FL Question: The Miami-Dade Knife Ordinance

[sacvet]

The Miami Dade Knife Law reads as follows:
Sec. 21-14. - Dangerous weapons; penalty; trial court.
(b) Switch blades. It shall be unlawful for any person to sell, offer to sell, display, use, possess or carry any knife or knives having the appearance of a pocket knife, the blade or blades of which can be opened by a flick of a button, pressure on the handle, or other mechanical contrivance. Any such knife is hereby declared to be a dangerous or deadly weapon, within the meaning of subsection (a) and shall be subject to forfeiture to the County as provided by subsection (c).

I teach concealed weapons classes here in FL and am seeking to gain a better understanding of this county ordinance.  Are we to interpret this strictly as pertaining to what is commonly known as switch blades or automatic knives, or should this be read (interpreted) to mean Miami-Dade is using an expanded definition of what is a switch blade? 

Broadly read, this law could prohibit wearing: 1) spring assisted knives, and 2) non-spring assisted knives which use thumb studs or center-mounted flipper (opened using the index finger) because these could be construed as a “mechanical contrivance” used to open the knife.   

Please let me know what you understand about what knives are prohibited.

Thanks,

Jay Bolan

[TexasLawShield]

sacvet,

When reading and interpreting laws, the words used are given their plain meaning.  Here, instead of saying switch blade knives are illegal, the County Commission apparently decided to expand the definition from what you and I think of as a traditional switch blade knife to include all knives which use a “mechanical contrivance” to open.  For safety, the statute should be read as expansively as possible.  A court will ultimately interpret the statute.