Why is 3 inches the blade limit in restricted locations?

A

alinla

Joined
Feb 23, 2016
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Hi BF,

I was wondering why 3 inch blade size is the magic number (usually) in certain cities or areas that restrict blades longer than that. Why are most restrictions at/near 3 inches? I don't think its arbitrary but I imagine lots of restrictions were copycat in nature. I tried doing a search but got the phone book with results that didn't answer the why. Thanks.
 
I suspect that it is completely arbitrary. After all, a lot of knife laws make no rational sense, although I'm sure they made perfect sense to the idiots who wrote and passed them. I'm sure to them the details of the law were not arbitrary. But many lawmakers operate with flawed reasoning that could just as well be called "arbitrary".

In some parts of California the open carry of a 3" blade is illegal, and can result in arrest, prosecution, jail time, years of probation, and thousands of dollars in fines and fees, but openly carrying a knife with a blade 2.9" long is perfectly legal. And it's perfectly legal in those parts of CA to carry a CONCEALED folder of ANY size, with no limit on blade length. Like I said, the law appears to be quite arbitrary, and stupid. One would think that CONCEALED knives would be regarded as a greater threat than openly carried knives. The lawmakers could just as easily banned the open carry of ALL knives, but they placed a restriction on blades 3" or longer.

I'd be surprised if there were any way to know exactly how they came up with the 3" limit, I assume that only a few people actually know, like the actual people who proposed the limit, and possibly anyone they consulted.

Trying to find the reasoning behind stupid laws is the path to madness ;).
 
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You are probably right. I thought it might have something to do with the amount of penetration a 3" blade could do but I didn't offer that since I didn't know.
 
Just thinking off the top of my head about laws I've looked up, 3" isn't really the magic number. Very few states use this as the threshold. You see it way more with city municipal codes. But I still agree, completely arbitrary. But if I had to wager a guess, 3" is very roughly the width of a man's hand measured at the creases where the fingers start. I wear medium gloves and this is how big my hand is. You might have heard the age old (and utterly false) rule about a knife blade no bigger than the palm? There is no evidence this was ever a statutory law anywhere, but may have been used by officers at some point as part of their decision making process. I know there are cops to this day that still do it. At some point someone might have pointed out how people have different sized hands, and the lawmakers realized they needed to put an objective measurement. Why the span of a hand? Could be that knives with blades bigger than 3" had enough grip to span your closed fist, so you could grip it well enough to fight with it, but I am totally pulling that out of thin air.
 
I believe 3 inches is set as if you drive a 3 inch blade into a skull you won't be able to reach the beer drinking area of the brain. So while you could scramble someones brain they'll still be able to drink and appreciate a good beer. It was just such an individual that came up with IPA over in India, where people get stabbed in the head regularly. Just goes to show that even with scrambled brains, as long as you have a beer, all is well.
 
But... the current "hand" is 4", not 3". And has been since it was so decreed by King Henry VIII in 1541.:D

Way back in the BC era, in the Book of Ezekial, specifically, there is a measurement, the "handbreadth", which has been determined by some knowledgeable and well-meaning scholar to be 3".
 
The whole hand thing is a wives tale to prevent children from carrying large knives.
 
alinla said:
Hi BF,

I was wondering why 3 inch blade size is the magic number (usually) in certain cities or areas that restrict blades longer than that. Why are most restrictions at/near 3 inches? I don't think its arbitrary but I imagine lots of restrictions were copycat in nature. I tried doing a search but got the phone book with results that didn't answer the why. Thanks.
Click to expand...

For the same reason the acceptable number of bullets in a civilian-owned magazine is 10 maximum.
 
bt93 said:
I believe 3 inches is set as if you drive a 3 inch blade into a skull you won't be able to reach the beer drinking area of the brain. So while you could scramble someones brain they'll still be able to drink and appreciate a good beer. It was just such an individual that came up with IPA over in India, where people get stabbed in the head regularly. Just goes to show that even with scrambled brains, as long as you have a beer, all is well.
Click to expand...

:D:thumbup: Love it!!
 
My guess is this blade length prevents stabbing someone in the heart although the distance from chest wall to heart varies somewhat from person to person.
 
My guess, and it's only a guess, is that most commonly sold folders, like the Buck 110, have 4 inch blades. So by limiting legal carry to 3 inches you have wiped out the majority of common knives on the market.
 
I always assumed it was the amount of penetration but as they very between open carry and concealed carry I dont really know.
 
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