A severe restriction on the public carry of knives in the City of Seattle has been protected for decades by questionable rulings emanating from small majorities of the Washington Supreme Court. Those rulings are a tangled web which, when unraveled, is recognized by the high court of that state that aspects of Washington knife law violate the state and federal constitutions.
The Seattle Municipal Code defines “dangerous knife” as “any fixed-blade knife and any other knife having a blade more than 3 1/2 inches in length.” Section 12A.14.080 of that code captioned “Unlawful use of weapons” states as pertinent that it is unlawful to:
Knowingly carry concealed or unconcealed on such person any dangerous knife.
For more details on the Seattle knife law interpretation, read this month’s article, “Specious in Seattle,” in the Know Your Knife Laws section of AKTI’s website. These articles are also generously published by Knife Magazine.