Question on CA law

[Luckylefty01]

In this part:

653k. Every person who possesses in the passenger's
or driver's area of any motor vehicle in any public
place or place open to the public, carries upon his
or her person, and every person who sells, offers
for sale, exposes for sale, loans, transfers, or
gives to any other person a switchblade knife having
a blade two or more inches in length is guilty of a
misdemeanor.
For the purposes of this section, "switchblade
knife" means a knife having the appearance of a
pocketknife and includes a spring-blade knife,
snap-blade knife, gravity knife or any other similar
type knife, the blade or blades of which are two or
more inches in length and which can be released
automatically by a flick of a button, pressure on
the handle, flip of the wrist or other mechanical
device, or is released by the weight of the blade
or by any type of mechanism whatsoever.
"Switchblade knife" does not include a knife that
opens with one hand utilizing thumb pressure applied
solely to the blade of the knife or a thumb stud
attached to the blade, provided that the knife has a
detent or other mechanism that provides resistance
that must be overcome in opening the blade, or that
biases the blade back toward its closed position.
For purposes of this section, "passenger's or
driver's area" means that part of a motor vehicle
which is designed to carry the driver and passengers,
including any interior compartment or space therein.

In this sentence "Every person who possesses in the passenger's
or driver's area of any motor vehicle in any public
place or place open to the public, carries upon his
or her person" do they mean the "or place open to the public" to be part of the ban on possessing them in the front part of cars (public place or place open to the public)? or in all public places in general (as in its part of a whole new thing)?

And also does "carrying" mean only in your pocket or readily available, or would in a bag in the back up a pick-up truck count too.

basically I'm thinking about carrying one in the back of my truck once in a while, since I have something, and then 45 mins or so to chill before doing something else, and it seems like it might be a good time to practice with my bali (I guess it would have to be in a private place to be legal), and even though if I do it, odds are nothing will come of it (I'm naturally a very quiet, law abiding person, who doesn't attract much attention) but I was just wondering what that part of the law meant exactly.

 

[tyme]

The second item ("carries upon his or her person") bans carry in public places. So it doesn't matter whether the "public places" part of the first item applies to car carry or overall carry.

It only makes sense gramatically if it applies to in-vehicle carry, but grammar has not stopped the courts from interpreting things in strange ways in the past.

In other words, I think the commas are meant to be important, and the second "every person who" is redundant.

 

[Mike Tof]

I live in sacramento , Ca. For 3 years i've carried a Camillus 5.5 Cuda
I have been asked about the knife by police twice !
The law that makes it legal is related to " the perpencity to open in your pocket"
It won't ! (see Recguns .comrecguns.com
THE KNIFE PAGE!
Mike

 

[Luckylefty01]

I guess I should have made it clear that I was talking about a balisong, and not a folder.

 

[DB1]

I guess I should have made it clear that I was talking about a balisong, and not a folder.

Balisongs are (unfortunately) a big no-no for any type of carry in CA, outside of your own home. I would definitely not carry a bali in my car. I understand that you would like to practice in your spare time, and I think the law is completely off-base in regards to balisongs, but why risk it?