Question about Los Angeles knife laws

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Brocket21

Joined
Dec 19, 2010
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I know that you can carry a longer than 3" folder if it is fully concealed in Los Angeles. If you have the knife clipped to your pocket but your shirt hangs down and fully obscures the clip from view, then would that be considered fully concealed? Or does the knife have to be fully inside your pocket, clip and all, to be considered concealed? Thanks for the help.
 
I think what happened with the L.A. law is that some genius wrote that 3 inches is the maximum length blade you can carry openly. But they didn't specify anything about concealed carry, and CA has no statewide law restricting blade length for folders. So technically, I think you can carry whatever you want as long as you hide it. But don't expect law makers or law enforcers to know or care about what the law actually says. I'd recommend you just carry a 3 inch folder and try not to get in trouble.
 
Tsujigiri said:
But don't expect law makers or law enforcers to know or care about what the law actually says. I'd recommend you just carry a 3 inch folder and try not to get in trouble.
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+1

If a LEO isnt aware of this, your options would be to just get in trouble, or fight in court, which is costly and timeconsuming
 
Brocket21 said:
I know that you can carry a longer than 3" folder if it is fully concealed in Los Angeles. If you have the knife clipped to your pocket but your shirt hangs down and fully obscures the clip from view, then would that be considered fully concealed? Or does the knife have to be fully inside your pocket, clip and all, to be considered concealed? Thanks for the help.
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It is technically concealed because any person looking at you would not see it. However, that does not sound like a very solid carry method if your objective is to avoid trouble. For example your shirt might pull up and reveal it. Now I am not as familiar with how the LAPD tends to treat knives. New York City has a similar law and those officers go out of their way to spot and abuse any person with a visible pocket clip, even when it is barely noticeable. However, I have not heard any such horror stories out of LA, so it might not as big a deal to them as say, illegally carried firearms.
 
Thanks Guys. Last question. Let's say an officer stops me and somehow finds out I have a knife clipped to my pocket even though my shirt hides it from view. Will he consider this unconcealed?
 
I would echo what was said earlier and, if you are worried, keep it to 3" or less in LA. In CA, interpretation of open knife carry has much to do with the phrases like "fully visible" and "hanging openly at the waist". If you cover a fixed blade hanging from your belt with a shirt or jacket it can now be considered concealed carry.

Mark
 
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