Yesterday afternoon I had my National Knife Day post ready to go when the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California issued its decision in our lawsuit challenging California’s ban on switchblade (automatic) knives with a blade 2-inches and greater on Second Amendment grounds. We’re celebrating the freedom most of us in America enjoy to possess and carry whatever knife we want and the Court decides to issue a decision in an important knife related Second Amendment case challenging a ban on knives. Hmmmmm…
Not at all unexpectedly, unfortunately the Court chose to go well outside the Supreme Court precedent clearly established in Heller and Bruen and ruled against us. Click here to read the Court’s decision.
There are actually two good aspects to the ruling. As to the first, shockingly, the Court held that under the plain text analysis required by Bruen, automatically opening knives are not “arms” under the Second Amendment. According to the Court, only arms that are “in common use for self defense” are considered arms under the Second Amendment. Of course, this is not the constitutional analysis established and affirmed in the Heller and Bruen decisions. There’s no mention of “self defense” or “in common use” in the plain text of the Second Amendment (“commonality” is part of the historical analysis). To call the Court’s decision irrational and ludicrous is being nice. And, that’s not at all bad for us.
The other silver lining in this flawed decision comes from the Court’s analysis of the State of California’s historical justification of the automatic knife ban. Here, the Court concluded that the State failed to offer sufficient relevant historical analogues that would justify the automatic knife ban. In other words, the court held that the State failed to justify their prohibition, but because the Court ruled that automatically opening knives are somehow not “arms,” the court still ruled in the State’s favor.
Taking this case to the Court of Appeals was inevitable and expected. We plan for that because that’s where the real battle is fought. While it’s nice to go into an appeal with a decision in your favor, that doesn’t often determine the outcome in Second Amendment cases. The Court’s extremely flawed opinion, which has added new language and conditions to the plain text of Second Amendment, sets us up for a strong appeal.
So, on to National Knife Day… All of us at Knife Rights would like to wish you the best National Knife Day ever. Which, for the vast majority of our country, means you can walk out of your home with pretty much any kind of knife you desire. We’re proud to have made that possible with our efforts to repeal antiquated knife bans in 31 states and with our court victories. For all of you taking advantage of the retailers holding sales this week, that means an even wider choice for you to pick from…legally.
As you can see, the road to freedom isn’t easy and is sometimes quite bumpy. While you enjoy using your chosen knife, know that my National Knife Day will be spent reviewing legal briefs for upcoming lawsuits, like the one discussed above, seeking to overturn the nation’s remaining knife bans. You’ll hear more on that in coming weeks. We can only continue to roll back knife bans with your support. Whether we are legislating or litigating, it costs money to get it done. And, they will, at least for a while, all end up on appeal, adding to the cost.
The court battles are primarily funded by the 501(c)(3) Knife Rights Foundation. I would appreciate it if you’d consider making a TAX-DEDUCTIBLE donation to the Foundation to help us out there. Many of your fellow supporters have signed up to donate a modest amount every month to the Foundation and that adds up over the course of the year. If you’d like to help support these lawsuits, please donate at KnifeRights.org/donate or call us toll-free at 866-889-6268 (10:00 AM – 5:00 PM Pacific).
With your support we will continue rewriting knife law in America and forging a Sharper Future for all Americans. Have yourself a wonderful National Knife Day.
BACKGROUND
Broadly, in NYSRPA v. Bruen the Supreme Court held that the Second Amendment includes the right to be armed for self-defense at home and in public. This right can only be limited to the extent that there is a historical tradition of limitation in the period immediately prior to and around the time of the Constitution’s framing in the late 18th century up to the late 19th century. A few restrictions on knives of various sorts that are outliers from that time period do not count. Restrictions imposed later, including on switchblades in the 1950s, don’t count. Possession and carry of knives survives this constitutional test.
NYSRPA v. Bruen upheld restrictions on weapons such as machine guns that are deemed by the court to be both “dangerous and unusual.” A weapon that is either not “dangerous” or not “unusual” cannot be prohibited. Automatically opening (“switchblade”) knives and other knife designs and opening mechanisms are neither “unusual,” being legal and common in most places today, nor any more “dangerous” than other non-prohibited knives or weapons. Knife bans existent today do not pass constitutional muster after Bruen.
NYSRPA v. Bruen also emphasized emphatically from the court’s prior Second Amendment McDonald decision that “the constitutional right to bear arms in public for self-defense is not a second-class right, subject to an entirely different body of rules than the other Bill of Rights guarantees.” Second Amendment decisions by courts must be made on the basis of strict scrutiny, just as with other rights. Intermediate scrutiny or “interest balancing” can no longer be used to decide Second Amendment cases. As such, the government can no longer defend knife bans because government doesn’t like a particular type of knife, for whatever irrational basis it comes up with.
Knife Rights (www.KnifeRights.org) is America’s grassroots knife owners’ organization; leading the fight to Rewrite Knife Law in America™ and forging a Sharper Future for all Americans™. Knife Rights efforts have resulted in 40 bills enacted repealing knife bans in 26 states and over 150 cities and towns since 2010.