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Are Butter Knives Deadly Weapons?

By George Khoury, Esq. | Last updated on

While most butter knives may barely be able to qualify as knives, the California Supreme Court has just heard arguments on whether a butter knife should be considered a deadly weapon.

The In Re: B.M. case may finally, definitively answer whether a butter knife, if poorly wielded by an angry teenage girl against her own sister, can be considered a "deadly weapon." On appeal, it was held that the non-sharp butter knife, despite being used ineffectively, nevertheless qualified as deadly. After all, it's a knife.

Sharp as a Butter Knife

While the above idiom may be a comical way to say a person, or thing, isn't actually sharp, butter knives can be really dangerous. It's still a knife, and some have pretty sharp, or sharp enough, edges.

The In Re: B.M. case is factually interesting. One sister was locked out of the house by another while the parents were out of town. The locked-out sister gained entry through an unlocked window, then attacked her sister in a fit of rage with a butter knife. However, the attack was thwarted because the sister being attacked hid under a blanket. The knife-wielding sister sliced at the blanket, near her sisters legs with the butter knife during the "attack." After a third sister intervened, the police got called, and the knife-wielding sister told an officer everything that went down.

The California High Court seemed to lean toward following the ruling of the lower appellate court, while the defendant's attorney urged the justices to look at how the butter knife was used. The matter was taken under submission.

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