Indiana lawmakers passed a bill earlier today aimed at making switchblade knives legal in the state of Indiana.

While these particular knives have carried a less than favorable stigma throughout the years, Senator Jim Tomes (Wadesville) says that the days when switchblades were used by thugs are long gone and that they are actually extremely convenient for people with disabilities, firefighters, police and emergency personnel.

Currently, anyone caught manufacturing, possessing, displaying, offering, selling, lending, giving away, or purchasing switchblades in Indiana can be charged with a misdemeanor.

Objective critics of the proposed bill, like Democratic Minority Leader Tim Lanane, approached the subject of legalizing the blade with some light-hearted caution.

“I remember back in the day that someone who had a switchblade – these are switchblades right -- that the stigma attached to it was that only hoodlums and criminals had switchblades and that law enforcement didn’t really want people to have those,” said Lanane. “Is that not the case?”

Lanane says he remembers switchblades as being a part of the James Dean culture prominent in ‘Rebel Without a Cause.’

“No, senator, that’s gone by the way of the T-shirts with the pack of cigarettes rolled up in the sleeves,” Tomes replied.

The Senate voted unanimously 47-0 to pass the bill. A similar bill was approved in 2012, but cut off at the neck by the House. And no, not with a switchblade.

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