Indiana Knife Laws: No Carry Rules, One Banned Knife, and the School Statute

The Short Version

Indiana has almost no knife law, and what it has is easy to state. There is no statute on carrying a knife concealed, none on carrying one openly, no blade length, no permit and no minimum age. One knife is banned outright, the ballistic knife, under IC 35-47-5-2. One place is off limits, school property and school buses, under 35-47-5-2.5, and even there the statute defines a knife as a blade "intended to be used as a weapon." The switchblade ban that had been on the books since 1957 was repealed in 2013, and the Chinese throwing star ban followed in 2023.

For a TEKTO customer that means every knife we make, the OTF automatics and the double-edged A7 Zastava included, is legal to own and carry in Indiana any way you like. The two rules that still matter are the ones every state shares: keep it out of schools and courthouses, and never use it to threaten anyone, which turns a legal pocketknife into a Level 5 felony under the intimidation statute.

What Indiana Does Not Regulate

Most state knife pages are about concealment. Indiana's weapons chapter, IC 35-47, has a concealed carry rule for handguns and nothing comparable for knives. The word "concealed" does not appear in any knife provision. It has no "dangerous weapon" or "dirk and dagger" statute of the kind Michigan or Virginia use to restrict double-edged blades, and no length limit anywhere. A dagger under a coat, a bowie knife on a belt, a 5-inch folder in a pocket and an OTF clipped in a jacket are all in the same legal position, which is to say none. AKTI puts it in one sentence: "The public carry of knives is not generally restricted in Indiana."

The one adult knife offense is the ballistic knife. Section 35-47-5-2 makes it a Class B misdemeanor "to manufacture, possess, display, offer, sell, lend, give away, or purchase any knife with a detachable blade that may be ejected from the handle as a projectile by means of gas, a spring, or any other device contained in the handle of the knife." The section's caption still says "blade that opens automatically or may be propelled," a leftover from the switchblade years, but the text reaches only the knife that fires its blade.

Switchblades: Legal Since July 1, 2013

From 1957 to 2013 Indiana banned "any knife with a blade that opens automatically by hand pressure applied to a button, device containing gas, spring, or other device in the handle of the knife." The General Assembly repealed that language in the 2013 session, effective July 1, 2013, and left 35-47-5-2 covering ballistic knives only. Nothing replaced it. An automatic knife, OTF or side-opening, is legal to make, sell, buy, own and carry in Indiana with no condition, and the only place it is treated differently from a fixed blade is in the school statute, where "switchblade knife" is one of the examples in the definition of a weapon-knife, alongside the dagger, dirk, poniard, stiletto, gravity knife and throwing star.

Schools: The "Intended to Be Used as a Weapon" Rule

IC 35-47-5-2.5 is the one place statute. Subsection (a) defines "knife" as an instrument that "consists of a sharp edged or sharp pointed blade capable of inflicting cutting, stabbing, or tearing wounds" and "is intended to be used as a weapon". Subsection (b) adds that the term "includes a dagger, dirk, poniard, stiletto, switchblade knife, gravity knife, or throwing star." Subsection (c) makes it a Class B misdemeanor to "recklessly, knowingly, or intentionally" possess such a knife on school property, a school bus or a special purpose bus, a Class A misdemeanor with a prior conviction, and a Level 6 felony "if the offense results in bodily injury to another person." Subsection (d) exempts a knife the school provides or authorizes and a knife "secured in a motor vehicle."

The intent element means a pocketknife carried as a tool is not, on the statute's words, a "knife." Do not rely on that. Every Indiana school corporation's discipline policy bars knives of any kind, a student found with one is suspended or expelled before any prosecutor reads subsection (a), and the listed examples tell you how a school resource officer will see an OTF. The practical rule is the same as every other state's: no knife at school, and if you drive onto school property with one in the car, leave it secured in the vehicle.

Where You Cannot Carry

• School property, school buses and special purpose busesNo knife intended as a weapon. Class B misdemeanor, Class A with a prior, Level 6 felony on injury. A knife secured in a motor vehicle is exempt. School policies bar all knives regardless.
  35-47-5-2.5
• CourthousesIndiana courts bar weapons from court facilities under security rules adopted by each county's courts, with screening at the door. Leave it in the car.
  Court security
• Airports and federal propertyNo knives past the checkpoint at Indianapolis International or any other airport under federal rules, and none in a federal building or courthouse under 18 U.S.C. 930.
  TSA
• IndianapolisThe Indianapolis-Marion County code carries a "sharp objects" ordinance that AKTI considers likely unenforceable under the state constitution's uniformity clauses. It is still on the books. Carry a pocketknife normally and do not test it with a sword.
  AKTI
• Private property and workplacesAn owner may bar knives and an employer may set a policy. The remedy is being asked to leave or being disciplined, and after that, trespass.
  Trespass

Minors and Local Rules

Indiana sets no minimum age to buy, own or carry a knife and has no youth-specific knife statute outside the school section. A parent, not the Code, decides when a child carries a pocketknife. On local law, Indiana does not have a knife preemption statute in the Arizona style, but it has something close: Article 4, Sections 22 and 23 of the state constitution require uniform laws on crimes and punishments, and IC 1-1-2-2 provides that crimes "shall be defined and punishment therefor fixed by statutes of this state and not otherwise." AKTI reads that to mean a local knife ordinance is unenforceable, and notes that Indianapolis has one anyway. We would not plan around it either way: carry what the state allows and keep it out of the places above.

Penalties

Misdemeanor terms are set by 35-50-3-2 (Class A, one year, $5,000) and 35-50-3-3 (Class B, 180 days, $1,000). Felony ranges by 35-50-2-7 (Level 6, six months to two and a half years, advisory one year) and 35-50-2-6 (Level 5, one to six years, advisory three).

What the Internet Gets Wrong

Three things. First, that Indiana bans switchblades. The caption of 35-47-5-2 still reads "knife with blade that opens automatically or may be propelled," and pages that copy captions say so. The text has covered ballistic knives only since July 1, 2013. Second, that throwing stars are illegal. They were, under 35-47-5-12, until July 1, 2023. Third, that Indiana has a concealed carry rule for knives because it has one for handguns. It does not. The handgun statute is in IC 35-47-2 and says nothing about blades. The rule people actually break in Indiana is the school one, usually a parent's knife left in a backpack, and the answer there is the "secured in a motor vehicle" exception: leave it in the car.

TEKTO Knives for Indiana

Every TEKTO knife is legal in Indiana, so choose on the knife. The A5 Spry in any blade style is the OTF we would carry here, and the A7 Zastava with its double-edged spear point is legal to carry concealed in a state that never asks about edges. The A3 Delta side-opening automatic and the F2 Bravo folder are pocket knives with nothing in the Code to say about them. None of them goes to school, and whichever you carry, it stays in the pocket during an argument.