February 19, 2016: Georgia State Senator Bill Heath has introduced Knife Rights’ Georgia Knife Law Reform bill, SB 405, that would increase the legal carry length of a knife blade in the state from 5.5 inches to 12 inches. Sen. Heath was the sponsor of Knife Rights’ Georgia Knife Law Preemption bill that was enacted in 2012.
Efforts to completely eliminate the carry length limit have been stymied due to the manner in which a knife is defined in Georgia Law. Eliminating the length limit entirely requires significant changes to over 30 pages of laws on the books, which at this time would not be acceptable to the legislature. In the end, it was determined that the best practical alternative was to significantly increase the blade carry length to 12 inches. This will make life much better for knife owners in Georgia without hampering future efforts to completely eliminate the carry length limit at some future opportunity.