Knife Laws by State

This is not legal advice, and we are not lawyers. It is a plain reading of published summaries and the statutes they cite, kept current on a fixed schedule. Local ordinances are frequently stricter than state law and are not all captured here. Check the statute, and check your city, before you carry.

Knife laws by state, at a glance

Colored by whether an automatic knife is legal to own. Tap any state for its own page.

On a phone, swipe the map sideways to see the whole country.

Nine jurisdictions are too small to tap on the map. They are here instead, in the same colors.

Knife laws by state: all fifty and the District of Columbia

All fifty states and the District of Columbia, each with its status, what the law actually says, its concealed limit and a link to its own page.

Find a state

On a phone, swipe the table sideways to see every column.

What changed recently

Nine states changed their knife law in 2025 alone. These are where an older guide is likeliest to be wrong.

Common questions about knife laws by state

Is it illegal to carry a pocket knife?

In most of the United States, no. An ordinary folding pocket knife carried closed is lawful almosteverywhere. What turns it unlawful is usually the blade being longer than your state or city allows,the knife opening automatically where that is restricted, carrying it concealed where concealmentmatters, or being somewhere knives are barred outright, such as a school or a courthouse.

What is the legal length of a knife?

There is no national answer, and that is the most common mistake. Colorado caps a concealed bladeat three and a half inches. Texas ignores concealment but bars blades over five and a half inches fromcertain places. Chicago stops at two and a half inches, New York City at four, and several states setno length at all. Use the table above, then read your statute.

Is it illegal to have a knife in your car?

It depends on whether your state treats a vehicle as a concealed place. Where a concealed limitexists, a knife in a glovebox or door pocket is usually treated as concealed.

Can someone under 18 carry a pocket knife?

Often not. Several states set a minimum age for automatic knives, and most bar a knife of anykind on school grounds at any age.

What does preemption mean and why does it matter?

Preemption means the state legislature has reserved knife law to itself, so a city cannot write astricter ordinance of its own. It is the difference between one rule for a whole state and fifty ofthem, and it is why Chicago and New York City need their own pages here and Houston does not.

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Where this comes from

Two independent sources, cross-checked against each other, and the statute text where they disagree. The automatic knife column is the American Knife and Tool Institute’s state automatics table, checked against Knife Rights’ own switchblade legality table and their legislative update log. Everything on a state page is quoted or closely tracked from that state’s AKTI page, and we print the date AKTI last revised it so you can see for yourself how fresh the underlying work is.

Where a source is older than a change we know about, we say so on the page rather than quietly leaving the old answer up. That is the whole reason this is checked every two months.

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Data updated September 2026. Checked against the published sources on 15 September 2026, and due for review again on 15 November 2026.