will I be legal?

[The Magician]

I have a violet udt that I like to carry. Technically autos are illegal here with a few exceptions. I am wondering if I can get away with carrying it by using one of those exceptions. The law says:
Missouri
Swichblade law
571-020
1. A person commits a crime if he knowingly possesses, manufactures, transports, repairs or sells (6) a switchblade knife.
2. A person does not commit a crime under this section if his conduct (4) Was incident to displaying the weapon in a public museum or exhibition or (5) Was incident to dealing with the weapon solely as a curio, ornament or keepsake, or to using it in a manner reasonably related to a lawful dramatic performance.
The part in bold is the good part. I am a magician and perform locally. If I use the udt in a trick does that count as a dramatic performance? If the leo asked about the knife and I showed him the trick, would that be a "dramatic performance"? What about the keepsake thing?

 

[cerulean]

Mmm... I don't know. It could provide you with a possible defense, but you'd be pushing your luck.

Some places have laws where carrying a certain knife is legal only if you use it for "work". Cases come up where a defendant can prove that he used the knife he carried at work, but he still gets convicted. What happens is that the prosecutor will ask when he got off work and when he was caught with the knife. If, say, the defendant got off work five hours before he got caught with the knife, the prosecutor will say that shows the knife wasn't carried for use at work.

So, if you say you carry your knife for a magic act, they'll probably ask you when your last performance was. If you're not caught within a couple of hours of the performance, you might be in trouble.

By the way, what's the trick you do? Is it possible to describe it? I hope it's not: "Watch as I magically open this knife without touching the blade!"

------------------
Cerulean

"My good reason to carry a knife is that God gave me rather weak teeth and rudimentary claws in an evolutionary trade-off." - J.K.M.

[This message has been edited by cerulean (edited 02-17-2001).]

 

[The Magician]

Cerulean,
I don't actually use it in a trick yet...but I was thinking maybe it would be worth coming up with one...My mentor used one to peel an apple in his act. Maybe I could...suggestions?

 

[brad1407]

Basically that equals up to is you could have your UDT with you while you are doing your preformance. Once your preformance is done you'd have to put it away again. and I think that still might be stretching to get it to fit into the law unless you could come up with some type of trick that required you to have a switch blade. The curio issue really just sets you up to be able to have one as part of a collection at your house but if your carrying it as a user it would probably not be considered a curio.

[This message has been edited by brad1407 (edited 02-22-2001).]

 

[The Magician]

Thanks Brad. That is kind of what I thought. I guess it could be worse. They could be totally illegal. Thanks for the info.