Mini Legality???

C

ColonelX

Joined
Aug 11, 2008
Messages
686
i know that in california swithcblades are legal if the blade is under 2 inches does the same apply for balisongs?

cheers

the Colonel
 
While the laws don't specifically ban balisongs or butterfly knives, they do go about banning them in a roundabout way.

According to penal code 12020, it says that any person who "Manufactures or causes to be manufactured, imports into the state, keeps for sale, or offers or exposes for sale, or who gives, lends, or possesses any ... shobi-zue" and then further explains "As used in this section, a 'shobi-zue' means a staff, crutch, stick, rod, or pole concealing a knife or blade within it which may be exposed by a flip of the wrist or by a mechanical action."

Looks like you might be out of luck.
 
Nope, butterfly knives are, for some inexplicable reason, completely banned in California. Even distributors who sell only to dealers can't stock them even if they ship all of them out of state.
 
The part that bothers me the most is that, if you think about it, a bali-song is just as safe or as dangerous as any folding knife, if not safer due to the lock's reliability.

The only solace I can claim is:

You will find that the State is the kind of organization which, though it does big things badly, does small things badly too.

—John Kenneth Galbraith
Click to expand...
 
Hmmm . . . I thought there was a CA case that said butterfly knives were deemed to be "switchbaldes" as defined in 653k.
 
It is also my understanding that butterfly knives are defined as switchblades in CA, and thus would be legal under the same conditions as a switchblade. You mileage may vary.

Best regards,

Argyll
 
From a summary by Bernard Levine

California case law:
Butterfly knife which has blade in excess of two inches is
"switch-blade knife" within meaning of... 653k. [Attorney
General's opinion 11-19-1985.]

So it looks like the CA attorney general thinks that a butterfly knife is a switchblade. Also, after looking more closely at what a shobi-zue is, it seems like a big stretch to say that a butterfly knife is a shobi-zue and I did not see any CA authority for that proposition.
 
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