AUGUSTA — State lawmakers are considering a bill that would repeal the prohibition on so-called “switchblade” and “Stiletto” knives.

Supporters of the change said many knives, which were never intended to be prohibited by the decades-old law, are increasingly being targeted by law enforcement.

On Monday, state Rep. Joel Stetkis, R-Canaan, was carrying a lockbox with several examples of knives he said were illegal to possess under current law. 

Stetkis is sponsoring LD 264, “An Act to Restore the Right to Possess Certain Knives That Are Used by Many Citizens as Tools.”

Stetkis, displaying the knives for the Legislature’s Public Safety and Criminal Justice Committee, said he purchased them in Maine at a hardware store and sporting goods store. He also displayed Buck brand folding knife he’s carried for years, he said.

All, he said, would be deemed “illegal” under Maine law, which makes it a crime to possess “any knife having a blade that opens or falls or is ejected into position by the force of gravity, or by an outward, downward or centrifugal thrust or movement.”

“So if you, your carpenter, a lobsterman, or firefighter has one of these in their garage, in their toolbox, or on their boat, they are in violation of this law,” Stetkis said.

Several others also testified in support of the bill, saying they believed Maine should repeal its law prohibiting switchblades and stilettos, which have blades that open with the push of a button. The law came after a wave of films and the Broadway show “West Side Story” featured teenagers using switchblade knives for gang fights and other violence.

State Rep. Richard Pickett, R-Dixfield, said the movies and play exaggerated the danger and the impact of knives on the streets, which led to a federal ban on switchblades. States also passed prohibitions against the weapons.

He said the 1950s movies, “Rebel Without A Cause,” “Crime in the Streets,” “12 Angry Men” and “The Delinquents” featured scenes with “automatic knives” being wielded by young people.

“Partly because of the Hollywood sensationalism, the public and our rightfully reflective Legislature of the time associated the automatic knife with what they perceived as a growing juvenile delinquency threat,” Pickett said.

Pickett, a former state police homicide detective and a retired police chief, said he supported the repeal. He said knives were seldom used in violent crimes in Maine and when they were, they were more likely to be knives grabbed from kitchen drawers.

“Most knives, regardless of how they are opened, are used for peaceful, working purposes,” Pickett said.

Others also said Monday the knives in question were already legal under Maine law, because they don’t fit the description of a switchblade which opens with a single button. They said law enforcement personnel are charging people with a crime for possessing legal knives.

Stetkis and Pickett mentioned a young man in Peru who was charged with possessing a dangerous weapon, which was a pocketknife that his father had given to him as a Christmas present.

Stetkis later produced a similar knife, noting he bought it at a local sporting goods shop and that the blade, which is spring loaded, is also equipped with a safety lock that prevents it from opening inadvertently.

Casey Dugas, a Fairfield police officer, also testified in favor of legislation and said many of the knives in question are frequently used by firefighters and EMTs.

Because they can be used with one hand, they are valuable rescue tools that are frequently used to free trapped auto accident victims, but there was no exemption in the law to allow emergency personnel to possess them. State law does allow anyone with one arm to possess a spring-loaded blade.

Dugas said that in his more than 10 years as a police officer, he’s never responded to a crime where one of the knives in question was used.

“The last stabbing that I covered, legitimate stabbing, was done with a paring knife,” Dugas said. “A weapon of opportunity pulled out of a kitchen.”

He said the last time he responded to a knife threat a kitchen knife was involved.

“One of the things they teach us when you go to a domestic disturbance is separate the parties and interview them,” Dugas said. “But never, ever, ever do it in the kitchen. That’s where all of the weapons are.”

But John Pelletier, an attorney and the chairman of the Legislature’s Criminal Law Advisory Commission, said Maine’s law was already specific enough, and that the commission was opposed to any changes.

Pelletier said the law didn’t prohibit the knives Stetkis was concerned about, but it did ban knives that were designed specifically to be weapons.

He said the knife blades the law addresses are those that either open automatically or are ejected from a handle of a knife with the “press of a button. “

“They are uniquely designed to hurt people, and they are dangerous to members of the public and to law enforcement officers,” Pelletier said. He said Maine’s law was “pretty well done” in making the distinction between blades.

He said no knife manufacturers or retail sellers of knives were testifying Monday because the knives they sell in Maine are already legal.

“The statute is drafted in a way that makes the tools that are available in Maine legal to possess in Maine,” Pelletier said.

Also testifying in opposition to the bill was Maine Chiefs of Police Association lobbyist Pamela Cahill, who said police chiefs were opposed to rolling back the prohibition on switchblade knives because they are dangerous. She also said the attempt to characterize legal knives as the ones being questioned by law enforcement was a stretch.

“For the life of me I cannot figure out the utilitarian use of a switchblade, ” Cahill said. “I can’t figure out why anyone would want to possess a switchblade if they did not intend to cause harm with it.”

Lawmakers also seemed to agree law enforcement in Maine may need some additional training so they can better determine which knives are technically illegal under Maine’s law and which are not.

The committee will take a vote on the bill in the weeks ahead.

sthistle@sunjournal.com