ZT/Kershaws speedsafe is california legal. It has a bias towards closure, no button to activate it (you have to use pressure on the blade on a flipper or thumbstud), and possibly a detent off hand.
The local walmart sales Kershaw Cryo's, leeks, blur's, etc and they all have speedsafe and there are various forum posts on the legality of speedsafe. It's quite legal here don't worry.
http://www.zknives.com/knives/articles/law/caknifelaws.shtml
type in "speed safe" in your browsers search and you probably find a few areas talking about it specifically.
"Kershaw Speed Safe AO - The Karnette amendment is also what makes Kershaw Speed Safe assisted opening knives perfectly legal in California. Speed Safe satisfies 3 conditions instead of minimum two, not to be a switchblade, i.e. it has a thumbstud on the blade, which the knife operator has to push to open the knife, second Kershaw AOs have a detent, and just those two would be enough to comply switchblade law, but the torsion bar of the Speed Safe mechanism also forces the blade to stay in closed position, i.e. provides bias towards locked position."
"Part 6/Title 3/Division 5 - Defines legal and illegal pocket knives. Full text of the penal code 17235. The most interesting part of the penal code is the following definition of the switchblade knives:
As used in this part, "switchblade knife" means a knife having the appearance of a pocketknife and includes a spring-blade knife, snap-blade knife, gravity knife, or any other similar type knife, the blade or blades of which are two or more inches in length and which can be released automatically by a flick of a button, pressure on the handle, flip of the wrist or other mechanical device, or is released by the weight of the blade or by any type of mechanism whatsoever.
Basically, this section outlaws switchblades, or automatic knives, plus ballisongs, or butterfly knives. Also whatever else can be opened with the flick of the wrist. However, there are lots of legitimate knives that also fall under that category. Next section clarifies that part:
"Switchblade knife" does not include a knife that opens with one hand utilizing thumb pressure applied solely to the blade of the knife or a thumb stud attached to the blade, provided that the knife has a detent or other mechanism that provides resistance that must be overcome in opening the blade, or that biases the blade back toward its closed position."
These are more or less summaries of the law but I looked into it extensively before I started carrying my cryo, your good state wise. Local laws are another story but I don't know of any that bans assisted opening knives, even in Oakland/SF/LA.
