SJC rules that carrying a switchblade is not a crime in Massachusetts

Local news

“We can reasonably assume that switchblades are now generally used by law-abiding citizens for lawful purposes.”

The Massachusetts Supreme Court issued a ruling Tuesday finding that a ban on carrying a switchblade violates the Second Amendment right to bear arms.

Since 1957, a state law in Massachusetts has banned the carrying of spring-loaded knives. The law prohibits the possession of “a switchblade knife or a knife with an automatic spring mechanism that releases the blade from the handle” and carries a prison sentence of up to five years for violations.

Tuesday's ruling stemmed from the 2020 arrest of David E. Canjura. According to the Supreme Judicial Council, he was charged with carrying a dangerous weapon when police searched him in response to a call about an argument between him and his girlfriend and found an “orange, firearm-shaped knife with a spring-loaded blade.” Canjura challenged the constitutionality of the charge against him, arguing that the blade was a “weapon” and that he had the right to carry a weapon for self-defense under the Second Amendment.

In its decision Tuesday, the state's highest court cited two U.S. Supreme Court rulings on the Second Amendment, known as “Bruen” and “Heller.”

Both judgments related to weapons. The Boston Globe reports that the Supreme Court's decisions have led lower courts across the country to determine whether today's laws banning certain weapons existed when the Second Amendment was passed in 1791.

In his decision Tuesday, Judge Serge Georges Jr. wrote that Americans in the 17th and 18th centuries carried small knives, including folding pocket knives, for self-defense, hunting and trapping.

“Not only do folding pocket knives fit contemporary dictionary definitions of weapons — which would encompass a broader category of knives that includes switchblades today — but they were also commonly owned by law-abiding citizens for lawful purposes at the time of the founding,” he wrote. “Setting aside the question of whether switchblades are commonly used for lawful purposes today, we conclude that switchblades are 'weapons' within the meaning of the Second Amendment. Therefore, carrying switchblades is presumptively protected by the plain language of the Second Amendment.”

The Suffolk County District Attorney's Office, which is prosecuting Canjura, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In a motion to the Supreme Court, Suffolk District Attorney Kevin R. Hayden pointed to 19th-century rulings in other states that deemed Bowie knives, daggers and brass knuckles dangerous “to the peace and safety of the citizens,” according to the globe.

In its decision, however, the Supreme Court disagreed with this view, arguing that these references referred to different types of bladed weapons and not specifically to pocket knives or switchblades.

According to the SJC, Massachusetts was one of seven states, along with the District of Columbia, that banned switchblades entirely. Two other states, like Massachusetts, have restrictions on knives based on blade length.

“From these facts, we can reasonably conclude that switchblades are now commonly used as weapons by law-abiding citizens for lawful purposes,” the decision states.

According to the globeThe Supreme Court also cited Bruen last year when it overturned a conviction for illegal possession of a firearm in a 2019 case.