Original URL: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/04/08/maine_switchblades/
One-armed Maine residents whip out switchblades
State Senate approval for 'emergency use'
Posted in Bootnotes, 8th April 2011 11:19 GMT
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In good news for one-armed residents of Maine for whom conventional knives just don't cut it, the state's Senate has agreed to allow them to carry switchblades.
The bold legislative move will "eliminate a need for one-armed people to be forced to open folding knives with their teeth in emergencies", as Reuters nicely puts it [1].
In case you're wondering just type of situation would require the swift deployment of a flick knife, the bill was requested [2] by amputee lawyer Paul Dumas Jr, who rides horses and explained he "can’t react quickly enough in emergencies when he needs to cut a piece of rope".
Until now, no one in Maine was allowed to whip out a switchblade, which means the state is poised to become "the first to make such an exception to laws that ban use of the spring-action knives".
The knives will, however, be limited to a blade three inches or shorter, in keeping with a federal flick knife law which delightfully "allows their use by a person with one arm only on federal property if the blade is shorter than three inches". ®