The Trump DOJ’s Convoluted Logic in Support of a Switchblade Ban is Baffling…and Dangerous

A conversation I had over the holidays with Doug Ritter of Knife Rights brought a(nother) glaring government inconsistency to my attention. The Trump administration has pretty consistently argued for gun rights, going as far as bringing litigation against anti-gun regulations in several blue states.

But the same Justice Department filed a late-December appellate brief in the Fifth Circuit defending the 1958 Federal Switchblade Act that restricts interstate commerce in automatic knives and bans their possession on some federal and tribal lands. Knife Rights is seeking to overturn the federal ban on switchblades in Knife Rights v. Bondi. The plaintiffs say that switchblades should be protected under the Supreme Court’s Bruen decision.

The Justice Department’s appellate brief disagrees. The reasoning? They assert that switchblades are “well-suited to criminal misuse.” That, apparently, is solely due to the blade being concealed in the handle until activated. It then quickly springs into action.

The logic disconnects when the DOJ says folders, assisted flippers, and other one-hand operated knives are apparently fine, despite their blades being concealed – and deployed – in virtually the same exact manner, sans button activation.

The DOJ’s brief also holds the Federal Switchblade Act really isn’t a ban because the law only regulates the “configuration and mode of a switchblade’s opening.” There are, they argue, plenty of other fixed blade and folding options available. That kind of reasoning has disturbing implications for gun rights, too.

And there’s the rub. As Ritter explains, “It’s like claiming the government hasn’t banned a book because you can still get other books.”

Ordinarily I’d call this just another example of the kind of ‘I was for it until was against it’ logic used almost daily by politicians to defend waffling on any number of issues.

It’s troubling this time, though, because it’s not just another politician who’s sticking a finger into the wind, it’s the Department of Justice. Justice, I was taught, is always supposed to be blind, but never inconsistent. Go figure.