Hawaii’s three-decades-long ban on butterfly knives has been overturned after a three-judge panel at the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously found the restriction unconstitutional.
Hawaii first criminalized carrying butterfly knives, also known as balisongs, in 1993. Six years later, Hawaii Legislature expanded the law to make it a misdemeanor for anyone to manufacture, sell, transfer, transport, or even own those blades, citing the perceived social problem of an “increasing trend in minors and gang members armed with knives and daggers.”
