Knife Rights and its fellow appellants have filed their Appeal Brief in our Federal Second Amendment lawsuit against the Federal Switchblade Act.

Download the Opening Brief

Download the Full Excerpts (159MB)

The essence of the case is that the Supreme Court has made clear that the "Second Amendment extends, prima facie, to all instruments that constitute bearable arms..." Further, in Heller, the Supreme Court stated the Second Amendment protects weapons that are "'in common use at the time' for lawful purposes like self-defense" and that weapons "typically possessed by law-abiding citizens for lawful purposes" are within the scope of the Second Amendment.

Despite this, the Federal Switchblade Act broadly restricts, or outright bans in over one-third of the U.S., a huge category of such bearable arms that are in common use, in direct violation of the Second Amendment.

The District Court ignored its commands from the Supreme Court with another absurd stretch to avoid ruling in favor of the Second Amend....We are asking the Appeals Court to reverse this ridiculous decision.

We also hope that with the Department of Justice's recent amicus briefs in the 7th and 3rd Circuits opposing bans on AR-style rifles ("assault weapons") and magazines-more-than-10 round capacity as "flagrantly violat[ing] the Second Amendment," that they will revisit their irrational opposition in our case and stipulate, like in these others, that switchblades are commonly possessed arms under the Second Amendment and that the Federal Switchblade Act (excepting the import ban) also flagrantly violates the Second Amendment.

Knife Rights' Attorney John Dillon said, "this is a very strong appeal from a district court decision that has no legitimate legal support. There is no question that switchblades are "arms" under every conceivable definition of the term. Because the FSA clearly prohibits the manufacture, transportation, and purchase of these arms in all interstate commerce, as well as possession of switchblades on all federal lands and Indian Country, Heller and Bruen demand that the government bear the burden of justifying the FSA's prohibitions. The government has entirely failed to meet this burden, and we will prove that on appeal."

Since 2010 Knife Rights’ efforts have resulted in 58 bills & court decisions repealing knife bans & protecting knife owners in 36 states and over 200 cities and towns! Knife Rights is America’s grassroots knife owners’ organization; leading the fight to Rewrite Knife Law in America™ and forging a Sharper Future for all Americans™.