Are switchblade knives illegal in most jurisdictions?   Did they used   
   to be?   On TV, they advertise things that work something like   
   switchblades but don't look like them.  One is short and fat like a   
   sunfish, but seems to spring out.  And the others look more like   
   knives, but open differently, it seems from the tv.    Are they likely   
   to be legal in Maryland, or other states I might go to?   
      
      
   Details: When I was in college, I lost my jacket, but found it a day   
   or two later, in the dorm's piano room, where I had probably left it.   
   Except, in the pocket was a switchblade.  I wonder how that happened.   
      
   It didn't open all the way when the lever was pulled, so I oiled it a   
   bit, and then it opened all the way and bounced back without latching.   
   Still I could have fixed that.   
      
   But I thought switchblades were illegal in Illinois, and I wondered if   
   mine had been used in a crime**, so I gave it to the manager of the   
   dormitory.   
      
   **Didn't seem likely that both of us would forget the jacket in the   
   piano room, so maybe he lost it on purpose.   
      
   I've also heard that gravity knives are illegal.  Everywhere.  Yet I   
   think they are state laws.   
      
   In Arizona where everyone can get a gun carry permit, do they have   
   illegal knives?   
      
   But sometimes, when there have been a lot of scary stories on tv, news   
   or dramas, I feel like it might help to have a knive, and one that   
   takes 2 hands to open wouldn't help.  I used to carry a penknife and   
   often found uses for it.  There has only been one mugging around here   
   in 25 years, but once in a while, I wish i had some "protection".   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)