How long can a knife be to keep it legally?

Answer

Dear Khachatur,

The Weapons Act contains a list of prohibited weapons:

1. anti-personnel mines, booby-trap mines and similar mechanisms, and blinding laser weapons;
2. incendiary weapons;
3. weapons designed for military use only, such as automatic firearms, launchers, artillery pieces, rockets, weapons using forms of radiation other than those referred to under 1°, ammunition specifically designed for those weapons, bombs, torpedoes and grenades;
4. submunitions;
5. jump or drop knives with a lock, butterfly knives, brass knuckles and white weapons that outwardly resemble another object;
6. sword-sticks and rifle-sticks that are not historical ornamental weapons;
7. clubs and batons;
8. firearms, the butt or barrel of which can be disassembled into several parts, firearms which have been manufactured or modified in such a way that their wearing is not or less visible or that their technical characteristics no longer correspond to those of the model as described in the license to possess them and firearms that outwardly resemble an object other than a weapon;
9. portable devices that can render persons defenseless or inflict pain by an electric shock, with the exception of medical or veterinary aids;
10. objects intended for hitting persons with poisonous, asphyxiating, tear-inducing and similar substances, with the exception of medical devices;
11. folding rifles above caliber 20;
12. throwing knives;
13. nunchakus;
14. throwing stars;
15. firearms equipped with the following parts and fittings, as well as the following parts and fittings separately:
    – silencers;
    – chargers with a capacity greater than the normal capacity as determined by the Minister of Justice for a particular firearm model;
    – firearms aiming equipment, which projects a beam onto the target;
    – mechanisms that allow a firearm to be converted into an automatic firearm;
16. equipment, weapons and ammunition designated by the Ministers of Justice and of the Interior that may pose a serious threat to public security and weapons and ammunition which are for that reason only available to the services referred to in Article 27, § 1, paragraphs 2 and 3. allowed to have;
17. objects and substances that are not designed as weapons, but of which, given the concrete circumstances, it is clear that the person holding, carrying or transporting them intends to use them to inflict physical injury on or threaten persons.
18. inert munitions and armor containing depleted uranium or any other industrial uranium.

As you can see, nothing is said here about the length of a knife. Certain types are prohibited, such as jump or drop knives with a lock, butterfly knives and throwing knives. In addition, any knife, regardless of its length, can sometimes be considered a prohibited weapon. This is the case when the circumstances show that you have this knife with you to inflict physical injury on or threaten someone. For example: if you take a kitchen knife to a nightclub, it can probably be considered a prohibited weapon at that time. Cutting vegetables in your kitchen with this same knife is not a prohibited weapon.