Why are butterfly knives illegal in California?
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Why are butterfly knives illegal in California?
You can check the answer of the people under the question at Quora “butterfly knife illegal in california“
About Ximena
Aside from the practicality of it opening quick, there isn’t much need for it, and it’s generally something that mostly a certain kind of mentally challenged douchebag would really be interested in carrying around.
I have no idea on the legalities of it, but if you want a knife that opens quickly with one hand, any lock blade pocket knife that has the stud on the blade to flick it open will do the trick.
Butterfly knives are more for intimidation than anything else practical.
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Because California politicians are stupid.
Cops are smarter. So cops do not enforce the wacky knife laws.
When was the last time someone was arrested simply for having an illegal knife in possession? Never?
Known gang members maybe. Or as add-on charges for plea bargaining. An ordinary citizen just doing normal business? I doubt it has ever been prosecuted.
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The same reason a lot of things are illegal: Movies.
Remember the most important thing to politicians is getting re-elected, and the best way to get re-elected is to appear to be “Doing Big Things” ,“Saving Lives”, “Passing Common Sense Regulations” and all that hot air. A great way to do that is appearing tough on crime by passing laws on inanimate objects that can be sold to the public as scary.
Butterfly knives make a good flashy thing to throw in front of an audience, that made them very popular for a time in cinema. They were pretty unknown which added an exotic flare to it as well.
After that public perception was that these were common amongst bad guys, that they were someone extra dangerous, and you know “murdery”…Granted there’s no evidence to support that. They surged in popularity after being seen in movies by teens, for exactly the reason they made it into the film to begin with; they look different/cool. So while some may have been carried by violent youthful miscreants, they were still pretty far from a common murder weapon. Ask your local cop what kind of knife they most are used in crimes and they’ll say “Kitchen knife, or box cutter.” Not some fancy balisong that you have to do a dance to open and accidentally flip to the other side of the room while trying to shank your dealer who’s trying to hold out on ya.
Same exact thing happened to switch blades. Rarely used in crime, but they got screen time in movies because they looked cool on camera. 12 Angry Men came out in 1957 which portrayed the bad guy as using a murderous switch blade in a major way. The film was a huge hit. In 1958 the federal law restricting switch blades passed. What makes a 3” knife you open by pressing a button more dangerous than a 3” knife you open with a thumb stud, or a 3” paring knife from your kitchen? Functionally nothing, but I bet the politicians who passed that law thought it’d make them look awesome to people who couldn’t think on their own.
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I think mostly because people swing them around to show off
They can cut themselves or people around them easily if it’s swung around wrong. Also the tension is loose which allows the knife to be opened too easily.
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Knife laws are really silly and California is the silliest state. It’s not a dangerous weapon but it used to be used by a lot of gangs.
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I probably shouldn’t even chime in because I admit I know very little about California’s knife laws>> although I do know for a fact that they have some pretty strict switchblade ( automatic knife) laws. Which would lead me to believe that they probably aren’t too tolerant of Butterfly knives either.
And I don’t mean to kill your enthusiasm but it’s been my experience that Butterfly Knives aren’t very well liked by the legal community just about anywhere here in the United States. You can carry one here in Missouri as long as the blade is under 4 inches long but I have heard stories that some police officers confiscate all the Butterfly knives that they come across.
Another thing we have here in Missouri and I know they have it in many other states as well is the fact that they give the officers discretion as to whether or not they think a certain type of knife is a threat to public safety and if they deem that it is they are allowed to confiscate any such knife.
Now I’ve never had any of mine confiscated but the only 2 times in several years I”ve been pulled over by the police for license check or taillight being burnt out or whatever I just put whatever knives I have on me up on the dashboard and they never give me a second look or say anything bad to me at all. I’ve never even had an officer even so much as touch one of my knives. Most of them to want you to let them know that you have them on you.
But again Butterfly knives in some jurisdictions are hated even more than automatics are (switchblades). I think there is a website and I think it’s been put up by BLADE magazine that has the knife laws in all 50 states. They had all 50 states knife laws in one of their issues about 4 years ago. You might want to check it out because I think they have it on one of their websites.
I’m lucky because here in Missouri they just don’t seem to trip on knives at all. But California is known to have a lot of draconian, unconstitutional laws on their books especially dealing with knives and guns and I would sure check it before I would be carrying or EDCing one. GOOD LUCK Brother
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