Firewalker 42 said:
has anyone ever heard of someone being arrested for carrying a switchblade when they were doing nothing else illegal or suspicious to otherwise attract LEO attention. In other words any examples of an overall law abiding citizen being arrested and prosecuted for nothing more than having a switchblade.
No. Never.
I'm a computer geek who hangs out with good crowds in good places and I've never been in trouble in my life. I seriously doubt that a cop is going to cuff me and drag me in because my pocket knife has a button and a spring.
It's like turning signals. Ever heard of anyone being pulled over for not using a turning signal? No. But if someone does something BIGGER wrong, they'd get a ticket for THAT and then one for the turning signal on top of it. Same with the auto knife. You're already in trouble for something ELSE and they tack that on to make it worse - perhaps to hold you longer while they get more evidence.
That's not to say that you'd get arrested for an auto knife because you had a tail-light out and they pulled you over to tell you and saw the knife. It'd probably have to be more than that. You'd have to be standing with a group of suspected drug dealers, or in a fistfight at a bar or pulled over for a roadside sobriety test or something more serious than the knife to begin with.
Every time I meet a cop (in a social situation or something) I take the opportunity to ask him/her about this. They all confirm what I said above. That either (A.) you'd have to be already being something else wrong enough to get you busted or (B.) you'd have to be behaving like an unbelievable a**hole when they otherwise found it. If they see it and you're cool, they all say they'd probably just say something like, "take that thing home" or "get it out of my sight" and forget about it.
This is not targeted toward anyone on this thread - they were just answering your question, BUT...
I've often felt that the people who are most paranoid and rabid about telling you how much trouble you're going to get into are probably jealous that other people are brave enough to carry what they wish they were allowed to carry. Some people just like to be angry at "the man" and this gives them another reason. They're probably the same people who always have to complain about what ever ordinance their neighbors are breaking instead of minding their own business.
I was once at a knife table at a gun show. I was watching the girl behind the glass show some Microtechs to a rather large group of interested potential customers. One of them asked if they were legal. She said, "Well..." when some self-righteous S.O.B. some distance away shouted over that it would get them "mandatory jail time" (which it won't) then went on a mini tirade about it and scared her customers away. I wish I could've smacked that self-satisfied smirk off his face. He was real proud of himself.
Ever wonder how all those companies sell all those auto knives they make? Including all those chinese crap autos you see on ebay and at flea markets? That's a lot of auto knives. Millions. They're not just going to cops and military. There are a LOT of auto knives out there in people's pockets and cops have WAY too much to do than to hog-tie some insurance salesman or software engineer and drag them off to jail because they happen to have one in their pocket.
Carry what you want to carry. Stay out of trouble. If the cops see it, be nice.
But that's just my opinion.
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