Second Amendment WINS — This Time It’s Not About GUNS

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A federal appeals court ruled that the 1958 federal ban on making and shipping switchblades across state lines violates the Second Amendment, because the government could not point to any similar law in America’s history.

Story Highlights

On Wednesday, October 21, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals held that the main ban in the Federal Switchblade Act is unconstitutional.
The judges said switchblades are “Arms” protected by the Second Amendment.
The government cited nearly 200 old laws, but they mostly dealt with how knives were carried, not with making or selling them.
The case goes back to a lower court, and Knife Rights says the ruling has not yet taken effect.

🚨 FIFTH CIRCUIT RULES FEDERAL SWITCHBLADE RESTRICTIONS VIOLATE SECOND AMENDMENT — MAJOR VICTORY FOR KNIFE RIGHTS

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled Wednesday that key restrictions in the Federal Switchblade Act violate constitutional…

— MDBayNews (@MDBayNews) October 22, 2026

What The Court Ruled And Why It Matters

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, which covers Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi, struck at the heart of the Federal Switchblade Act. The 1958 law makes it a crime to make, ship or sell switchblades, meaning knives whose blades spring open at the push of a button, across state lines. “We hold that the FSA is unconstitutional,” wrote Chief Judge Jennifer Walker Elrod, joined by Judges Don Willett and Cory Wilson.

The court used the test the Supreme Court set out in its 2022 Bruen decision. Under that test, when a law limits arms covered by the Second Amendment, the government must show the law fits the nation’s historical tradition of weapon laws. The judges said the government did not meet that burden. “The government cites no historical analogue that regulates the manufacture, transportation, or distribution” of such weapons, the court wrote. A historical analogue is an older law that works in a similar way.

Evidence Of Common Use And Lawful Purposes

The government argued that switchblades are not in common use. The court disagreed. It pointed to “millions” of automatic knives in the United States and noted they are used for “every day utility use, hunting, fishing, recreation, and camping and hiking.” The court also traced American knife use back to colonial and frontier times and noted that about 20 American companies made switchblades from the mid-1890s to the mid-1940s.

The case, Knife Rights v. Blanche, was brought by the knife owners’ group Knife Rights along with other challengers. A lower court had thrown out their challenge, saying the law did not amount to a ban on owning the knives. The Fifth Circuit rejected that view, reasoning that the right to bear arms includes the right to get them. Knife Rights described the ruling as “a major victory for Knife Rights and knife owners across America.”

What The Government Argued And Why It Fell Short

The Justice Department argued that switchblades are “inherently concealable,” since the blade hides inside the handle. It said the federal law mirrors old bans on carrying hidden Bowie knives, dirks and daggers. The court said those laws dealt with the way a weapon was carried. The federal law, by contrast, goes after making and selling the knives. Of the nearly 200 laws from before 1900 the government cited, the court found only two, from Georgia in 1837 and Arkansas in 1881, that worked in a similar way. It called them “outlier territory.”

What Comes Next

The court did not rule on a second part of the law, Section 1243, which covers making, selling or owning switchblades in places such as U.S. territories and Indian reservations. It kept the dismissal of that claim without deciding whether that part is constitutional. The panel sent the case back to the lower court for further steps, and Knife Rights says the ruling has not yet been put into effect. The Justice Department can ask the full Fifth Circuit to rehear the case or ask the Supreme Court to review it.

The ruling is binding on federal courts in Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi but not elsewhere. In a separate case, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which covers California and other Western states, sided with California over its own switchblade rules and in July turned down Knife Rights’ request for a new hearing.