Bowie knives, swords and daggers will be street legal in Texas in September
FORT WORTH, Texas _ Bowie knives, swords, spears, daggers and machetes, all of which have been illegal to carry in Texas for years, will be back on the streets beginning Sept. 1.
Any knife sporting a blade longer than 5 { inches will now be legal to carry in the state _ a few restricted areas remain _ under a plan approved by Texas lawmakers and signed into law by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott.
"This bill simplifies the complexity in our current knife laws, which can be confusing for Texans," state Rep. John Frullo, a Lubbock Republican who sponsored House Bill 1935, has said.
There's already a lot of buzz about the new law.
"People are talking about it a lot," said Matt Salazar, store manager at House of Blades in Fort Worth. "Our customers are knife gurus. They tell us this stuff before we even know about it."
All that talk about knives hasn't translated into growing sales _ yet.
"But there's definitely an increase in interest," Salazar said.
Though legal in public, the knives are still off-limits in some areas, such as schools, churches, jails, polling places and many bars. Anyone who carries them into restricted areas will face a Class C misdemeanor, which comes with a fine of as much as $500.
_Fort Worth Star-Telegram
