BLADE Staff

Gravity knives are legal in New York due to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo signing a bill in late May repealing the state’s gravity knife ban, but the win comes with several label warnings.

For instance, gravity knives—or any knife, for that matter—with blades 4 inches or longer remain illegal in New York City. Also, a recent state case has redefined switchblade to include assisted openers. Meanwhile, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, who strongly opposed the repeal of the gravity knife ban, reportedly said he would not stop the arrests and prosecutions of people who carry what are basically common folding knives.

Despite the ban’s repeal and the efforts of such common-sense knife organizations as Knife Rights and AKTI, the current New York state of mind remains as it has been for quite some time: one big anti-knife muddle.

After Nine Years, It’s Still Not Over

“After nine years of fighting, it is a relief to close the book on this extraordinary abuse of authority by a corrupt system that has terrorized over 70,000 honest, law-abiding people, disproportionately minorities, for simply carrying a common tool used daily in their lives,” Knife Rights Chairman Doug Ritter said.

As cited in Cuomo’s signing statement, it didn’t hurt that in another recent case a New York federal judge issued a very narrow ruling saying that NYC’s “wrist flick” test was unconstitutional, though in limited circumstances that did not substantially impact the ability of the city and DA to continue their arrests and prosecutions. Before the federal judge’s ruling, the wrist flick test had been used by the courts to determine whether a knife was a gravity knife.

If You Live In or Travel to New York…

Despite the repeal of the gravity knife ban, New York remains a minefield of knife restrictions. As a result, Knife Rights suggests that you never carry a knife in New York City with a blade 4 inches or longer, nor carry your knife clipped to your pocket.

If you plan to carry a pocket-clip folder there, Knife Rights suggests you remove the clip so you don’t inadvertently attach the knife to your pocket after use. Always ensure your knife is completely concealed at all times, including not “printing” on the outside of your clothing.

In addition, be extremely cautious about using a knife for any purpose in a public setting.

The Latest: “Undetectable Knives” Now Illegal In New York

As Knife Rights reported, Gov. Cuomo recently signed into law a ban on “undetectable knives.” What counts as “undetectable?”

From Knife Rights:

The definition of an “undetectable knife” is: “any knife or other instrument, which does not utilize materials that are detectable by a metal detector…that is capable of ready use as a stabbing or cutting weapon and was commercially manufactured to be used as a weapon” (emphasis ours).

This leaves plenty of room for the same kind of overreach that made the “gravity knife” ban such a disaster:

The new law is unlikely to accomplish anything worthwhile, but rather will give law enforcement and prosecutors another way to harass what will almost always be innocent victims of another poorly conceived and unnecessary knife ban.

Read more here.

New York’s 60-year restriction on “gravity knives” is no more. Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed the repeal on May 30, ending a ban criticized for disproportionately impacting people of color and soundly rejected in federal court.

A Racist, Vague Law With Permanent Consequences

In general terms, the now-defunct restriction defined a gravity knife as one with a locking blade able to open with the flick of a wrist. As many in the knife community know, the difference between a folding knife that can and can’t open with a flick is minute. A stiff folding knife on Monday may loosen up by Friday with regular use.

However, up until last week, that small difference came with big consequences, including felony charges or prison time for the 4,000 people arrested each year in New York state. Even if those people, overwhelmingly from minority backgrounds, committed no other crime, possession of a gravity knife alone was grounds for arrest. Due to the vague wording of the law, what constituted a gravity knife was left to the discretion of the arresting law enforcement officers.

This absurdity caught the attention of both conservative-minded knife organizations and progressive criminal justice reform advocates, forming what may seem to be an unlikely coalition. However, this intersection of blades and sociology presents itself time and time again with knife law reform issues across the country. 

As such, major media outlets featured faces familiar to the world of knives in news packages, such as Doug Ritter of Knife Rights.

Reactions

News of Gov. Cuomo’s signature, tempered by the fact that that same governor vetoed the repeal twice before, came as a welcome development to those in the knife community and beyond.

“After nine years fighting, it is a relief to close the book on this extraordinary abuse of authority by a corrupt system that has terrorized over 70,000 honest, law-abiding people, disproportionately minorities, for simply carrying a common tool used daily in their lives. I am thrilled that we and our partners across the political spectrum in this fight have finally prevailed, but it is a sad commentary on the state of politics and justice in New York State, New York City and at the Second Circuit that it took this long and that tens of thousands of innocent folks had to suffer so much for so long,” Ritter said in a Knife Rights article posted May 30.

“A sincere thanks to the New York Legal Aid Society, Rep. Dan Quart, and Senator Diane Savino for not giving up on solving the inconsistency and ambiguity that the NY gravity knife law created. We began working with attorneys at the NY Legal Aid Society on draft language back in 2010 – never imaging success would take so long,” a statement on the website of the American Knife & Tool Institute (AKTI) read.

“For far too long, the NYPD exploited the gravity-knife ban to drive up arrest numbers at the expense of our clients,” Tina Luong, an attorney representing the Legal Aid Society, was quoted as saying in The New York Times.

BLADE reached out for comment from a number of organizations, and had yet to receive responses as of this writing.

NYC Mayor Expresses Opposition

Despite the repeal, some officials remain determined to enforce the restriction through some other mutation. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s office expressed its opposition to the repeal, vowing to find “an alternative” method of restricting gravity knives.