The state of Maryland has one set of laws governing knives. The city of Baltimore has its own rules. Caught in the middle are people like Gray, who probably have no idea whether carrying a legally purchased knife can lead to criminal charges.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kn53sQaMTTg
Doug Ritter, founder and chair of Knife Rights Inc., said most knife experts would disagree that Gray's knife was illegal, even under Baltimore law, but there's no single definition. "It's ridiculous that someone traveling through a metropolitan area can go through a dozen city lines crossing a metropolitan lines and have to deal with a half a dozen laws regarding the knife in his pocket," Ritter said.
Knife right groups are fighting for state pre-emption knife laws, which would stop towns, cities and counties from enacting knife laws different from what has been approved by the state. Currently, Alaska, Arizona, Georgia, Kansas, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Utah have state knife pre-emption laws. Colorado, New Mexico, South Dakota and Wyoming also have laws that prevent local jurisdictions from going beyond state knife laws, Billeb said.
Knife Rights has been fighting in court with New York City over its knife laws, saying police have arrested people for carrying common folding knives by claiming they are illegal switchblade or gravity knives, whose blade will fall into an open position if a button or switch is pressed.
In 2013, firearms were used in 69 percent of homicides nationally, while knives or other cutting instruments were used in only 12.2 percent of homicide deaths, according to a national crime report from the Justice Department and FBI.
___
Online:
List of state knife laws provided by the American Knife Tool Institute: http://tinyurl.com/ohoe6l4
___
Jesse J. Holland covers race, ethnicity and demographics for The Associated Press. He can be contacted on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/jessejholland.
http://www.chron.com/news/politics/article/Varying-knife-laws-can-confuse-across-state-6282086.php
