AUGUSTA, Maine — Lawmakers are considering a bill that would repeal Maine’s prohibition on switchblade knives because supporters of the change believe certain knives that were never intended to be prohibited by the decades-old law are increasingly being targeted by law enforcement.
Rep. Joel Stetkis, R-Canaan, showed up Monday at the State House with a lock box containing several examples of knives he said are illegal to posses under Maine law.
Stetkis is sponsoring LD 264, An Act to Restore the Right to Possess Certain Knives That Are Used by Many Citizens as Tools.
Stetkis, displaying the knives for the Legislature’s Public Safety and Criminal Justice Committee, said he purchased them at Maine hardware and sporting goods stores. He told the committee he’s carried one — a Buck brand knife — for years.
He said that all would be deemed “illegal” under a Maine law that makes it a Class D crime to possess “any knife having a blade that opens or falls or is ejected into position by the force of gravity, or by an outward, downward or centrifugal thrust or movement.”
“So if you, your carpenter, a lobsterman or firefighter has one of these in their garage, in their tool box or on their boat, they are in violation of this law,” Stetkis said.
Several others also testified in support of the bill, saying they believed Maine should completely repeal its law prohibiting switchblades, which came after a wave of films and the Broadway show “West Side Story” featured teenagers using switchblade knives for gang fights and other violence.
Rep. Richard Pickett, R-East Dixfield, said the movies and play exaggerated the danger and the effect of knives, which led to a federal ban on switchblade knives. States also passed prohibitions against the weapons.
He said the 1950s movies “Rebel Without A Cause,” “Crime in the Streets,” “Angry Men” and “The Delinquents” featured scenes with “automatic knives” being wielded by young people.
“Partly because of the Hollywood sensationalism, the public and our rightfully reflective Legislature of the time associated the automatic knife with what they perceived as a growing juvenile delinquency threat,” Pickett said.
Pickett, a former Maine State Police homicide detective and retired police chief, said he supports the repeal. He said knives were seldom used in violent crimes in Maine, and when they were, they were more likely to be knives grabbed from kitchen drawers.
“Most knives, regardless of how they are opened, are used for peaceful, working purposes,” Pickett said.
Others also said Monday that the knives in question were already legal under Maine law, and law enforcement, which is charging people with a crime for possessing them, may be doing so incorrectly.
Stetkis and Pickett mentioned a young man in Peru who was charged with possessing a dangerous weapon under the law when the weapon he had in his possession was a pocket knife that his father had given to him as a Christmas present.
Stetkis later produced a similar knife, noting he bought it at a local sporting goods shop and that the blade, which is spring-loaded, is equipped with a safety lock that prevents it from opening inadvertently.
Casey Dugas, a Fairfield police officer, testified in favor of the legislation and said many of the knives in question are frequently used by firefighters and EMTs.
Because they can be used with one hand, they are valuable rescue tools that are frequently used to free trapped auto accident victims. However, there was no exemption in the law to allow emergency personnel to possess them. State law does allow anybody who has only one arm to possess a spring-loaded blade.
Dugas said in his more than 10 years as a police officer he’s never responded to a crime where one of the blades in question was used.
“The last stabbing that I covered, legitimate stabbing, was done with a paring knife,” Dugas said. “A weapon of opportunity pulled out of a kitchen.”
John Pelletier, a lawyer and the chairman of the Legislature’s Criminal Law Advisory Commission, said Maine’s law is already specific enough and that the commission opposes any changes.
Pelletier said the law didn’t prohibit the knives Stetkis was concerned about but it did ban knives that were designed specifically to be weapons.
He said the blades the law addresses are those that either open automatically or are ejected from a handle of a knife with the “press of a button.”
“They are uniquely designed to hurt people, and they are dangerous to members of the public and to law enforcement officers,” Pelletier said.
He said no knife manufacturers or retail sellers of knives were testifying Monday because the knives they sell in Maine are already legal.
“The statute is drafted in a way that makes the tools that are available in Maine legal to possess in Maine,” Pelletier said.
Also testifying in opposition to the bill was Maine Police Chiefs Association lobbyist Pamela Cahill, who said police chiefs oppose rolling back the prohibition on switchblade knives because they are dangerous.
“For the life of me I can not figure out the utilitarian use of a switchblade,” Cahill said. “I can’t figure out why anyone would want to possess a switchblade if they did not intend to cause harm with it.”
Lawmakers also seemed to agree that Maine law enforcement officers could benefit from more training on the finer points of the law.
The committee will take a vote on the bill in the weeks ahead.