Are multi-tools legal in New York City?

Want to carry a multi-tool in New York City? Is a multi tool considered a weapon? Is it legal to carry a multi tool?

New York, New York, so good they named it twice, the Big Apple, NYC, City of Dreams and all that. There certainly isn’t any other place like New York, it’s not just a different city, it’s a different world.  And because of that, many people live there and a lot of us want to visit this great city. And we’re Multi-Tool MacGyvers who feel naked without our multi-tools. But are multi-tools legal in NYC?

The answer, unfortunately, isn’t so easy to answer. This is one of those situations where the law is one thing and the actual experience of us MacGyvers can be different. If you’ve read my article on what you should do with your multi-tool when flying, you would have seen another example of this.

The Legal Answer

Before we get into the law around possessing and carrying a multi-tool in New York City, let’s be clear that we’re only talking about multi-tools that have a knife. Multi-tools themselves aren’t illegal, only the blade can be determined to be illegal. If you have a multi-tool without a blade, something like Gerber’s MP600 Multi-Plier Bladeless then you don’t have to worry. I rate the Gerber so highly that I gave it my multi-tool bladeless crown on my Recommended Multi-Tools page. The only thing I would be careful about when carrying a multi-tool without a knife is the pocket clip but read on to see what that’s about.

The law that applies to multi-tools with blades is the law “Firearms and Other Dangerous Weapons”, specifically Article 265 of the New York State Penal Law. That’s the state laws then there’s also the New York City administrative code which has some stricter knife laws. For example, the state penal code allows knives up to 6 inches but the NYC administrative code (10-133) says 4 inches and the knife has to be concealed.

The legal bits that could cause you a lot of trouble

There are two parts to the laws in NYC that you need to think about before you carry your multi-tool.

The first part is that you’ll be guilty of criminal possession of a weapon in the fourth degree (a misdemeanor offense) if you’rec carrying a “gravity knife”. A gravity knife is any knife that will open with the force of gravity or if you apply some centrifugal force and when released locks into place.

Our multi-tool knives aren’t gravity knives. Unless there’s something wrong with it, the knife doesn’t just fall open if you hold it upside down. For a start, if the knife is inside accessible, you’ll need to butterfly open the arms to access it. But even if your knife is outside accessible, you still need to use the thumb hole or thumb stud to open it. Or do you?

Do you think, if you had some practice, you might be able to get your knife open without using any of your fingers? What about if you gave your multi-tool a really hard fast flick of the wrist? Could the knife possibly open and lock? No? What about if you could grab the knife instead of the handles and flick your wrist hard. Would the weight of the multi-tool allow it to open?  Yes, I think there’s a very good chance it would. Well, that means as far as the police are concerned, you are carrying a gravity knife and that’s a misdemeanor criminal possession.

There’ve been a lot of people prosecuted under the gravity knife law. The police officer finds the knife and with a well practiced strong flick of the wrist, the blade opens. You’re arrested and detained.

Some people have gone to court to defend the charge arguing their knife can’t open with centrifugal force. The police officer has to demonstrate in court they can open it and they fail. Case dismissed. Usually, though, they can open it.

The second part that could cause you even more trouble is if the police decide you’re carrying a gravity knife “with intent to use the same unlawfully against another”. And that’s a felony offense! Your intent for carrying is because you’re a Multi-Tool MacGyver and you want to be ready for any situation you find yourself in. I’m not a police officer but I’m pretty sure that’s not going to cut it (excuse the pun).

In fact, if the police enforce 265.15 of the law, the fact that you’re carrying a gravity knife gives them ‘presumptive evidence‘ of intent to use the knife unlawfully against another. In simple language, if you’re found to be carrying certain types of weapons, like a gravity knife, it’s automatically presumed you are carrying it to use it against someone else.

No joke

Don’t make the mistake that these are just little-known laws that are rarely enforced. NYC proactively enforce these laws around the city.

Between 2000 and 2012, 70,000 people in New York were arrested under these laws. There are no exact numbers, but it’s estimated that two-thirds of these arrests were for carrying a gravity knife. That’s 46,000 arrests for gravity knives. If you’re black or Hispanic, the odds of being searched for illegal possession of a weapon seems to go against you. Black and Hispanic people are arrested disproportionately for this misdemeanor. By the way, if you have another conviction on your record, the misdemeanor gets upgraded to a felony.

The gravity knife law dates back to 1958 so was never intended to catch people carrying multi-tools with a knife or a pocket knife. These ‘illegal’ knives are of course available in big stores like Home Depot who bizarrely have been fined for selling them in New York.

Encouragingly there’s been an overhaul of the law on gravity knives in recent years. The law was overwhelmingly passed by the New York State Legislature. But in October 2017, the Governor vetoed the new law for the second year in a row. So the old 1958 law continues to be enforced.

It’a not your lucky day

Let’s say you’re carrying your favorite multi-tool as you usually do, you’re getting some theatre tickets in Times Square when a scuffle breaks out in the queue just in front of you between some two couples over the last two cheap tickets. A police officer arrives and somehow you get detained for questioning. You’re carrying your favorite multi-tool because that’s what we do. It’s found. The police officer has arrested more than his share of those 46,000 people and he flicks open your knife. Gravity knife – a misdemeanor. You’re standing in a line for theatre tickets so there’s no need for a gravity knife so that’s intent to unlawfully use – a felony charge. You’re off to jail, MacGyver.

Sure, this is the worst case scenario and you might have a good chance of defending the charges but who needs the hassle?

The Risk-Taker’s Answer

You’re the guy who’s never been in trouble with the police. You’ve never been even close to being stopped on the street and that means you’ve never been searched. You’re just not that type of guy and so you’re not going to be too worried about carrying your multi-tool in New York City.

You think it’s worth the risk

At least you know the law now so you know the risks. But you’d rather take the risk than not be able to carry your multi-tool.

If you are going to carry your multi-tool, there are some things you should think about to minimize the risk of copping a charge.

• Make sure your blade isn’t longer 4 inches. I can’t find a popular multi-tool with a blade longer than 4 inches. The Leatherman MUT comes close but just make sure yours isn’t over 4 inches.
• Check the deployment of your knife. Make sure it’s not loose so that it could easily be flicked open with a vigorous flick. If in doubt, have a look at one of your other multi-tools to see if the knife on that is better and carry that one instead.
• Think about a reason why you need to carry a multi-tool – what is your intent? If you have a reason, that will give you a chance of not being charged with a felony for intent to use your knife unlawfully against another person. That might be tough if all you’re doing in New York is sightseeing. But if you live in NYC, you could be a maintenance worker, electrician or going fishing.
• If you want to carry your multi-tool, don’t use a pocket clip or sheath attached to your clothing. Knives need to be concealed in NYC so you don’t want to draw attention to your multi-tool in any way by even having a pocket clip sticking out of your pocket. Keep everything to do with your multi-tool out of sight.
• If you have a multi-tool without a knife, think about carrying that. Or buy one. There are also a lot of different designs of one piece and credit card multi-tools that have a lot of tool functions but don’t have a knife. Look at the list I recently pulled together of 136 of these types of multi-tools.
• Don’t be flashing your multi-tool knife around in public. Be aware of where you are and be discreet if you’re going to pull your knife out.
• Strangely, it’s legal to carry a fixed blade knife under 4 inches. So if you want to carry some tools and a knife, you could legally do that by separately carrying a multi-tool without a knife and a small fixed blade.

Follow these tips and you still might not avoid being stopped and detained by the police. But it’s up to you whether you want to try. Just don’t call me to come and bail you out!

The Final Answer

We’ve seen what the law says about carrying a gravity knife in New York City and if the police believe you’re carrying a gravity knife, they can determine that you have an intent to unlawfully use it against someone. We know that the law introduced in 1958 was before Tim Leatherman even made his first multi-tool. So the law was never intended to stop us carrying our multi-tools. But the reality is that thousands of people have been arrested for carrying a gravity knife and the police are good at getting a knife to open by forcefully flicking it open.

On the other hand, are we just being paranoid? How likely is it really that anyone carrying a multi-tool walking around NYC will be stopped and charged? If you’re not carrying your multi-tool where it can be seen and you’re not flashing your multi-tool knife around in a public place, what’s the chance you’re going to be targeted by the police? If you don’t like prison food, the answer is you don’t care even if it’s only a very small chance – it’s not worth carrying a multi-tool in NYC. If you’re a risk taker, you’ll be packing your favorite. Good luck whatever you decide.

Have you had any experiences, good or bad, of carrying a multi-tool in NYC? I don’t love to hear your story. Let me know in the comments below.

Multi-Tools – Don’t Leave Home Without One (unless perhaps you’re in NYC)