Paul,
When I questioned them abourt it, their reply had to do with case law where they stated that there was an exception to the "mechanical" rule under Section 908. There were three appeal cases that I have read thoroughly. In two of the cases Commonwealth v. Fisher and Commonwealth v. Cartagena, the defendants won the appeal as the knives did not meet the definition of "Offensive" in Section 908. In Commonwealth v. Gatto, this was a fixed blade knife approx. 30" long. The PA Supreme Court looked at the definition '(c) Definition.--As used in this section 'offensive weapon' means any bomb, grenade, machine gun, sawed-off shotgun, firearm specially made or specially adapted for concealment or silent discharge, any blackjack, sandbag, metal knuckles, dagger, knife, razor or cutting instrument, the blade of which is exposed in an automatic way by switch, pushbutton, spring mechanism, or otherwise, or other implement for the infliction of serious bodily injury which serves no common lawful purpose.' and they also stated "It could be argued that the weapon in question is a knife and is therefore prohibited by Section 908 but thiswould be a strained reading of this statute. The items 'knife, razor, or cutting instrument' are modified by the phrase 'the blade of which is exposed in an automatic way by switch, push-button, spring mechanism, or otherwise.' If any other reading were given to this statute a butter knife, or a pack of razor blades would have to be considered offensive weapons." The court focussed on the "or other implement for the infliction of serious bodily injury which serves no common lawful purpose." The court stated that if defendant were in the jungle, then there would be a common lawful purpose for his 30" knife; however, he was in an urban area at 3:30 AM. Conviction upheld.
According to your interpretation above, then any knife would be illegal in PA, and that is not the case. Neither are daggers as they have a common lawful purpose (cutting rope, boxes, anything) and 7" is a far cry from 30".
Yes I saw the disclaimer only after loading the cart because I knew of no reason why this knife should be illegal in PA. I saw the disclamer later, and this is why I inquired with them. This is a very liberal interpretation of the law, and an interpretation where case law suggests that it is totally unwarrented. So yes, even with the disclaimer, they are wrongly including PA in their ban. The other thing is that PA is not NY. If I get caught in PA with something illegal, I go to jailn not the manufacturer, not the retail outlet. I know of no instance where PA has made threats like other states have to distributors and retail outlets. Lastly, I have a rconcealed carry permit allowing me to carry a firearm anywhere in the commonwealth except court houses, post offices and airports. That is one of the exceptions to Section 908 of the criminal code.
