Sog Knives

Does anyone know if Sog Flash II knife is illegal?

I work contruction and have a Sog Flash II knife. I was pulled over by the cops and they said this was a switch blade knife and I arrested. I bought if from Lowe’s and they paper work inside says it is not illegal according to CA laws. I have to go to court on this. Most of the information I checked says it is not a switch blade. Does anyone know anything about this. Help.

Unless your local town has very specific law restricting assisted openers, they are legal in terms of CA State.

To give more details, California Penal Code(PC) 653K defines illegal knives:
For the purposes of this section, “switchblade knife” means a knife having the appearance of a pocketknife and includes a spring-blade knife, snap-blade knife, gravity knife or any other similar type knife, the blade or blades of which are two or more inches in length and which can be released automatically by a flick of a button, pressure on the handle, flip of the wrist or other mechanical device, or is released by the weight of the blade or by any type of mechanism whatsoever.

However, there is also addition from SB 274, Karnette amendment which clearly states:
“Switchblade knife” does not include a knife that opens with one hand utilizing thumb pressure applied solely to the blade of the knife or a thumb stud attached to the blade, provided that the knife has a detent or other mechanism that provides resistance that must be overcome in opening the blade, or that biases the blade back toward its closed position.

All major knife manufacturers (SOG, Kershaw, etc) make assisted openers that satisfy at least 2 out of 3 required conditions listed in the Karnette amendment for PC 653.
So, the knife itself is legal.

Carry law is in separate PC 12020, but it doesn’t prohibit carrying legal knives anywhere except schools and public buildings, which apparently doesn’t apply to your case.
12020 relevant sections are too long to cite here, so here is the link with detailed analysis and quotes form the PC

http://www.zknives.com/knives/articles/law/caknifelaws.shtml

Good luck, and try to get an attorney if the DA or judge didn’t drop charges already.

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