Vagueness of bill could have potentially banned the carry of all but a few knives.

Hawaii Knife Ban bill SB 433, which would have banned all carry of most knives and all knives in many public places in Hawaii, has been stopped. The stoppage occurred because the bill failed to receive a hearing by the stated deadline.

According to Knife Rights, one of the worst aspects of the bill was its vagueness. The bill added “bladed weapons” to the state’s sweeping firearms bans, which would have been expanded in SB 433.

“As written, nobody, not a resident, not a police officer, not a prosecutor, could possibly look at the proposed statute and know for sure what a ‘bladed weapon’ is that is being banned,” KR reported. “This is fundamentally unconstitutional and leaves the law open for law enforcement and prosecutorial abuse. Terms that capture everyday tools carried daily by the public for perfectly lawful uses should be defined crisply and clearly to provide fair notice as required by longstanding law.”

The bill banned all undefined “bladed weapons” everywhere in Hawaii except for switchblades and butterfly knives.

“So,” KR noted, “a not at all unreasonable interpretation of [‘bladed weapons’] would have banned carry of a common pocketknife in Hawaii, except for [switchblades and butterfly knives]! Who decides whether it’s a ‘bladed weapon’? Certainly not the average resident or visitor.” 

In other examples, fillet knives used for recreational, subsistence and commercial fishing and hunting knives used for boar hunting—a popular means of reducing feral hog populations on the islands and a popular tourist business—could have been banned, as could a box cutter carried to work by a warehouse worker.

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