South Dakota Knife Laws: No State Knife Statute, One Felony, and the City Ordinances That Fill the Gap

The Short Version

South Dakota's knife law fits in a sentence: there is none. Title 22 of the Codified Laws defines "dangerous weapon" to include "any firearm, stun gun, knife, or device, instrument, material, or substance, whether animate or inanimate, which is calculated or designed to inflict death or serious bodily harm," and then does nothing with a knife except in 22-14-8, which makes it a Class 5 felony to conceal "a controlled or dangerous weapon with intent to commit a felony." No statute names a switchblade, a dagger, a gravity knife or a blade length. No statute restricts open carry. No statute restricts concealed carry absent the felony intent. The automatic knife ban went in 1976 and nothing replaced it.

What the state does restrict is place. 13-32-7 makes any dangerous weapon on public elementary or secondary school property a Class 1 misdemeanor, and 22-14-23 does the same for county courthouses and the state capitol. And what the state does not do is preempt its cities: 9-19-20 bars local firearm ordinances and says nothing about knives, so Rapid City, Sioux Falls, Aberdeen and Sturgis have concealed knife rules of their own. For a TEKTO customer, every knife we make is a South Dakota knife under state law, and the city you are standing in is the question to ask.

The One Knife Offense: 22-14-8

Section 22-14-8 reads in full: "Any person who conceals on or about his or her person a controlled or dangerous weapon with intent to commit a felony is guilty of a Class 5 felony." The offense has two elements and the knife is only one of them. Concealing a dangerous weapon with no felony in mind is not a crime under this section or any other, which is why AKTI lists concealed carry as "permitted under state law unless carried with intent to commit a felony." Where the intent exists, the penalty is serious: a Class 5 felony carries up to five years in a state correctional facility and a fine of up to $10,000 under 22-6-1. The section dates to the 1976 recodification, the same act that repealed the switchblade ban, and it has not changed in substance since.

What Counts as a Dangerous Weapon, and What Counts as Concealed

Section 22-1-2(10) defines "dangerous weapon" or "deadly weapon" as "any firearm, stun gun, knife, or device, instrument, material, or substance, whether animate or inanimate, which is calculated or designed to inflict death or serious bodily harm, or by the manner in which it is used is likely to inflict death or serious bodily harm." The word "knife" sits in the list without a qualifier, so the safest reading is that every knife is a dangerous weapon for the school, courthouse and felony-intent sections, and that the "calculated or designed" clause modifies the devices and substances that follow it. That reading costs a knife owner nothing outside those three sections, because the definition is not attached to any general carry offense.

Section 22-1-2(6) defines "concealed" as "any firearm that is totally hidden from view. If any part of the firearm is capable of being seen, it is not concealed." It is written for firearms. AKTI's view, which we share, is that a court applying 22-14-8 or a city ordinance to a knife would borrow the same standard, so a knife with the clip showing on a pocket is not concealed. Under state law the distinction rarely matters, since concealment alone is not an offense. In Rapid City or Sioux Falls, where the ordinances turn on concealment, the visible clip is the difference between a legal carry and a citation.

Schools: 13-32-7

Section 13-32-7 makes it a Class 1 misdemeanor for any person who "intentionally carries, possesses, stores, keeps, leaves, places, or puts into the possession of another person, any dangerous weapon, firearm, or air gun" on or in "any public elementary or secondary school premises, vehicle, or building," or any premises used or leased for public school functions, "whether or not any person is endangered." Because a knife is a dangerous weapon by definition, a pocketknife in a parent's pocket at a public school play is within the text. The exceptions are for officers, trained school sentinels, enhanced permit holders over 21 with the principal's written permission, permit holders inside or at their vehicle, starting guns, firing ranges and gun shows, color guards, and, since the 2024 and 2025 amendments, nonpublic schools and churches. A Class 1 misdemeanor is up to one year in county jail and a $2,000 fine under 22-6-2. The vehicle exception is written for pistol permit holders, and a private car parked in the school lot is on school premises, so the cautious reading is to leave the knife at home on school days.

Courthouses and the Capitol: 22-14-23

Section 22-14-23 provides that "any person who knowingly possesses or causes to be present any firearm or other dangerous weapon, in any county courthouse or in the state capitol, or attempts to do so, is guilty of a Class 1 misdemeanor." The exceptions in 22-14-24 are for law enforcement and court officers, judges and magistrates, officials authorized by law, qualified officers under the federal LEOSA, enhanced permit holders carrying a pistol in the capitol with 24 hours' notice to the Highway Patrol, county and state employees assigned to the courthouse, and lawful purposes such as a hunter safety course. None of them covers a visitor's pocketknife. Most courthouses screen at the door, and the knife goes back to the car.

No Knife Preemption: Rapid City, Sioux Falls, Aberdeen, Sturgis

Section 9-19-20 bars a municipality from any ordinance that restricts "firearms or ammunition or their components," and 7-18A-36 does the same for counties. Neither mentions knives, and AKTI lists South Dakota as a state without knife preemption. The cities have used the room, and the ordinances are the real South Dakota knife law for anyone who lives in one. As AKTI reports them: Rapid City 9.28.030 bars carrying a concealed knife with a blade over 3 inches, or other sharp or dangerous weapons, with firearms excluded. Sioux Falls 133.001 bars concealed carry of listed weapons including brass knuckles, daggers and Bowie or dirk knives. Aberdeen 34-76 bars concealed carry of a dangerous weapon as defined in 22-1-2 without a valid license. Sturgis 13.04.02 bars concealed carry of listed weapons including daggers and Bowie knives, with exceptions for officers, South Dakota permit holders and recognized nonresident permit holders. Deadwood 9.24.010 bars unconcealed carry of listed weapons on public transportation and trolleys. We have not read the current city codes ourselves, and ordinances change. Check the code of the city you carry in, and in the Black Hills in August, check Sturgis first.

Switchblades: Repealed in 1976

South Dakota once prohibited switchblades, as most states did after the federal act of 1958. It repealed the prohibition in 1976, in the same session law that produced the modern criminal code (SL 1976, ch 158), and AKTI records it as the first of the switchblade states to do so. Nothing has been enacted since. An OTF automatic in South Dakota is an ordinary knife: lawful to buy, own, sell, carry openly and carry concealed under state law, subject to the school and courthouse sections and to the city ordinances, none of which, as reported, single out automatics.

Where You Cannot Carry

• Public elementary and secondary schoolsAny dangerous weapon on school premises, in a school vehicle or building, or at a leased school function. Class 1 misdemeanor. Nonpublic schools and houses of worship are excepted from the statute, not from their own policies.
  13-32-7
• County courthouses and the state capitolAny firearm or other dangerous weapon. Class 1 misdemeanor, with exceptions for officers, judges and employees.
  22-14-23
• Rapid City, Sioux Falls, Aberdeen, Sturgis, DeadwoodCity ordinances on concealed knives, as AKTI reports them. The state does not preempt them.
  AKTI
• Airports and federal propertyNo knives past the checkpoint at Sioux Falls or Rapid City under federal rules, and none in a federal building or courthouse under 18 U.S.C. 930.
  TSA
• Tribal landPine Ridge, Rosebud, Cheyenne River, Standing Rock and the other 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

Sentence limits are set by 22-6-1 for felonies and 22-6-2 for misdemeanors. City ordinance violations carry their own penalties, usually a Class 2 misdemeanor under the city code.

What the Internet Gets Wrong

Three things. First, that South Dakota has a blade length limit. It does not. The 3-inch figure that circulates is Rapid City's ordinance, and it applies to concealed carry inside that city. Second, that concealing a knife is a crime. Under state law it is a crime only with intent to commit a felony, which is an element the prosecution must prove. Third, that "dangerous weapon" means the state bans something. The definition exists to feed the school, courthouse and felony-intent sections and the assault statutes. It does not create a carry offense of its own. The rule that catches people is the city one, a concealed knife in Rapid City or a double-edged blade in Sioux Falls, and the way to avoid it is the visible clip.

TEKTO Knives for South Dakota

Every TEKTO knife is lawful to own and carry in South Dakota under state law. The A5 Spry and A2 Badger are automatics in a state that repealed its automatic knife law fifty years ago. The F2 Bravo at 3.30 inches is over Rapid City's 3-inch concealed line, so carry it there with the clip showing, which under 22-1-2(6) is not concealed. The X1 Atlas at 3.30 inches in its sheath on a belt is open carry anywhere. The A7 Zastava is double-edged, which is nothing under state law and a dagger under the Sioux Falls and Sturgis ordinances as AKTI reports them. In those cities, carry it where it can be seen. Everything stays home on school days and court days.