U.S.A. –-(AmmoLand.com)- While the COVID-19 pandemic has interrupted almost all legislative efforts this year, Knife Rights continues its efforts to serve our knife community and Rewrite Knife Law in America™.
Knife Rights Foundation today announced the filing of an important Amicus Curiae (Friend of the Court) brief in a Second Amendment lawsuit currently before the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. The case, captioned Teter v. Connors, challenges the State of Hawaii’s outright ban on butterfly knives. You can view or download the brief at https://bit.ly/teter-kr-brief.
Previously, the district court ruled in favor of the State on its motion for summary judgment, finding that Hawaii’s butterfly knife ban “does not severely burden” the Second Amendment and that it survives intermediate scrutiny because it “further[ed] the State’s important interest to promote public safety by reducing access to butterfly knives, which leads to gang related crime.” If that sounds like a regurgitation of the baseless arguments used to enact switchblade bans in the 1950’s, that’s because it is.
Balisong knives are legal to possess and carry in at least 43 states (16 because of Knife Rights’ efforts repealing switchblade and butterfly knife bans since 2010), and Hawaii is one of only three states that specifically ban these knives. The district court’s flawed analysis failed to consider that Hawaii had no ban on these commonly available knives until 1999, and data does not show that the ban was tailored to an actual problem, let alone that it meaningfully reduces crime.
The Knife Rights coalition brief clearly shows that under the U.S. Supreme Court’s precedents, including the District of Columbia v. Heller decision, the knives are not both “dangerous and unusual,” are commonly possessed for lawful purposes, and are protected under the Second Amendment. That’s why, Knife Rights and the other amici argue, the State’s prohibition must fail.
“Butterfly knives, like all knives, are arms protected by the Second Amendment. It is time states like Hawaii stop banning knives in common use based on a fictional threat derived from 1980’s action movies,” explained the brief’s author, attorney John W. Dillon of Dillon Law Group APC.
“Hawaii’s ban on butterfly knives is both irrational, as are all such knife bans, and unconstitutional under the Second Amendment,” said Knife Rights’ Chairman, Doug Ritter. “Knife Rights is proud to be able to support this appeal of an absurd ruling by the district court and appreciate the collaboration and support from our good friends at San Diego County Gun Owners and Firearms Policy Coalition.”
“The ability to defend yourself is important to our members and we are proud to fight for Second Amendment rights in all forms,” commented Michael Schwartz, San Diego County Gun Owners PAC’s executive director.
“FPC is delighted to join our friends at SDCGO and Knife Rights in filing this brief to defend Second Amendment rights,” said FPC Director of Research, Joseph Greenlee. “Butterfly knives are important self-defense tools and certainly among the arms that the people have a right to keep and bear.”
Click here to read the Amicus Curie brief.
Click here to read the 2013 law review article, “Knives and the Second Amendment,” authored by noted Second Amendment scholars Dave Kopel, Clayton Cramer and Joe Olson. This article provides the scholarly foundation for many of the positions in the original case and this brief.
About Knife Rights Foundation
The 501(c)(3) Knife Rights Foundation (www.KnifeRights.org) is dedicated to defense of knife owners’ civil rights. The Foundation also works to educate knife owners, public officials and the general public about knife and edged tool related laws and regulations.
About San Diego County Gun Owners Political Action Committee
Founded in 2015, the San Diego County Gun Owners (www.sandiegocountygunowners.com) is a registered political action committee (FPPC ID #1379388) and advocacy organization focused on organizing the gun industry and community and protecting the U.S. Constitution’s Second Amendment right to bear arms.
About Firearms Policy Coalition
Firearms Policy Coalition (www.firearmspolicy.org) is a 501(c)4 grassroots nonprofit organization. FPC’s mission is to protect and defend constitutional rights—especially the right to keep and bear arms—advance individual liberty, and restore freedom through FPC Law, FPC Research, FPC Policy, FPC Grassroots, and other programs.
Butterfly knives should be legal everywhere – especially given the user either learns to respect this tool or stops using it. For Libertards it should be viewed as a form of “self-regulation”. … Yes, I have all my fingers and full dexterity.
Both times I have visited Hawaii, Maui and the Big Island and the second time just Maui, I just went to Wal-Mart and bought a folding pocket knife. Then put it in checked baggage on the way back. Remember the days when you could bring them on the plane with you? Of course, I remember the time as a young service member being asked by the stewardess if I would like to come to the cockpit to get better photos of the icebergs on the North Atlantic while flying from Germany to the States. I spent about fifteen minutes taking… Read more »
I grew up in the saddle on our NE Montana ranch, carrying a Ruger Bearcat in a Hunter holster, and shooting prairie dogs and skunks for .22RF money. That little Ruger fit my eleven year-old hand perfectly, and since I had to pay for my own ammo, I learned to make each shot count, just as Karamojo Bell did in Alaska and the Yukon… before he became the most famous Elephant hunter in the world. I might just be the last cowboy to grow up with iron on my hip, roaming the prairie at will. As you said, the kids… Read more »
The summer of ’69 was a big moment for me. That was when I got my first motorcycle. Before that all my exploring was on foot or horseback. The lesson I learned was: Motor vehicles are a whole lot easier to take care of and use than horses, although horses are a whole lot smarter. 🙂
Knute,
Different schools together, although I think I’ve got about 10 years on you. A friend’s Father has a ranch out your way and takes British tourists on mini cattle drives. He asked me about horses and gave me a dirty look after I stuck up for Nellie Bell. I can fix a jeep, repeatedly, unfortunately. Those Dodge points are a PITA.
I think I’ve heard of that ranch that does the Mini cattle drives. I can’t remember the name but it’s in the Galatin Valley near Bozeman, yes? I think you are just a bit older. I was born in Feb. 1960. I, too, have had to jury rig vehicles or else have to walk out. Had to fix a busted leaf spring on a Jeep Honcho (That’s the Jeep branded 4×4 pickup truck) down in the Missouri Breaks once with a chain, a come-a-long, and some Juniper bushes. Didn’t see that 20 foot drop until too late! That took a… Read more »
Knute, Yup, good times. I still wonder, now and then, how I survived this long. Last time I commented on it my wife asked me how many stitches I had. Not a clue. I think she was trying to tell me something. %-)
Good times. Sometimes people ask me that. How I’ve survived to old age with all the crap I get up to. I say: “I keep my guardian Angels reeeeal busy. At the Pearly Gates I’ll owe each of them a case of good Scotch before they’ll let me in.”
Amen to that. REEEEAAAALLLLY busy.
Mine prefer Bourbon, but a buddy I grew up with has the same ones as yours and he’s still getting into trouble. Ran his hand through the table saw a while back and didn’t do much more than trim his fingernails. Took a little meat, but he can still count to 10.
Which reminds me, I owe another buddy a dinner and drinks, we both made 30+.
I actually prefer Gentleman Jack myself. This is a public forum, so I said Scotch just because it’s more well known.
I ran my hands through a table saw before also. I knew going backwards without guards was dangerous, but that was what the job of the moment required. It was a shallow groove, though, and so it only cut a 32nd inch deep. Got both of my thumbs though. One doesn’t realize how much you rely on thumbs until you don’t have either one of them for a while. At least I didn’t. 🙂
Knute, GJ is highly drinkable. I prefer Buffalo Trace, but I’d never turn down a tumbler of GJ and seat on the back porch. He was finishing up a cutting board and had the blade just a squidge under 1/4″ so it nicked the bone on the middle 3 fingers. I told him that that was the reason I use beer powered tools. It takes and effort of will to do serious damage with a carcass or dovetail saw. ‘Course you can still do it right with a chisel, especially if you drop it and try to keep it from… Read more »
I’ve not heard of Buffalo Trace. I’ll be giving it a try. I might not be able to find it locally, but Billings has most everything, and we all go there at least a few times a year.
An interesting Montana statistic: 68% of Montanans have been to Wyoming, but 93% of Wyoming-ans have been to Rimrock Mall!
That’s not as surprising as it sounds, because Billings is the distribution center for both States, so anything you can’t get outside of there, you can usually find there.
Another reason knives were made illegal was the suppression of the poor to defend themselves — mostly a racist policy. Texas finally repealed carrying knives in public in 2019, several years after allowing carry of handguns.
Hawaii, is obviously so STUPID!!! There are many other blades on the market that are much faster to deploy than butterfly knives. Of course, Hawaii is tight in there when it comes to Communist politics!
Hawaii is one of the most anti-Constitutional states in America! I hope they get their azzes whipped in court!!!
The state of Hawaii should see which hurts their citizens the most, knives or the consumption of Spam.