Use of Force

[Smokin Joe]

Originally Posted by stanley_white

I've been to several schools that spoke and trained to a situation in which you may have / choose to utilize a tactical folding knife in the blade closed position as an impact weapon.

Are there any legal ramifications to this?

For example... Is "pulling a knife" the same whether or not the folding knife is open or closed?

I assume in my case if I used a closed tactical folder as an impact weapon though someone could argue that I "pulled a knife" I could quote my training and though I did produce a knife I did not use it as a cutting tool but an impact weapon etc etc.

Weird scenario but I believe there are times when one may pull their knife out but not have time to deploy the blade. Utilizing the knife as an impact tool as a gap-bridging technique in order to create time or space to deploy the blade could be realistic.

Thanks in advance for any imput you may have.

Interesting Question. I don't have a hard line answer for you.

However I can offer you this:
In the scenario you have, deadly force needs to be justified. So if deadly force is justified you would be justified in slashing, stabbing, etc. You would also be justified to use all lesser means, to include using the knife as you descirbed as an impact weapon.

Now if deadly force was not justified and an impact was justified you could use the knife as an impact weapon, but I wouldn't recommend it. In a typical folder there is not enough weight to be used adequately as an impact device. Now if you had The Reaper Knife by Mr. Harsey that thing looks like it has enough weight to be used as an impact device if you used the back side of the blade.

HTH.