RCW § 9.41.250 makes it illegal to carry dirks, daggers, or any other “dangerous weapon” concealed. Washington state imposes no knife length limits, but many of the municipalities and counties within it do not allow knives over a certain length. Our #1 recommended knife is a folding pocket knife from Banner Knives called The Patriot. As usual, school grounds, courthouses, prisons, and government buildings are off-limits to any kind of carrying. Causing fear and alarm without intent is no defense. Open carry is legal in the state, but is limited by a rule that if a knife is carried in such a way as to cause “alarm” to any person observing it being carried, the act of carrying becomes criminal. This includes pocketknives, balisong knives, Bowie knives, daggers, swords, machetes, KA-BAR knives, hunting knives, assisted-opening knives with a bias towards closure, throwing knives, push knives, and many other knife and blade types. Knives with springs or detents biasing towards closure, and that therefore require physical effort with the hand, wrist, or arm to open, are now legal, even if they are “assisted opening” or use some kind of mechanism to open in addition to physical work.įurthermore, even illegal switchblades and gravity knives can be made, bought, and sold, but only to emergency personnel such as police and firefighters, or to people enlisted in the various branches of the United States military.Īny other kind of knife can be owned and, in theory at least, open carried. At the moment, only “spring blade knives” opened by a spring mechanism, gravity, or centrifugal force are illegal for ordinary citizens to own, buy, or sell in Washington state.
#Automatic knife washington state code#
This bill, among other things, amended Revised Code Washington (RCW) section § 9.41.250, removing several kinds of switchblade knives from the illegal list. Thanks to the passage of House Bill 2347 in 2012, the number of knife types illegal to own in Washington state has shrunken abruptly. Though the state imposes no legal blade length limits, the individual locations within it frequently do. Dozens of municipalities and counties in the Evergreen State maintain their own knife laws, which are frequently stricter than the state’s laws. While open carry is technically allowed for any legal knife, it becomes a crime if any person becomes “alarmed” seeing the knife being carried, even if the alarm is caused accidentally.įurthermore, Washington state has no preemption law. Concealed carry is illegal for a number of knife types, including daggers and dirks. Most other knife varieties are fully legal in the Evergreen State.Ĭarrying is a dicey proposition in Washington due to the existing knife laws. During the 2012 Regular Session of the Washington state legislature, a bill passed into law legalizing many types of automatic knives and leaving only a narrow range of “spring blade knives” illegal in the state. Washington State, ranging from the picturesque coast, farms, and marinas of the Puget Sound area to the snowy peaks of the interior, is a state the knife laws of which have been notably revised in recent years.
0 kommentar(er)
