Court Opinion

ID: 9753023
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 18:51:27.991825+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:42:24.443655
License: Public Domain

*152CHASANOW, Judge,
in which McAULIFFE, Judge, joins.
I concur with the majority opinion parts I, II, and III(A), but respectfully dissent from parts III(B) and IV. The majority states that to hold that this buck knife with the blade open, locked and carried openly with intent to injure should be punishable under Maryland Code (1957, 1987 Repl.Vol.), Article 27, § 36 “may be desirable and in the public interest,” majority op. at 11, but then declines to so hold.
To suggest that we may draw no distinction between a “penknife” folded closed and a “penknife” with the blade locked in the open position is to suggest that we may draw no distinction between being attacked by a knife wielding assailant whose penknife blade is folded closed and a knife wielding assailant whose penknife blade is locked in the open position. The blade on this buck knife is described as from four to six inches long and folding into the handle, and thus locked open, the knife is from eight to twelve or more inches long. Closed it most resembles and should be treated as a penknife, but open with the blade locked into place it most resembles and should be treated as a dirk knife, which is defined as “a short, straight dagger,” Webster’s New Universal Unabridged Dictionary 517 (2d ed. 1983), or like any other fixed blade stiletto or dagger.
The legislative purpose to treat an open locked knife as a weapon different from a folded knife may also be found in the prohibition against carrying a switchblade knife either concealed or openly with intent to injure. The only difference between a penknife without a switchblade and a penknife with a switchblade is that the latter is instantly ready to spring into the open locked position by the touch of a button. The weapon in the instant case is already in the open locked position. Clearly, in the open locked position it is even more lethal than a penknife with a switchblade. See Savoy v. State, 236 Md. 36, 202 A.2d 324 (1964), where this Court held that a “gravity knife” with a blade that could be *153locked into place with a flick of the wrist could constitute a dangerous or deadly weapon.
The majority acknowledges that it may be desirable and in the public interest to construe the section 36 penknife exemption as inapplicable to a folding knife once the blade is locked into the open position and the weapon is carried openly with the intent to injure. Since this construction would not be inconsistent with the language of the statute, we should assume that the Legislature intended this desirable result. “ ‘The canon in favor of strict construction is not an inexorable command to override common sense and evident statutory purpose.’ ” Wynn v. State, 313 Md. 533, 540, 546 A.2d 465, 468 (1988) (quoting United States v. Brown, 333 U.S. 18, 25, 68 S.Ct. 376, 380, 92 L.Ed. 442, 448 (1948)). As Chief Judge Murphy observed in State v. Fabritz, 276 Md. 416, 422, 348 A.2d 275, 279 (1975), cert. denied, 425 U.S. 942, 96 S.Ct. 1680, 48 L.Ed.2d 185 (1976),
“it is the intention of the Legislature that governs in the construction of all statutes so that penal statutes, like other statutes, are to be fairly and reasonably construed and courts should not, by narrow and strained construction, exclude from their operation cases plainly within their scope and meaning. In the final analysis, in construing any statute requiring construction, courts must consider not only the literal or usual meaning of words, but their meaning and effect in light of the setting, the objectives and purposes of the enactment, with the real intention prevailing over the literal intention even though such a construction may seem to be contrary to the letter of the statute.”
It seems to me that the most logical construction of the concealed weapon statute, Art. 27, § 36, is that a buck knife in the closed position most resembles and should be treated as a penknife. A buck knife in the open locked position most resembles and should be treated as a dirk knife or other dagger. Under this construction, a buck knife may lawfully be carried concealed in the closed position, and it may lawfully be carried openly either in the closed or open *154locked position as long as it is not carried openly with intent to injure. An open locked buck knife, like a dirk knife, dagger, etc., may not be carried openly with intent to injure another person in an unlawful manner.
It seems not only desirable and in the public interest, but it also seems reasonable to assume that the Legislature intended that this approximately ten inch long lethal weapon loses its “penknife” protection when the blade is locked into the open position and it is carried openly with the intent to injure another person in an unlawful manner.
For these reasons, I would affirm the Judgment of the Court of Special Appeals. Judge McAuliffe has authorized me to state that he joins in this dissenting opinion.