Massachusetts' high court struck down a state ban on carrying switchblades, saying a U.S. Supreme Court ruling requiring modern gun restrictions to be consistent with the nation's history and tradition covered other weapons too, Reuters reports. The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled that a 1957 law barring people from possessing spring-release pocketknives commonly known as "switchblades" violated the right to keep and bear arms in the U.S. Constitution's Second Amendment. The court dismissed a charge against David Canjura for unlawfully possessing a switchblade, which Boston police found when responding to a report of an altercation between Canjura and his girlfriend.
The decision was based on the 2022 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that established a new test for assessing whether modern firearm restrictions comply with the Second Amendment by requiring them to be "consistent with this nation's historical tradition of firearm regulation." The case, New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, was issued by the Supreme Court's 6-3 conservative majority and has led to other court rulings invalidating modern gun regulations. Suffolk County, Mass., District Attorney Kevin Hayden argued that even after that decision, the Second Amendment's protections extended only to firearms and that knives could not be legally considered "arms." Seven other states plus the District of Columbia categorically ban switchblades or other automatic knives, while two others impose blade length restrictions of less than two inches. Justice Serge Georges, writing for the 5-0 court, said knives, like handguns, fit within the definition of arms as both are weapons that can be used by someone for offensive or defensive purposes during a confrontation. "The Second Amendment extends to all bearable arms and is not limited to firearms," he wrote.
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