Why are knife control laws so strong in the United States as opposed to gun control?
I was realizing it would be nice to have a knife with auto opening for boxes, etc., basically a switch blade or similar, and I found out that they are super illegal in my state (and/or there are length restrictions, or both sides of the blade can’t be sharp, etc), but I can go into a sporting goods store and buy a pistol and ammo in under 30min.
Shooting open an Amazon box seems inefficient. What is up with restrictive knife-control laws??
Butterfly knives only became legal in NY and MA about 4 years ago. There’s virtually zero reason to ban them other than protecting stupid people from accidentally cutting themselves
(I’m one of those stupid people)
They were banned because racism. Not because of any particular danger to the user.
The workaround is to buy a small handgun for concealed carry and then attach a small switchblade bayonet.
Your right to open boxes shall not be infringed
Because knife doesn’t have NKA to lobby for it.
I wouldn’t mind if they did honestly
When a moral panic happens, a lot of things get blown out of proportion. A good example was the panic relating to D&D and satanism. There was a huge panic sometime in the 50s or 60s about the police dealing with young thugs with concealed switch blades, which could be hidden, and then deployed one handed so fast a cop couldn’t draw his weapon fast enough. So this panic got a lot of laws drawn up to ban any switch blade.
Since then, the there are knives that skirt the law by not having a spring which force the blade open, instead a tension bar. There are still types are illegal to carry if a Cop would find out you have it, like “Out the front” switch knives.
The stupid part is, there are plenty of “one hand deployable” knives on the market that are 100% legal. But the laws never get revisited. In my state it’s illegal to have a out the front switch blade, yet a bunch of high end OTF knives are for sale at a sporting store. They just post a sign that says “Know your local laws”, which some how makes it okay to sell.
If anyone has more to add, or corrects, let me know.
It also goes to show how laws made during the moral panic don’t go away even decades after that panic fades.
This is often in mind when responsible gun owners are critical of more gun laws. The govt won’t go “that was silly of us here’s your bit of freedom back” even if a law objectively had zero positive effect
For example, short barrelled rifles are still heavily regulated. Pistols aren’t nearly as regulated.
Because knife control doesn’t have an entry on the constitution.
Because there is no National Knife Association to lobby for knife rights.
Are knives not arms?
Similarly to religion and the bible, words mean whatever people want them to mean.
If you look at the timing of most the laws against specific types of knives… you’re going to notice a pattern where there was some scare involving some minority or alt group.
Switch blades were outlaws after Hollywood depicted African American villains as gangsters with them.
Same with ballisongs and Asian gangsters/villians.
All of that said, auto-openers have a hair trigger and I would suggest instead getting a good flipper you can easily flick open. Benchmade bugout is my EDC (not for fighting, it’s light and solid.)
Well there are such restrictions on guns, try and get a short barrel rifle in under 30 min, the paperwork alone will take that long.
But also yeah those laws suck and shouldn’t exist. Much like the original intent behind CCW permits where the theory was “concealing is for criminals,” those knives were also seen as “for criminals.” It’s just old outdated bullshit that goes largely uncharged but can be used if they want to fuck with you. In some cases “criminals” was also synonymous with black people or even italians depending on the year lol, and were passed for racist reasons.
I was thinking the same thing. There are definitely restrictions on the size/function of guns, and you have to fill out paperwork, get fingerprinted, etc to get past those restrictions.
To buy any gun at a store, you also have to have a background check, which you generally don’t have to do for knives.
While that is true, in states with restrictive knife laws, there is no permitting, tax stamp, or background check option. They’re simply illegal typically without exception.
I.e., a CCW does not apply to an OTF knife or dagger in states where those types of knives are illegal, and there is no legal option available to legally carry one. Conversely, with sufficient paperwork, background check, and tax stamps, etc, you can get a machine gun.
I am just pointing out how odd it is that in some states there is a legal avenue for a citizen to purchase, own, and use a machine gun but not a small blade that opens with a button. But laws are often crazy, so, I guess it’s not really a huge surprise.