On Friday, September 26, the National Rifle Association and National Shooting Sports Foundation filed an amicus brief in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals supporting a challenge to California’s switchblade ban.
California effectively bans the possession, carry, and transfer of switchblade knives with blades 2" in length or longer. The plaintiffs challenged the ban, alleging that it violates the Second Amendment because switchblades are common arms, and under Supreme Court precedent, common arms cannot be banned.
On September 5, the Ninth Circuit issued an order seeking amicus briefs to help the court determine how to properly apply the Supreme Court’s text-and-history test for restrictions on particular arms. Specifically, the court sought input on how and when (i.e., under the plain text or historical analysis) to consider whether an arm is in “common use” or “dangerous and unusual.”
The NRA and NSSF filed an amicus brief, explaining that under Supreme Court precedent: (1) the Second Amendment’s text covers all bearable arms; (2) the “common use” and “dangerous and unusual” considerations are part of the historical analysis; (3) “common use” includes all lawful purposes, not just self-defense; (4) the people, rather than the government, determine which arms are protected; (5) arms do not need to be commonly used in actual self-defense situations to be considered common; and (6) arms must be both dangerous and unusual to be banned. The brief further provides a detailed historical analysis highlighting the robust tradition of possessing knives throughout the colonial and founding eras, and the lack of historical knife restrictions.
The brief was filed in Knife Rights, Inc v. Bonta, Ninth Circuit case number 24-5536.
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