge, without adding in the ricasso.
Note that this case calls attention to the Nevada switchblade statute having a 2-inch rule, which maybe not everybody in the knife business knew was there. That means that the various CA-legal dinky little switchblades are also Nevada-legal, as far as state authorities are concerned. I wonder if anybody wants to try making a CA/NV-legal switchblade, in reliance on those two court cases, where there is 1 15/16" of cutting edge and a finger choil out in front of the handle. That would be a useful pattern.
The other angle to the case was "dangerous knife." The court ruled that it was impossible for anybody to know how to obey the law when "dangerous knife" was not defined, so they threw out the conviction on that section. Interestingly, the Nevada Legislature responded, not by defining "dangerous knife" at some arbitrary blade length, but by substituting "machete" for "dangerous knife" in the statute, as a thing to to be carried concealed on one's person. OK... Is a khukuri a machete? Or a meat-cleaver?
The article ends with a "to be continued," and next month's issue will review current year Nevada Supreme Court case under the revised statute.
Here is what Nevada statute says, as it stands now:
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- JKM
www.chaicutlery.com
AKTI Member # SA00001
We now have at least two cases archived, the other being the California case of In re. Rosalio S., wherein an appellate court has ruled that where the legislature doesn't define the concept of blade length, a criminal statute must be construed to measure the blade in the manner most favorable to the defendant. Therefore a blade is measured along the sharpened cutting edge and not to maximum stabbing depth. The California case concerned a Leatherman tool, and whether it was or was not a knife over 2 1/2" for purposes of carrying in a public school, and the court there said to measure it along the edge, without adding in the ricasso.
Note that this case calls attention to the Nevada switchblade statute having a 2-inch rule, which maybe not everybody in the knife business knew was there. That means that the various CA-legal dinky little switchblades are also Nevada-legal, as far as state authorities are concerned. I wonder if anybody wants to try making a CA/NV-legal switchblade, in reliance on those two court cases, where there is 1 15/16" of cutting edge and a finger choil out in front of the handle. That would be a useful pattern.
The other angle to the case was "dangerous knife." The court ruled that it was impossible for anybody to know how to obey the law when "dangerous knife" was not defined, so they threw out the conviction on that section. Interestingly, the Nevada Legislature responded, not by defining "dangerous knife" at some arbitrary blade length, but by substituting "machete" for "dangerous knife" in the statute, as a thing to to be carried concealed on one's person. OK... Is a khukuri a machete? Or a meat-cleaver?
The article ends with a "to be continued," and next month's issue will review current year Nevada Supreme Court case under the revised statute.
Here is what Nevada statute says, as it stands now:
------------------
- JKM
www.chaicutlery.com
AKTI Member # SA00001