Utah Knife Laws
Utah sets no blade length, restricts no knife type, and does not treat concealment as the issue. Automatic knives have never been restricted. Preemption keeps the rule the same across the state. One thing to know if you are chasing citations: Utah renumbered its weapons sections in May 2025, so older references to 76-10-500 and its neighbors no longer resolve.
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.
Utah knife law at a glance
| Concealed carry blade limit | No blade length governs and concealment is not an issue. |
|---|---|
| Automatic and switchblade knives | Legal. No restriction has ever been enacted. |
| Knife types banned outright | None outright. |
| Statewide preemption | Yes. Utah keeps knife law uniform across the state, so a city cannot add its own rule. |
| The statutes | Utah Code Title 76 Chapter 11, the weapons chapter. These sections were renumbered out of Title 76 Chapter 10 Part 5 in May 2025, so older citations to 76-10-500 and its neighbors no longer resolve. — read them |
Source last revised 4 May 2021
Next review 15 November 2026
How fresh this is, and how you can tell
Two dates sit above, and they are not the same thing. Checked by us is the last time a person went back to the sources and confirmed this page still matches them. Source last revised is when the American Knife and Tool Institute last updated its own Utah page. A 2021 revision date is not automatically wrong — it usually means nothing has changed since — but it does mean nobody had looked recently, and that is exactly the gap this page exists to close.
Crossing the Utah state line
Knife law stops at the border and the next state does not have to agree with this one. If you drive, these are the states you are most likely to carry into, and what changes when you do.
| State | Automatic knives | Concealed blade limit |
|---|---|---|
| Idaho | Legal | No blade length governs for ordinary carry. Six inches is the number that matters in a courthouse, jail or juvenile detention facility, where a longer concealed blade is barred. Permitless carry applies from 18. |
| Wyoming | Legal | No blade length governs, and open carry is unrestricted. The concealed deadly weapon rule carries exceptions from 21 for people without violent crime or drug convictions. |
| Colorado | Legal with conditions | Carrying a concealed knife with a blade over three and a half inches is a violation. |
| New Mexico | Restricted or banned | Concealed carry of a deadly weapon is barred outright, and a knife that can cause death or great bodily harm counts. No blade length governs. The exceptions are your own home or land, a private vehicle, and a state concealed handgun license. |
| Arizona | Legal | No blade length limit. Adults 21 and over may carry a concealed knife without restriction; under 21 it is pocketknives only. |
| Nevada | Legal | No blade length governs statewide, except that a machete may not be carried concealed. The county rule is the one that catches visitors. |
A knife that is lawful in your pocket at home can be unlawful the moment you cross, and nobody stops you at the line to tell you. The map for all fifty states covers the rest.
Common questions about Utah knife laws
What size knife is legal to carry in Utah?
No blade length governs and concealment is not an issue.
Are switchblades legal in Utah?
Legal. No restriction has ever been enacted.
Which knives are banned outright in Utah?
None outright.
Does Utah have knife preemption?
Yes. Utah has statewide preemption, which means a city cannot write its own stricter knife ordinance. One rule covers the whole state, and that is most of what preemption is worth.
Can I keep a knife in my car in Utah?
Where a state has a concealed carry limit, a knife in a glovebox or a door pocket is generally treated as concealed. Read the concealed line above and apply it to the vehicle. If that line says concealment is not the issue in this state, the vehicle is not the issue either — but where you drive to still is, because schools and courthouses are barred everywhere.
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.
Elsewhere on Popular EDC
The knife law map for all fifty states, the knife steel comparison chart for choosing the blade itself, and every Popular EDC tool in one place.
Data updated September 2026. Utah knife law checked against the published sources on 15 September 2026, and due for review again on 15 November 2026.