Debate: Pocket knife ban

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Background and context

In the United States, switchblades were made illegal for import or sale across state lines under the 1958 federal Switchblade Act. This followed the gruesome depiction of the weapons in movies like Rebel Without A Cause and West Side Story. Other pocket knives have fallen under similar bans throughout the decades. But, in recent years, knife bans have been called into question such bans as they relate to - in the United States - Second Amendment "rights" to bear arms. Knife advocates in Arizona, for example, led a successful effort in 2010 to overturn a ban on knives. Todd Rathner, the lobbyist for Knife Rights Inc. and a former National Rifle Association lobbyist, said in 2010, “Arizona is now the model when it comes to knives. We’re now going to be moving to other states, probably in the Rocky Mountains and the Southeast. There’s probably half a dozen or more places that are ripe for this." The debate on pocket knife bans, therefore, seems likely to grow in significance in coming years. The pros and cons are outlined below.

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Pro

• Pocket knives uniquely concealable, brandishable, dangerous. NY District Attorney Cyrus Vance: "What makes these knives so dangerous is the ease with which they can be concealed and brandished."[1]

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Con

• Size hardly matters with pocket knives. D’Alton Holder, a veteran knife maker who lives in Wickenberg, Ariz: "People talk about how knives are dangerous, and then they go in the kitchen and they have 50 of them. It’s ridiculous to talk about the size of the knife as if that makes a difference. If you carry a machete that’s three feet long, it’s no more dangerous than any knife. You can do just as much damage with an inch-long blade, even a box cutter."[2]

• Pocket knives can be use for a wide variety of functions. D’Alton Holder, a veteran knife maker who lives in Wickenberg, Ariz: "I use it for everything — to clean my fingernails, to prune a tree or carve, even to eat dinner with. I never think about the knives that I carry or the knives that I make as weapons."[3]

• Banning pocket knives and not kitchen knives senseless. Jennifer Coffey, the New Hampshire state representative who led the 2010 effort in Arizona to overturn the state’s switchblade ban: "We had certain knives that were illegal, but I could walk down the street with a kitchen knife that I used to carve a turkey and that would be legal. I’d be more scared of a kitchen knife than a switchblade."[4]

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Pro

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Con

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Pro/con sources

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Pro

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Con

• Dale Dougherty. "The Right to Bear Pocket Knives." BoingBoing. November 24th, 2008

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