Texas Knife Law Changes September 1
Several Texas cities, including San Antonio and Corpus Christi, will see their restrictive knife laws voided September 1 when Texas House Bill 905, Knife Rights’ signature Knife Law Preemption bill, takes effect.
The new law invalidates all municipal and county knife ordinances more restrictive than state law, creating uniform knife laws across Texas. The new law also ensues that Knife Rights’ help in repealing the state’s ban on switchblade (automatic) knives, passed in 2013, will now have effect throughout the state.
Knife Rights has sent letters notifying elected officials, prosecutors, and law enforcement in 10 cities, towns, and counties of the change to the Texas Local Government Code. In addition to San Antonio and Corpus Christi—two cities ranked in the top 10 by the organization as having the most restrictive knife laws—letters were sent to Dallas County, Houston, Magnolia, Melissa, Odessa, Richland Hills, Shenandoah, and Texarkana, all of which have knife restrictions on the books.
Knife Rights volunteers continue to comb through municipal and county codes, searching for any other jurisdictions that should be notified of their now-voided ordinances.
Knife Rights’ Chairman Doug Ritter said, “We bring this new law to these jurisdictions’ attention in hopes of avoiding the illegal arrest and prosecution of knife owners who are in compliance with the new state law but in conflict with now-voided local restrictions. We have also requested that these jurisdictions repeal their invalidated knife restrictions in order to ensure that citizens are not misled by having an unenforceable ordinance on the books.”
