By Dave Workman
Senior Editor
In a unanimous ruling, the Connecticut Supreme Court has said that the Second Amendment protects possession of so-called “dirk knives” and even police batons, and that a section of the state law banning transport of such weapons in a motor vehicle violates the right to keep and bear arms.
The case involves a former Connecticut resident named Jason DeCiccio. He was moving from his residence in Clinton to a new home in neighboring Massachusetts in 2010 when he got in an accident. Police found the weapons in his vehicle and he was charged for illegal possession of weapons in a motor vehicle.
The dirk is a double-edged knife. DeCiccio, who served overseas in the military, is a collector of knives and swords. He was convicted in a jury trial and sentenced to 15 months in prison in December 2011.
According to the local CBS affiliate and the Associated Press, Justice Richard Palmer, writing for the court, said that the knife and police baton were legal for DeCiccio to possess. The court also held that “The safe transportation of weapons protected by the Second Amendment is an essential corollary of the right to possess them in the home for self-defense when such transportation is necessary to effectuate that right.”
“The court’s holding that the right to bear arms includes non-firearms, such as knives and batons, is consistent with the bulk of modern precedent on the subject,” noted Eugene Volokh, prominent legal scholar who teaches at the UCLA School of Law.
DeCiccio, a former Army medic, is reportedly now considering a lawsuit because the arrest and conviction cost him his job with the Veterans Health Administration.
In its decision, the court discussed the history of knives used throughout the nation’s history, thus defining them as “arms” protected by the Second Amendment.
“As to whether dirk knives are “ ‘dangerous and unusual weapons’,” the court wrote, “District of Columbia v. Heller, supra, 554 U.S. 627; and, therefore, not ‘arms’ within the meaning of the second amendment, their more limited lethality relative to other weapons that, under Heller, fall squarely within the protection of the second amendment—e.g., handguns—provides strong support for the conclusion that dirk knives also are entitled to protected status.”
The ruling also noted that, “Post-Heller case law supports the commonsense conclusion that the core right to possess a protected weapon in the home for self-defense necessarily entails the right, subject to reasonable regulation, to engage in activities necessary to enable possession in the home. Thus, the safe transportation of weapons protected by the second amendment is an essential corollary of the right to possess them in the home for self-defense when such transportation is necessary to effectuate that right.”
