Illinois Knife Laws: What You Can Carry, the FOID Rule and Chicago

The Short Version

Illinois has no permit for knives, no statewide blade length for carry, and no difference between open and concealed carry in state law. The Criminal Code works by list: 720 ILCS 5/24-1(a)(1) bans a short set of items outright, and everything else is legal to carry unless you carry it with intent to use it against someone. Automatic knives are on the banned list, with one exception that matters: since August 11, 2017, the ban does not apply to anyone holding a current Illinois Firearm Owner's Identification card. Two rules sit on top of that. A blade of 3 inches or longer counts as a listed weapon inside any building, or on any land, paid for with public money. And Chicago writes its own code, which bans automatics with no FOID exception and limits a concealed blade to 2.5 inches.

Automatics and the FOID Card

Section 24-1(a)(1) makes it an offense to sell, manufacture, purchase, possess or carry "any knife, commonly referred to as a switchblade knife, which has a blade that opens automatically by hand pressure applied to a button, spring or other device in the handle of the knife." An OTF opens by a button in the handle, so it is a switchblade under that definition. Public Act 100-82, effective August 11, 2017, added subsection (e)(2): the switchblade clause "does not apply to a person who possesses a currently valid Firearm Owner's Identification Card previously issued in his or her name by the Illinois State Police or to a person or an entity engaged in the business of selling or manufacturing switchblade knives."

Three things follow. The card has to be current and in your name. An expired card, or a spouse's, does not count, and because the statute says possesses, carry the card with the knife. The exemption covers possession and carry, not only ownership at home. And it is the card that matters, not a firearm: you do not need to own a gun, and a concealed carry license is not a substitute on its own, although every CCL holder also holds a FOID card.

Who can get one. The FOID Act, 430 ILCS 65/4, requires an Illinois resident who is 21, or under 21 with the written consent of a parent or guardian who could hold a card themselves, or an active-duty service member. Applicants cannot have a felony conviction, a domestic battery conviction, certain recent violent misdemeanors, an active order of protection, or a recent mental health admission. The fee is $10, the card is valid for ten years, and the State Police have 30 days to approve or deny. Apply through the Illinois State Police.

Residency is the catch for visitors. The FOID Act issues the card to Illinois residents, with a narrow exception for service members permanently assigned in Illinois and out-of-state officers employed here (430 ILCS 65/4(a)(2)(xiv) and (a-10)), and the knife statute has no out-of-state exception, so a visitor from Indiana, Wisconsin or Missouri who is legal at home is not legal with an automatic in Illinois, whatever permit they hold. Leave it at home.

What You Can Carry

Everything not on the list. Folding knives of any size, fixed blades, hunting and fishing knives, daggers, dirks, stilettos, double-edged blades, bowies, machetes, butterfly knives, gravity knives and assisted openers are all legal to own and to carry in Illinois, openly or concealed, with no length limit in state law outside the public-buildings rule in section 05. Section 24-1(a)(2) is the only statewide rule on these, and it turns on intent: it is an offense to carry "a dagger, dirk, billy, dangerous knife, razor, stiletto, broken bottle or other piece of glass" or anything similar "with intent to use the same unlawfully against another." The knife is not the crime. The plan to use it on someone is. Carry it as a tool and the section is not in play.

Assisted openers deserve a sentence. The statute defines a switchblade by a button, spring or other device in the handle. A spring-assisted knife is opened by pressure on the blade, through a thumb stud or flipper tab, and the spring finishes the motion. It is not named in the statute and is generally treated as a manual knife, which is how the American Knife and Tool Institute reads the definition as well. No Illinois appellate court has ruled on an assisted opener or a gravity knife. The one decision on the definition, People v. Velez (Ill. App. 2003), runs the other way for a broken automatic: a knife designed to open by a button in the handle is still a switchblade when the spring no longer works. A FOID card removes the question either way.

What You Cannot Carry

Section 24-1(a)(1) bans, for everyone, a ballistic knife (a blade fired from the handle by a spring, elastic or compressed gas), a throwing star, and "metal knuckles or other knuckle weapon regardless of its composition," which takes in any knife with a knuckle-duster handle, along with bludgeons, blackjacks and sand clubs. There is no FOID exception for these and no exception for collectors. Selling, buying, owning or carrying one is a Class A misdemeanor. A switchblade without a FOID card sits in the same clause with the same penalty.

Two more cases. A person with a felony conviction cannot possess anything on that list, including a switchblade, under 24-1.1. The offense is a Class 3 felony with a 2 to 10 year range, and a felony conviction also bars the FOID card. And carrying a ballistic knife while hooded or masked to hide your identity is its own Class 4 felony under 24-1(a)(9).

The 3-Inch Rule

The number everyone has heard, and almost everyone has wrong. There is no 3-inch limit on carrying a knife in Illinois. The number comes from two sections read together. 720 ILCS 5/33A-1, the armed violence article, defines a Category II weapon to include a "knife with a blade of at least 3 inches in length, dagger, dirk, switchblade knife, stiletto, axe, hatchet." And 720 ILCS 5/21-6 makes it a Class A misdemeanor to possess any weapon listed in 33A-1 "in any building or on land supported in whole or in part with public funds" without "prior written permission from the chief security officer for such land or building."

So a 3-inch blade is legal on the street, in your car, in a store and at work. It becomes an offense when you carry it into a courthouse, a state university, a public school, a city hall, a DMV or a public library, or onto their grounds. The section covers land as well as buildings, so a public park or forest preserve is covered on its words, although enforcement there is aimed at people doing something else wrong. Note that the 33A-1 list also names a dagger, dirk, stiletto and switchblade of any length, so a FOID holder's automatic, and any double-edged blade, is covered in those places whatever it measures. Subsection (b) says the security officer "must grant any reasonable request," which matters for tradespeople who work inside public buildings. For everyone else the practical rule is simple: under 3 inches, single-edged and manual on the days you will be in a government building, or leave the knife in the car.

Chicago

Illinois has no preemption law for knives, so a city can be stricter than the state, and Chicago is. Municipal Code 8-24-020 does four things. Subsection (a) bans selling, keeping, possessing, purchasing, loaning or giving away a switchblade knife or a ballistic knife, with no FOID exception. The state exemption lifts the state ban. It does not override the city's, so a FOID holder carrying an OTF inside the city limits is in violation of the city code. Subsection (f) bans carrying concealed "a dagger, any knife with a blade more than two and one-half inches in length, or other dangerous weapon." The ordinance does not define concealed, and a folder in a pocket is best assumed to be, clip or no clip, so inside the city the safe lengths are 2.5 inches and under. Subsections (b) and (c) bar anyone 18 or under from carrying a knife with a blade of 2 inches or longer, and bar selling or giving one to them. Subsection (d) repeats the state's intent rule and adds carrying "in a threatening or menacing manner." The penalty is a $200 fine, up to six months, or both, and the knife is forfeited to the city. A separate section, 8-24-021, keeps utility knives out of the hands of anyone under 18 outside home, school and work.

Chicago is not the only city with its own ordinance. Most Illinois cities follow the state, a few add rules of their own, and none of them publish to one place. If you carry in an Illinois city you do not know, read its code first.

Where You Cannot Carry

• Schools, parks, courthouses, public housing and public transitA violation of 24-1(a)(1) or (a)(2) in any school or on its grounds, in a public park, a courthouse, public housing, a school bus or a public transit vehicle, or on a public way within 1,000 feet of any of them, is a Class 4 felony instead of a misdemeanor. A switchblade without a FOID card on a CTA train is a felony. The section does not ban ordinary knives in these places, but schools and courthouses are publicly funded buildings, so the 3-inch rule applies, and school discipline codes go further.
  24-1(c)(2)
• Bars and ticketed eventsCarrying "any firearm, stun gun or taser or other deadly weapon" in any place licensed to sell alcohol, or at any public gathering held under a government license or where admission is charged, is a Class 4 felony. The section does not define deadly weapon, and a pocket knife carried as a tool is not automatically one, but a dagger or a large fixed blade in a bar is an easy case for a prosecutor. Owners, managers and staff of the place are exempt.
  24-1(a)(8)
• Publicly funded buildings and landAny blade of 3 inches or more, and any dagger, dirk, stiletto or switchblade, without written permission from the chief security officer. Courthouses screen for knives at the door regardless.
  21-6
• AirportsO'Hare and Midway follow federal rules at the checkpoint: no knives in the cabin. Both are inside Chicago, so the city's rules apply in the terminal before you reach security.
  TSA
• Private propertyEmployers, venues and property owners set their own policy. Breaking it gets you removed, and refusing to leave becomes trespass.
  Posted rules

Penalties

Each knife is a separate count under section 24-1.

What the Internet Gets Wrong

Five things, several of them on page one of Google and one of them on the previous version of this page. First, that you must be 21 to carry an automatic: the FOID Act issues cards to applicants under 21 with a parent's or guardian's written consent, and the knife statute asks only for a current card. Second, that there is a 3-inch limit on carrying a knife in Illinois: there is none on the street. The number applies inside publicly funded buildings and land. Third, that all knives are banned within 1,000 feet of a school: the 1,000-foot rule in 24-1(c) raises the penalty for an item that was already illegal to carry. It does not ban a pocket knife on the sidewalk. Fourth, that hunters, anglers or police are exempt from the switchblade clause: the hunting and fishing exemptions in 24-2 apply to firearm provisions, and the only 24-1(a)(1) exemption there is a peace officer's blackjack. The FOID card and the knife trade are the only ways around the clause. Fifth, that a FOID card makes an automatic legal in Chicago: the city code has no FOID exception.

TEKTO Knives for Illinois

Two questions decide it: do you hold a FOID card, and will the knife go into Chicago or into public buildings. With a FOID card, every TEKTO automatic is legal to carry statewide outside Chicago, and the three under 2 inches, the A5 Spry Mini, A2 Badger and A3 Delta Mini, stay well under the 3-inch public-buildings line. A double-edged blade is legal in Illinois outside Chicago, but it is a dagger under 33A-1 inside public buildings and under Chicago's concealed rule, so choose Drop Point or Tanto if you want the fewest rules in play.

Without a FOID card, the manual folders are the answer: the F1 Alpha (3.1 in), F2 Bravo (3.3 in), F4 Echo (3.4 in) and F3 Charlie (3.8 in) open by a flipper tab on the blade, not a button in the handle, and are legal to carry anywhere in Illinois outside publicly funded buildings, so is the X1 Atlas fixed blade. All of them are over 3 inches, so they stay in the car when you go into a government building, and over 2.5 inches, so inside Chicago they need to be carried openly or left at home.

Chicago is the hard case. The city bans automatics regardless of the card and limits a concealed blade to 2.5 inches, and no TEKTO manual folder is that short. We would rather say so than sell you a knife you cannot carry downtown.