Knives and bladed weapons: what you can legally carry

Is it legal to carry a knife in Spain? The answer is not a simple yes or no: it depends on what object it is, where you carry it and for what purpose. As criminal defence lawyers in bladed-weapon cases, we explain where the line lies between what is lawful, a mere fine, and a criminal offence.

Bladed Weapons Banned by the Regulation

The first step in any case is to determine whether the object seized appears among those expressly banned by the Weapons Regulation (Royal Decree 137/1993). That list includes, among others:

• Automatic knives, opening by spring or automatic mechanism.
• Daggers of any kind: for these purposes, double-edged, pointed blades under 11 cm.
• Sword-canes.
• Beyond bladed weapons, knuckle-dusters and other instruments especially dangerous to physical integrity.

Owning or carrying any of these weapons can be a prohibited-weapons offence under article 563 of the Criminal Code, the most serious conduct in this area, provided the weapon has special harmful potential and is held in circumstances especially dangerous for public safety (Constitutional Court judgment STC 24/2004); otherwise the response is an administrative penalty. Other knives —butterfly knives, for example— are not named in the list and whether they fit is argued case by case.

The Ordinary Folding Knife: at Home and in the Street

By contrast, the ordinary folding knife —the kind that opens manually, with no spring— and common multi-tools are not banned weapons, and owning them is in itself lawful. Keeping them at home, like a kitchen knife, an agricultural machete or a collection of historical pieces, is generally entirely legal.

The problem, therefore, is not in owning the object but in carrying it in public. Because of its domestic and professional usefulness, an ordinary folding knife may well have an obvious legitimate purpose —hiking, fishing, hunting, work, a recent purchase or a house move; but when that purpose is not credible, carrying it ceases to be covered.

The blade length criterion is often cited at this point, but the eleven-centimetre figure in the Regulation serves another purpose: it defines as a banned dagger a double-edged, pointed blade under 11 cm (art. 4.1.f). An ordinary single-edged folding knife does not become banned because of its blade length, nor is it covered because it is short: what matters remains the nature of the object and the justification for carrying it (art. 146 of the Regulation). A short-bladed knife used to intimidate does not stop being a problem just because it is small, just as a large kitchen knife carried home after shopping is fully justified.

The Test of Justification in Public

This is where Organic Law 4/2015 on the Protection of Public Safety comes into play. Carrying a knife, a camping blade or a cutting instrument in public without justification may amount to an administrative offence under that Act (articles 36.10 and 37), punishable by a fine. It is not, in itself, a crime: it is an administrative breach that replaces prison with a financial penalty.

The decisive test is the justification for carrying the blade. Someone transporting a freshly bought kitchen knife, a knife for a day in the mountains or a tool of their trade has a legitimate explanation; someone carrying it for no apparent reason, immediately accessible and in a context suggesting a different purpose, does not. At a police checkpoint, the burden of justifying the carrying falls on the person carrying it, so being able to credibly explain why you had the object is critical.

To assess whether that justification exists, a range of circumstances is weighed: the activity the person was carrying out or about to carry out (a hiker on the way to the mountains versus a late-night walk through a nightlife area), the way the object is carried (stowed in a backpack or the boot versus concealed in clothing and immediately accessible), the consistency between the object and that activity, and any signs pointing to an aggressive purpose. None of these factors is decisive on its own, but together they distinguish covered carrying from carrying that is not. That is why, before taking a cutting object out of the home, it is advisable to be able to link it clearly to a legitimate use.

When It Becomes a Criminal Offence

The conduct crosses the criminal line in two clearly distinct situations:

• By the nature of the object: where the bladed weapon is one of those expressly banned by the Regulation (automatic knives, daggers, sword-canes), owning or carrying it can already be an offence under article 563 CP if the weapon has special harmful potential and is carried in especially dangerous circumstances (STC 24/2004).
• By its use: where the object —banned or not— is used to threaten or attack, the focus shifts to the resulting offence. Bodily harm may be aggravated by the use of a dangerous instrument (article 148.1 CP); and brandishing a knife to take someone else's property amounts to robbery with violence or intimidation under article 242 CP, carrying penalties considerably heavier than simple possession.

In all these cases the weapon is subject to seizure and confiscation: forfeiture of the instruments of the offence or of the infringement is the ordinary consequence, including where the matter is dealt with administratively.

Lines of Defence

Faced with a charge for possessing or carrying a bladed weapon, the defence is built along several lines:

1. That the object is not a banned one: showing that the knife was an ordinary blade —not automatic and not a dagger— and is not among the weapons prohibited by the Regulation.
2. Professional or sporting use: proving the object's legitimate purpose (cooking, fishing, hiking, a trade) and that it was carried in a way that was not immediately accessible.
3. Reclassification from offence to administrative breach: where the object is not banned, replacing the criminal charge with the financial penalty of the Public Safety Act.
4. No intent or mistake of law: where the prohibited nature of the weapon was reasonably unknown.

Where the blade has been used to attack, the strategy is different and broader, because the issue is no longer possession but the resulting offence. In every case, the lawyer's early involvement makes it possible to set out the account of events before the first statement.