What is the difference legally between an auto knife and a spring assisted knife. An auto knife you press a button to release the spring, an assisted knife you nudge the blade. Autos are illegal in most parts of the US, but assisted you can buy over the counter at your local Lowes. Just curious.
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Question about the laws
- Thread starter STPNWF
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I do not know if this covers the legal aspect, not all LEOs are not up on the different mechanisms that make up the 2 different knives:
An Assisted opening knife requires you to touch the tang of the knife in some form or another (flipper or thumbstud) to open and lock the blade into place. A true automatic only requires you to touch a button (never touching the blade), which in releases a blade that is under tension. Keep in mind, knife laws and descriptions are interpreted by LEOs differently in different parts of the country, cities, counties, and anywhere else. A lot of people think an assisted opening knife is a "switch blade", yet there is no switch pe se. There are differences there, but it all depends on who is interpreting the law at that moment.
An Assisted opening knife requires you to touch the tang of the knife in some form or another (flipper or thumbstud) to open and lock the blade into place. A true automatic only requires you to touch a button (never touching the blade), which in releases a blade that is under tension. Keep in mind, knife laws and descriptions are interpreted by LEOs differently in different parts of the country, cities, counties, and anywhere else. A lot of people think an assisted opening knife is a "switch blade", yet there is no switch pe se. There are differences there, but it all depends on who is interpreting the law at that moment.
Esav Benyamin
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Welcome to Bladeforums!
I've moved this to Knife Laws, where we've had this discussion before, and more people are knowlegable about the differences. As RevDevil said, you can also find problems with police and others not knowing the difference, no matter what the law says.
We also have an American Knife & Tool Institute forum. AKTI is a manufacturers group devoted to knife rights and they work with legislators to develop better definitions for knife laws.
Knife Rights is a consumer-based organizations that works with legislators and other lobbying groups to protect us from abuse of our rights.
I've moved this to Knife Laws, where we've had this discussion before, and more people are knowlegable about the differences. As RevDevil said, you can also find problems with police and others not knowing the difference, no matter what the law says.
We also have an American Knife & Tool Institute forum. AKTI is a manufacturers group devoted to knife rights and they work with legislators to develop better definitions for knife laws.
Knife Rights is a consumer-based organizations that works with legislators and other lobbying groups to protect us from abuse of our rights.
Assisted Opening knives were designed to exploit a loophole in the language of most knife laws, including the federal one. 15 U.S.C 1241 (the US-wide federal law) defines a switchblade as:
Most state laws copy this language almost word for word in their definitions. What sets the Assisted Opening knife apart is that it has no device or actuator located in the handle. The operation of the blade's movement is by pushing the blade itself, just like a normal one-handed thumbstud knife. Therefore, it doesn't count as a switchblade under most (but not necessarily all) state and federal definitions.
Why didn't they just rewrite or reinterpret the law to cover AOs too? I think it's because most people around the time of the AOs break into the market realized the old switchblade bans were stupid, knee jerk laws based on watching too many gang movies, and that the fact that handguns are readily available throughout the US made arbitrary restrictions on certain knife mechanism rather foolish and pointless.
Given that, you may then ask "Why didn't they just repeal the switchblade bans?" Well, in some states they have repealed them (NH, AZ). Just that repealing old laws is very difficult to do, often the legislature has their hands full with other more pressing matters (opinions vary on this).
Emphasis added.
Most state laws copy this language almost word for word in their definitions. What sets the Assisted Opening knife apart is that it has no device or actuator located in the handle. The operation of the blade's movement is by pushing the blade itself, just like a normal one-handed thumbstud knife. Therefore, it doesn't count as a switchblade under most (but not necessarily all) state and federal definitions.
Why didn't they just rewrite or reinterpret the law to cover AOs too? I think it's because most people around the time of the AOs break into the market realized the old switchblade bans were stupid, knee jerk laws based on watching too many gang movies, and that the fact that handguns are readily available throughout the US made arbitrary restrictions on certain knife mechanism rather foolish and pointless.
Given that, you may then ask "Why didn't they just repeal the switchblade bans?" Well, in some states they have repealed them (NH, AZ). Just that repealing old laws is very difficult to do, often the legislature has their hands full with other more pressing matters (opinions vary on this).
OK, thanks Rev, Esav, and Glistam. I was just curious because there isnt a whole lot of difference between the two types of knives. One is illegal and one isnt. However, I have been informed by local law enforcement that I could face a concealed weapons charge if Im caught with any kind of knife.
That's sort of correct, but sort of incorrect. No disrespect to cops, but always take knife law advice from them with a measure of caution. They tend to have more important concerns and so their knowledge of knife law rarely requires them to learn the details, and secondly a LEO will almost always err on the side of caution (i.e. it's illegal) because that legal principle (that escapes me right now) where if a cop tells you it's legal, it could get him in trouble if he's wrong or even get you off the hook if you act on it.
More to the point, in Ohio it's illegal to carry a "deadly weapon" concealed.
http://codes.ohio.gov/orc/2923.11
Under the definition above, if a knife is not designed to be a weapon, is not modified in some way to make it more offensively capable, and is not carried with intent of using it as a weapon, it technically would fall outside this definition. Furthermore, 2923.12 indicates that it is a defense to a concealed weapons charge that you carried with a reasonable intent of self-defense or that you were on your own property. Granted, a less informed LEO is probably going to arrest you and let the court sort it out, but in my experience he would never know you had a knife unless you did something to piss him off enough that he would even check you.