Alabama Knife Laws: No Banned Knives, No Carry Statute Since 2023, and the Two Rules That Are Left

The Short Version

Alabama went from one knife rule to none. For 170 years Ala. Code 13A-11-50 made it an offense to carry "concealed about his person a bowie knife or knife or instrument of like kind or description," and the old version of this page was built on that sentence. House Bill 272, the permitless-carry act of 2022, rewrote the section so that it now reads, in full: "A person who, in violation of this article, carries concealed about his or her person or in a vehicle a pistol or firearm of any other kind shall, on conviction, be guilty of a Class B misdemeanor." The knife words are gone, the change took effect on January 1, 2023, and since that day no Alabama statute regulates carrying a knife of any kind, openly or concealed, at any blade length, with no permit. No knife is banned by type either. Switchblades, OTFs, gravity knives, butterfly knives, daggers, stilettos and swords have always been legal to own in the state. What remains is narrow. 13A-11-57 fines anyone who "sells, gives or lends to any minor" a "bowie knife, or other knife of like kind or description" between $50 and $500. 13A-11-72(d) makes it a class C felony to "knowingly with intent to do bodily harm carry or possess a deadly weapon on the premises of a school," and the definition of deadly weapon in that section names "a switch-blade knife, gravity knife, stiletto, sword, or dagger." And because Alabama's preemption statute, 13A-11-61.3, covers firearms and not knives, Montgomery, Birmingham and Mobile have ordinances of their own, which are where every blade-length number you have read about Alabama comes from.

What Changed on January 1, 2023

House Bill 272 of the 2022 regular session, sponsored by Representative Shane Stringer and signed by Governor Ivey in March 2022 as Act 2022-133, is known as Alabama's constitutional carry law because it ended the pistol permit requirement. Section 1 of the act also rewrote 13A-11-50. The old text, carried forward from the Code of 1852, read: "Except as otherwise provided in this Code, a person who carries concealed about his person a bowie knife or knife or instrument of like kind or description or a pistol or firearm of any other kind or an air gun shall, on conviction, be fined not less than $50.00 nor more than $500.00, and may also be imprisoned in the county jail or sentenced to hard labor for the county for not more than six months." Alabama courts had read "of like kind or description" broadly. Knife Rights, which worked with the sponsor on the knife language, notes that the clause had been applied to a 6-inch kitchen knife. The new text names only "a pistol or firearm of any other kind" and makes the offense a class B misdemeanor tied to the rest of the article. The act's operative date was January 1, 2023, so the concealed bowie knife offense existed through December 31, 2022 and not after. Nothing replaced it. The old page's warning, "if you conceal carry a Bowie or similar fixed blade knife, you can be subject to up to $500 in fine and/or six months of hard labor," was true when it was written in August 2022 and has been wrong since the following January.

The Bowie Knife Rule That Is Left: Sales to Minors

The one place the bowie knife survives in the Alabama Code is 13A-11-57, "Selling, etc., pistol or bowie knife to minor." Subsection (a) reads: "Any person who sells, gives or lends to any minor any pistol, except under the circumstances provided in Section 13A-11-72, bowie knife, or other knife of like kind or description, shall, on conviction, be fined not less than fifty dollars ($50) nor more than five hundred dollars ($500)." Subsection (b) exempts "a transfer by inheritance of title to, but not possession of," such a knife. The offense belongs to the adult, not the child: a minor who owns or carries a bowie knife commits no offense, and the pistol rules for minors in 13A-11-72(b) are for pistols. What counts as a bowie knife "or other knife of like kind or description" is not defined in the statute. The Court of Criminal Appeals described a bowie knife in Smelley v. State, 472 So. 2d 715 (1985), as a long single-edged knife shaped like a dagger, and the older cases on the repealed concealed-carry offense reached large fixed blades, a butcher knife included, while leaving ordinary pocketknives out. A folding knife or a small fixed blade sold to a 16-year-old is outside the words on any reading we have found. A large fixed blade is inside them. For a retailer the practical rule is an age check on fixed blades over a few inches. For a parent the statute is stricter than it looks: it has no family exception for knives, the exceptions in 13A-11-72(f) that let a parent hand a pistol to a child are written for pistols, and "gives" is the operative word, so on the text a parent who gives a large bowie-style knife to a 15-year-old is inside it. A folding knife or a small hunting knife is a different question, and we found no case either way.

Switchblades, OTFs and Butterfly Knives

Alabama is one of the states that never enacted a switchblade ban. No section of the Code makes it an offense to make, sell, own or carry an automatic knife, a gravity knife or a balisong, and after January 1, 2023 there is no concealed-carry offense for them to fall under either. The only place the switchblade appears is the definition of "deadly weapon" in 13A-11-72(h)(2): "A firearm or anything manifestly designed, made, or adapted for the purposes of inflicting death or serious physical injury, and the term includes, but is not limited to, a bazooka, hand grenade, missile, or explosive or incendiary device; a pistol, rifle, or shotgun; or a switch-blade knife, gravity knife, stiletto, sword, or dagger; or any club, baton, billy, black-jack, bludgeon, or metal knuckles." That definition does one job: it tells you which objects are deadly weapons for the school statute in subsection (d), and the same list appears in the general definitions in 13A-1-2 for assault and similar offenses. It is not a ban, and it does not restrict carry anywhere but a school, and there only with intent to do bodily harm. An OTF in a pocket on Dauphin Street is lawful. The same OTF carried into a high school by someone meaning to hurt a student is a felony, as a fixed blade or a pistol would be. The American Knife and Tool Institute's summary of Alabama puts it in one line: "There are no forbidden knives under Alabama law."

Schools: A Deadly Weapon With Intent to Do Bodily Harm

13A-11-72(d) reads: "Subject to the exceptions provided by Section 13A-11-74, no person shall knowingly with intent to do bodily harm carry or possess a deadly weapon on the premises of a school. A violation of this subsection is a Class C felony." Three elements matter. The weapon must be a "deadly weapon" under subsection (h)(2), which names the switchblade, gravity knife, stiletto, sword and dagger and otherwise reaches "anything manifestly designed, made, or adapted for the purposes of inflicting death or serious physical injury". A plain folding knife or hunting knife is not on the list and is a deadly weapon only if it has been adapted as one. The place must be the premises of a "school," which subsection (h)(5) defines as "a school composed of grades K-12," including a school bus. And the person must act "knowingly with intent to do bodily harm," which is the element that separates this statute from the school rules in most states: a parent with a pocketknife at a football game, or a student with a folder in a backpack, does not commit the felony without proof of intent to hurt someone. Subsection (e) exempts law enforcement officers, authorized school security personnel and resource officers, and holders of a pistol permit under 13A-11-75. The class C felony carries one year and a day to ten years under 13A-5-6. None of that means a knife is welcome at school. Alabama's education code, 16-1-24.1, requires local boards to adopt discipline policies for weapons, and every district's code of conduct treats a knife as grounds for suspension or expulsion whatever the carrier intended. The statute is about the felony. The policy is about the pocket.

Where You Cannot Carry

• K-12 school premises and school busesA deadly weapon carried or possessed "with intent to do bodily harm" is a class C felony. Without intent there is no state crime, but district policy under 16-1-24.1 bars knives for students and most districts bar them for visitors. Expect to be asked to leave and, for a student, to be expelled.
  13A-11-72(d)
• Courthouses and the State HouseAlabama has no statute on knives in courthouses or state buildings. The Unified Judicial System and the sheriffs who run courthouse security screen every entrance and hold knives until you leave. The State House does the same.
  Court security
• Airports and federal propertyNo knives past the checkpoint at Birmingham-Shuttlesworth, Huntsville or Mobile under federal rules, and none in a federal building or courthouse under 18 U.S.C. 930.
  TSA
• Montgomery, Birmingham and MobileReported city rules: a 3-inch blade limit in Montgomery, a 4-inch limit for carrying in public in Birmingham, and a duty in Mobile to disclose a knife with a blade over 2 inches to a law enforcement officer. These are from secondary sources. None of the three codes was read for this page.
  City codes
• Posted private property and workplacesAlabama has no statute giving a "no weapons" sign criminal force for knives. A posted rule is enforced by asking you to leave, then trespass, and an employer's policy by the employer.
  Trespass

Montgomery, Birmingham, Mobile and Local Rules

Alabama's preemption statute, 13A-11-61.3, reserves to the Legislature "the entire field of regulation" of firearms, ammunition and firearm accessories, and says nothing about knives. The American Knife and Tool Institute lists statewide knife preemption for Alabama as "No." Cities may therefore keep knife ordinances, and the three largest are reported to. AKTI and Urban EDC describe Montgomery as enforcing a 3-inch blade limit. Urban EDC adds a Birmingham rule against carrying knives with blades over 4 inches in public places and a Mobile rule requiring disclosure to a law enforcement officer of any knife with a blade over 2 inches. We did not read the Montgomery, Birmingham or Mobile codes for this page and cannot tell you their current text, their exceptions or their penalties. The figures may be dated. Knife Rights has said it is pursuing knife preemption in Alabama, which would void these ordinances, and as of this page's date it has not passed. The state rules on this page are the floor. If you carry a fixed blade or a folder over 3 inches in Montgomery, over 4 inches in Birmingham, or over 2 inches in Mobile, read the city code or call the city attorney's office first.

Minors and Felons

Alabama sets no minimum age for owning or carrying a knife, and no age appears anywhere in the state's knife provisions except the sales rule: 13A-11-57 fines an adult who sells, gives or lends a bowie knife or a knife of like kind to a minor, and leaves the minor's own possession alone. A 16-year-old with a folder, a fixed blade or an OTF commits no state offense on the street, and the same two rules apply to a minor as to an adult: a deadly weapon at school with intent to do bodily harm is a felony, and the school's conduct policy applies in any case. For a person with a felony conviction, 13A-11-72(a) bars owning or possessing "a firearm" after a felony conviction within five years, three or more felonies, a crime of violence, a domestic violence misdemeanor or a protection order. It says firearm, and no Alabama statute bars a felon from owning or carrying a knife. The rules on this page apply to a felon as they apply to anyone else.

Penalties

What the Internet Gets Wrong

Four things, and the old version of this page had the first. First, that it is a crime to carry a bowie knife or a large fixed blade concealed in Alabama: it was, until December 31, 2022, and the sentence everyone quotes was deleted from 13A-11-50 by Act 2022-133. Since January 1, 2023 Alabama has no concealed-carry statute for knives at all. Second, that Alabama bans switchblades: it never has, and the one appearance of the word in the Code is a definition for the school felony. Third, that Alabama has a blade-length limit: the state has none. The 2-, 3- and 4-inch figures are Mobile, Montgomery and Birmingham ordinances, and they do not apply in Huntsville or on the Gulf. Fourth, that any knife at school is a felony: the state felony requires a "deadly weapon," which is a defined list plus anything adapted to injure, carried "with intent to do bodily harm". A pocketknife in a backpack is a school-discipline matter, not a class C felony, unless the state can prove the intent.

TEKTO Knives for Alabama

Every TEKTO knife is legal to own and carry in Alabama, openly or in a pocket, at any age, with no permit, since there is no state statute left to say otherwise. The A5 Spry, A5 Spry Mini, A2 Badger, A7 Zastava and A4 OTFs and the A3 Delta side-opener are "switch-blade knives" only for the purpose of the school felony, which also requires intent to do bodily harm. On the street they are as lawful as a pocketknife. The X1 Atlas, a 3.30-inch fixed blade, is the knife the old concealed-carry statute would have reached as a knife "of like kind" to a bowie, and since 2023 it can ride under a jacket as well as on a belt. It is also the one knife in the line that a shop should not sell, give or lend to anyone under 18 without thinking about 13A-11-57. The F1 Alpha, F2 Bravo, F3 Charlie and F4 Echo folders, at 3.10 to 3.80 inches, clear Birmingham's reported 4-inch line. The F3 Charlie and the A5 Spry at 3.50 are over Montgomery's reported 3-inch figure, and everything but the 1.85-inch Spry Mini and Badger is over Mobile's reported 2-inch disclosure line, so check those three city codes before carrying there. Keep all of them out of K-12 schools, where the question is policy rather than the felony.