Thinking of moving to texas..

[Riley12]

So I might be moving to texas pretty soon and I've heard they have the strictest knife laws. I don't plan on openly carrying a fixed blade unless I'm in the woods, but that's the problem, would I get stopped and arrested for a blade over 5 1/2 inches if I'm actually using it in the woods? I generally only carry manual open pocket knives under 4 inches so that doesn't really matter but I also like machetes for outdoor use. Can I legally use one?

 

[zzyzzogeton]

Basically, yes you can. I open and conceal carry legal fixed blades every day.

More specifically.....

Strict is in the eye of the beholder. Are Texas knife laws as liberal as Arizona or New Hampshire? No. Are they as restrictive as New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts, Los Angeles County/City in California? Again NO. We're in the middle.

People keep getting all wrapped up around the axle about "illegal" knives in Texas, without really READING the law.

Texas has 2 categories for knives - Legal and Illegal.

Legal means you can carry the knife in public.

Illegal means that a knife that meets the criteria of "illegal knife" is illegal to carry in public.

So , what makes a knife "legal" in Texas, i.e., you can carry it in public down the street?

A legal knife in Texas is a knife with a blade that has a single sharpened edge, and a length, as measured from tip to guard in a straight line, of 5.5" or less. Switchblades and balisongs are legal to carry as long as they meet the edge and length requirements.

Knifewise in the list of illegal knives/weapons, there are 7 knives/weapons that are specified as being illegal based on a descriptive term - swords, throwing knives, tomahawks, daggers, dirks, pongiards and bowie knives are specifically named. You can own any of those you want, you just can't carry them in public. I have literally hundreds of sharp,pointy objects that are "illegal" and I carry them on a daily basis when working on the farm, hunting, fishing or chunking at targets.

By court case precedent, a dagger is a double-edged knife. A double-edged knife has been determined, again by court precedent, to be a knife with any amount of sharpening on the spine. Since, per Texas courts again, a dirk is "a short dagger". "Pongiard" is simply French for "dagger". A Bowie knife is undefined, with many a police officer and judge saying "I know what one is when I see it." Or words to that effect.

So the big determination - public vs. non-public.

If you are on ::
- your own property
- property you have leased or rented
- on on someone else's property WITH THEIR KNOWLEDGE AND CONSENT
- in your own, or a rented, or a legally borrowed vehicle

you are in a "non-public" location and can carry anything you can afford.

Even if you are arrested for doing something else illegal, if you are otherwise legally on the non-public property, they won't tack on an illegal knife charge.

Now if you are trespassing, hunting/fishing w/o a license or driving a stolen vehicle or something else that invalidates your "non-public" status, you will be charged.

In attempts to change Texas' knife laws, there are 3 bills in the legislature right now.

1 is to remove the word "Bowie" from the list of specifically illegal knives. Such a simple change, but the bill hasn't moved since introduction, so I'm not as optimistic as I was earlier this year.

2 is a knife pre-emption law that would essentially remove city and county laws from the books and make a single knife law state-wide. This has been passed out of committee and is waiting on a slot in the House calendar for a House vote.

3 is to remove ALL knife laws, similar to Arizona's. Still waiting for it to be released from committee.

So, come to Texas. You'll be fine.

 

[Riley12]

Basically, yes you can. I open and conceal carry legal fixed blades every day.

More specifically.....

Strict is in the eye of the beholder. Are Texas knife laws as liberal as Arizona or New Hampshire? No. Are they as restrictive as New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts, Los Angeles County/City in California? Again NO. We're in the middle.

People keep getting all wrapped up around the axle about "illegal" knives in Texas, without really READING the law.

Texas has 2 categories for knives - Legal and Illegal.

Legal means you can carry the knife in public.

Illegal means that a knife that meets the criteria of "illegal knife" is illegal to carry in public.

So , what makes a knife "legal" in Texas, i.e., you can carry it in public down the street?

A legal knife in Texas is a knife with a blade that has a single sharpened edge, and a length, as measured from tip to guard in a straight line, of 5.5" or less. Switchblades and balisongs are legal to carry as long as they meet the edge and length requirements.

Knifewise in the list of illegal knives/weapons, there are 7 knives/weapons that are specified as being illegal based on a descriptive term - swords, throwing knives, tomahawks, daggers, dirks, pongiards and bowie knives are specifically named. You can own any of those you want, you just can't carry them in public. I have literally hundreds of sharp,pointy objects that are "illegal" and I carry them on a daily basis when working on the farm, hunting, fishing or chunking at targets.

By court case precedent, a dagger is a double-edged knife. A double-edged knife has been determined, again by court precedent, to be a knife with any amount of sharpening on the spine. Since, per Texas courts again, a dirk is "a short dagger". "Pongiard" is simply French for "dagger". A Bowie knife is undefined, with many a police officer and judge saying "I know what one is when I see it." Or words to that effect.

So the big determination - public vs. non-public.

If you are on ::
- your own property
- property you have leased or rented
- on on someone else's property WITH THEIR KNOWLEDGE AND CONSENT
- in your own, or a rented, or a legally borrowed vehicle

you are in a "non-public" location and can carry anything you can afford.

Even if you are arrested for doing something else illegal, if you are otherwise legally on the non-public property, they won't tack on an illegal knife charge.

Now if you are trespassing, hunting/fishing w/o a license or driving a stolen vehicle or something else that invalidates your "non-public" status, you will be charged.

In attempts to change Texas' knife laws, there are 3 bills in the legislature right now.

1 is to remove the word "Bowie" from the list of specifically illegal knives. Such a simple change, but the bill hasn't moved since introduction, so I'm not as optimistic as I was earlier this year.

2 is a knife pre-emption law that would essentially remove city and county laws from the books and make a single knife law state-wide. This has been passed out of committee and is waiting on a slot in the House calendar for a House vote.

3 is to remove ALL knife laws, similar to Arizona's. Still waiting for it to be released from committee.

So, come to Texas. You'll be fine.

Awesome thanks for the detailed response! I hope to move within a year and the whole Bowie thing throws me off cause isn't texas pretty much the birthplace of the Bowie knife?

 

[zzyzzogeton]

Awesome thanks for the detailed response! I hope to move within a year and the whole Bowie thing throws me off cause isn't texas pretty much the birthplace of the Bowie knife?

Well, IIRC, the original knife that Rezin Bowie had made for his brother Jim was made in Arkansas. The incident for which the Bowie knife first became famous was the "Sand Bar Fight" in Louisiana in 1821ish. The only famous thing he did in Texas was die while sick and bedridden at the Alamo.

All of the various state law bans on the carrying of Bowie knives were based on 2 things - Reconstruction era banning to disarm poor whites and freed slaves who couldn't afford guns for self-defense and also typical Legislative feelgood BS laws similar to the same hysteric response in the 1950s for banning switchblades - bad press.

 

[Doubletee]

If your moving to Corpus Christi or San Antonio brush up on those restrictive places,, mostly an add on charge if caught doing something else but worth knowing about,,, exact laws I'm not sure of due to brain fart from working all day!!???

 

[V-Edge]

IIRC, in San Atonio, you basically can't have a locking folding knife (as the local laws ban any locking folding knife under 5.5 inches, with anything over 5.5 inches being illegal by state law). Fixed blades and non-locking folders though...or I guess one that's EXACTLY 5.5 inches
In Corpus Christi, no locking blades over 3 inches in blade length, otherwise, all other state laws apply.

 

[Riley12]

I'll be moving to Austin.

 

[zzyzzogeton]

Corpus Christi bans all fixed blades in public and has a 3" limit on folding knife blade lengths.

San Antonio has a REALLY stupid "anti-gang, get tough on crime, politician feel good" ordinance that bans all LOCKING folders that have a blade length of LESS THAN 5.5" but has no ban at all on fixed blades or slippies. Since the MAX legal length on any legal knife is 5.5" or less, the ordinance becomes an effective ban on all locking folders. There are exemptions for "work required" knives while working and for "travelers", with no definition of what constitutes traveling.

Hopefully, if the pre-emption bill passes, these ordinances will become null and void.

 

[messt99]

Hey everyone, I'm new to this forum and just started to get involved with knifes. I was wondering if anyone knows a website/source to find local laws. I live in Pharr, Tx, and the law in this city, according to the officer, any blade that is longer than the your 4 fingers is an automatic arrest. I would like a document source to this because it doesn't sound accurate. I carry a CRKT M16-14ZER. With my fat hand, the blade is just at the line, but if an officer with a skinny hand puts it against his palm I'd be in trouble. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

 

[John_0917]

Hey everyone, I'm new to this forum and just started to get involved with knifes. I was wondering if anyone knows a website/source to find local laws. I live in Pharr, Tx, and the law in this city, according to the officer, any blade that is longer than the your 4 fingers is an automatic arrest. I would like a document source to this because it doesn't sound accurate. I carry a CRKT M16-14ZER. With my fat hand, the blade is just at the line, but if an officer with a skinny hand puts it against his palm I'd be in trouble. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Well two things at play here:

A) That officer sounds like a stereotypical (in the worst way) hick town idiot bumpkin cop. Nowhere in Texas, or anywhere else for that matter, is there a law that in ANY WAY uses such a subjective standard as the size of someones hand.

B) Provided your blade length isn't over 5.5", which would constitute an actual crime, by arresting someone based on that finger standard that officer would be setting himself for a guaranteed to lose (for the defendants) civil rights suit against himself, the department and the city by the person arrested.

 

[zzyzzogeton]

The most comprehensive compilation of local modifications to state law is in the following graphic. The only local knife law I know of not on this list is the City of Dallas ordinance banning any cutting instrument in a public library. Probably because of things being cut out of books. Not a guarantee that it is completely correct because some city may changed something :



Hopefully, the pre-emption law passes this year. It's still sitting in the calendar committee's to-do stack.

 

[messt99]

I ended up calling all the city pd's that I pass through and all of them follow the the no bigger than 5 1/2" rule. The sgts advised me if any LEO gives me trouble about the four finger measurement just to ask for a Sgt on seen. Thanks for the help

 

[John_0917]

I ended up calling all the city pd's that I pass through and all of them follow the the no bigger than 5 1/2" rule. The sgts advised me if any LEO gives me trouble about the four finger measurement just to ask for a Sgt on seen. Thanks for the help

Not over 5.5" and single edged is state law in simplistic form. Any type of opening mechanism, including automatics are allowed and there is no distinction made between open or concealed carry. As mentioned, a small handful of places have more restrictive local laws (San Antonio, Corpus Christi...but who wants to go there anyway?).