A new Texas law will legalize the open carry of knives longer than five-and-a-half inches.
The law will go into effect in September, making swords, daggers and bowie knives legal to carry in public for everyone over the age of 18. Previously, these longer knives were considered “illegal,” but will now be considered “location-restricted.”
Representative John Frullo of Lubbock authored House Bill 1935 that was signed into law recently. He said the new language clears up some confusion on what is allowed to be carried publicly.
“So that basically you can have any knife, any size, anywhere you want other than in certain locations, and then in those locations you can only have a blade that is not over five-and-a-half inches long,” Frullo said. “So everybody can understand what it is and those locations are spelled out. A lot of times people didn’t even know that they couldn’t have that particular knife.”
He clarified that this does not mean Texans can wield a knife of this size with ill-intent. He said his bill was intended to “help the normal, law-abiding citizen.”
“It keeps us from being criminals when there is no criminal intent,” Frullo said. “If you are walking down the street swinging a knife or sword or something like that, that’s illegal. You can’t do that. You can’t do it with a knife, nor can you do it with a baseball bat or a two-by-four. So people that are acting inappropriately and do that, know they are.”
Knife salesmen we spoke with say they expect an increase in sales, and some even say they have already seen a spike.
“I’m sure people will be more comfortable carrying a knife now that they are not worried about, you know, ‘Is this legal to have in this town or anywhere else?’” owner of Sharp Shooters Knife and Gun Charles Blackwell said.
Blackwell said the new law will clear things up for customers.
“Over the years we have sold a lot of Bowie knives, and people were shocked to realize they couldn’t legally carry it,” Blackwell said.
Blackwell said most of the people shopping for long knives in his store are just collectors, and the most popular knife is still a pocket knife. Since many of those long knives are more expensive, some even costing closer to $1,000, he said he doesn’t think young kids will get their hands on them, only serious collectors will.
We reached out to local businesses who chose to opt out of the open carry of guns to see how they will handle the addition of long blades. We will update this story as we learn more information.
