Starting soon adults in Texas can openly carry knives with blades longer than 5.5 inches in public.
That includes any type of dagger, Bowie knife, machete, or even spear.
Texas Gov. Greg Abott signed the bill into law last month but it doesn’t go into effect until Sept. 1 this year, CBS reports.
“Carrying a sword down the street, carrying a Bowie knife down the street … completely legal. Machetes if you want to,” Ahnna Escobedo, general manager at the House of Blades in Fort Worth told CBS.
“I think it was more to give people more rights and then make sure they felt like they were free to carry what they wanted,” said Escobedo. “Texas move right there, sure.”
Texas is not the only state that allows the open carry of swords. It now joins the ranks of Montana and Oklahoma that have passed laws that lifted their bans on certain bladed weapons, such as swords, CNN reports.
The bill, known as HB 1935, was stalled in May earlier this year after a man killed a student at the University of Texas and injured three others with a large hunting knife, police in Austin said.
However, under the new law, there are still some places where the blades are nit allowed including schools, prisons, hospitals, amusement parks, places of worship, sports events, and bars according to the bill.
The law originally said that knives with blades longer than 5.5 inches could only be purchased and not carried with some limited exceptions, according to CNN.
A former Garland police detective, Clint McNear said he thinks the law will not change the public’s minds.
“I know when open carry came about there was some initial fear, is everybody going to be carrying guns everywhere? Or, is there going to be shootings everywhere? And I really think this is going to mirror that,” McNear told CBS.
McNear said he believes police are being correctly briefed by their officers and that it’s usually not what police are worried about when they are on patrol.
“It’s really the unknown. Does the guy have a weapon concealed on him?” questioned McNear.
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