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KBCraig wrote:

Mark F wrote:I have never really understood the "LOGIC" behind outlawing switchblades or similar knives.

Simple: there was no logic. They were the "assault weapons" of the 1950s, where media hysteria created a hue and cry to "do something!"

Right on; it was the "gang weapon" when gangs still had the desire to "rumble" rather than just go out and shoot up each other's houses in drive-bys. Now the gangs have resorted to guns, and so there's renewed efffort to ban them. In contrast, most people know exactly what a switchblade is, know how to work one, and it's an oddity to see one, but few people raise the hue and cry that a switchblade is out and about in polite society. I mean, they used to be gentlemen's knives, and in informal circles they are once again.

SCone wrote:Since tha law states...

Switchblade knife means any knife that has a blade that folds, closes, or retracts into the handle or sheath, and that:
(A) opens automatically by pressure applied to a button or other device located on the handle; or
(B) opens or releases a blade from the handle or sheath by the force of gravity or by the application of centrifugal force.

Almost anything that helps open a knife could make the knife illegal.

Yep. because an assisted-opening knife requires applying pressure to the BLADE, not the handle, it doesn't fit the legal definition. However, if your knife can be opened by "flinging" it towards the ground, you are in possession of a switchblade. Virtually any knife with a thumb stud or other one-handed opening mechanism can be made to do this if you really want to.