Knife Question

If this should be in another section, please let me know. I mainly wanted to reach some of you in KY that have more experience researching KY law. My googling has not helped me clear this up.

My son is 19 and carries a folding knife with a clip in his front pocket. The clip is clearly visible. The knife has an extension built into the back of the blade that looks like a semi-circle and you just have to push that with your finger to snap the blade open.

Here is a video of a knife that is very similar. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-mAgWWISoQ

I do not think my sons knife is that big. I can measure it when he gets home.

I was told by a Boyd County Sheriff's Office Court Bailiff that they had been in a class and were told to arrest someone if they found one of these when they empty their pockets to be screened.

I do not want my son to get in to trouble. He says that the salesman assured him it was legal to which I just laughed and told my son I would get another opinion as I never trust the salesman.

http://www.lrc.ky.gov/krs/500-00/080.pdf

This statute defines a deadly weapon as "anything other than an ordinary pocket knife or hunting knife". A spring assisted knife such as the one in the video MAY be considered an UNordinary knife. If this is the case it would either need to be carried in the open, or he would need a CCDW. If the knife is in the pocket and only the clip of the knife is showing, I would consider it openly carried, but then again, I'm not a lawyer or a LEO.

Also, to my knowledge, such knives are LEGAL in KY. I have one that I bought from Walmart that is spring assisted.

Is the exposed clip enough to be considered not concealed?

I would ask the bailiff again, because they were told to arrest someone with auto-opening knives, who didnt have a concealed license. A spring assisted knife is not an auto. Being a bailiff, he is not in a posistion to be giving legal advice anyways, and I myself have found nothing about spring assisted knives in KRS. they say a regular pocket knife, well who determines what a regular pocket knife is? My spring assist is regular to me, i even have to off safe the knife before i can start opening the blade. If you were real concerned with it I would ask a lawyers opinion, or maybe gutshot on here. He seems to know just about everything there is to know about state law.

A spring-assisted knife IS legal. They were designed in such a way that allows them to be legal in alot of places that an atuo-opener AKA "Switchblade". Spring-assisted are legal but an auto-opener IS NOT, UNLESS you have a CCDW. This bailiff is for lack of a better word, a sheeple! Though I'm sure that he's just doing what he was told, it is incorrect.

Now, if the knife is over a pre-set limit, it would be illegal but according to the knife in the video, this one looks legal from here.

Just for your local info. I have found no ordinances in ashland or boyd county that ban any kind of knife, and I cant find anything local that even talks about knifes so there is no ordinances in boyd county that prohibit him from carrying it. If he really needs to just have him carry it on his belt with his shirt untucked. Or if he is carrying it just for self defense, and hes over 18, and competant with firearms, just buy him a handgun. He can carry at 18, and state law does allow that.

Yeah I meant tucked, im sure everyone got what I was trying to say there.

I get in to big a hurry sometimes, i guess i need to slow down and read over what im typing....

Emergancy Tool !!!

I talked to a LEO not that long ago about my spring assisted pocket knife. He said that a "pocket knife" like the one I was carrying was in fact a Deadly Weapon and required a CCDW card. The blade on mine is more than 4.5 inches long. BUT!!! I wasn't carrying a pocket knife.

I was carrying a spring assisted emergency tool. See because it has a dedicated glass breaker, and a dedicated seat belt cutter, it's an emergency tool and doesn't fall under the "knife" category. It's in case I or a family member or another person gets trapped inside the car after a car accident, if my car goes in the river, or whatever.

Look at emergency tools like these.

http://www.swordsswords.com/us-air-force-spring-assist-emergency-knife.aspx

He winked while sayin it but it doesn't mean it's not true yeah. Again like open carry, how you present and represent yourself is just as important as what you are carrying.

It is a deadly weapon, but who determines what an ordinary pocket knife is? That is all the law says is ordinary, or hunting knife. The law is very vague, you could argue that you believed it was ordinary to yourself, opens just like any other pocket knife, except it assists after you start the opening process. I really dont see getting convicted of concealing a deadly weapon over this, but thats just my opinion, and you can still carry, just as long as everyone can see it, and nobody can say anything.