Knife carrying laws - differences that exist

Chui

Chui

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Here in UK we have blanket knife carrying laws - from the top of mountains in Scotland to the bars of a London pub - the same all over. We cannot carry in public - anywhere - without good reason, anything other than a knife with cutting edge equal/less than 3”, cannot lock open in any way, has no ‘opening’ mechanism, manual only.

I have been to the ‘States many times, and everywhere we’ve been there are knives on belts and a general attitude of total acceptance - great. This is mainly small towns and country.

Have no wish here to debate the why’s and wherefore’s of these UK/USA laws……..but a friend recently visited New York and was taken aback at the body searches and clamping down of knives - so, in USA is it more a city jurisdiction scenario….? Are your laws tightening all over or just some bigger towns and cities…?
 
Each state has it own knife laws. In some states, smaller jurisdictions can have stricter controls than the state, I believe. If you look up the American Knife and Tool Institute, they have a pretty good explanation of the situation.

Also, certain places like courthouses often have complete bans. I stopped carrying a knife altogether for a number of years when my job required me to go to the courthouse frequently. There were times I forgot and had a knife on me, and had to stash it in the bushes outside…

Out and about elsewhere in my home state, I am free to carry whatever size or type of folding knife I wish except a switchblade.
 
It's a patchwork of state, county, and municipal laws, which sometimes include additional restrictions for places like courthouses, schools, etc.

It's the same for gun ownership/carry, alcohol sales/consumption, etc. (all the fun stuff)

To add another complication, not all law enforcement officers are well versed in the law.
 
As is the case with many laws here in the USA, individual states are given the ability to decide its own laws in addition to the federal country wide laws, that applies to knives, driving, gambling, even prostitution.

Having lived in no less than 5 different states and traveled through at least 40 of them over the years, I have never had any issues carrying what I wanted to except for certain places where knife carry isn’t allowed in todays climate, such as some government buildings, theme parks, airports, and some schools.

I always have a multitool on my belt, as well as a knife or two in my pocket, sometimes even a fixed blade carried openly, but I avoid those big cities in “progressive” states such as NYC, Chicago, L.A., Portland, etc.

In general, people in the US don’t fear regular knife carry, it’s common and knife crime is low, mostly domestic when it does happen such as a couple fighting in their kitchen.

It’s such a large country that experiences can vary greatly depending on location, for example, where I currently live I have never once locked the door to my home, even when away at work, and I leave the keys to my truck and my wallet on the console when parked in my driveway, but I would never do that if I lived in a bigger city or even in the next town over where I work. The rural life has its challenges, but that feeling of ease and trust is worth the long drive into town for groceries.
 
BJE said:
As is the case with many laws here in the USA, individual states are given the ability to decide its own laws in addition to the federal country wide laws, that applies to knives, driving, gambling, even prostitution.

Having lived in no less than 5 different states and traveled through at least 40 of them over the years, I have never had any issues carrying what I wanted to except for certain places where knife carry isn’t allowed in todays climate, such as some government buildings, theme parks, airports, and some schools.

I always have a multitool on my belt, as well as a knife or two in my pocket, sometimes even a fixed blade carried openly, but I avoid those big cities in “progressive” states such as NYC, Chicago, L.A., Portland, etc.

In general, people in the US don’t fear regular knife carry, it’s common and knife crime is low, mostly domestic when it does happen such as a couple fighting in their kitchen.

It’s such a large country that experiences can vary greatly depending on location, for example, where I currently live I have never once locked the door to my home, even when away at work, and I leave the keys to my truck and my wallet on the console when parked in my driveway, but I would never do that if I lived in a bigger city or even in the next town over where I work. The rural life has its challenges, but that feeling of ease and trust is worth the long drive into town for groceries.
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- thank you. Sadly..........different now in UK - you don't have the mindset of a nation like we appear to be stuck with here in UK, north to south, east to west. Sure, we're not as big and wide a country as the 'States with all their thousands of square miles of hunting too - however, it really wasn't that long ago, in my lifetime, that carrying and using a wee pocketknife never batted an eyelid - anywhere in the whole country.

Most knife crime here is teenagers protecting their drug turf and using a supermarket/grocery store $5 kitchen knife.

We have to learn to live with it.
 
Chui said:
- thank you. Sadly..........different now in UK - you don't have the mindset of a nation like we appear to be stuck with here in UK, north to south, east to west. Sure, we're not as big and wide a country as the 'States with all their thousands of square miles of hunting too - however, it really wasn't that long ago, in my lifetime, that carrying and using a wee pocketknife never batted an eyelid - anywhere in the whole country.

Most knife crime here is teenagers protecting their drug turf and using a supermarket/grocery store $5 kitchen knife.

We have to learn to live with it.
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I was going to give a different response, but then I decided it would be unnecessarily political and unhelpful. So instead, I just thought that I would say:

I live in Oregon, the 10th largest state in the US. It also happens to be the smallest state that is still larger than the entire UK. The UK has a population of almost 67 million, Oregon has a population of almost 4.24 million.

Even California, our most populous state has a smaller population than the UK, and it is the size of France. Out West we usually have looser knife laws, and a lot more empty space. In the east, where population densities get closer to the UK, the knife laws get tighter.
 
NYC itself can be quite varied, especially near major attractions. Once you leave the immediate city, the story is a bit different
 
abbydaddy said:
I was going to give a different response, but then I decided it would be unnecessarily political and unhelpful. So instead, I just thought that I would say:

I live in Oregon, the 10th largest state in the US. It also happens to be the smallest state that is still larger than the entire UK. The UK has a population of almost 67 million, Oregon has a population of almost 4.24 million.

Even California, our most populous state has a smaller population than the UK, and it is the size of France. Out West we usually have looser knife laws, and a lot more empty space. In the east, where population densities get closer to the UK, the knife laws get tighter.
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That’s actually a point I nearly brought up in my earlier post, population density seems directly related to craziness, being watched and regulated like a child, and definitely influences where I would live or visit. People = problems, the more people in an area the more problems.

The good thing about even the big cities here in the states, is that it’s not too hard to leave the city center and once on the outskirts, things start to get better. Upstate New York is vastly different in a good way compared to NYC.

We have a lot of problems, and they aren’t the ones most people hear about in the media, but everytime I think I need to move somewhere else because I don’t want to deal with the decline in society, I can’t think of anyplace else that doesn’t have just as many or more issues.
Truly I just wish I could go back in time, I know much is just rose colored nostalgic glasses, but I really just don’t abide by today’s human climate.
 
Check out Dale Cregan...an English houso for whom the law had no meaning...Dale didn't mess about with knives...when the police knocked at his door he killed them by chucking a hand grenade...pretty sure grenades are against the law too...the question remains ..where does one pricure a grenade?
 
BJE said:
That’s actually a point I nearly brought up in my earlier post, population density seems directly related to craziness, being watched and regulated like a child, and definitely influences where I would live or visit. People = problems, the more people in an area the more problems.

The good thing about even the big cities here in the states, is that it’s not too hard to leave the city center and once on the outskirts, things start to get better. Upstate New York is vastly different in a good way compared to NYC.
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Not so. Depends where the big US cities are. There is a correlation (not 100%) between knife laws and open carry laws. 31 states allow open carry now. And for knives, for example in Dallas, Pittsburgh, Phoenix, Salt Lake, New Orleans, etc., you can openly carry fixed blades of reasonable size.

There will always be federal restrictions of course, and some special laws for schools, government buildings, TSA, etc.
 
For an example my state(Michigan) it is legal to carry almost any length of fixed blade as long as it is visible. However in the city next to mine they have a law stating you cannot carry any fixed blade of any size. As normal conditions of the day I can and will cross into that cities boundary sometimes more than once. So I cannot easily carry a fixed blade. My state has also repealed a switchblade ban, there is some confusion in the wording but it seems to say side open switchblades are allowed to be carried in my state now but there are still county and city laws that would ban them in certain municipalities.
 
Yeah hate that when different municipalities have their own BS. The law abiding suffer as usual for the criminal few. Probably Democraps are to blame
 
r8shell said:
Impressive. We made it all the way to post #15 before the political invective. :rolleyes:
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On a tangential note, my dyslexic brain likes to move letters around on me. The example I often use is "sacred" and "scared." When I grew up reading adventure books, I never understood why there were so many scared idols. Why were the Gods frightened? It seemed weird. The relevance here, is that my brain always defaults the particular word that Mauser9 used to "Democarp", which my brain insists is a demonic fish. So instead of registering it as political invective, my brain is too busy imagining D&D campaigns battling Democarp monsters while trying to cross a stygian river.
 
Just Tom. said:
Also, certain places like courthouses often have complete bans. I stopped carrying a knife altogether for a number of years when my job required me to go to the courthouse frequently. There were times I forgot and had a knife on me, and had to stash it in the bushes outside…
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What if they found out at the entrance that you have a knife? I am not from US, but I am from european country with relatively loose knife/gun laws and the police/security has metal detectors at the entrance to any high level government building, but you just have to hand it to them and they keep it at the entrance (or in a safe). I remember that one of my friends left big Bowie knife in his backpack once, so the police was a little bit suspicious of him when the metal detector found it out, but he had to hand it to them to get into the building, so they let him go. He told them that he cuts apples with it, but who knows. Maybe he wanted to stage a coup d'état that day!

(The open carry is totally different thing. I think that there is no strict law against open carry of knives, even machetes, but the security or police would certainly be interested in you if you went with open carry machete or combat knife where it is kot reasonable - like hospital, schools etc...)
 
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