Court Tosses Decades-Old Knife Ban On Second Amendment Grounds
A federal appeals court threw out a federal ban on switchblades, saying the measure violated the Second Amendment.
Harold Hutchison · Oct 22, 2026 · 2 min read
A federal appeals court threw out a federal ban on switchblades, saying the measure violated the Second Amendment.
A three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, consisting of a George W. Bush appointee and two Trump appointees, issued the decision in Knife Rights v. Blanche Wednesday. The panel found that one of two challenged provisions was unconstitutional but allowed the other to stand on technical grounds.
“The question, then, is whether this right to have and carry weapons extends to the procurement of weapons such that it would implicate §1242’s prohibition on the introduction, manufacture, transportation, or distribution of switchblades into interstate commerce,” Chief United States Circuit Judge Jennifer Walker Elrod, a George W. Bush appointee, wrote in the opinion. “We conclude that it does. In Reese v. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, we considered whether a statute, which proscribed selling firearms or ammunition ‘to any individual who the licensee knows or has reasonable cause to believe is less than twenty-one years of age,’ implicated that right.”
“We acknowledged that the ‘words ‘purchase,’ ‘sale,’ or similar terms describing a transaction do not appear in the Second Amendment,” Elrod continued. “But they are implied because the right to keep and bear arms ‘wouldn’t mean much’ ‘without the corresponding right to acquire’ them.”
The Federal Switchblade Act (FSA) was enacted by Congress in 1958, three years after switchblades were prominently featured in the 1955 movie “Rebel Without a Cause,” starring James Dean.
Prior to passage of the FSA, as many as 1.2 million switchblades were being produced or imported into the United States, according to the opinion.
“The government’s not-in-common-use argument fails,” Elrod wrote. “In addition to the wealth of history indicating the founding-era uses of switchblades for defense, the record indicates that there are ‘millions’ of automatically opening knives in the United States now.”
All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact [email protected].
All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact [email protected].