Huckleberry Press 040716

Page 2 Huckleberry Press April 7, 2016
From the Desk of the
Stevens County
Prosecuting Attorney
The Supreme Court
of Washington has again
signaled it will sustain legislation
allowing governments
to restrict the possession
of weapons. This
decision came from a case
that tested a City of Seattle
ban against carrying
a concealed weapon. The
Supreme Court ruled that
since the Constitution does
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not prohibit government
from doing so, the city had
the right to enact the ban
and a citizen’s Constitutional
right to bear arms
did not overcome it.
Wayne Anthony Evans
was arrested because
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he was carrying a sheathed
kitchen knife in his pocket
when a Seattle police officer
pulled him over in
February 2010. Evans had
been speeding and when
asked, told the officer he
had the knife in his pocket.
The City of Seattle
charged Evans under a city
ordinance declaring it illegal
for anyone to “carry
concealed or unconcealed
… any dangerous knife.”
The ban included any
fixed-blade knife and any
knife having a blade longer
than 3 ½ inches.
Evans was convicted
of the misdemeanor following
a jury trial. He
appealed the conviction,
claiming the city ordinance
violated his Constitutional
rights.
Justice Charles Wiggins
wrote the opinion
and said neither the State
Constitution nor the Second
Amendment of the
U.S. Constitution block the
city from enacting a law
against carrying knives.
The majority found that
kitchen knives don’t qualify
as “arms.” Wiggins
said in the opinion that a
recent U.S. Supreme Court
ruling against local government
gun restrictions
doesn’t extend constitutional
protections to small
knives. Therefore, there is
no constitutional right to
carry a knife.
Dissenting from the
majority, Justice Fairhurst
described Evans as a “lawabiding
citizen carrying
a fixed-blade knife for
self-defense.” In her view,
the type of knife wasn’t
important because it was
clear Evans was carrying
to defend himself. “The
right to self-defense is central
to the Second Amendment,”
Fairhurst said.
By framing the problem
as to whether or not the
Constitution prohibits the
city from making such a
rule, the court has said that
government rights trump
citizen’s right. There is no
right to carry a knife for
self-defense, but there is
a right to carry a gun for
the same purpose. I guess
the message is clear. Take
the gun for self-protection.
Leave the knives at home.
Tim Rasmussen
Stevens County
Prosecuting Attorney
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