German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser wants to further restrict the carrying of knives in public, to combat a perceived rise in knife crime. The opposition has criticized the plan as impractical.
The German government has promised tougher knife laws after the police reported a rise in the number of stabbings, especially near train stations — though the statistics remain controversial.
Interior Minister Nancy Faeser has called for the law to be changed so that only blades of 6 centimeters (2.36 inches) would be allowed to be carried in public, rather than the current 12 centimeters. An exception would be made for household knives in their original packaging. Switchblades would be banned altogether.
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The government pronouncement came after police statistics recorded a 5.6% year-on-year rise in cases of serious bodily harm involving a knife, with 8,951 incidents in 2023. The federal police, which is responsible for safety at Germany’s airports and major railway stations, also reported a significant increase in knife attacks in and around stations, with 430 in the first six months of this year.
My state (US) finally just got rid of the law against switch blades/automatics. Mainly because it became a defunct/useless law that was made back when other knives were hard to open or took two hands to open. But in today’s world of flippers and spydercos and spring assist and all of those that are every bit as quick and easy to open, banning an otf or switch blade just didn’t make any sense.
Wait… you have laws against knifes and assault rifles at walmart?
There are no assult rifles at Wal-Mart. Assult rifles have select fire (auto, burst, semi-auto) which you can not buy from Wal-Mart. Generally only used automatics can be purchased as they were grandfathered in before automatics were banned for sale to the public.
I believe that all states have now repealed their bans on owning gravity knives, switchblades, and butterfly knives. However, carrying them in public–depending on blade length, may still be illegal. Some states only prohibit them from being carried if you intend to use them in a crime, and actually using them in a crime is used to prove intent; i.e., it just ends up being an additional charge.
Modern sporting rifles–AKA assault style rifles–are usually not okay to carry openly in the same states that used to ban certain types of knives.
Where I live, someone that openly carries a belt knife is taken as prima facie evidence that they’ve been permanently prohibited from owning a firearm. Open carry is unusual, but not incredibly rare. Conceal carry is fairly common.
It was also from back in the “juvenile delinquency” horror of the 1950s when they decided that switchblades were for delinquents to have knife fights with after reading those evil comic books.