Knives with Any Locking Mechanism Banned in Virginia??

[OnlyOneSpyderco]

So I was doing a quick google to look at Virginia's laws on butterfly knives and I came across this very disturbing paragraph:

Ohin’s knife blade also locks securely when opened, much like a switchblade or a butterfly knife, and can be retracted only when unlocked. See, e.g., O’Banion, 33 Va. App. at 60, 531 S.E.2d at 605 (noting that a “retractable blade that can be locked into place” gives a knife a weapon-like quality). The blade comes to a point like a bowie knife, with one side sharpened and the other side shaped with a concave curvature. This blade design likewise improves the knife’s fighting capabilities. What was said about the butterfly knife in Delcid can be said also about Ohin’s knife: It has a “fixed blade, sharp point, and single-sharpened edge” affording it “unquestionable utility as a stabbing weapon.” Id. at 18, 526 S.E.2d at 275; see also Richards, 18 Va. App. at 246, 443 S.E.2d at 179 (finding on “examination of the weapon’s blade” it was a “weapon of like kind”).

Source: http://www.courts.state.va.us/opinions/opncavwp/2708041.pdf

I'm no lawyer, but it seems to me that the majority of (e.g.) Spyderco and Benchmade folders would fall under this category of a knife with "a weapon-like quality." Are only non-locking or rescue folders legal?

 

[OnlyOneSpyderco]

I'm sorry, this is talking about carrying concealed, I guess. So the question is, are locking folders illegal to conceal in VA.

 

[rifon2]

I recommend that you not to try to determine what the "law" is from any one case.
See if you can find additional Virginia cases that discuss locking knife blades.
Pronouncements from the Supreme Court of Virginia on the subject - if there are any -
are, of course, the most important.

Otherwise, you might want to talk to a Virginia lawyer that practices in this field.
They would know best the answers to these kinds of questions.

 

[Jasonhg]

Its only a circuit court decision from an area that I don't live in. Its non binding and not precedent in any way.

 

[FullerH]

Just a couple of points in reading the decision. It was not a simple circuit court but an appeals court ruling upholding the circuit court. It would probably have some precedent value in Virginia. But the problem with the defense's case was that Ohin was a convicted felon, hanging out in a druggie neighborhood, carryng what sounds a lot like a mall ninja special "Killer Knife." He made it worse by calling himself to the attention of the police by yelling at the driver of a car that they had pulled over in a traffic stop.

"How am I stupid? Let me count the ways." Do any of you get the picture of what was going on?

 

[thebladerunr]

read the code of Virginia 18.2-308 and it will explain in much better detail.
Short version is no, they are not illegal.
I also covers "concealed" in plain english terms.

It talks about ANY kind of weapon you might have questions about.

 

[OnlyOneSpyderco]

FullerH:

But the problem with the defense's case was that Ohin was a convicted felon, hanging out in a druggie neighborhood, carryng what sounds a lot like a mall ninja special "Killer Knife." He made it worse by calling himself to the attention of the police by yelling at the driver of a car that they had pulled over in a traffic stop.

He certainly seems like a baddie. It makes me nervous, though, when it's completely up to the officer, judge, or jury whether they want to call somebody's Endura a weapon or not. It opens the door for government misconduct.

thebladerunr:

The key phrase in that code is "any weapon of like kind as those enumerated in this subsection," which in the case I quoted was read to include the knife in question.

 

[dsvirsky]

Relax. It is not illegal to conceal a knife with a locking blade in Virginia. It's not even illegal to carry a concealed fixed blade, as long as the knife is one designed for non-weapon purpose -- the Appeals Court has held that a concealed steak knife did not violate the law (RICKS v. COMMONWEALTH OF VA.

As Hugh has already pointed out, Ohin's crime was being "stupid in public, while a previously convicted felon."

 

[Baileydog]

What is the proper way to measure the length of a knifes blade? I have been told to measure it two different ways. One, from the start of sharpened edge to the point. The other is to push it through cardboard and measure what sticks out the other side. This is very important to me so if any one can help...