In a case that also has implications for gun laws, the Massachusetts Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled that the prohibition against carrying spring-loaded knives, commonly known as “switchblades,” violates the Second Amendment protections for its citizens.
The court countered a ruling just last week by a Federal District Judge in California upholding the legality of such a ban. That court declared that switchblades are not “protected arms.”
But the most recent decision in the Bay State was faithful to the two-part Bruen test established by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2022 to determine the constitutionality of laws pertaining to arms.
Protected arms must be in “common” use, and regulations must align with the nation’s historical tradition of laws governing their possession.
The court unanimously ruled that the 1957 Massachusetts law prohibiting people from possessing these spring-release knives does not pass constitutional muster.
The Massachusetts Supreme Court declared: “In the most basic sense, all weapons are ‘dangerous’ because they are designed for the purpose of bodily assault or defense. As such, general dangerousness of a weapon is irrelevant where the weapon belongs to a class of arms commonly used for self-defense.”
The high court determined that spring-loaded knives may not be subject to prohibition in Massachusetts simply because they are “dangerous.”
Rather, such weapons must be demonstrated to be dangerous in a way that is “disproportionate to their use for self-defense.”
Commonwealth v. Canjura centered on the July 2020 arrest of a Boston man after police were called to a domestic disturbance. Responding officers discovered David Canjura stopping his girlfriend from getting away.
After interviewing the girlfriend and witnesses, law enforcement arrested and searched the suspect. They found a knife case shaped like a firearm with a spring-loaded blade in his possession.
Canjura was charged with domestic violence and possession of the knife, though the first was later dismissed.
The suspect’s defense attorney filed a motion to dismiss the remaining charge, arguing that knives are “protected arms” as defined by the Second Amendment. Counsel also asserted that the Massachusetts law prohibiting possession of the weapons violated the Constitution.
The pretrial motion failed, and Canjura entered “an admission to sufficient facts for a finding of guilt on the charge” but reserved his right to appeal.
The Supreme Court agreed to hear the case, and the same arguments were made before the bench. The state countered that the Second Amendment only applies to firearms.
This assertion fell flat before the court, which ruled that knives were common “arms” during the Founding Era and thus covered by the plain text of the Second Amendment.
And with 1.2 million of the knives sold annually, the Bruen stipulation for “common use” was satisfied.
Massachusetts attempted to reach the threshold for consistency with the tradition of firearms regulation during the Founding Era. The state cited statutes covering Bowie knives from the 1830s, but the court determined these fixed-blade instruments were too dissimilar from modern switchblades.
Justice Serge Georges wrote that the contested knives are consistent with the definition of a weapon and may be used for both offensive and defensive purposes. He declared, “The Second Amendment extends to all bearable arms and is not limited to firearms.”
He cited the U.S. Supreme Court rejected the Massachusetts ban on stun guns in 2016. Georges further noted that the state failed in its obligation to present similar laws either from the Second Amendment’s ratification in 1791 or the Fourteenth Amendment in 1868.
Instead of remanding the case back to the lower court as the state requested, the Supreme Court dismissed it altogether. This did not erase the law against switchblades but set a powerful precedent for those facing similar charges in the future.
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