I do not understand why they restrict Butterfly Knives.

[Blerv]

Interesting stuff, VashHash. I guess making a case for switchblades and daggers is tougher (historically) than balisongs.

A roofing hammer is FAR more deadly than any knife of similar size. Given enough violence caused by them and a lack of carpentry duties in the area I could see it's carry being outlawed too, it's luckily just not come to that.

[SpyderEdgeForever]

I know the last post on this thread is from awhile back but I will also add this, and this is not to blame the Schrade Knife company one bit, and infact, I read this basic idea in a book on switch blades. Back in the 1950s when the anti-auto knife craze was happening and "concerned mothers" were sending letters to Estes Kefauver, (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estes_Kefauver), who was going against organized crime, and these "do gooders" thought that switchblade = evil horrible vile weapon of violent bikers, street gangs, and mobsters, and totally ignoring the fact that Schrade Knife company and numerous others had been producing spring-opening knives for decades, including issue knives that saved the lives of countless American airmen and soldiers during WW1 and WW2 and the Korean War, when the pressure was put to ban the switch blades, Schrade and other American knife companies as well as international knife makers did not consider the benefit of fighting this insane law/laws, to be worth the trouble and efforts/costs. They figured they can make money selling traditional fixed and folding blade knives and discontinue the Spring Driven ones.

On this page you can scroll down and see some old vintage antique beautiful switch blade knives that were made back then:

http://autoknife.com/index.php?l=product_list&c=71

http://autoknife.com/index.php?l=product_list&m=27

Ironically, now that, thankfully, some US states allow switch blades legally once again, the "new Schrades" which are made overseas are also available.

Anyhow, I don't fault or blame Schrade and others for not fighting as much against it. I blame the nonsensical irrational thought processes of the politicians and citizens who thought and still think knife and auto knife = evil dangerous and banning them will make society safer.

[The Deacon]

I know the last post on this thread is from awhile back but I will also add this, and this is not to blame the Schrade Knife company one bit, and infact, I read this basic idea in a book on switch blades. Back in the 1950s when the anti-auto knife craze was happening and "concerned mothers" were sending letters to Estes Kefauver, (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estes_Kefauver), who was going against organized crime, and these "do gooders" thought that switchblade = evil horrible vile weapon of violent bikers, street gangs, and mobsters, and totally ignoring the fact that Schrade Knife company and numerous others had been producing spring-opening knives for decades, including issue knives that saved the lives of countless American airmen and soldiers during WW1 and WW2 and the Korean War, when the pressure was put to ban the switch blades, Schrade and other American knife companies as well as international knife makers did not consider the benefit of fighting this insane law/laws, to be worth the trouble and efforts/costs. They figured they can make money selling traditional fixed and folding blade knives and discontinue the Spring Driven ones.

On this page you can scroll down and see some old vintage antique beautiful switch blade knives that were made back then:

http://autoknife.com/index.php?l=product_list&c=71

http://autoknife.com/index.php?l=product_list&m=27

Ironically, now that, thankfully, some US states allow switch blades legally once again, the "new Schrades" which are made overseas are also available.

Anyhow, I don't fault or blame Schrade and others for not fighting as much against it. I blame the nonsensical irrational thought processes of the politicians and citizens who thought and still think knife and auto knife = evil dangerous and banning them will make society safer.

You're correct in saying that the US makers didn't fight that legislation. Truth is, they had little or no incentive to fight it. Most of their automatic sales were "shroud cutters" sold to the military and would not be affected. Civilian sales of their automatic knives accounted for only a minute fraction of their business and a portion of that was to people who'd lost the use of a hand and would still be able to purchase them. They more likely felt that if the average person couldn't buy an automatic, they'd still need a knife and that banning the import of the Italian "stiletto" style knives that were being sold in every candy store at the time would actually increase their sales of ordinary pocket knives to younger buyers.

They also lacked any industry wide organization to lobby on their behalf and had no "grassroots" organization of knife owners comparable to the NRA. And, just like the vast majority of the gun community didn't own machine guns, had no desire to own a machine gun, and thus didn't see the NFA as a problem, aside from tweens and teens, American knife owners didn't really care about automatics anyway.

I firmly believe that turning something into "forbidden fruit" is almost always going to be counter productive in the long run. Being told we can't have something simply serves to bring out the rebel in a lot of us. We either find workarounds, like one hand openers and assisted openers, or just ignore the law.

OTOH, I also beleive that, while effectively banning switchblades probably didn't save a single life or reduce crime, it probably spared quite a few young people a trip to the ER for self inflicted leg wounds and/or a trip to the woodshed for ruining a good pair of pants.

And, while the law has been ignored to a large extent for the past 60 years, AFAIK, it's still illegal to import automatics.

[SpyderEdgeForever]

Great points. Thank you.