This appeal followed, with the request that we answer a solitary question: "Does a folding knife without switchblade but with a locking device for the protection of the user fall within the exception for `penknife without switchblade' in Article 27, § 36(a)?" Our affirmative response mandates reversal of the circuit court's judgment.
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Mackall v. State, 283 Md. 100, 387 A.2d 762 (1978), makes clear that the State bears the burden of showing that the knife carried by appellant was "not a penknife without switchblade in order to prove the corpus delecti of the crime charged." Id. at 111, 387 A.2d at 768. Mackall also instructs that "[p]enknives today are commonly considered to encompass any knife with the blade folding into the handle, some very large." Id. at 113 n. 13, 387 A.2d at 769 n. 13 (emphasis added).
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[A] penknife is (except in certain circumstances not found here) specifically excluded from the coverage of § 36(a). In our view, the locking mechanism of appellant's knife, described by both appellant and the knife's manufacturer (Buck Knives, Inc.) as a protective feature, does not cause the knife in question be other than a penknife. It lacks the additional offensive qualities of a switchblade or a gravity knife which make those instruments instantly available for any violent design at the command of the user. The lockback knife exacts the same time and motion for opening as is required for any other penknife.