CopyCited 2 times | Published | Florida 4th District Court of Appeal | 26 Fla. L. Weekly Fed. D 53
...District Court of Appeal of Florida, Fourth District. December 27, 2000. *856 Robert A. Butterworth, Attorney General, Tallahassee, and Rajeev Saxena, Assistant Attorney General, West Palm Beach, for appellant. Dennis Colleran, Fort Lauderdale, for appellee. PER CURIAM. In a prosecution under section 790.225, Florida Statutes (1997), against a vendor of switchblade knives, the trial court found section 790.225 unconstitutionally vague. We disagree and thus reverse and remand for further proceedings. Section 790.225 provides as follows: *857 (1) It is unlawful for any person to manufacture, display, sell, own, possess, or use a self-propelled knife which is a device that propels a knifelike blade as a projectile by means of a coil spring, elastic material, or compressed gas....
...(2) This section shall not apply to any device which propels an arrow, a bolt, or a dart by means of any common bow, compound bow, crossbow, or underwater spear gun. (3) Any person violating the provisions of subsection (1) is guilty of a misdemeanor of the first degree, punishable as provided in s.
775.082 or s.
775.083. §
790.225, Fla. Stat. (1997). The current version of the statute reads the same. During the hearing on the Defendant's motion to dismiss the information on the grounds section
790.225 was unconstitutionally vague, the trial court examined the switchblade knives confiscated from the Defendant as well as information provided by the Defendant about a Russian-made ballistic knife that shoots knife blades. In ruling section
790.225 was unconstitutionally vague, the trial court concluded that it was unclear whether the statute sought to prohibit common, everyday switchblade knives or the "KGB type knife" that shoots a blade....
...The trial court also considered the dictionary definition of "switchblade," defining that as "a pocketknife having the blade swing operated so that pressure on a release catch causes it to fly open." The trial court stated that even considering this definition, "one still would not know if 790.225 has been violated." The trial court also reasoned that the Legislature did not intend to prohibit the sale or possession of switchblade knives and that to uphold the constitutionality of the statute "would be to make the switchblade knife an...
...fell within the scope of the statute, without regard to other possible applications of the statute. See Village of Hoffman Estates v. Flipside, Hoffman Estates, Inc.,
455 U.S. 489, 495,
102 S.Ct. 1186,
71 L.Ed.2d 362 (1982). Applying this analysis, section
790.225 is not unconstitutionally vague....
..."[A]ll doubts as to the validity of a statute are to be resolved in favor of constitutionality where reasonably possible." Dep't of Law Enforcement v. Real Prop.,
588 So.2d 957, 961 (Fla.1991). The language upon which the Defendant and the trial court focused was that portion of section
790.225 that prohibits "a self-propelled knife which is a device that propels a knifelike blade as a projectile by means of a coil spring, elastic material, or compressed gas." §
790.225(1)....
...The word "projectile" is used to merely explain how the knife's blade might be propelled, i.e., that it is capable of being thrust or hurled forward, and the remainder of the sentence"by means of a coil spring, elastic material, or compressed gas"specifies the manner of propulsion. § 790.225(1)....
...Using such terms, then, it seems apparent the Legislature intended to make the possession of switchblade knifes, which "propel a knifelike blade as a projectile by means of a coil spring, elastic material, or compressed gas," illegal while allowing possession of other types of knives or pocketknives. See § 790.225(1). A person of common intelligence can understand that a switchblade knife is "self-propelled" in the sense that the blade is propelled by means of a coil spring, elastic material, or compressed gas. See id. Accordingly, section 790.225 is not unconstitutionally vague as applied to the Defendant....
