San Francisco attorney, Bill Weiss, a true biker attorney is publishing California state and city knife laws. In addition to state law, each county and local municipality can (and in most cases do) issue their own local ordinances. So, it is important to know how these laws affect you as you travel within California.
I highly recommend that you follow Bill's blog as he continues to publish his research affecting you in your local area.
If you live in northern California and can attend a local motorcycle coalition meeting in San Francisco, San Mateo or Alameda County, you can talk to Bill directly on knife laws and ask questions.
So far, Bill has published knife laws in the following areas...
- California
- San Francisco
- Oakland
....with more to come.
- California
- San Francisco
- Oakland
....with more to come.
Remember that carrying any weapon, even one that’s legal, can cause you a lot of grief with law enforcement. Cops
routinely write tickets and make arrests for things they incorrectly
think are illegal, or full well know not to be illegal. Beating a rap in
court is great, but better is never being there in the first place.
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In California, the state knife laws are
the baseline law, and cities can make more restrictive knife laws on top
of the state laws. See Yuen v. Municipal Court (1975) or People v. Gerardo (1985). Since
we’ve addressed the state laws in other entries in this series, this
synopsis places the Oakland laws first, and then outlines below the
state laws that form the baseline rules.
CITY OF OAKLAND
In addition to all of the state laws
outlined below, Oakland has voted knife restrictions that are
significantly more stringent than the state’s laws. In Oakland, all of
the following are classified as a “dangerous weapon”: (1) any knife with
a blade three inches or longer; (2) any snap-blade or spring-blade
knife regardless of the length of the blade; (3) any ice pick or similar
sharp stabbing tool; (4) any cutting, stabbing or bludgeoning weapon or
device capable of inflicting grievous bodily harm; (5) any dirk, dagger
or bludgeon (the state law section has definitions of these). See Oakland Municipal Code § 9-36.010.
Regardless of state law, it is illegal
in the city of Oakland to carry a “dangerous weapon” as defined above,
whether open or concealed, or even to have one under your control (for
instance, in your saddlebag or under the seat of your car). See OMC §
9-36.020. As usual, there is
an exception for knives you carry for purposes of a lawful occupation
or lawful recreation. See § 9-36.020. All switchblades, including
anything with a spring or snap mechanism of any sort, are illegal to
possess, sell or use in any way whatsoever, ie. there’s no lawful
exception for work or recreation. See § 9-36.040. If
you’re in an Oakland city park, the only knife you’re allowed to carry
without permission from the Parks Board is a pocket knife. See §
12-64.020.
If you get into a fight in Oakland or
get into a “rough or disorderly conduct” situation (and that can cover a
lot of things), and you’re carrying a blade classified as a “dangerous
weapon,” you’ll be charged – at a minimum – with a separate disorderly
conduct violation in addition to the knife charge. See § 9-36.030.
All of the above described violations
are classified as misdemeanors, punishable by up to 6 months in the
slammer, a $1,000 fine, or both the time and the fine.
In addition to these, Oakland goes
further than most other cities in California in their use of civil
actions to combat people they view as criminals. In
2004, the city government came up with a plan to fight gangs and crime
by leveraging their legal control of the eviction process. To wit, they came up with a plan to systematically take action to evict people who had broken laws and municipal ordinances. This
plan was codified in law as Oakland Municipal Code Chapter 8, section
23.100, the “Eviction for Nuisance and Illegal Activity Ordinance.” Here’s what this ordinance is, how it works, and what it has to do with knife laws.
Municipal Code § 8-23.100 was created to
expand the illegal activities that can be used to require landlords to
bring eviction actions against individuals, to
penalize owners for allowing undesirable people and behavior on their
property, to authorize the City to take other action against the rental
property owner when he won’t act, to enable rental property owners to
let the City itself take over the eviction action, to single out the
specific person instead of everyone on the premises, and to create a
quick and easy process to do all of the above. See § 8-23.100(A).
Under this ordinance, the category of
“weapon” includes all “deadly weapons” as defined in California BPC §
7500.1(h), which lists slungshots, metal knuckles, dirks, daggers, and
any knife with a blade longer than five inches. See § 8-23.100(B).
In Oakland, by this ordinance, all
leases between landlord and tenant automatically include a provision
that prohibits all illegal activity on the premises, including illegal
possession of a weapon as defined under above. See § 8-23.100(C). Under §
8-23.100(C) and § 8-23.100(D), any tenant who violates this prohibition
or allows a violation is automatically subject to eviction under
Oakland’s ‘Just Cause’ eviction section, § 8-22.360. Let me repeat that:
if you violate this ordinance by possessing, say, a slungshot or a
knife with a 5″ blade, in your own home or shop, you’re open to the
eviction process outlined in the ordinance.
When the landlord learns about the
violation, he’s barred from allowing the person to continue violating
the ordinance, and he himself becomes on the hook with the city for
fines, so he has three options. See § 8-23.100(D). First
option is that he can ensure that the tenant stops violating, second
option is that he can take action to evict the tenant, and the third
option is that he can notify the city and ask them to take action to
evict the tenant. See § 8-23.100(D)-(F). If the owner doesn’t take action within a specified amount of time, he can be liable for fines. See § 8-23.100(F).
What this means for knife law is that in
Oakland, it’s possible for you to be evicted from your rented home or
business if you’re keeping illegal knives on the premises. The
case where this is most likely to occur would be in clubhouses, or
places where people carrying illegal weapons are hanging out most often,
but theoretically it could happen anywhere in the city that you rent
from a landlord. If you’re
renting a place, and you’ve had cops take you or someone else away on a
dangerous weapon charge for, say a slungshot or a long blade, take care
that you don’t get a second offense that triggers action by the landlord
and/or the City. In Oakland, there’s iron in the glove, they have a lot
of power under § 8-23.100, and so far the courts have not found
anything in the exercise of this power to be unconstitutional.
CALIFORNIA
Here are the baseline knife laws in California.
Concealed Knives, Dirks, and Daggers – Penal Codes § 12020, § 20200 & § 21310
In California, folded pocked knives are
legal, but it is illegal for any person to concealed carry any knife
legally described as a “dirk” or “dagger” — the legal terms for any
fixed-blade knife or stabbing weapon. See § 12020(4). Even a locked pocket knife can count, so can a screwdriver in some cases. See § 16470. BUT
carrying a “dirk” or “dagger” in an openly-worn sheath hanging on your
hip is not concealment within the meaning of the statute. See § 12020(25)(d) and § 20200.
Switchblades – Penal Codes § 17235 & 21510
Switchblades and other spring-loaded
knives are illegal in California if their blade is 2″ or longer. A
switchblade is a knife with “the appearance of a pocketknife and
includes a spring-blade knife, snap-blade knife, gravity knife, or any
other similar type knife, the blade or blades of which are two or more
inches in length and which can be released automatically by a flick of a
button, pressure on the handle, flip of the wrist or other mechanical
device, or is released by the weight of the blade or by any type of
mechanism whatsoever.” See § 17235. The
statute expressly excludes pocket knives that can be opened with one
hand by pushing the blade open with one’s thumb, as long as the knife
“has a detent or other mechanism that provides resistance that must be
overcome in opening the blade, or that biases the blade back toward its
closed position.” See § 17235. Basically, your regular pocket knife is legal, and switchblades are legal if they’re under 2″.
The law is zero tolerance on these, and
they’ll bang you with a misdemeanor charge if you: (a) possess the knife
in the passenger’s or driver’s area of any motor vehicle in any public
place or place open to the public; (b) carry the knife upon the person;
(c) sell, offer for sale, expose for sale, loan, transfer, or gives the
knife to any other person. See § 21510. The
Court of Appeals held that possession of a switchblade in a person’s
pocket, boot, etc., is unlawful, even if even if in one’s own home. See People v. S.C. (2009). Modifying a pocket knife into a switchblade-like knife makes it a switchblade. See People v. Angel R. (2008).
Cane Swords and other Disguised Blades – Penal Codes § 16590
Generally, any knife or blade that is disguised so as to not look like a weapon is also illegal in California. See § 16590. This
includes, cane swords (§ 16340), belt-buckle knives (§ 16260), lipstick
case knives (§ 16830), air gauge knives (§ 16140), writing pen knives
(§ 17359), so-called ballistic knives (§ 16220), a staff or crutch (§
17260), etc. Blades that are undetectable to metal detectors (e.g., ceramic blades) are also illegal. See § 20810 and § 17290. Remember,
just because your blade isn’t explicitly described under the law,
doesn’t mean the cops can’t find some way to write you up under the
closest description. I once
had a client wearing rings the police magically made into “metal
knuckles” under PC § 21810 because he was wearing a cut. They also used
the cut to add a gang enhancement to the “weapon” of rings, sorry,
“metal knuckles.”
Possession of Knives on School Grounds – Penal Code § 626.10
It is illegal for any person to bring or
possess “any dirk, dagger, ice pick, knife having a blade longer than 2
1/2 inches, folding knife with a blade that locks into place, [or]
razor with an unguarded blade . . . upon the grounds of, or within, any
public or private school providing instruction in kindergarten or any of
grades 1 to 12 . . .” See §
626.10(a)(1). Subsection (b) of the statute provides that it is illegal
for any person to possess “any dirk, dagger, ice pick, or knife having a
fixed blade longer than 2 1/2 inches upon the grounds of, or within,
any [college or university].”
Possessing a Knife in a Government Building – Penal Code § 171b
Legal blades 4″ or longer that are fixed
or capable of being fixed are illegal within any state or local public
building or at any meeting required to be open to the public. See §
171b(A)(3). Here, a “state or local public building” is a building that
is owned or leased by the state or local government, with state or local
public employees working on a regular basis. See § 171b(C)(1).
Brandishing Knives – Penal Code § 417
In California, it is illegal to brandish any deadly weapon, knives included. See
§ 20200-21590 broadly. The law states that it is unlawful for any
person to “draw or exhibit any deadly weapon . . . in a rude, angry, or
threatening manner, or . . . to unlawfully use a deadly weapon.” See § 417(A)(1). This
does not include use of such a weapon in self defense. See § 417(A)(2).
Watch out, there is a mandatory minimum on this one of thirty days, in
addition to anything else they nail you for. See § 417(A)(1).
So that’s where we stand! Tune in next time to learn about knife laws in Alameda County.
Bill Weiss has long experience in
personal injury and civil rights cases on behalf of the motorcycle
community. He is one of the only attorneys in California that represents
bikers in civil rights cases against law enforcement. He has recovered
millions of dollars on behalf of his clients who have been injured in
motorcycle collisions and other personal injury cases, as well as civil
rights cases.
