Switchblade Ban Struck Down by Massachusetts High Court

A Massachusetts law prohibiting carrying switchblades violates the Second Amendment and must be vacated, the state’s highest court said Tuesday.

“The Second Amendment extends to all bearable arms and is not limited to firearms,” Justice Serge Georges wrote for the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. “Like handguns, a person can carry a switchblade for offensive or defensive purposes in case of confrontation.”

The ruling sheds light on the type of weapon regulations that are now impermissible following 2022 Supreme Court precedent set in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen.

The opinion also opens the door for a challenge to the state’s ban on weapons including stilettos, daggers, metallic knuckles, nunchaku, and shuriken, although the court left those regulations intact for now.

Bruen requires courts to use a two-step test to determine whether a regulation on a weapon is constitutional. They must assess whether the Second Amendment covers the regulated conduct, and whether the government has proved that the statute is consistent with the historical tradition of regulating weapons.

The justices found that switchblades are “arms” under the Second Amendment. “A review of the history of the American colonies reveals that knives were ubiquitous among colonists, who used them to defend their lives, obtain or produce food, and fashion articles from raw materials,” the opinion said. Folding pocketknives “were commonly possessed by law-abiding citizens for lawful purposes around the time of the founding.”

Since Massachusetts didn’t point to “any laws regulating bladed weapons akin to folding pocketknives generally, or switchblades particularly, in place at the time of the founding or ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment” after the Civil War, the state didn’t meet its burden under the second step of Bruen, the opinion said.

The opinion stems from an appeal brought by defendant David Canjura, who asked the court to drop his charge for carrying a switchblade. The justices vacated that charge.

The Office of the District Attorney represents the state. The Committee for Public Counsel Services represents Canjura.

The case is Commonwealth vs. Canjura, Mass., No. SJC-13432, 8/27/24.