SAN DIEGO (Legal Newsline) — Members of a "knife rights" advocacy group are claiming California's ban on automatically opening knives violates their Second Amendment rights.
Knife Rights Inc., Eliot Kaagan, Jim Miller, Garrison Ham, North County Shooting Center, Inc., filed a complaint March 15 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California against California Attorney General Rob Bonta, San Diego County Sheriff Kelly Martinez and San Diego County District Attorney Summer Stephan alleging civil rights violations.
The plaintiffs, who are members of Knife Rights, claim that the state of California's prohibiting the possession, carry, sale, loans, transfers and gifting of "automatically opening knives with blade lengths of two inches or greater" violates their Second Amendment and Fourteenth Amendment rights. They allege that "automatically opening knives are 'arms'" under the Second Amendment and that their desire to keep and bear these arms for self defense and other lawful purposes is protected by the Second Amendment.
The plaintiffs also allege the types of knives prohibited under California's knife ban are in "common use," which include a "switchblade knife," are common throughout the vast majority of the U.S. and are not "dangerous and unusual arms."
The plaintiffs seek monetary relief, interest and all other just relief. They are presented by John Dillon of The Dillon Law Group APC in Carlsbad, California.
U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California case number 3:23-CV-00474-JES-DDL