Unless your job reasonably requires you to carry a knife, consider an urban EDC that is as close to knife-free as you can stand. You just do not want to get caught carrying in some technicality or in any of the many zero tolerance zones.

My sole point is to try to let the other guy be the test case.

Yes, this is a limitation of certain freedoms. Yes, there will continue to be test cases and activity in the courts and legislatures. Yes, I fall on the side of clear and reasonable knife laws.

But unless it is your passion and you have the bankroll to play the game, I hope all you folks mostly just "read all about it!"

According to the way NYC interprets their law, the knives pictures ARE considered gravity knives/switchblades.

That's the whole issue here. People are buying and carrying the typical one-handed opening locking knives that are sold all over the place, then getting arrested in NYC for carrying a switchblade/gravity knife. Guys that carry locking razor blades for their work are getting arrested and charged.

. . .Can someone in NYC confirm this? I lived there for more than a decade, carrying various types of knives, and even had occasions to compare knives with cops. . . .

. . .District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. of Manhattan announced in June that his office had pressured retail stores that were selling illegal knives to remove them from their shelves, forfeit profits from the knives made over the last four years and help finance a campaign to educate people against illegal knives.

¶ “What makes these knives so dangerous is the ease with which they can be concealed and brandished,” Mr. Vance said of the illegal switchblades and gravity knives, which require a wrist flip to open instead of a switchblade’s spring, that were bought by undercover agents.

¶ Mr. Vance’s offensive drew the ire of the American Knife and Tool Institute, which issued an “action alert” and offered to assist New York retailers and individuals charged with knife violations with their legal defenses. . . .

Biography of Cyrus R. Vance, Jr.

Cyrus R. Vance, Jr., became District Attorney of New York County on January 1, 2010. Mr. Vance is a recognized leader in criminal justice reform and proposed a compelling vision for moving the District Attorney's Office forward, with a focus on crime prevention.

Mr. Vance began his legal career as an Assistant District Attorney in the Manhattan DA's Office during the high-crime era of the 1980’s. As an ADA, Mr. Vance handled cases involving murder, organized crime, political corruption, and white-collar crime. After leaving the DA’s Office, Mr. Vance and his wife Peggy McDonnell moved to Seattle, where Mr. Vance co-founded McNaul Ebel Nawrot Helgren & Vance, PLLC, which under his joint leadership became one of the pre-eminent litigation firms in the Northwest. During his time in Seattle, Mr. Vance taught trial advocacy as an adjunct professor at Seattle University School of Law.

Mr. Vance returned to New York in 2004 and became a partner at Morvillo, Abramowitz, Grand, Iason, Anello & Bohrer, P.C. Mr. Vance is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers. He served by appointment of the Governor of New York as a member of the New York State Appellate Division, First Department, Judicial Screening Panel, and was a member of the New York State Commission on Sentencing Reform. Mr. Vance previously served as a member of the Criminal Justice Council of the New York City Bar Association, the Federal Bar Council, and the New York Council of Defense Lawyers. He was a member of the Boards of Directors of the Fund for Modern Courts, the Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law, and the Alzheimer's Drug Discovery Foundation.

Mr. Vance was born and raised in Manhattan, and is a graduate of Yale University and Georgetown University Law School. He and his wife live on the Upper West Side, and have two children, both currently in college.

That was then, this is now.
[quote]. . .District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. of Manhattan announced in June that his office had pressured retail stores that were selling illegal knives to remove them from their shelves, forfeit profits from the knives made over the last four years and help finance a campaign to educate people against illegal knives.

¶ “What makes these knives so dangerous is the ease with which they can be concealed and brandished,” Mr. Vance said of the illegal switchblades and gravity knives, which require a wrist flip to open instead of a switchblade’s spring, that were bought by undercover agents.