New Mexico Knife Laws: The Switchblade Ban, the Deadly Weapon List, and the Car Exception

The Short Version

New Mexico has two knife rules. The first is a ban: NMSA 30-7-8 makes it a petty misdemeanor to make, possess, display, sell, lend, give or buy "any knife which has a blade which opens automatically by hand pressure applied to a button, spring or other device in the handle of the knife, or any knife having a blade which opens or falls or is ejected into position by the force of gravity or by any outward or centrifugal thrust or movement." That is every OTF and side-opening automatic, every gravity knife, and, since State v. Riddall (1991), every butterfly knife. The second is a concealment rule: 30-7-2 makes it a petty misdemeanor to carry "a concealed loaded firearm or any other type of deadly weapon" anywhere except your residence, your real property, or a private vehicle "for lawful protection," and 30-1-12(B) defines a deadly weapon to include "daggers, brass knuckles, switchblade knives, bowie knives, poniards, butcher knives, dirk knives and all such weapons with which dangerous cuts can be given, or with which dangerous thrusts can be inflicted."

There is no blade length, no open carry rule and, under the state constitution, no local ordinance. For a TEKTO customer that means the F-series folders and the X1 Atlas are the New Mexico knives: a folder is not a deadly weapon under the Supreme Court's reading, a single-edged fixed blade belongs on a belt in the open, and none of our automatics can be possessed in the state at all.

The Deadly Weapon Definition: 30-1-12

Everything in New Mexico's concealed carry and school statutes runs through 30-1-12(B), which defines "deadly weapon" as any firearm, loaded or not, and "any weapon which is capable of producing death or great bodily harm, including but not restricted to any types of daggers, brass knuckles, switchblade knives, bowie knives, poniards, butcher knives, dirk knives and all such weapons with which dangerous cuts can be given, or with which dangerous thrusts can be inflicted, including swordcanes, and any kind of sharp pointed canes, also slingshots, slung shots, bludgeons; or any other weapons with which dangerous wounds can be inflicted." Five knives are named, one of them a kitchen tool, and then two catch-alls follow. The named knives are deadly weapons as a matter of law. For everything else, the New Mexico Supreme Court held in State v. Nick (2009) that the prosecution must prove both that the object can inflict the described wounds and that the person intended to use it as a weapon, and it reversed a conviction over an ordinary pocketknife on that ground. The result is a two-tier rule: a dagger or bowie knife under a jacket is the offense itself, and a folder under a jacket is an offense only if the facts show it was carried as a weapon.

Concealed Carry: 30-7-2 and Its Exceptions

30-7-2(A) defines unlawful carrying of a deadly weapon as "carrying a concealed loaded firearm or any other type of deadly weapon anywhere, except in the following cases," and the cases are: "(1) in the person's residence or on real property belonging to him as owner, lessee, tenant or licensee; (2) in a private automobile or other private means of conveyance, for lawful protection of the person's or another's person or property". By certified and temporary peace officers. "(5) by a person in possession of a valid concealed handgun license." A violation is a petty misdemeanor. The vehicle exception is unusually generous: a bowie knife in the glove box, carried for protection, is lawful, and so is a dagger in the door pocket, which is the opposite of Michigan's rule. The license exception is written as an exception to the whole offense, and no New Mexico court has said whether a concealed handgun license also covers a concealed knife. We would not rely on it. Open carry is not addressed by the section at all, so a bowie knife on a belt in Albuquerque is lawful and the same knife under a coat is not.

Switchblades: 30-7-8, Riddall and Assisted Openers

New Mexico's switchblade statute is a possession ban, not a carry rule, and it is one of the broadest in the country. 30-7-8 reaches manufacturing, "possessing, displaying, offering, selling, lending, giving away or purchasing," so an OTF in a drawer at home is as much an offense as one in a pocket, and a retailer shipping one into the state commits the offense along with the buyer. The definition has two halves: the automatic half, "a blade which opens automatically by hand pressure applied to a button, spring or other device in the handle," and the gravity half, "a blade which opens or falls or is ejected into position by the force of gravity or by any outward or centrifugal thrust or movement." In State v. Riddall (1991) the Court of Appeals held that a butterfly knife, whose blade swings into position by a flick of the wrist, falls within the gravity half. AKTI notes that the statute has no bias-toward-closure language and no appellate decision on assisted openers, and reads it as likely reaching them. We agree and do not recommend an assisted opener in New Mexico. The penalty is a petty misdemeanor, up to six months and $500, and AKTI points out an unresolved tension with 30-7-2, which treats a switchblade as a deadly weapon one may conceal in a car.

Pocketknives and State v. Nick

State v. Nick, decided by the New Mexico Supreme Court in 2009, is the case that makes an ordinary folder safe here. A student was convicted of the fourth-degree felony of carrying a deadly weapon on school premises for having a pocketknife. The court held that a pocketknife is not among the weapons the Legislature listed, that the catch-all language requires proof the object is capable of the described wounds and that the defendant intended to use it as a weapon, and that the evidence did not show either. It reversed. The holding applies equally to 30-7-2. A folding knife carried in a pocket for ordinary purposes is not a concealed deadly weapon, and the state cannot make it one by pointing at the blade. The same knife drawn in a quarrel is a deadly weapon in the manner used, and the charge then is aggravated assault, not unlawful carrying.

Schools: 30-7-2.1

30-7-2.1 makes it a fourth-degree felony to carry a deadly weapon on school premises, defined as the buildings, grounds, playing fields, parking areas and buses of any public elementary, secondary, junior high or high school while school activities are under way, and any other public building or grounds where a sanctioned public-school activity is taking place. The exceptions are peace officers, school security, participants in a school-approved program such as ROTC or a shooting team, and a person over nineteen "in a private automobile or other private means of conveyance, for lawful protection," which keeps the parent's knife in the car lawful. The penalty, up to eighteen months and $5,000, is the harshest in New Mexico's knife law and the only felony. Nick limits it to real deadly weapons, which is cold comfort for a student, because every district's discipline policy expels for any knife and does not wait for a court to apply the definition.

Where You Cannot Carry

• Public school premises, including parking areas, buses and off-site school activitiesNo deadly weapon. Fourth-degree felony. A person over nineteen with a knife in a private vehicle for protection is excepted. School policies, public and private, bar every knife.
  30-7-2.1
• BusesBoarding a bus with a firearm or other deadly weapon readily accessible, without the company's prior approval, is a misdemeanor. A knife in checked luggage is the way to travel with one.
  30-7-13
• CourthousesThe Supreme Court's security orders bar weapons from court facilities, with screening at the entrance. Leave it in the car, where 30-7-2 allows it.
  Court security
• Airports and federal propertyNo knives past the checkpoint at Albuquerque International Sunport under federal rules, and none in a federal building or courthouse under 18 U.S.C. 930.
  TSA
• Tribal landThe Navajo Nation, the nineteen Pueblos and the Apache reservations govern their own land. Tribal codes apply to tribal members and, at casinos and tribal buildings, to visitors. Check before you carry.
  Tribal codes
• 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 Preemption

New Mexico's youth weapons statute, 30-7-2.2, is about handguns, and no statute sets a minimum age to buy, own or carry a knife. The concealed carry rule, the switchblade ban and the school felony apply to a minor as to an adult. On local law, Article II, Section 6 of the state constitution provides that "no municipality or county shall regulate, in any way, an incident of the right to keep and bear arms," and AKTI treats that as preempting local knife rules. Albuquerque, Santa Fe and Las Cruces are under the state statutes on this page and nothing more.

Penalties

Petty misdemeanor sentences are set by 31-19-1 (up to six months and $500) and fourth-degree felony sentences by 31-18-15 (eighteen months and $5,000).

What the Internet Gets Wrong

Four things. First, that New Mexico restricts knives by length. It never has. No statute mentions inches. Second, that the switchblade law is a carry law. It is a possession law, and it reaches a knife in a drawer, a knife in a shop window and a knife in a mailed box. Third, that a butterfly knife is legal because the statute does not say "butterfly." Riddall says it is a switchblade. Fourth, that a pocketknife is a concealed deadly weapon because the catch-all mentions "dangerous cuts." Nick says the state must prove the knife was intended as a weapon. The rule people miss in the other direction is the car: a bowie knife that is a petty misdemeanor under your coat is lawful in your glove box.

TEKTO Knives for New Mexico

New Mexico is a folder state for us. The F1 Alpha at 3.10 inches, the F2 Bravo at 3.30 and the F4 Echo at 3.40 are pocketknives under State v. Nick and open by hand with no spring, which keeps them clear of 30-7-8 and the assisted-opener question. The X1 Atlas is a 3.30-inch single-edged MagnaCut fixed blade. Carry it on a belt in the open, or in the truck, and it never meets the concealment rule. Our OTF automatics, the A5 Spry, Spry Mini, A2 Badger, A4 and A7 Zastava, and the side-opening A3 Delta, cannot be possessed, bought or shipped into New Mexico under 30-7-8.