{"id":366811,"date":"2026-07-09T13:04:22","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T13:04:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/366811\/"},"modified":"2026-07-09T13:04:22","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T13:04:22","slug":"can-you-legally-carry-a-sword-in-texas-knife-laws-explained","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/366811\/","title":{"rendered":"Can you legally carry a sword in Texas? Knife laws explained"},"content":{"rendered":"

Texas is known for its relatively permissive firearms laws<\/a>, but the state’s knife laws are also among the least restrictive in the country.<\/p>\n

Since Sept. 1, 2017, most adults in Texas have been allowed to legally <\/a>carry knives, including swords, after lawmakers approved House Bill 1935.<\/p>\n

But does that mean Texans can openly carry a sword in public? Here’s what state law says.<\/p>\n

Yes. Texas law generally allows people to openly or concealed carry swords and other bladed weapons.<\/p>\n

House Bill 1935 eliminated the term \u201cillegal knife\u201d from Texas law and instead created limited restrictions on where \u201clocation-restricted knives\u201d may be carried.<\/p>\n

Texas law generally allows people to carry knives regardless of blade length. However, knives with blades longer than 5\u00bd inches are classified as location-restricted knives under Texas Penal Code Section 46.03.<\/p>\n

That designation doesn’t make them illegal. Instead, it limits where they may be carried.<\/p>\n

According to the Law Office of Matthew D. Sharp, a 1999 Texas appellate court ruling in McMurrough v. State of Texas helped define how blade length is measured.<\/p>\n

The firm says the measurement includes the knife’s flat-edged portion \u2014 both the sharpened section and any remaining flat edge \u2014 but not the handle.<\/p>\n

House Bill 1935 took effect Sept. 1, 2017.<\/p>\n

The law removed most restrictions on carrying blades, including swords, bowie knives, daggers, dirks, stilettos, poniards and spears.<\/p>\n

Under Texas Penal Code Section 46.05, it is generally illegal to intentionally or knowingly possess, manufacture, transport, repair or sell certain prohibited weapons, including:<\/p>\n

Texas Penal Code Section 46.03 prohibits carrying location-restricted knives in certain places, including:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Texas is known for its relatively permissive firearms laws, but the state’s knife laws are also among the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":366812,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[85656,27,29,28],"class_list":["post-366811","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-marley","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366811","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=366811"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366811\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/366812"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=366811"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=366811"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=366811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}