Bringing a Knife to a Gun Fight: 5th Circuit Declares Switchblades Are ‘Arms’ Protected
27th October 2026
This dispute dates all the way back to 1958, when Congress, worried about juvenile delinquency in the aftermath of the then-scandalous movie “Rebel Without a Cause” (which involved a knife-fighting scene), passed the Federal Switchblade Act of 1958.
This act prohibits the knowing introduction, manufacture for introduction, transportation, or distribution into interstate commerce of any switchblade knife, which is defined as a knife that opens automatically by pressing a button or applying pressure to the handle or by inertia or gravity or both. Think of a butterfly knife.
Anyone who violated the act could be fined up to $2,000, imprisoned up to five years, or have both punishments applied.
Fast forward 66 years after Congress passed the Federal Switchblade Act, and a group of plaintiffs challenged the act’s provisions, arguing that they violate the Second Amendment, which broadly guarantees the right to “keep and bear Arms.”