Knife Law Watch: Pending Cases, Recent Changes, and What We Are Tracking

The Short Version

Two things change a state knife law page: a bill that passes and a court that rules. This page tracks both, state by state, so that a reader can see what is pending before it lands and what landed recently before a search engine catches up. As of October 12, 2026, four federal cases are pending: against the switchblade bans in New Jersey, Minnesota and California, and against the Federal Switchblade Act itself. The most recent changes on the books are Vermont's and Delaware's 2025 repeals. Everything on this page links to the state page that carries the statute, and every state page carries the date it was last verified. The methodology page explains how we read a statute. This one explains what we are waiting on.

Pending in Court

New Jersey. On September 21, 2026 the Association of New Jersey Rifle and Pistol Clubs and Knife Rights filed ANJRPC and Knife Rights v. Davenport, No. 26-cv-12401, in the District of New Jersey, challenging the state's bans on switchblades, daggers and other listed knives and its rule that self-defense is not an explainable lawful purpose for carrying one, under the Second Amendment and the Supreme Court's Bruen framework. A ruling for the plaintiffs would make automatics legal to own in New Jersey for the first time since the 1950s. There is no ruling yet. The New Jersey page states the law as it stands and will be rewritten the day it changes.

Minnesota. Knife Rights v. Ellison challenges Minnesota's switchblade possession ban, 609.66, on the same grounds. Minnesota is the one ban state that otherwise leaves knives almost entirely unregulated, so a ruling would change a single line on its page and the hub. We check the docket before each review of this page.

California. Knife Rights' challenge to Penal Code 21510, the 2-inch rule for automatics, lost before a Ninth Circuit panel, and on July 17, 2026 the full court denied rehearing over two dissents that criticized the panel's reading of Second Amendment precedent. Knife Rights is taking it to the Supreme Court. Justice Kagan extended the deadline, and the petition for certiorari is due December 14, 2026. The Court takes a small fraction of petitions, so the California page will say 2 inches for some time yet.

The Federal Switchblade Act. Knife Rights has also challenged the 1958 act's bans on manufacturing and moving switchblades in interstate commerce (not the import ban), and the Fifth Circuit heard argument on the appeal on April 1, 2026. A ruling against the act would change how automatics are made and shipped across state lines. It would not change any state's carry law, which is why it sits lower on this page than the state cases.

The precedent the state cases rely on is Massachusetts's own high court: in Commonwealth v. Canjura, decided August 27, 2024, the Supreme Judicial Court struck down that state's 1957 switchblade clause, the first court to apply Bruen to a knife ban. The history of switchblades has the longer story.

Changes Since 2023

What We Watch, and How Often

Four sources move first. The American Knife and Tool Institute publishes legislative updates and tracks every knife bill it supports or opposes. Knife Rights announces the cases it files and the bills it drafts. The state legislature sites show a bill's status the day it changes. The federal court dockets show filings in the pending cases. This page is reviewed weekly against those sources, and the review has three possible outcomes: nothing changed, which is most weeks. Something is pending, which goes on the board above with its status. Or something took effect, which rewrites the state page, changes the hub row, moves the item into the table above and resets the state page's verified date. We watch the five ban states most closely, because a repeal there changes the national map, and we watch the length-limit and concealment states next, because those rules are the ones legislatures amend.

How to Report a Change

The people who carry knives in a state usually hear about a change before anyone writing about it from outside. If a bill has passed, a case has been decided or a city has amended an ordinance and the state page does not yet say so, tell us through the contact page with the bill number, the case name or the ordinance section if you have it. We check it against the code and fix the page, and this page records the change. Nothing here is legal advice. A specific situation needs a lawyer in that state.