Somehow, some way, Minnesota remains one of just two U.S. states that fully ban the use, ownership, and sale of automatic knives. It’s time for that to change.
If you wonder how 48 other states can be right while Minnesota (and New Mexico) can be so wrong on automatic knives, take a look at some of the testimony in late April in the U.S. District Court in Minneapolis. There, in a lawsuit filed by Knife Rights challenging Minnesota’s archaic automatic knife law under Second Amendment grounds, the Attorney General of Minnesota trotted out tired clichés, outdated stereotypes, and patently false propaganda from a bygone era to justify why Minnesotans should be saved from the evils of the sinister switchblade knife.
Respectfully, all of those arguments by the Attorney General are flat-out wrong.
Rather than the colloquial “switchblade,” we use “automatic” to describe these knives. It’s a precise description that helps eliminate the vagueness of legal and legislative definitions. An automatic knife is “a knife with a blade exposed in an automatic way and moved from the closed position to the open position exclusively by potential energy upon release of a restraining mechanism.”
In the real world, that means it’s simply a knife with a blade that opens with the push of a button with one hand. And in the real world, those are knives used every day by outdoor enthusiasts, workers in the trades, law enforcement and first responders, farmers and ranchers, and millions of law-abiding citizens who want to open boxes, slice an apple, or complete thousands of other, perfectly legal daily tasks.
But not in Minnesota. At least for now.
In an April 3, 2026, court filing opposing the case, the Minnesota AG’s office argued these knives are “dangerous and unusual,” writing that “switchblades are not typically owned by law-abiding citizens for lawful purposes.” That’s ludicrous.
In the AG’s filing and subsequent testimony before Chief U.S. District Judge Patrick Schiltz on April 24, we find even more preposterous assertions — some rooted in systemic racism, none based in fact.
“It’s uniquely associated with criminals,” Minnesota Assistant AG Michael Goodwin said to Schiltz in court. That opinion may be based on the racism and xenophobia that fueled the 1950’s play “West Side Story,” but it’s one that American knife manufacturers, retailers, and squeaky clean knife owners across the country certainly take umbrage with.
And yes, the AG’s office does make a passing reference to West Side Story, arguing that the Minnesota Legislature chose more than 60 years ago to “ban a weapon that is not well-suited for self-defense and that ‘has been commonly associated with urban gang fighting in literature and film.'”
As a whole, the AG’s office written filings and Goodwin’s testimony in federal court serve as proof of just how far from reality some segments of society are with knife ownership and knife usage. It also illustrates how poor and ineffective legislation becomes problematic when not aligned with modern technologies. It’s a reminder to the knife industry of the importance of continuing education.
Minnesota’s outdated and ill-informed automatic knife laws aren’t keeping anybody safe. There’s no need to wait for a court ruling. It’s time for Minnesota lawmakers to drop the ban.