Switchblades and best automatic knives may be the crowd pullers, but when it comes to the bad boys, there's another knife that steals the show. Ballistic knives are the most banned knives in the country, and the fed says there are good reasons behind the restraint order. But are there really? Let's begin with a fun quiz.
Which of these weapons below is the hardest to acquire by a law-abiding citizen of the United States?
1. Live hand grenade
2. Ballistic knife
3. Suppressed (silenced) .22 pistol
4. Browning .50 M2 machine gun
5. A shotgun
6. A submachine gun
7. Howitzer
Many guess wrong and pick the grenade or the machine gun. The right answer is a ballistic knife. Shocked? Welcome to the federal law. State laws in this country do not meet eye to eye for the most part. But when it comes to ballistic knives, these lawmakers hold hands in an oath to protect the country from deadly knives (but not guns). But why so? What are ballistic knives? Many are not clear about the nature of these knives. Once you remove the legal jargon, a ballistic knife is essentially a blade with a hollow handle that holds a spring. The spring sits compressed, held by a latch. When fired, the latch releases the spring that launches the blade in the air.
Federal law defines it as:
United States Code, Title 15 Section 1245
(d) “Ballistic knife” defined. As used in this section, the term “ballistic knife” means a knife with a detachable blade that is propelled by a spring-operated mechanism.
Pub. L. 85-623, Sec. 7, Oct. 27, 1986. Amended Nov. 18, 1988.
This is not a thing that should be laying around the house or something that kids should be playing with. However, should ballistic knives be considered deadly and banned? That's a hot debate and many knife enthusiasts are of the opinion that ballistic knives should not be banned.
Ballistic Knives, Movies And Media
Today, Hollywood is driven by lookalike firearms and deadly weapons that won’t kill a fly. But it wasn't always like that. “Como esta?” quipped Arnie in the 1985 blockbuster movie Commando as he fires a ballistic knife and kills the bad guy. Hollywood's love of banned weapons is sensational. The media goes one step further to highlight banned weapons to make catchy news, headlines, and articles. Our media’s hypocrisy is renowned. They’ve taken a stab at ballistic knives for years and have projected it as a deadly weapon.
What Do We Think Of Ballistic Knives?
Here at Tekto Knives, we feel that the time has come for the feds to sit with bodies like American Knife & Tool Institute and rethink their knife laws. Many of the knife laws are complicated and redundant. Ballistic knives are dangerous if not careful. These should not be toyed around with. We feel that unless there are some restrictions, there's a chance that many innocent people can get seriously injured. Unlike the best switchblades, the current designs of ballistic knives are not safe enough. However, ballistic knives can also be great for self-defense against predators, whether they're wild animals or humans.
