Legal Knife Carry in California

T

TEX

Joined
Apr 9, 1999
Messages
9
Traveling to California soon. Waht are the
limitations for carrying a knive as it relates to size, blade type, one handed opening type, concealed, non-concealed, etc.

Thanks in Advance

TEX
 
I looked up the California Code on the net and there are many references to knives. So please check it out yourself. The various codes are VERY lengthy.

But generally speaking any knife specifically designed for offensive or defensive purposes, daggers, dirks, gravity and ballistic knives, switchblades, and any knife hidden or concealed in an object like a cane, pen, beltbuckle, etc is illegal. I think they just passed a law allowing certain lockblade and one handed openers but I would check it out carefully.

Generally speaking, I would stick with a small pocketknife for carrying.

 
Here's the CA switchblade statute - Section 653K. Your thumb-operated one-hand folder is street-legal, even if it is smooth enough to flip open too. I think a thumb-operated double-action auto is also street-legal, but I'm sure the legislature hadn't thought of that.

Here's the CA unorthodox weapons and dirk-or-dagger statute - Section 12020. The statute has been amended a few times since I copied and pasted that text, but the changes concern firearms and not sharp objects. All discretely-carried fixed-blade knives with points, as well as all other pointed things, are "dirks or daggers" regardless of blade length, but all folding knives carried in their folded condition are not "dirks or daggers" - regardless of blade length. Your 6" Cold Steel Vaquero-Grande in a deep pocket is street-legal. Carry your puukko openly.

And here is my www.leginfo.ca.gov .

Unless you are in a government sort of building, there is no blade length limit on a pocket knife.

There are city ordinances here and there that limit open carry to three inches. But I haven't heard of Los Angeles cops going around looking for pocket clips and asking to measure knives. I suspect they have better things to do.

I don't know if every cop or DA has gotten the word yet, but CA appellate courts have decided that the "dirk or dagger" definiation is so broad that, in order to apply it in a rational manner, the prosecution must prove that the defendant carried the object with the intent of using it as a weapon. See People v. Hyun

So never tell a cop you're carrying that knife "for protection."


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- JKM
www.chaicutlery.com
AKTI Member # SA00001
 
Thanks A Bunch Guys for the info. It is just what I was looking for. I already knew about the federal building restriction even though I have had them turn me away at an IRS building just because part of the knife was serrerated (sp?). It was under the legal length. I guess the jagged edge made it an assualt blade
smile.gif


Thanks Again.
 
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