Arizona Knife Laws: No Banned Knives, No Blade Limit, and the Under-21 Rule

The Short Version

Arizona is the most permissive knife state in the country, and it got there on purpose. In 2010 the Legislature passed A.R.S. 13-3120, the first knife preemption statute in the nation, which wiped out every local knife ordinance and barred cities and counties from passing new ones. The criminal code, 13-3102, names no knife at all. It speaks of "deadly weapons" and "prohibited weapons," and no knife is a prohibited weapon. The result is that an adult of 21 or older may own and carry any knife, of any length and any mechanism, openly or concealed, anywhere the statute does not specifically exclude.

What is left is short. If you are under 21, the knife you conceal must be a pocket knife. If an officer who has stopped you asks whether you are carrying a concealed deadly weapon, you must answer accurately. And a deadly weapon of any kind, pocket knife included, stays out of K-12 schools, polling places on election day and nuclear or hydroelectric plants, and goes into storage when a public building or public event asks. For a TEKTO customer every knife we make is legal to own and carry in Arizona, OTF automatics included.

The Statute: 13-3102 and the Deadly Weapon

Arizona's weapons law is built on two defined terms in 13-3101. A "deadly weapon" is "anything that is designed for lethal use," and the definition adds that the term includes a firearm. A "prohibited weapon" is a list: bombs, grenades, rockets and mines, silencers, automatic firearms, short-barreled rifles and shotguns, Molotov cocktails, explosive chemical mixtures and improvised explosive devices. No knife of any kind is on it, which is why a switchblade, an OTF, a balisong, a dagger or a sword is simply legal to make, own, carry, buy and sell in this state.

13-3102(A) then lists sixteen ways to commit "misconduct involving weapons." Most are about firearms, gangs and terrorism. The ones that touch a knife owner are paragraph 1 (a concealed deadly weapon carried in furtherance of a felony, or a false answer to an officer), paragraph 2 (a concealed deadly weapon under 21), paragraph 4 (a prohibited possessor with a deadly weapon), paragraphs 10 through 13 (public establishments and events, polling places, school grounds, power stations) and paragraph 5 (selling a deadly weapon to a prohibited possessor). Each of paragraphs 1 and 2 carves out "a pocket knife" by name. The rest do not.

What Counts as a Pocket Knife

The statute uses "pocket knife" without defining it, and no Arizona appellate decision has supplied a definition, because for anyone 21 or older the question never comes up. AKTI reads the term as any knife designed to be carried in a pocket or handbag, with no length or mechanism limit, and we think that is right: the Legislature chose not to qualify the word, and Arizona has no functionality rule for folding knives anywhere in the code. A locking folder, an assisted opener and an OTF with a pocket clip are all pocket knives in ordinary speech, which is what controls. The knives that are plainly not pocket knives are fixed blades, which matters only for the under-21 rule below.

Whether an ordinary knife is a "deadly weapon" at all is a separate question. The definition is "designed for lethal use," and a utility folder is designed to cut rope and open boxes. A dagger is designed for something else. The point is mostly academic for adults, but it is why a prohibited possessor with a work knife is in a different position from one with a double-edged fighting knife.

Carrying at 21 and Over: The Duty to Answer

From 21 on, 13-3102(A)(1) makes concealed carry of a deadly weapon an offense in only two situations. The first is carrying it "in the furtherance of a serious offense as defined in section 13-706, a violent crime as defined in section 13-901.03 or any other felony offense," a class 6 felony. The second is the one that catches honest people: being "contacted by a law enforcement officer and failing to accurately answer the officer if the officer asks whether the person is carrying a concealed deadly weapon." That is a class 1 misdemeanor, up to six months and $2,500, for a knife that was legal the moment before you were asked about it.

"Contacted" is defined in subsection O as a lawful traffic or criminal investigation, arrest, detention or an investigatory stop based on reasonable suspicion. A casual conversation is not a contact. The duty is to answer accurately, not to volunteer, and it attaches to a concealed deadly weapon "except a pocket knife." Our advice is the same as AKTI's: if an officer asks, say yes and say where it is, whatever the knife. There is no penalty for disclosing a pocket knife and a real one for guessing wrong about whether your knife counts.

Under 21

13-3102(A)(2) makes it a class 3 misdemeanor for a person under 21 to carry "a deadly weapon except a pocket knife concealed on his person or concealed within his immediate control in or on a means of transportation." Three things narrow it. The pocket knife exception means a folder in a pocket, at any age, is lawful. Subsection B exempts "a person in his dwelling, on his business premises or on real property owned or leased by that person or that person's parent, grandparent or legal guardian." And the paragraph reaches concealment only. A sixteen-year-old with a fixed blade on a belt, in view, is not within it. Arizona sets no minimum age to buy or own a knife, so the under-21 rule is the whole of the state's youth knife law outside schools. The penalty, up to thirty days and $500, is the lowest in the weapons chapter.

Preemption: Arizona Was First

Before 2010 an Arizona city could write its own knife rules, and some did. 13-3120, effective that year, provides that "a political subdivision of this state shall not enact any ordinance, rule or tax relating to the transportation, possession, carrying, sale, transfer, purchase, gift, devise, licensing, registration or use of a knife or knife making components in this state," and subsection E adds that any local knife rule "inconsistent with or more restrictive than state law, whether enacted before or after the effective date of this amendment to this section, is null and void." "Knife" is defined broadly as "a cutting instrument" including "a sharpened or pointed blade." The only local powers left are ordinary sales taxes and rules for the subdivision's own employees. Arizona was the first state to do this, and a dozen or so have followed. It is why a page like this one can describe the whole state in a single set of rules.

Where You Cannot Carry

• K-12 school groundsPossessing a deadly weapon on school grounds is a class 1 misdemeanor, a class 6 felony if tied to drug or gang offenses, and there is no pocket knife exception. "school" means any public or private kindergarten, common school or high school. The exceptions are for hunter and firearm safety courses and for unloaded firearms locked in a vehicle.
  13-3102(A)(12)
• Polling places on election dayNo deadly weapon, no pocket knife exception. Class 1 misdemeanor.
  13-3102(A)(11)
• Public buildings and public eventsA state, county or city building, vehicle or craft, and any permitted public event, may ask you to store a deadly weapon. Keeping it after "a reasonable request" is a class 1 misdemeanor. Under 13-3102.01 the operator must provide secure temporary storage, which is why courthouses and city halls have lockers at the door.
  13-3102.01
• Nuclear and hydroelectric generating stationsCarrying a deadly weapon in is a class 4 felony.
  13-3102(A)(13)
• Airports and federal propertyNo knives past the checkpoint at Sky Harbor or Tucson under federal rules, and none in a federal building or courthouse under 18 U.S.C. 930.
  TSA
• Tribal landArizona preemption does not reach the Navajo Nation, the Tohono O'odham Nation or any other reservation, where tribal codes apply to tribal members and, in places, to visitors. Check before you carry.
  Tribal codes
• Private property and workplacesAn owner may bar knives and an employer may set a policy. The remedy is being asked to leave or being disciplined, and after that, trespass.
  Trespass

Penalties

Misdemeanor terms are set by 13-707 (class 1, six months. Class 2, four months. Class 3, thirty days) and fines by 13-802 (class 1, $2,500. Class 3, $500). A class 6 felony carries a presumptive term of one year and a class 4 felony two and a half years for a first offense under 13-702.

What the Internet Gets Wrong

Three things. First, that Arizona has a blade length limit. It has none, in any statute, for any age. The limits people quote come from old city ordinances that 13-3120 voided in 2010. Second, that the under-21 rule applies to all knives. It applies to concealed knives other than pocket knives, and a folder in a pocket is a pocket knife. A nineteen-year-old with an OTF clipped in a pocket is within the law. Third, that "pocket knife" means a small non-locking knife. Arizona never defined the term and never limited it, and the one statutory definition of "knife" in the code is "a cutting instrument." The rule that actually catches people is the duty to answer: the knife was legal, the stop was for a taillight, and the problem was saying no.

TEKTO Knives for Arizona

Every TEKTO knife is legal in Arizona, so choose on the knife. The A5 Spry is the OTF we would carry here, in any blade style including the double edge, and the A7 Zastava with its 3.60-inch spear point is legal to carry concealed in a state where few others allow it. The A3 Delta side-opening automatic and the F-series folders are pocket knives under any reading of 13-3102, which matters if you are under 21. For the desert, the X1 Atlas fixed blade in MagnaCut is the knife. Under 21, carry it on the belt rather than in a pack until you are home. Whatever you carry, if an officer asks, say so.