Kansas Knife Laws: No Restrictions Since 2013, Statewide Preemption, and the Felon Rule

The Short Version

Kansas rewrote its knife law in one session. In 2013 the Legislature struck the switchblade provisions from K.S.A. 21-6301, removed knives from the concealed carry statute, 21-6302, and enacted 12-16,134, which provides that "a municipality shall not enact or enforce any ordinance, resolution, regulation or tax relating to the transportation, possession, carrying, sale, transfer, purchase, gift, devise, licensing, registration or use of a knife or knife making components" and defines "knife" as "a cutting instrument" including "a sharpened or pointed blade." Since then, as AKTI puts it, "a person may carry a knife, concealed or unconcealed, regardless of the length of the blade," anywhere in the state, with no permit.

Three rules remain. A convicted felon may not possess a dagger, dirk, switchblade or stiletto under 21-6304. Anyone who possesses a dangerous knife "with intent to use the same unlawfully against another" commits criminal use of weapons under 21-6301(a)(2). And every school board must expel a pupil found with a weapon for at least a year under 72-6132. For a TEKTO customer who may lawfully own a weapon, every knife we make is a Kansas knife, OTF automatics and the double-edged A7 Zastava included.

The 2013 Repeal

Before July 1, 2013, Kansas banned the sale and manufacture of "any knife commonly referred to as a switch-blade" and the carrying of "any knife commonly referred to as a switch-blade, which has a blade that opens automatically," as well as any dagger, dirk, dangerous knife or stiletto concealed on the person. House Bill 2033 removed all of it. 21-6301 today bans possessing only "any bludgeon, sand club or metal knuckles," and reaches knives solely in paragraph (a)(2), the intent clause. 21-6302, criminal carrying of a weapon, is now a firearms section. AKTI notes that nothing in the current code restricts the possession, sale or carry of any knife by a person who is not a prohibited possessor, and that the 2013 act also removed the restrictions on manufacturing and commerce in automatic knives.

Preemption: 12-16,134

The same 2013 act created statewide uniformity. 12-16,134(a) bars any municipality from regulating a knife in any of the listed ways. Subsection (b) bars local manufacturing rules stricter than those for other goods. Subsection (c) provides that any such ordinance adopted before July 1, 2014 "shall be null and void". Subsection (d) bars prosecutions under a void ordinance for conduct on or after July 1, 2013. "Municipality" takes its meaning from the Tort Claims Act, so it reaches cities, counties and every other local unit, "but shall not include unified school districts, jails ... or juvenile correctional facilities," which keep their own rules. Some city codes still print pre-2014 knife sections. They are unenforceable. Wichita, Overland Park, Kansas City and Topeka are under the state rules on this page.

Convicted Felons: 21-6304 and State v. Harris

21-6304 makes it a severity level 8 nonperson felony for a person with a qualifying felony conviction to possess a "weapon," defined as a firearm or a "knife," and defines knife as "a dagger, dirk, switchblade, stiletto" or "any other dangerous or deadly cutting instrument of like character." In State v. Harris, decided in July 2020, a convicted felon was found with a pocketknife with a 3.5-inch blade and convicted under the catch-all. The Kansas Supreme Court held the phrase "any other dangerous or deadly cutting instrument of like character" unconstitutionally vague, because it gave neither citizens nor officers an objective standard for which knives it reached, and struck it. The named knives stand: a felon within the statute's time windows may not possess a dagger, dirk, switchblade or stiletto, and an OTF is a switchblade for this purpose. An ordinary folder is outside the statute after Harris.

Intent: 21-6301(a)(2)

The one knife clause left in the criminal use of weapons statute is about purpose. 21-6301(a)(2) makes it criminal use of weapons to possess "with intent to use the same unlawfully against another, any dagger, dirk, billy, blackjack, slungshot, dangerous knife, straight-edged razor, throwing star, stiletto or any other dangerous or deadly weapon or instrument of like character." The knife is lawful. The intent is the crime, a class A nonperson misdemeanor, and in practice the charge accompanies an assault. The knife you carry to work, to the field or for protection is not within it. The knife you carry to a confrontation is.

Schools: 72-6132

Kansas has no criminal statute aimed at knives on school property. It has an expulsion statute instead. K.S.A. 72-6132 requires every board of education to adopt a written policy "requiring the expulsion from school for a period of not less than one year" of any pupil "determined to be in possession of a weapon at school, on school property, or at a school supervised activity," with the superintendent able to modify the term case by case, and with exceptions for approved weapons-safety courses and written permission from the principal. Each district writes its own definition of weapon, and district policies include knives, some with a short-blade pocketknife exception borrowed from federal law. The preemption statute leaves school districts free to do this. For a student the rule is the district handbook. For a parent on campus, the rule is the district's visitor policy and, as everywhere, the glove box.

Where You Cannot Carry

• Schools and school activitiesDistrict policy, backed by a mandatory one-year expulsion for pupils under 72-6132. No state criminal statute, but no knife either.
  72-6132
• Jails and juvenile correctional facilitiesCarved out of the preemption statute so they may bar knives, and they do.
  12-16,134(e)(2)
• Courthouses and public buildings with screeningCourt security refuses knives at the door under the Supreme Court's security rules. Many county buildings screen as well. Leave it in the car.
  Court security
• Airports and federal propertyNo knives past the checkpoint at Wichita Eisenhower or Kansas City International under federal rules, and none in a federal building or courthouse under 18 U.S.C. 930.
  TSA
• Tribal landThe Prairie Band Potawatomi, Kickapoo, Iowa and Sac and Fox reservations set their own rules. 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 and fines are set by 21-6602 and 21-6611. Felony ranges by the sentencing grid in 21-6804.

What the Internet Gets Wrong

Three things. First, that Kansas bans switchblades. It did, until July 1, 2013. It now makes them. Second, that Wichita or Kansas City has a knife ordinance. Each may have one printed in its code. 12-16,134 made every pre-2014 ordinance null and void and bars new ones. Third, that a felon may not carry any knife in Kansas. After Harris, the statute reaches the named knives, dagger, dirk, switchblade and stiletto, and not an ordinary folder. The rule people miss is the school one, which is not a crime at all but a mandatory year out of school, written into district policy by state command.

TEKTO Knives for Kansas

Every TEKTO knife is a Kansas knife for anyone who may lawfully own a weapon. The A5 Spry in any blade style and the A7 Zastava with its double-edged spear point are legal in a pocket here. The A3 Delta is a 3.60-inch side-opening automatic with a button lock and safety. The X1 Atlas fixed blade in MagnaCut is the knife for the Flint Hills and the pheasant fields. None of them goes to school, and if you have a felony conviction, the automatics and the Zastava are the ones 21-6304 names.