Don’t bring a knife

In Washington State it is legal to carry a pistol openly (or, with a license, concealed). But an apparently brain dead lawmaker (Representative Appleton) wants to make it illegal to carry a knife with a blade greater than 3.5 inches long.

This is entirely consistent with the Seattle ordinance that prohibits public carry of Airsoft guns and slingshots while real firearms are allowed.

I guess this could be considered the legislative command “don’t bring a knife to a gun fight” but I somehow don’t think that is what she had in mind.

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10 thoughts on “Don’t bring a knife

  1. Typical SOP for Olympia. Budget crisis and all – so lets just fart around and waste more money and time.

    Probably wants to strike through ((dagger, dirk)) to dumb down the law, I’d guess that there is a few people out that that have no idea what a dagger or dirk are…

    “you mean a knife? why not just write “knife” into the law?”

    What’s next make carrying a standard screwdriver over 3.5 inches in length illegal too?

    I see there is the “get out of jail free” for LEOs (doing the Queens work)… Notice there is no provision for a suppressor for LEOs, they commit a “gross misdemeanor punishable under chapter 9A.20 RCW” everytime they train with a suppressor…

    BTW this is what each LEO should face when they use a suppressor, just like us proles…

    …a fine of not more than one thousand dollars, or by imprisonment in a county jail for not more than ninety days, or by both such fine and imprisonment is a misdemeanor.

    Honestly, he should make some friends and strike through “17 (c) Uses any contrivance or device for suppressing the noise of any 18 firearm” and leave the rest of the RCW alone.

  2. Don’t forget, we can own an AOW and actually use it in WA State, but you’re right, we should be able to play with ALL NFA items in WA.

  3. “What’s next make carrying a standard screwdriver over 3.5 inches in length illegal too?” Sure. Why the hell not? It would make as much sense as most anything else they do and it would further show us who’s boss, which is really the whole point.

  4. I’d kinda like a short shotgun though, I imagine the AOW version would kick like a mule.

  5. All those restaurants with the assault-length knives will be carving the roast beef at the Sunday buffet with paring knives if this law passes. Is not a restaurant a public place? If the public can see the knife, is it not being carried in public?

    Good luck, Olympia. If this is what your writers of laws do with something as simple as an anti-weapons law, your tax codes, schools, law enforcement agencies, environmental regulation, zoning, and other state agencies are likely burdened with laws more obscure but just as stupid as this one.

  6. Steak knifes in a restaurant would be okay under most circumstances because the crime requires one to “Furtively carries with intent to conceal”.

  7. Reminds me of 7th grade Latin class:

    “Furem fur cognoscit, et lupum lupus.”

    –As a wolf knows another wolf, so does a thief.

  8. I might quibble with the wording “while real firearms are allowed”, and substitute “while real firearms are not prohibited”. A subtle but I think, important inversion.

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