No Stupid Questions

Because knife doesn't have NKA to lobby for it.

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

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.

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)

Because so-called second amendment advocates are really just gun nuts, and so over the years they have worked hard to maintain the right to keep and bear guns, rather than arms.

Thus knives, swords, halberds, maces, and all other 'arms' have had restrictions go unchallenged, or at least, not challenged by an extensive and well funded network of advocacy.

Because knife control doesn’t have an entry on the constitution.

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.)

There are actually some legal movements to reduce unnecessary knife laws, because a lot of them are based around the idea of 50s punks and don't make actual logical sense.

But yeah, it depends entirely on the state. The only knife laws in my state is you can't conceal carry a Bowie knife, but all other knives (OTF, automatics, balisongs, etc) are legal.

You definitely need to start shooting open your Amazon boxes

Shooting open an Amazon box seems inefficient.

True, but it's the American way.

They aren't: This is 100% state dependent. Some states have extremely permissive laws allowing you to carry anything from a switchblade to a greatsword if you want.

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 moved to Japan where knives are also heavily restricted. If you live in Japan, you need a permit to purchase anything with a fixed blade over 15cm and it must be kept in the home. You can't legally carry a pocket knife with a blade longer than 6cm (I think 8cm if it's a folding but not fixed blade) and even then, if stopped, you need to have a specific reason for carrying it around.

It was really weird to me, as someone who carried a pocket knife basically everywhere. I did learn, though, that "in case I need to open boxes" is a case that has come up like twice in 10 years.

As for guns here, handguns are not allowed at all. There are licenses for airguns (pellet guns), rifles, and shotguns. Separately, there are licenses for trapping and hunting that do grant some permissions outside of what I wrote above (hunting/trapping license but no gun license means you're going to be killing your catch with knife, spear, strangulation, drowning, or electrocution).

There is a "Knife Rights" organization that works to overturn these laws. From what I hear, they tend to be pretty successful, since there isn't a ton of attention on the issue and there isn't much in the way of entrenched opposition the way there is on the guns issue.

The corrolary is that there's essentially no knife control in Canada. There's no length limit or anything. The law just states that you can't carry a weapon. But if you have a reasonable reason to be carrying a machete (like going bushwacking) you're good.

Very old laws on the books that no one has bothered to change in some states. Federally, they aren't illegal. Federally, knives weren't protected under the 2nd amendment so states had an easier time putting rules in place against them, and many did. My state just legalized otf and switch blades for everyone a few years ago. Mainly because unassisted knives were able to become just as quick and easy to open, it was a bit silly to leave assisted open knives not legal.

As an added note just for you: cardboard is hell on knife blades and they'll dull them very quickly. I'd get yourself a box knife and blades f9r it if you open a lot of boxes, unless you want to sharpen a knife like twice a week.

Just line up the gun parallel to the tape so that the bullet rips it open

The US has strong knife laws? I carry a knife almost everyday and this is the first I’m hearing of this. The only time I can’t take my knife somewhere is if no weapons at all are allowed there, like government buildings.

Just get one anyway. It won’t do you any favors if a cop finds it but knife control isn’t a big priority for most law enforcement

EDIT: I am not a lawyer