macadore
Member
The irony is that you can carry a 44 Magnum if you can conceal it but you can't carry a knife with a 6 inch fixed blade. People who can't afford a handgun can't protect themselves.
What the heck is a "Bowie knife" under TX law? Is this knife legal?
- Thread starter newbie4help
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Kinda sorta...
You can carry a .44 Mag if you can conceal it and you have a permit. A permit will probably run you around $250 for the first 5 years by the time you pay for the class and the state fee.
You can't carry a knife with a 6 inch blade period. Doesn't matter if it's fixed or folding. The length limit is shorter than that and the law doesn't specify how the blade length is to be measured so I generally advise not pushing the limit. There are a three ways blade length could be measured. Tip to end of cutting surface, tip to hilt, or along the entire cutting edge. If you have a blade with a deep belly the cutting edge length could be the longest measurement which might push a knife that is acceptable when measured by either one of the other two measurements over the limit.
However, I disagree with your comment that a person who can't afford a handgun (and a permit) can't defend himself. You can legally carry a folder with a 5" blade that meets the requirements in my other post on this thread and if you've looked at a folder that big you'll find that it has a surprisingly long handle. It will have an overall length (and therefore overall reach) that matches or exceeds a typical fixed blade knife with a 6" tip-to-hilt blade.
Here's a picture of a folder with a 5" blade, tip-to-hilt (legal in TX by any measurement technique) flanked by two fixed blade knives with blade lengths that well exceed the TX length limit. The SOG blade is 6.25" tip-to-hilt and the Glock knife blade is about 6.5" long by the same measurement technique.
A long bladed folder is a surprisingly big knife in practice...and as a bonus it's easier to conceal.
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